Team Shakey Build Diary

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Rapidrory
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Re: Team Shakey Build Diary

Post by Rapidrory »

Most importantly: Name? :P
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
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Shakey
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Re: Team Shakey Build Diary

Post by Shakey »

Well it's officially signed up under Accelerant so...

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NOW WITH BODGED TOP AND REAR ARMOUR!
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And yay upside down!
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Got 8 grams left for some Ali on the front and acetate. Well within size too :D

EDIT: TESTING VIDEO! http://youtu.be/nwewAkMU6Ig
I need prongs to 'guide' it's self righting though, it kinda just takes off right now :S

Also I did some tweaks to Stanley, mostly ensuring the front armour was more secure (Read: I had the hot glue gun in hand and saw Stanley).
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
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Shakey
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Re: Team Shakey Build Diary

Post by Shakey »

Another test of the upside down bot:
http://youtu.be/_u_NQR7CJHs
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
Remote-Controlled Dave
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Re: Team Shakey Build Diary

Post by Remote-Controlled Dave »

Best self righting ever
Die Gracefully Robotics
Winner - AWS 39
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Shakey
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Re: Team Shakey Build Diary

Post by Shakey »

The self righting is a little energetic :P

Also I'm trying to think of a name for a small online store I'll be making selling some ant parts and kits. Since you guys tend to be epic at naming I was wondering if you guys had ideas? :P

(Also Anyway to change your name on the Forum, I want to change it to 'Shakey')
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
Remote-Controlled Dave
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Re: Team Shakey Build Diary

Post by Remote-Controlled Dave »

Brave Parts? Sounds a bit...innuendoy.

I asked about changing forum names aaagggeeesss ago and eventually gave up on it. I have moderator privileges on here and I cant see a way. I guess try PMing Pete Collier as the owner and see if he has a way but it may be a case of new name, new profile.
Die Gracefully Robotics
Winner - AWS 39
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Shakey
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Re: Team Shakey Build Diary

Post by Shakey »

Dang :S

Also my AWS team is ready :D It has 250% more bodging than any AWS since 36 (First time I ran a fully 3D printed team)!

So I present the thrid member: PICaxe!

After Accelerants redesign failed on the reading open day some hasty gluegunning gave me PICaxe, some refinement and more armour to the design leave me with this lovely grabber :D
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2 50:1 HP motors on a N2LVHP (Rorys ESC), LemonRX, Some servo with glue covering up the name *whistles*, A 180mah LiPo, PCB and Nylon armour, A high performance 40 pin PIC chip grabber, and RED LED's OF DOOM!

Celing Bot/Accelerant (The name it's under for the AWS) got some carbon fibre armour and a general neatening... We'll just ignore the LemonRX poking out the top okay?
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And the Full Team of Stanley, PICaxe and Accelerant.
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Just gotta have a short practice, charge them and acetate them when I arrive tomorrow!
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
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BeligerAnt
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Re: Team Shakey Build Diary

Post by BeligerAnt »

Haywire wrote:(Also Anyway to change your name on the Forum, I want to change it to 'Shakey')
Alex, I believe I can change your username for you - although the documentation doesn't say quite what will happen. I assume it will update your username on all your previous posts etc and password, email etc should all remain the same.

I can give it a go if you want, but can't be held responsible if it all goes horribly wrong! Let me know...
Gary, Team BeligerAnt
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Shakey
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Re: Team Shakey Build Diary

Post by Shakey »

BeligerAnt wrote:
Haywire wrote:(Also Anyway to change your name on the Forum, I want to change it to 'Shakey')
Alex, I believe I can change your username for you - although the documentation doesn't say quite what will happen. I assume it will update your username on all your previous posts etc and password, email etc should all remain the same.

I can give it a go if you want, but can't be held responsible if it all goes horribly wrong! Let me know...
I'll volunteer for being a guinea pig! Let's try it.
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
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Shakey
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Re: Team Shakey Build Diary

Post by Shakey »

Time for the obligatory post AWS roundup!

