Peter Wallers Robot Ramblings

[peterwaller]

I have put one of the modules into a flipper to do some testing.


It is only in PLA at the moment so not really for full combat but it only weight 107 grams so I might consider it as part of a cluster later and reprint it in nylon.

[peterwaller]

Here it is in action.
https://youtu.be/bKQQzel9xKU

[Paulmchurd]

Really nice drive set up. You should sell a few .

I’m still looking forward to this book you are writing.

[peterwaller]

Yes must make a decision on that soon.
In the mean time I have been playing with an idea for an axe though I probably will not get round to building it.
Basically it is a gear on the end of a standard gear motor which has teeth around 180 degrees. The meshes with a gear on the end of the axe arm and drives it back against a spring until you get to the part of the drive gear with no teeth. This release the arm and the spring fires it forward. The drive gear keeps turning until the teeth re-engage repeating the process.
Here is the mechanism

Here in action
https://youtu.be/EvHLrfhms3s
I particularly like the unusual use of the spring.

[peterwaller]

My horizontal spinner Combatant was supposed to be an upgrade on Anticyclone with more power and reach but it has so far been a disappointment.
A combination of too small a clearances and balance problems have made it unreliable and ineffective in battle. I have finally decided to rebuild it and try and address some of these problems. By printing a disc with lathe parting off tools as cutters I seemed to have greatly improved the balance problems and by increasing the wheel diameters the cutters body and ground clearance is improved.
Here is the new unit.


Here is the old nylon body after meeting the new unit.

[peterwaller]

After the testing against the old chassis I noticed the balance wasn't quite as good and on closer examination I found the PLA disc had cracked so I have reprinted it in nylon.

[peterwaller]

Having built a new spinner Flea I know there is little opportunity to run it so I have built a new flipper which although not flea sized is around the right weight so the two can be combined as an antweight cluster.

[peterwaller]

I went to the TCT exhibition at the NEC yesterday (3D Printing stuff) and got few sample materials to try. The first from Fillammntum is CPE HG100 which is a modified PETG material which is supposed to be strong with good impact resistance. So I have reprinted the major parts of my new cluster flipper to try out. It prints really nicely at 260 C in a rather nice understated shade of Neon Yellow Transparent.

[peterwaller]

Did some testing at Robonerd yesterday with rather mixed results. I tried the yellow material above against a drum spinner and it failed quite quickly as did a PLA chassis I tried on my Drum spinner. The new Flea spinner seemed to keep losing bind but on the plus side the balance on Combatant was really good although it didn't actually do battle. Looks like a bit of work to do before the AWS.

[TeamScrewUp]

At least some things have been sorted then.