RogueTwo Robots

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

Seen quite a few updates and videos of robot testing today. Things here have taken a step back though.

When testing Drumroll to make sure that everything was still running fine, I noticed one side of drive wasn't working. I reckoned it was the pinion gear that had come loose on the drill motor shaft (and I was right) but in the process of stripping it down I had to butcher the wheel nut insert. Tried to re-do it this evening but didn't work too well, so switched to the Banebots hybrids I had for back-up. But one of them is off-centre slightly so the robot drives poorly going forward and just spins around one wheel going backwards. Basically, out of four wheels, I only have one reliable one, and the nut insert on that is starting to show signs of loosening up. So I think some steel hubs with the nut inserts welded on and with wheels bolted to the hubs is the approach I'll have to take.

Also stuck the batteries for the MDF bot on charge and, despite the chargers supposedly having some form of basic auto-detect feature, they managed to overcharge the batteries and one of the packs started hissing and was too hot to touch (similar problem happened at Barnsley a couple of years ago, for those that remember). I'm not sure if it's the chargers or the packs, as I charged Carcinus' packs on fast charge the other day without any problems, and they're the same style of pack. So I think I'll need to sort out getting a few more of the intelligent chargers with display screens to cut down on battery distruction.

To cut a long story short, currently the only working robot is Carcinus, which still needs its armour redone. I was supposed to meet up with Tony tomorrow to put the bots through their paces but have cancelled that to focus on fixing everything. The MDF bot is now low priority as I have no spare battery packs, so I'll try and get it running (by borrowing Carcinus' packs after it loses ) but only if I get the other robots finished first.

These last few build days were supposed to be relaxing, but now is when everything is going wrong
Better than having it going wrong in the arena I guess.

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

Update

Well, things have gone considerably better since Sunday. The wheel nut issue with Drumroll has been fixed by welding them onto a couple of 6mm steel bars, to which the wheels get bolted. So hopefully another possible failure point resolved. The robot still has some tendency to pull to the left when reversing, which is something it didn't do previously, but it's not major enough to annoy me. The old Drumroll couldn't reverse straight for peanuts so I'm sort of used to it.

Carcinus hasn't had any problems and I've made up a bit of armour to protect the drill at the back, so it's all ready to go, although I don't expect the claw bolts or linkages to withstand any serious spinner impacts. Luckily there aren't any in its heats, so unless it somehow makes it through and gets drawn against a spinner, or it suicidally jumps into a spinner whiteboard, it should be fine.

MDF bot isn't complete either. I put some tails on the drill motors as a start, but then couldn't be bothered trying to rush it when everything else was complete, so just left it.

But all in all, as happy as I can be with the state of the robots. I think I've eliminated as many weak areas as possible, but there are bound to be problems that come up in the arena that I haven't accounted for, or that are just unavoidable. Got annoyed with the robots (mainly Drumroll) last year but just gonna try and relax and enjoy the event this time

Did a wee photo-shoot as well:

[harry hills]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

they are both class machines, 'specialy drumroll, i would love to fight that.

[Anttazz]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

Both looking awesome, hope Drumroll finally comes good for you this time, you have a seeding to live up to afterall :wink: . Does the armour improve Carcinus' usefulness at all

Looking forward to seeing the videos from the event too.

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

Carcinus' usefulness

What's that?

But ta muchly, I'll make sure to get my usual collection of footage if I can. Dunno if the armour improves the bot much (not weighed it to see how much weight it adds) but it should at least stop it from having its guts thrown everywhere.

[jonny]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

'ooking 'ood! I 'ike 'arcinus, 'ooks 'ery 'azzy!

[Laser]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

'ooking really good!

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

UK Champs 2012
Event Report

So another championship comes and goes, and damn was it fun

Drumroll II was greatly improved compared to last year which, let's be honest, wouldn't be hard. I invested much more time into the finer details during the build and made sure everything was as secure as possible. Excusing the issue with the belt and the need to swap out a drive motor on the Sunday, I didn't need to fix any other part of the machine so it was time well spent.

It dominated its first fight with Wedgie and Push 'n' Shove but when attacking Wedgie later on, the belt got sliced on a part of Wedgie's flipper arm that had got bent up and it ended up wrapped around the motor pulley. I didn't have any spare since I left it too late to order (they're imported from America) so I had to resort to using longer thinner belts and fashioned a tensioner from an M6 bolt and needle-roller bearing (thanks Calum).

This allowed me to keep the drum running for each subsequent fight, but the belts weren't strong enough and I was breaking one each fight. But I got through the next two qualifiers, in part thanks to my opponents driving down the pit, and finished the day on 11 points. This was the third highest score in the league so Drumroll progressed.

It drew Cobalt in the 1-on-1s but wasn't a match for the speed and accuracy of Kenny's robot, and then became the third robot eliminated in the loser's mele. But by my reckoning, that left me in 8th place so I'm pretty happy by the improvement.

Apart from the belt issues, I had to replace a drive motor later on the Sunday (probably due to belt crud) and then the other one seemed to be having problems but I haven't yet looked at that in detail. The Scorpion XL also seemed to have a tendency to drift from the neutral position and I had to recalibrate it a couple of times to correct the deviation. Not sure if there's a problem with it but will need to look at it in more detail. Everything else though is still functioning, so a strip-down-and-clean session should be all that is needed to return it to full operation.