AWS 44:
I am over the moon with the results from this AWS.

Stanley - 8 wins
After first competing at AWS 36 in the same chassis it won AWS 44 :D I don't intend to change the design much at all, probably a reprint to finally get some of the existing damage out and maybe upgrade the ali scoop to a same design TI one, some silicone moulded wheels for more traction, a LemonRX and lastly some side armour atleast towards the front just to protect a bit better from faster spinners. I thinks it's a pretty concrete team member now and I don't see it leaving the team unless my other robots become proven enough, I hope to eventually move away from a pure pusher but for the foreseeable future it's a staple.

Kinda Accelerant - 10 Wins
I'm very pleased with how this robot turned out for something so bodged. Even if it did have it's fan reduced to 2 blades by sidewinder and then none the battle after it still came 3rd. :D The plans for this bot are generally neatening it up, moving to more appropriate batteries and giving it some kind of grabbing ability. It'll be replacing PICaxe as the grabber on my team. I might drop the fan down a size to 35mm to save some weight (Though I still aim to be able to drive upside down) and it'll get the tripled up wheels of PICaxe to compliment the fan. Hopefully being able to grab and with the fan increasing it's traction to overpower the opponents it'll be a good bot to fight with. I'll also give it a proper name and fully retire the name Accelerant, nothing is really going to match up to the signature build of Accelerant enough to be called that that I plan to build. I learned so much running Accelerant and even if it wasn't the most successful of ants it taught me a hell of a lot and shaped my build and fight style.

PICaxe - 2 wins
PICaxe was a great robot and I had a tonne of fun building at and competing (And I hope it's design was fun for you guys) but with 'kinda accelerant' taking up grabber duties and PICaxe sustaining serious damage after being left alone in tag team with Randar and Spyro 2 plus the fact that a battery can't actually be removed from it signals it's retirement. I hope to try and have my newer robots be as quirky as PICaxe. PICaxe itself will be replaced by a 4 bar flipper I have planned (Though this requires me having my own printer as I forsee a lot of trial and error). It was a damn fun robot though and the microchip grabber worked surprisingly well... No really, SUPRISINGLY well. But it got stacked onto the sidewall in one fight and couldn't get off and in the next I hadn't realised Inertia (in a previous fight) had pushed the grabber around on the servo so it wouldn't actually fully close. A well driven opponent (A little bit of less fail) and no working grabber quickly forced it's exit.

Planned bots
PICaxe's replacement will be a 4 bar flipper (Hopefully a true flipper not a lifter) using a multi wheel 2 motor geared drive setup to get some push behind it. The fourth slot will go to a walking or clustered drum bot (I aim for walking but we'll see) so I can finally run a spinner at events :D I also aim for the other half of the cluster (though while it may be small) to not be completely insignificant, I hope to give it the power needed to lift other ants off the ground, even if it won't be able to do much once it has it'll give the main part (especially if it is a walker) time to line up a good push or hit. That should fill out my four slots with a nice varied team (Pusher, flipper, grabber, spinner).

Last words
One thing that stood out for me this AWS was that I wasn't making the silly mistakes I normally do, sure I was a nervous wreck with 2 robots in the final group fighting many scary opponents but I managed to keep that out of my battles. This event also reaffirmed in my mind the sheer importance of drive over the other aspects of an ant, I'll stick with my normal setup of powerful drive, minimal armour and try and get a decent weapon in in future.

Hopefully I can get myself setup printing before the next AWS or it will be PICaxe (Despite it's retirement), Kinda accelerant and Stanley entering again. For myself I'll be working on cooking up some homebrew ESC's so I can try out some crazy designs other than my main team (though the mains will probably stick to the proven ESC's like the Waller in Stanley and Rorys in the others (Deltang in the smaller part of the cluster). I should also get my roboteer website online soonish and the store not long after.
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
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