RogueTwo Robots

[razerdave]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

I may be missing a big trick here, but that doesn't look like it will self right.

Looks good though .

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

I don't think it will either, at the moment.
Gonna re-drill the linkage holes in the arm closer to the pivot so that I can get more travel out of it. But if it's on its back, I only need to move it 90° before the back wheels get traction and I can force it back upright. I'll wait until I get it wired up and running first though before tinkering with it.

[archie2000]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

What did.you use to paint the name logo on carcinus?
sorry if i spelt it wrong

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

Sorry Archie, just saw your post. I just cut the name out of card and stuck it on the robot, then used that as a guide and painted over it with red paint.

Update

Been working down in England most days for the past couple of weeks so there has been little robot progress made and still got a fair bit to do for Robots Live on Sunday. I've got my mum's birthday lunch tomorrow and then leaving for Edinburgh at 6.30pm so it's going to be a last-minute rush to get the robots ready. Suppose it's a bizarre form of anti-karma to make up for the fact I had the robots ready with plenty of time to spare before the UK Champs.

Anyhoo, progress on Reaver. I made use of a bit more angle iron and 3mm steel plate (all recycled from wind turbines ) to add a front section to the lifting arm. The design wasn't how I'd originally envisaged it as it was quite rushed, but it looks fine and seems to work well enough:



Drilled a few more holes in the arms to allow different mounting points for the linkage arms, but I won't gain much more travel until I make new longer ones. Gave everything a coat of primer, still to decide what the paint scheme will be like:



The whole unit is relatively simple, but I'm quite proud of it. There aren't too many engineering faux pas by my standards and it's much more robust than the lifting mechanism I made in Kaizer (sorry Ceri!)

Here's the lifting mechanism in place on the chassis. The black box under the HDPE houses the Electronize switcher I'm using on the arm:



So thrown on a couple of bits of HDPE to provide some protection, and painted the chassis black. The HDPE is just temporary; will sort something more permanent after the weekend.
The MDF is already showing signs of wear though, and I doubt it will last past the event. Definitely going to make a chassis out of Nylon though, as the robot is super-fast and will be a good non-spinner robot to have.

Unfortunately when I was testing it tonight, I took the arm down to the bottom of its travel and then accidentally over-did it, jamming it tight against the chassis. After freeing it, I tried to move it up, but the Electronize switcher has stopped working. It still clicks (just one relay I think though) but there's absolutely no movement from the motor. Haven't had a proper look at it yet but will need to sort something for Edinburgh. Might have a back-up Electronize ESC to put in it, but I think a Botbitz 25A will be on the order list.

On the plus side, when it was working, it was lifting featherweights without much sign of strain; just need to make up some outriggers to stop it tipping forward. But for Edinburgh, LEDs, bottom covers, failsafes and paint are next on the list!

[archie2000]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

robot looks very professional Jamie well done
i meant was it watercolour, fence paint, acrylic or oil based like explosion and eruption?

[psycho_fling]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

it will be spray paint you can buy from b and q i imagine

that lifter mech looks really beefy should hold up pretty good whats the weight? bet you have a few kilos at least

[Team Invade]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

robot looks very professional Jamie well done
i meant was it watercolour, fence paint, acrylic or oil based like explosion and eruption?

There's no paint on Explosion, it's black because of the HDPE and the stripes are done from hazard tape We've used 'Gloss Super' spray paint on Eruption and Annihilation from B&Q.

[Ellis]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

Very nice Jamie. If you have some weight spare you could look into some wheel protection. Should be a pretty tough little thing by the looks of it.

By the way, we had an Electronize go on us too. Also powering a lifter oddly enough. Works in one direction, and the relay clicks in the other, but nothing happens. We contacted Electronize but got no response.

Having gone through lots of trouble, we modded it with two automotive relays, only to find the fault wasn't in the relay anyway.

[archie2000]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

Ah nice hazard taping job

[psycho_fling]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

ive broken electronizes before something worth checking if you have already, inspect all of the circuit board tracks sometimes these can fail solved mine by resoldering ....have to say would only expect to see this after seeing the magic smoke

[Laser]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

we had the same problem with our lifting jamming shut, I put some limit switches in and never had that problem again.

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

Robots Live Event Report

Rushed to get Reaver finished on the Saturday evening but it was a hotch-potch of ill-fitting HDPE coverings and looked, in general, rubbish. Never got a chance to solve the lifter issue either so with things going poorly I gave up and just decided to drive Drumroll in the FW fights.

