Epic Robotics

[EpicentrE]

Hogi: Of course I'm hoping it'll be nice and low at the front. The angle's similar to Void, but the weight distribution is different, so we'll have to wait and see.

Nat: The ends of the tanks are epoxied in place. There must've been a weak spot, or I may possibly have not quite mixed the epoxy perfectly, for it to fail like that, as all the other joints held.

I found out while dismantling it to repair it that I'd accidentally got some epoxy in the pipe for the tank to the other side, so it was blocked, meaning that tank hadn't even had any pressure in it. I also found that some of the pipes had kinked where I thought they were going to be alright. So I'm remaking and re-testing half of the pneumatic system with some different tubing and redoing most of the joints. Hoping it'll hold this time .

[haz]

Is the frame going to need a re-print or can you fix it? Shame this happened man.

[Remote-Controlled Dave]

I think it needs a name change. Boom.

[razerdave]

I was thinking more along the Duke Nukem line:

'Blow it out yer ass'

[mark_m]

I know its a small system but I think you should be using more than a towel for protection - at least a rigid sheet of something.

Also, its much safer to proof test using water as there is significantly less stored energy then. If possible, fill the tanks with water, taking care to avoid getting airlocks, before connecting them to the compressed air supply. This might also help with finding any small leaks you've got.

[EpicentrE]

Mark: I appreciate the advice, but I know what I was doing. I had the robot upside down under 2 layers of a thick towel, with a tube leading out. Despite the force of the tank failing being enough to break the chassis, the towels barely even moved.

It's also not really possible to test with water, as I'd have no way of getting it back out again. The tanks can't be dismantled as they're epoxied together, and the pipes are only 2mm ID. It would be nigh impossible to get them completely dried out. However I believe I do have a way to test the tanks without them being in situ now, so I'll make sure they're fine before putting everything back together.

Part of the fun of antweights is that often, you can't just get an off-the-shelf solution which you know will work. You have to bodge things together yourself using parts that are either designed for a different purpose or are completely custom made. This obviously means that there's going to be some more risk involved, but as long as you don't rush things and are careful, it's much more rewarding. I'd obviously not be advising this if we were talking about using compressed Co2 at much higher pressures, but with the antweight pressure limit only being 100psi, common sense and a reasonable safety precaution such a couple of layers of a towel are going to be sufficient.

Haz: I'm just going to glue the chassis back together once the pneumatic system is working and installed. It'll be a bit weaker, but I'm not spending money on a re-print for a design that might not even end up being effective .

[Andrew_Hibberd]

Scott did the glue fail on the Ali or on the HPDE?

[EpicentrE]

I'm happy to say I've finally got Flux in some kind of state that resembles working order - it's just awaiting acetate:


(Click for supersized version)

After the previous catastrophic failure I tried a couple of times to rebuild the failed tank, but had multiple leaks and failures in the process (including the other tank popping, although less dramatically than the first). I finally realised what I was doing wrong when Andy suggested that I use superglue instead of epoxy. I had assumed that epoxy would be the better choice as I'd believed the bond would be stronger and it would set better in the gaps, but it turns out that the flexibility offered by superglue means that it will adapt to minute changes in materials as the components are pressurised and depressurised, which is something epoxy won't do.

I was still having a few leaks with superglue, and it was becoming a pain to try to find where the leaks were, because I'd designed the chassis badly so that the pneumatic system couldn't come out as a whole. I decided to cut some holes in the chassis to allow this to happen so that I could test the system and get it fully leak-proofed externally before installing it. This made the chassis weaker and more bodgey, but it was worth it.

After multiple attempts I've now got it to a state where it's pretty much working - there's still a very small leak somewhere but to fix it I'd have to remake a part, which I can't be bothered to do. I had to get rid of the top armour due to weight, as well as cutting out big chunks of the chassis. I didn't leave room for a switch or the battery plugs, so they're sticking out of the top looking ugly. I'm utterly fed up with pneumatics though, and I think when it comes time for a redesign of Flux I'm going to look into kinetic or spring-based systems.

As a bonus, here's a picture of Void 9, as I didn't have one before:


(Click for supersized version)

This is exactly the same as at the last AWS, except for I replaced some stripped gears in the servo. I was generally very happy with how it performed - it was just my driving that let me down - so I didn't want to make any changes to it for this one.

I'm also working on a new spinner (not Zenith) which will BLOW YOUR MINDS. Maybe. A little. But won't be ready for this one, unfortunately.

See you all Saturday!

[Remote-Controlled Dave]

Still a great looking thing Scott. You never know, maybe it'll all go well on the day.

[EpicentrE]

As you may have guessed from my thread in the Wanted forum, I've been wanting to convert a Firestorm toy into an ant. I've been working on it for the past week and this is where I am so far:


(Click for supersized version)

It's all running, I just need a to figure out a connection for the flipper (since I don't want to drill through the plastic and make it look less like Firestorm) and then do a bit of cosmetic work, and it's all done.

However even with me using a metal-cased metal-geared servo and the biggest batteries I could fit in, it's still only weighing in at about 80g, so I'm going to have to try and fit in a load of ballast somewhere, which will be hard as the body is so small and is already full of stuff. I'll be sticking some steel shim on the front though (to match the metal front the real Firestorm added in later series) so that will help a bit.