RogueTwo Robots

[harry hills]

+1 for good sense of humour

[Mouldy]

...you just failed your tech check in advance

[PJ-27]

Lol

[Mega Masher]

"Cough720cough"
Both bots still look great tho

[RogueTwoRobots]

*cough*that-was-the-whole-point*cough*

Update

Final weekend, time to get everything (or almost everything) done! Managed to get a few hours in the shed after work today to tackle the wiring side of things. Took a fair bit of time but that's no bad thing, don't want to lose to a dodgy connection. Here's the entire wiring loom for Drumroll:



A lot simpler and much more minimal than I was expecting. Decided to ditch the power distribution bolt method this time; I still like it but its a bit bulky and has greater potential for short circuits. This time the only connections are Deans (all of which will be cable-tied together with exception of the link) and there's a bit of splicing going on. All wires are soldered so hopefully chances of something failing are remote.

Then I threw in a couple of LED strips. Wired in series as they're only rated to 12V, so these aren't as bright as most others due to only receiving 9.25V each, but still plenty visible and much better than the single green LED I've had for the past couple of years:



And finally for today, I picked up a delivery of new belts for the drum. 15mm shorter than the polyurethane ones I used previously, and much tougher:



The tooth profile's a bit different (5M as opposed to T5) so they lose sync after a quarter or so of the pulley circumference, but I put one in place earlier and it's not enough to cause any problems. Need to make a new motor mount though as the belt is too tight to spin freely so I need to move the motor closer to the front. Got 8mm or so free to move it so that should add just enough slack to let it spin yet still keeping it a good fit. Might also let me put the flux rings back on the drive motors.

Plenty going on this weekend so more updates to follow.

[harry hills]

Awesome stuff man. Just made myself a similar wiring loom lol.
I'm really looking forward to our fight, how you feeling about your others?

[Mouldy]

finally!! have to ask you to tape up them ghetto bolts every year! I wish everyone would put the same effort into there wiring.

[RogueTwoRobots]

[RogueTwoRobots]

Cheers Harry. Just saw some of the wiring in your latest blog update; loving the decals too.
As for my other fights, still deciding whether to approach them cautiously or just go all-in-balls-out.

NST is the biggest threat but I can't do any worse than the last time I faced it. Bonx and Satanix will be hard to deal with, could easily push me in the pit, but my drive setup is much nearer their level this year so I just need to make sure my driving's up to scratch. Hatchet is looking good but I've got a 6mm polycarb top and Little Hitter has never got through it so I'm not too worried, Ricochet could be a slippery customer but the drum's only 2mm away from the floor this year so I should be able to catch it with a hit, maybe OOTA if I'm lucky. Killer Bee (changed from Hornet) is an unknown quantity so will just need to take that as it comes.

So I'm not expecting it to be easy, but I'll be disappointed if I don't make it through the qualifiers.

[mrsam]

I'm definitely looking forward to fighting this it's probably my favourite featherweight, i doubt very much Hacthet's axe can do much to 6mm polycarb, i've tested it against 11mm and it did pretty much nothing. Looking great though, i seem to have adopted the distribution bolt method (sorry Dave).

[RogueTwoRobots]

Looking forward to it as well Sam, should be a good tussle

Update

Phew! Drumroll is all done mechanically and electrically. All it needs now is a lick of paint and to be stripped and rebuilt with Loctite and cable ties. I've now got three spare drum shafts as the increased drive speed could lead to bigger hits more often, and I bent the 17mm shaft to the point of seizing the drum when I hit Night Fury last year, so hopefully four should see me through the entire event.

Brushless mounting plate has been altered to relieve the tension in the weapon belt, it's now perfect. Haven't made a belt guard this year but the belts are tougher and I have two spare ones so I'm not too worried. I was about to add 5mm steel fins to the front/sides to brace them a little but figured I ought to see how much spare weight I had first:



Umm, that would be none. While it was bang on the limit, those scales aren't as precise as the Robo Challenge ones so I had no idea if it was 13.60kg or 13.64kg. Didn't fancy taking the chance and having to shed weight at the event so I pocketed out the sides and back bulkhead. My excellent engineering did forget to take the hole clearances into account but I'll just cut the bolts to length and no harm done:



Thought the side profile without the side panel was quite cool. Also shows just how much of a 720 rip-off it is internally:



With the bulkheads pocketed, it's now comfortably underweight. Not going to bother with the fins now though, just incase it pushes it over; I prefer to have the leeway:



Ground clearance is a bit high though



Was going to get a test video but it was getting quite late and I only realised once I put the link in that the brushless motor wires weren't connected to the ESC, so I'll sort one out tomorrow.

Had a look at the other bots today. Carcinus is pretty much ready-to-go and I haven't even touched it. Not even going to bother trying to beef it up, it'll all be in vain (might protect the XL a bit though!). Onyx needs its new weapon motor fitted, sprocket fitted, chain fixed, new ESCs fitted and then it should be good to go too. Fun fun

[RogueTwoRobots]

Beautiful In Blue

As nice as it has been looking at shiny aluminium, it was time to get Drumroll painted up and I reckon the chassis looks even better with a lick of metallic blue:



Also gave it a quick spin-up. Looking at how much my charger is currently putting into the battery pack, it must've been running low in the video. Thought the drum didn't sound as fast as it usually did. Should have a bit more kick on full charge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2ZtER_jcrE

Sounds a bit rough compared to spin-up videos of other bots. The rattling noise is coming from the flanges of the motor pulley; they're still in place but rotate around the pulley quite freely, and the needle-roller bearings need a bit of oil put in them. This'll be the third big event they've done and there have been a few hard hits in there so they're probably getting a bit goosed. Should be smooth as jazz when I get the new drum made.

So that's everything done besides a bit of superficial paintwork and charging of batteries. Drumroll is ready to wreck, Carcinus is ready to get wrecked and Onyx mad, Onyx SMASH!

[Eventorizon]

Our fight is going to be utterly mental! It could be over in seconds!

What kind of new drum are you building? Just a new version of the current one or are you adding some new design features?

[harry hills]

Think my opponents are out to intimidate me this evening


Sweet work mate. Love it.

[RogueTwoRobots]

You've already posted your intimidating pictures and videos, merely returning the favour

Alex, the new drum will be the one from the CAD I posted a few pages back (1st Jan 14), the one with the ring teeth. Will just get done as and when time and money allow after the champs.

And the last time a big three-way spinner fight was over in seconds, it was for all the wrong reasons. Hope this one lasts a little longer!