Dutch Beetleweight

[Niels - Team K.a.L.M.]

I'm currently looking into building a beetleweight.

I've set my eyes on using a pneumatic cylinder, a 1/8" 3/2 valve and a small compressor.
I have it lying around in working order and weighs in at around 800grams.

After adding up all the weights from the other components it leaves me just about 150 to 200 grams for the chassis/armour and all the bolts.

Some say the best defence is a strong offence but I fear that I'm pushing that statement too far.
Because if I push through my idea/design I'll end up with a half armoured 20kg tossing machine.

Any thoughts and ideas would be appreciated.

[razerdave]

What other bits you using? I managed to squeeze a 500g weapon motor into Headbanger and got 10mm HDPE sides, 2mm carbon fibre main panels and a 1mm Ti scoop into the design, so I think you can get some reasonable armour if you make it as small as you can.

[Niels - Team K.a.L.M.]

1x 852 grams pneumatics
2x 79 grams 1200rpm motors
4x 9 grams botbits 10amp esc's (will order these once the chasis looks like it will work)
---> 2x engines, 1x compressor and 1 to power the valve since they way less than a switch.
1x 17 grams rx (orange r800x to be linked to my dx5e)
1x 60 grams estimate flipperarm (6mm hdpe vertically mounted)
1x 75 grams 850Mah 3s lipo pack (will order this later on)

Which leaves me. roughly 300grams to work with for the chassis, wheels, link, wiring, led, bolts and screws.

First order of business is to create a heated wire to fold the 6mm hdpe into a onepiece chasis.
I managed to design one that would stay under 200 grams and would offer maximum protection one can expect 6mm hdpe to give but selfrighting would be near impossible in this stage.

[Niels - Team K.a.L.M.]

Turns out I won't be building a pneumatic flipper beetleweight. After spending 4 hrs bending 6mm hdpe in to the desired shape using a soldering iron with a large rod inserted to heat lengths evenly to bend it I mounted the pneumatics in it. Wired everything up and testfired it using a roll of ducttape.

The ducttape flew over 7 feet and I was pleased with that. Even cocky it would appear...

Tested it again using my featherweight to see how much power was in it and offcourse I didn't have a camera present.
In 2 glorious seconds I tossed the featherweight aside, snapped the flipperarm and the chassis in 3 different spots.

Apparently, heating and bending makes the hdpe too brittle to stand up against the force of the pneumatics and makes we worry about it's capabilities to withstand your spinners.

Would have made a great video....

So back to the drawing board and get decided on an axe, lifter or spinner...

[Ellis]

1.2-1.4mm titanium weighs the same as 6mm HDPE, and will make for a very lightweight and sturdy frame, if optimised for strength in the areas you need it. I would always expect trying to flip a feather with a beetle to end in disaster, I can't see how you could possibly be in a situation in a beetle fight to need to hoist that much. Would be a real shame, with such a powerful sounding setup, to not put it into action!

edit: also, are you building to the "standard" 1.36kg or the UK beetle event holder Bigconkers' 1.5kg class? Most of us are working to 1.5kg over here, it makes things that little bit more possible.

[Niels - Team K.a.L.M.]

I was building towards the 1.5kg limit.

Titanium sounds nice and all but I have no real knowledge of working it/with it.

[Ellis]

It cuts nicely enough with a hacksaw or a grinder, and tidies up with files quite quickly too. It's very springy, but relatively soft, so it's not too unpleasant to work. I am unsure on bending it, though. I imagine you need to radius the bends quite a lot to prevent fatigue and a snap. Just wanted to present it as an option for the bits that failed (flipper arm for example).

[Niels - Team K.a.L.M.]

Had some luck with the wheels i got, found some extra weight to use so i'll give it another go later today or tomorrow if the misses permits it. I am stuck with the kids for the moment but that does give me the time to redraw my plans.

[Niels - Team K.a.L.M.]

I found some time to work this evening.
I think the hose is leaking a little for the pressure is lower then normal. Used to be 180lb/in and is now stuck at 110lb/in which makes a huge difference since i'm using the hose as a buffer...

Anyways, here's the new frame (first part of it)

Video doesn't play... must be a youtube glitch...

[Niels - Team K.a.L.M.]

Upon closer inspection the hose has dried up in several places and I don't feel like spending extra money to pursue this idea any further. I'll keep it around as a project worth revisiting at a later stage or if I ever come across an air cilinder half the size of this one. For there is just not enough wiggle room to get some armour on it.

Don't worry about it too much, there will be a beetle weight since i did order the botbitz 10amp esc's recently, just not a flipper.

[Niels - Team K.a.L.M.]

It doesn't look like much and it has virtually no straight angles to it but it does make a nice test version of what I want to build.

IMAG0173.jpg

Will be an electric lifter once done

[Niels - Team K.a.L.M.]

Plans changed again, discarded the previous design and spend nearly 4 hours, 8 sigarettes, 3 beers and dozens of pushes to my 1 year old daughter on the swingset to cut up a handsaw with a hacksaw.

Made a nice puzzle out of it with five part that will go on the new design.
2 wheelguards, 2 linings and a scoop are made out of one handsaw and only the scoop isn't serrated.

Might call the beetle "Jagged" because of this.
Will do some more work on it later this evening and take some pictures

[Niels - Team K.a.L.M.]

After spending hours pondering what I could do I decided te go the easy way.
Nothing too fancy, just some hdpe sides, bottom and backbone.

After two hours, the motors are mounted, the solenoids are in place and one of the sides has been made.
I still have 400grams to work with now but that will be rather tight I fear.

I hope to find the time to spend another evening in the shed tomorrow.

[harry hills]

Sounds great stuff. Got some more pictures?

[Niels - Team K.a.L.M.]

I will eventually