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Re: Tormenta 2 - Build Diary
It has been forever!
We had intended to start getting back into gear before Christmas. Unfortunately Dad has been occupied with work, so things haven't moved. Until today, a little bit.
I took T2 out to the workshop after having had it sitting under the coffee table for several months, and started looking at the immediate issues left after MMM and Maidstone.
The main forks could move independently by about 5cm at the tips, and the sprocket seemed to have a similar amount of play in it. The result was huge looseness in the setup; the shaft could do, I'd say, an 8th of the full motion, without the forks even moving.
Happily it wasn't that the shaft (just a mild steel 20mm threaded rod) had been worn away by the M6 cotterpins we used, or God forbid twisted, it was just general looseness, so I tightened everything up. Also the little M6 bolts we used like setscrews to hold the sprocket to the shaft had worn away where they tighten to it, so the sprocket's play was from there. I replaced them with some stainless bolts that will hopefully last longer. It's all still a bit rickety but I'm happy.
Not really a lot to report, but it's significant because we (hopefully) won't have to do any major rebuild work to T2 before we move on to robot nºmero 3. Especially since April is suddenly just around the corner and we have yet to go beyond CAD with our concepts. I feared this shaft looseness was something much more sinister.
Other issues with the robot are a bit of the left bulkhead cracked off (odd for HDPE?) at MMM, which we will attempt to weld back on. We still need to sort the gearbox reliability, not sure how yet. There is sometimes a slight lag when going full forward/backwards then suddenly slamming into a turn. It lasts a few seconds, like the link between the tx and rx is delayed, then clears again. We think it's the rx aerial, so it should be simple to fix. I think that is pretty much it. I doubt there will be many additions before April, though I'd love to make the weapon act like a servo.
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Christ did I just write all that?!^ All I did was tighten some stuff!
It has been forever!
We had intended to start getting back into gear before Christmas. Unfortunately Dad has been occupied with work, so things haven't moved. Until today, a little bit.
I took T2 out to the workshop after having had it sitting under the coffee table for several months, and started looking at the immediate issues left after MMM and Maidstone.
The main forks could move independently by about 5cm at the tips, and the sprocket seemed to have a similar amount of play in it. The result was huge looseness in the setup; the shaft could do, I'd say, an 8th of the full motion, without the forks even moving.
Happily it wasn't that the shaft (just a mild steel 20mm threaded rod) had been worn away by the M6 cotterpins we used, or God forbid twisted, it was just general looseness, so I tightened everything up. Also the little M6 bolts we used like setscrews to hold the sprocket to the shaft had worn away where they tighten to it, so the sprocket's play was from there. I replaced them with some stainless bolts that will hopefully last longer. It's all still a bit rickety but I'm happy.
Not really a lot to report, but it's significant because we (hopefully) won't have to do any major rebuild work to T2 before we move on to robot nºmero 3. Especially since April is suddenly just around the corner and we have yet to go beyond CAD with our concepts. I feared this shaft looseness was something much more sinister.
Other issues with the robot are a bit of the left bulkhead cracked off (odd for HDPE?) at MMM, which we will attempt to weld back on. We still need to sort the gearbox reliability, not sure how yet. There is sometimes a slight lag when going full forward/backwards then suddenly slamming into a turn. It lasts a few seconds, like the link between the tx and rx is delayed, then clears again. We think it's the rx aerial, so it should be simple to fix. I think that is pretty much it. I doubt there will be many additions before April, though I'd love to make the weapon act like a servo.
---------------
Christ did I just write all that?!^ All I did was tighten some stuff!
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