Team Invade's Build Diary

[Team Invade]

Well it used to be then

Anyway we've wired it up, and after a bit of difficultly with the Brushless ESC it drives and spins (minus belts). First spin up will be for the tech check All that's left to do is cut two holes for the links and put the all-important stripes on, which can be done quickly on the day.

[Team Invade]

Finally got round to giving Explosion some maintenance after the UK champs:




Overall it came out of the UK champs a lot better than it did last year. We've only had to replace the front (triangle) panels and the bits that the eyes sit in. The frame was pretty badly twisted though so we had to cut several pieces of it off and re-weld them to get it straight again. Having said that it still managed to carry on through Colchester and Burgess Hill without any attention and seemed to do as well as ever

[Team Invade]

This week I've started on the rebuild of Combustion, which was pretty much untouched since the champs last year. Now we're on the winter break I've finally had time to start! The biggest problem was that it weighed 14.6kg, so I've changed the drive system to a lighter (and hopefully faster and more powerful) system, and rebuilt a smaller chassis around it.



That's the new chassis above. Still 20mm HDPE, 10mm HDPE base and 20mm Nylon spinner bulkheads as before. The 20mm HDPE is pretty much completely new, and I've reduced the base considerably to fit it. The nylon bulkheads remain the same for now but I'm going to alter those to fit the new shape better and reduce the wedge (I found last time the disc was too far up the wedge). It currently weighs 4kg, but as I've said the nylon will be cut down which should save at least 500g.

I've put the old armour pieces in place which shows it is quite considerably smaller:



I've also weighed it with parts and it's approximately 10kg. That leaves 3.6kg for HDPE top panels (which I'm estimating to be about 0.5kg each) and hardox armour, so it's looking more feasible than last year.

The most major internal change will be the drive system. The old feather gold system was heavy so it's getting changed to some new drill motor drives. I'm also taking out the sidewinder (which as well as being heavy took up a lot of space), and I've got a new Scorpion XXL to put in, which is lighter and smaller. We've made our own motor/gearbox set-up out of some Dewalt drills, shown below:



This is in a near finished state. The second one's coming along quite well also so they should be done in a couple of days. So soon the next job will be to mount those in and make the top panels. Until then the main chassis needs a few more screws here and there and a bit of neatening up. Enough to keep me busy

[Ellis]

Looking good! Are you going to enter it in the main competition next year?

Also, what motor/gearbox reduction do those drives have? Looks like a 775, but only guessing. Am trying to gauge how much I should worry about being able to escape the weapon in terms of speed.

[Team Invade]

Obviously I'm driving Explosion in the main comp to defend the title this year so it'll probably just be for whiteboards again. Don't really fancy entering an untested robot into the main competition so if my dad happens to want to drive something (which is unlikely), he'll have Annihilation anyway. Just want to get it working reliably for now and possibly think about entering it when Explosion stops doing so well.

The motors are Dewalt 18V 775s, we've modified the gearbox, which used to have a three stage reduction, and taken out one stage that wasn't used for the higher speed setting to shorten it. Not too sure how it'll drive but it should be quite fast. The motors seem to be more powerful than the 775s in Explosion so going by that it should be quite good (if it works). I'm aiming to have it driving by January to give it a couple of test drives at the event in Alexandra Palace when Explosion's not ready to go in.

[Team Invade]

Got this done last weekend but only just found the time to write the post! Long story short the motors have been mounted and it's been wired up. The motors are mounted into pockets milled 12mm deep into the bulkheads, nuts have been melted into the plastic which the threaded bars that hold the motors together screw into. It's also mounted to the base through holes tapped into the aluminium so they're pretty strongly held in.

Wiring was a bit more difficult due to the fact it had to be made so compact! In the compartment on the left side the Scorpion XXL has been wrapped in 1mm HDPE to prevent any shorts. Under that is the brushless ESC and the receiver. Links and power lights are mounted next to the brushless on the right hand side. The weapon and drive systems are completely separate (only common component is the receiver), one lipo for each. This means each has a separate link and power light, which means I can run it without the spinner at normal events for testing and there is no power to the weapons system.

I've done a drive test and it drives really nicely, and it's fast! Hoping to get the top plates done tomorrow and might get the hardox done by the end of the weekend, but at the very least it'll be at London next weekend for a full test drive in the arena.

[daveimi]

That's sooo neat compact! Really impressive!

Are you from the Blackpool area?

[Team Invade]

Thanks very much! We live in Warrington about an hour from Blackpool.

[mrsam]

Looks vicious, will it be entered into the main competition at the champs? should b a serious contender if it is

[Team Invade]

We'll just be testing it this year, obviously with regards to the competition full concentration goes to Explosion but if all goes well we might look at entering it next year (mostly dependent on how well Explosion does!)

The brushless motor I've got in it isn't as powerful as the ones in some other spinners, the main aim is really to build something reliable. Should be reasonably powerful just not to the extent of 720/LS4 etc, which makes sense considering it will be for the whiteboards this year (shouldn't really be trying to cause major damage in whiteboards)! If I do enter it into the main competition though I've designed it so that a bigger brushless can be fitted

[Mouldy]

Looks great, but I'd still suggest turning the teeth of the disc pulley so uve got a bit of slip in the mechanism. Or just turn up some blank pulleys.

[Team Invade]

Will do. Still got quite a few things to do on the spinner mechanism before it's done: turning down the pulleys, a back bearing mount for the brushless and putting caps on the nylon bulkheads to stop the bar/bearings sliding out like they began to do last year. At the minute I'm just focusing on getting it running for next weekend, so I'll turn my attention to the weapons system after that.

[Eventorizon]

Looking good! How much weight do you have left for armour and what's going to be used?

[Team Invade]

Last time I checked it was 10.3kg with top plates (not mounted at that point), which leaves just over 3kg for armour considering I need to leave a bit of weight for the few bits mentioned above. Armour will be a front "Explosion style" wedge and wheel protection made from 3.2mm hardox.

[Team Invade]

Got the top panels and hardox armour done this weekend. The top panels are 10mm HDPE and the hardox armour is a mixture of 3mm and 3.2mm - just made out of any small bits we had lying around mostly. The front wedge shape is based off Explosion, which should deflect spinners better than the design from last year. It's not quite fully welded yet, still needs welding on the inside properly, but it'll do until after this weekend.

As it is it weighs 12.4kg, so there's plenty of weight spare for any improvements. Apart from finishing the hardox there are a few bits to do on the spinner mechanism so that'll take up a little bit of weight, but there should still be plenty spare.