LYNX Beetleweight

[Eventorizon]

Yeah, thats a 3S NTM 35-34... I think my 4S set up is overkill now... oh well, I have the parts may as well finish it.

[mrsam]

Exactly what Harry said it's a 12mm dead shaft, a thrust bearing runs under the blade and then a locking collar runs on the ground.
The weight is just under 1.4kg without drive motors or wheels or armour but I have some weight I can still take out of the frame.

[mrsam]

That motor is awesome btw Alex, if I gun the throttle it'll get the blade to full speed in around 5 seconds, the set up does get pretty warm though.

[mrsam]

Put another thrust bearing on Lynx's weapon set up to stop it scraping the motor pulley, seems to have sorted it.....
Also has the added benefit of reducing friction making the spin up quicker. This is me pretty much gunning the throttle. http://vid921.photobucket.com/albums...ps0tbnh3e4.mp4

[mrsam]

Almost done! Still needs a few bits doing, namely cutting the rest of the weight out of the rear spar and a new set of wheels. Also managed a test at 1/4 throttle before it destroyed the old wheels....we won't go into that, that's a piece of 3mm Aluminium in the picture, threw it about 20ft away.

[harry hills]

Grand, man. Hows weight looking?

[mrsam]

Once the frame is finished it should be *just* under the limit, I had to downsize the lipo from 1300ah to 1000 so hopefully that stands up.

[mrsam]

Pretty much finished, needs a bit more weight taken out of the frame to get it under the limit but nothing too major. Even managed a little drive test, the floor has no grip at all so it's struggling with traction. http://vid921.photobucket.com/albums...psuwnr80ga.mp4

[harry hills]

Nice. Very F-Bomb esque

[mrsam]

F-Bomb and Scissorhands were the main inspiration, here's hoping it works half as well.

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

One massive weapon and hardly any wheels. Should be interesting

It's a major effort I have to admit but I fear you'll end up shortening the blade and getting some more wheel like substitutes for those rubber bands. None the less, I hope it will work like a charm.

[mrsam]

It doesn't seem to lack any driveability at this stage but i haven't tested it in an arena yet, i don't see it being a major problem but i'll see what happens.

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

Have you tried driving it while it's spinning?

[mrsam]

A little yeah, it didn't seem too bad considering how large the weapon is, it has a little trouble turning in the direction the blade is going but nothing that's going to cause a problem. I'll know more when i test it in the arena next week, the floor i was driving it on here is laminate flooring so literally no grip.

[mrsam]

Major update time!

Took Lynx down to Team Hell's workshop the other day to put it through it's paces, there are some problems that need addressing but overall the design seems fairly stable. I will however now be rebuilding the chassis to make the robot smaller and stronger and a new slightly shorter bar made from 4mm Hardox will be getting made seeing as the Lawnmower blade was not up to the task, even at half speed the tips sheared off and the bar bent and twisted. The machine definitely has plenty of power and it's not completely horrible to drive, the rebuild is already underway so it shouldn't be long before it's terrifying the beetle masses again.

I can't be bothered to post all of the videos from the day so i'll just post my favorite, this was the very last test we filmed against Utopia's old titanium shell, Lynx was pretty much on it's last legs at this point, the bar had twisted, the tips had sheared an the battery was dying but it still managed to cause some carnage. This test was still at half speed, scary to think there's still half to go right?

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v...69629973768692

Some damage pics from the day, i didn't manage to get any of the targets Lynx hit but here's some of the damage it caused itself. Remember all of these tests were half speed so imagine the strengthening work i'm having to do for the rebuild.....shocking.

The pictures show the twisted and chipped bar and the bent weapon shaft.



And finally as an ending to this giant post to end all other's here's a sneak peek of the new chassis for Lynx V2, it's the same thickness (5mm 6082 Alu) but it's taller and will be shorter (the black shaded areas will all be cut away). The reason for the extra height is so i can stack all of the internal components on top of each other in one neat package, this saves space inside the machine meaning i can make it shorter overall by about 40mm. The new blade will be dropped from 350mm to 300mm and will be made from 4mm Hardox, hopefully it will weigh around the same or not too much more than the original blade ( 300g) but it should be much stronger.

If you managed to sit and read through all of that i hope it was worth it, cheers people's.