Carcinus also did reasonably well, considering my dad hadn't had a chance to practice driving the most recent incarnation. It scored 7 points in the qualifiers, four of which technically came from a knockout as Chuck didn't show up. It got pitted by Satanix in Q1 and beaten by 4 4 Toon in Q3, so didn't do enough to progress but it had a fair few run-outs in the whiteboards and the most damage it came away with was a couple of dents in the super-tough, high-tensile MDF top panel. It's not the most powerful of machines with regards to either drive or weapon, so can't be too disappointed with how it fared. And finishing joint 20th is better than Drumroll last year

Going forward: Drumroll still has about 2.4kg spare. Upgrades may include putting a little more armour on in places and getting a heavier weapon made. I was thinking about dropping down to 100mm wheels and altering the chassis shape to still allow invertibility as I felt the 120mm wheels made the robot a bit too fast and less stable, but having watched back a few of its fights, I like the speed of it and how it moves and looks, so I don't want to tamper with it too much. Just some fine-tuning and small modifications should do it.
Carcinus will probably remain unchanged, as it got a few comments about how it looks pretty good, but I might leave it for whiteboards and build something more effective for my dad to use in competition fights. But not 100% decided on anything yet, will just see what's what

Also got Cicatrix here to try and sort out the mysterious electrical bug, so got a bit of a robot repair line on the go:

[attachment=0:sfnk5kwk]Photo-0151.jpg[/attachment:sfnk5kwk]

[PJ-27]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

Get that MDF bot finished!

[Danjr1]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

what size drum axle is drumroll running?

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

17mm silver steel shaft from Technobots: http://www.technobotsonline.com/shafts- ... l-bar.html

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

Update

Gave Drumroll a post-champs service a couple of weeks ago. Got my replacement belts in the post the other day so the robot is now back to full functionality. Took a few pics of the damage while servicing it:

Cobalt wound in 6mm polycarb:



The gouge from Wedgie's flipper plate that shredded the original belt:



And this is what happens when you run a needle roller bearing and some M8 nuts on an M6 bolt as a make-shift tensioner:




All that is fixed up now, and I've replaced the crud-filled old drive motors with 12V Argos drills (still going through GR01 gearboxes). So Drumroll and Carcinus are good to go again when needed.

With talk of a few beetleweights competing at the upcoming Robo Challenge Open Day, I've decided to get a beetleweight Drumroll running alongside my mini Turbine replica. Started sorting out a layout, the dimensions worked out to be exactly half of the featherweight:



Two 1000rpm 12V gearmotors from eBay seller 'virtualvillage' onto 60mm Banebots wheels with hex hubs. Power is an 11.1V 850mAh lipo battery and weapon motor is the one I originally bought for Paws. Can't remember exact specs but it's 1100kV so should make for a pretty fast drum. Weapon controller is a 40A Black Mantis ESC and I've got a couple of 10A Botbitz ESCs in the post for the drive motors.

The chassis has been cut and folded from 4mm HDPE, which might sound thin, but once everything's in place, the minimum armour thickness at any point will be 8mm. Should do a decent job of protecting everything:



And, finally for now, the chassis and parts next to Flatulence:



So I'll get a bit more work done on the beetleweights at the weekend hopefully. Until then, I need to source some tube for the drum, decide what to do for teeth, and work out what's going to attach where etc.

[PJ-27]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

Just looking at those BotsBitz ESCs are they bi-directional?

Looking forward to MiniDrumroll, which I think you should call 'Flam' by the way since it's like a little drum roll....

What's the other BW? What happened to Cassius, Paws, and the 2 mini ones you made!?

Wheres the WoodenBot already!?

[razerdave]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

I'd call the mini drumroll 'Snare' myself...

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

Yeah PJ, the BotBitz controllers are bi-directional and can be used as a standard brushed ESC. Steve Martin, the Aussie guy who's done all the reprogramming work, is a friggin' genius! :shock:

Been trying to work out names for the mini Drumroll but wasn't having much luck. The most I'd got was either 'Splash' (after the type of cymbal) or 'Cowbell' since the chassis/armour is going to be black and white. But I really quite like Flam, so will probably go for that.

The Cassius replica got scrapped and the flipper arm from it is now part of Flatulence. I'd still like to make Paws but it's on the backburner for now. Of the two other ones (the lifter and the spinner), the disc assembly on the spinner was crap and the chassis wasn't big enough so it got scrapped, and the lifter pretty much became Flatulence.

I know I've gone through a few designs without actually finishing a fully functioning beetle, but that just seems to be what happens when building for a new weight class with unknown quantities. Hopefully I can get these two finished up for the RC Open Day though and after that, building BWs will be nice and easy.

The wooden robot is sitting waiting for attention too. Now Cicatrix is done and my two FWs are running again, it's just got to compete against the beetleweights for my attention. Plus, as usual, it's a case of too many crazy/stupid ideas, not enough time or motivation. The flipper robot is staring at me as well, demanding work be done to it
Aiming to have the basic 6WD MDF chassis running for the open day, then fit it with a weapon for Robots Live in Edinburgh.