Got to the event and realised that, in my rush to get on the road on Saturday, I'd forgotten to pack a bunch of usual tools. Seems I wasn't the only one though, but nothing was as bad as the Big Nipper team bringing Little Flipper 3 but forgetting to bring its armour

I decided I wasn't going to rush around trying to film every fight while competing at the same time so I can't remember much of the fights, but Carcinus ran in all three of them and didn't end up in the pit as often as usual.

Drumroll ran in the first fight, but towards the end the Scorpion XL seemed to be drifting from its calibrated setting and the flip function seemed to only work occasionally (two issues I first became aware of during the later stages of the UK Champs) so I may have to send that off to get looked at. The insides of the bot also smelled a bit...err...crispy by the end and although I don't think anything's blown I decided to not use it again.

So decided to play musical batteries and get Reaver running (minus lifter) for the second fight. Plus points; it's very nippy, as I expected, although the Victor controllers weren't as precise as I thought the would be. Still better than Electronizes but I think I'm just too used to Scorpion XLs now.
After about a minute it drove over some one and flipped itself, but got righted later on. However towards the end of the fight after several ramming attacks, the MDF gave in and the front motors decided to stray a little:



No surprise in hindsight as it was splitting everywhere and had screws stuck through it all over the place. So that will be getting binned and replaced with plastic - sorry PJ :P

Third fight I drove Cicatrix as it had been sitting doing nothing for most of the day with Tony busy with Eric Jr. Glad to report that it drove very nicely and didn't seem to have any problems with the Scorpion XL, although against Tiny Toon and Satanix it seemed somewhat underpowered. But it seemed to drift well and should be good when the drum pod is made.

So not a particularly strong event for the robots, but meles have never been our fort. It was enjoyable nonetheless.
The plan now is to take a bit of a break from the bots, as almost every weekend since February has been taken up with getting them ready for the champs/Edinburgh. Will be turning my attention to other things just for a bit of a scenery change until the next event rolls around (possibly MMM, still not 100% sure on it yet)

Mods-wise, Carcinus will be getting a new HDPE top to replace the current MDF one, and Reaver will be getting a new chassis from Nylon. Drumroll just needs its XL looked at and somepoint down the line I'll work on salvaging the ring-teeth from the old drum and getting a new balanced one made. Until then, things will probably be a bit quiet. I'm sure less of my build diary ramblings will be no bad thing anyway

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

And just to answer a few of the posts I missed before the event:

i meant was it watercolour, fence paint, acrylic or oil based like explosion and eruption?

Can't remember off the top of my head, but I think it's a water-based enamel. They're small tubs I get out of Wilkinson for about £3 and it's the same stuff I used to paint the drum on Drumroll.

that lifter mech looks really beefy should hold up pretty good whats the weight? bet you have a few kilos at least

Weighed it at the event and it was 11.2kg, so 2.4kg spare. A lot of that will be eaten up by the Nylon so it will certainly be close to the limit. The entire lifting arm mechanism is about 4.6kg.

Very nice Jamie. If you have some weight spare you could look into some wheel protection.

I'm undecided about wheel protection. The plan is to have Reaver as a non-spinner battle bot so the chances of losing my wheels are reduced, plus I think exposed ones look better. The original idea was also to base the robot roughly on a telehandler (an agricultural machine) which doesn't have covered wheels, although the design has deviated from that a bit :P

we had the same problem with our lifting jamming shut, I put some limit switches in and never had that problem again

Yeah I was thinking about limit switches. I normally just like to judge it by eye, but get the feeling with this lifter that switches may be no bad thing.
Still need to look at the Electronize and its circuits/connectors to see if there are any obvious problems.

[Anttazz]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

Third fight I drove Cicatrix as it had been sitting doing nothing for most of the day with Tony busy with Eric Jr. Glad to report that it drove very nicely and didn't seem to have any problems with the Scorpion XL, although against Tiny Toon and Satanix it seemed somewhat underpowered. But it seemed to drift well and should be good when the drum pod is made.

I'll get that done one of these days....

Was good to see it working well though, it was never going to be a world-beater with 4 Argos drills but as far 4WD drill motor driven bots go I thought it looked pretty good. In that video it seems a lot quicker than a lot of the robots out there using similar setups.

With your dads driving, I think you could fit a device to Carcinus which automatically kills the other robot as soon as it touches it and it still wouldn't win Theres just to much spinning around in circles!

[PJ-27]

Re: RogueTwo Robots

So that will be getting binned and replaced with plastic - sorry PJ :P

I need to decide what I'm going to do with BitzaWood since no one wants to play with me