Team Shakey Build Diary

[AntRoboteer]

They look like some amazing moulds and great wheels! I am very scared by the amout of pushing power you are getting there! I have never had that amount of power just pushing without a obot loaded on to the front of mine; I would be very intersted in moulding some of my own in larger sizes for the awful servos I use!

I was once again looking at printers as my parents have given me the all-clear due to my oustanding (somehow) mock results (all A*s except for a B in RE). Is the Prusa i3 still going strong and would you recommend it because that would probably be my printer of choice looking at the specs and your fantastic results! Also, are you printing in ABS or PLA now and would you recommend buying the heated bed for it? Thanks for your help!

By the way, is Carbon driving well now with the new tyres?

[Andrew_Hibberd]

Those moulded wheels look good, maybe I should be looking at four horizontal spinners for the next AWS?

[Shakey]

Those moulded wheels look good, maybe I should be looking at four horizontal spinners for the next AWS?

Not sure how the horizontals will help!

Indeed the prusa i3 is going well and is the same printer cranking out all these wheels and moulds. I'm printing only in PLA right now for a couple of reasons. it is far less prone to warping than ABS it can be printed without warping on a cold bed on an unenclosed printer whereas ABS needs a heated bed and enclosed printer. PLA is stronger but more brittle, I'm finding it works nicely for robots though. I have added a heated bed to mine just because it means I don't need the tape and it will make removing prints off the build surface easier. I need to buy a new PSU as the heated bed is overloading it but that will cost £15 at most. Being a Reprap based printer upgrading it down the line is easy and every part it is built from can be printed yourself. It does have more of a learning curve than say an Up! printer or a printrbot since it is an assemble yourself but I got it built one weekend and a dozen cups of tea later. Calibration was minimal (basically I only had to level the bed.) and it prints fantastically once you have the hang of it.

Unfortunately Carbons issues have not improved, I've just had to get used to not having a good reverse.

Also on the tyre front I now have a mould design I am happy with and can easily fill and use. Tomorrow will be spent prepping a load of moulds and getting the first batch. I'll post a topic with pricing etc and custom moulds (I have an idea on how to handle these) once I am ready. I also have a few other bits and bobs to sell that people may like. I'm just really impressed by the grip improvement these have over pololu wheels!

[AntRoboteer]

Thanks very much! I'll just wait until the new year and then spend some cash on a nice i3, the variant you have as I think that is the sturdiest looking and has the highest print resolution as well. I'll just print in PLA then as it seems to be working OK for you.

Shame about Carbon but I have never had a gear motor driven robot reverse properly anyway. I think I know why yu have the issues you are having; I reckon the motors are not perfectly in line and therefore it swings round when reversing. I suppose you could try adjusting the positions of the motor mounts inside. I hope it all works out for you!

Thanks again!

[Shakey]

I finally have the final version of the moulds! They are great as they prevent any disruption to the tread by flash from the mould though are harder to pour than normal. I'm also pretty much ready to sell to you guys now I have a level of quality I like.

Have a fancy product photo (beautifully arranged wheels, bad lighting and a mediocre camera combine! ):

Still got silicone on from the last round of moulding, it's an annoyingly messy process.

The wheels are 32mm drop in replacements for the pololu wheels, that provide up to 60% extra grip (From my testing with Stanley) weighing 3g each.

I'll probably sell these at a tad above the price of a pair of pololu tyres to reflect the fact they are grippier tyres though they aren't going to be horrendous. Maybe your thoughts? Also if enough people want other diameters that can be sorted out for you so tell me what you want!

I'll also keep a stock of spares at events with me for when a spinner *cough*HSOD*cough* takes your wheels out.

[Hogi]

hogi, fleadom fighter and transit ant wait in ANTicipation for a final decision on price

[Shakey]

Tried to do some all in one printing of hinges and they came out rather nicely actually!



Also been using my printer to make christmas cards!

[AntRoboteer]

They look incredibly impressive! I thought that if they were printed as one piece the layers would all stick together and make one static part or did you add in supports to prevent that?

[Shakey]

No supports but they are printed like the one standing up. So as far as the printer knows it is two separate objects printed extremely close together.

[Shakey]

A non antweight update!

So I can't remember if I posted this but I have retired my axe Feather Gimli for now until I can properly sort out the drive. The unreliability is far too great and it was just stessful and not fun to fight with.

I am building an electric flipper (fast lifter) replacement but in the mean time have spruced up old reliable Spur 1. Spur 1 actually went through a year or so period where it was mothballed with us thinking it was not working and had been gutted for parts. Nope it was fine and I bought it back out of its retirement for one of the last events in 2014 as a Gimli backup (Though Gimli didn't even work at any point that weekend so it was all Spur).

I sorted out the wiring and switched from electronize to TZ85's (A ESC switch to increase reliability. they are under the battery). I am going to add side armour, scoop and some ramming spikes tomorrow.



Spur is a pretty fun drive, quite fast and a good pusher. While active weapons are fun the simple fact it just works means it is far more fun to fight than Gimli, no having to constantly think about keeping the drive motors cool.

I am going to rename him though, undecided on what to.