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LiPos may end up being a necessity, but I think we'll get it in weight with the NiMHs. They may start to struggle to put the power out if all 5 motors are blazing at once, so we'll see.
The sides will be 10mm HDPE. They should be pretty solidly mounted (across 4 points; front shaft, chocks between the wheels and a bolt at the back), so hopefully they'll just get slashed instead of ripped off!
do you think 10mm hdpe will be enough? I'm sure it will not break like a chopping board but it just might get punctured, its a bit soft you know - think I'll add a thin sheet of steel on mine say 2mm at strategic points...
We did 7 battles with badly mounted 6mm HDPE sides on Tormenta and they hardly got touched. NST got us right in the front of Tormenta, admittedly doing big damage to other things before reaching the HDPE, but the 10mm that it hit got a little sliced and that's it.
Fairly confident it'll be fine... Explosion manages with just 5-6mm!
glad you say that! if 6mm was good, then 10 will make it even better.
Just seen a couple of clips on youtube - NST vs Explosion, and it did take quite a beating but then its '' just 5-6mm! ''
This is now a really solid machine, it's a brilliant evolution of Tormenta. Like I've said before with the amount of effort your putting in, Lipos are a must! Even if we have to have a whip round
10mm is sufficient for a single blow. NST could not cut all the way through my HDPE in one go but you need to be careful. If you are against Inertia XL or our spinners then we will get though 10mm of HDPE in a few hits. I know I have tried. I would have spares on hand to swap out just in case.
I reckon that our new machine might even be able to cut clean through Titanium and Hardox if we catch it at the right angle.
Fairly confident it'll be fine... Explosion manages with just 5-6mm!
5-6mm HDPE isn't strong enough on it's own, as said it does have a 3mm Hardox baseplate, flipper and a frame to support all of the HDPE panels, and a lot of screws! It's this that gives the robot it's strength, but even so, 14 hits from NST (which shows it's pretty tough) did tear up the frame, and so with it the HDPE. The frame had to be re-made in parts and all-new HDPE panels had to be made for Burgess hill. BUT, it still did completely protect the internals, and could have carried on if the link didn't come out.
As for your case, although the rest of the robot looks very strong, HDPE will not stand up very well on it's own if it's 'sticking out' (i.e at a corner for a spinner to get a good hit on) without anything supporting it. The most important thing to do is to make sure you fasten it very securely and strongly to the chassis because it is good for absorbing impacts, but only if it's rigid. It seems as if this was the issue with your last design, the sides were too flimsy. The best thing to do would be to make four small wheel pods out of something stronger such as Hardox, or titanium if you're tight on weight.
HOWEVER, what you have done so far looks very good and a massive improvement to the last one. As for the subject of lipos, we prefer to avoid them, as the weigh much more once put in a meal box and you have to mess about taking them out of the robot to charge them. If you are tight on weight, I'd recommend A123's, as there aren't so many safety precautions and are still quite light and still give a very high performance. We've used them in Annihilation and Eruption and have been very impressed.
Thanks all! And thanks for the constructive comment Mr. Invade! ^
Armour and battery upgrades aren't possible before MMM at the end of this month, because of the combined time and money both would take. I'm not sure, but I don't think there will be as many big hitters there as you'd expect at the UK champs. So, we'll make the thing as solid as possible for this event (and the following Maidstone event) and assuming it's still a usable machine afterwards, we'll look into upgrades.
I am thinking 2mm titanium would be possible as is, for the scoop and sides. If we were to lighten 'er up with new batteries and some other techniques, perhaps thicker. It then becomes a matter of being able to cut it and pay for it. All in mind for the future. If we go all out on this one straight after the mentioned events, the potential for a third robot for 2013 is diminished.
I will also look into A123s. These NiMHs should be powerful enough at 70a continuous discharge (only if every motor were stalled would we be exceeding that I think) for a while. I do know you can get A123s here with relative ease. Guilherme uses them. I'll have a chat with him!
What's the deal with charging A123s? We have a Turnigy Accucel 6, I have read that you charge them in LiFe-mode?
Thanks all! I'm going to go and look at how to mount the side armour more solidly. :P
A123 cells are Lithium-Iron-Phosphate chemical name LiFePO4, not to be confused with Li-Po (Lithium Polymer) or Li-Ion (Lithium Ion).
A123 cells don't have the same power/weight ratio as Li-Po (Li-Po wins that one, which is what makes it great for the smaller classes!) but they still output loads of power. Unfortunately iron is heavy.
And there's nothing in the rules that says you need a metal box for Li-Po.
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