HardWired - Upgrades and general build diary

[Flag Captured]

Couple of photos of HardWired 1 Evolution (as I'm referring to it now)




Having some issues with the drive cutting out when I'm driving it, not entirely sure what the cause is, but I do know that it's when I attempt to quickly reverse one of the motors to turn - I'm thinking it's either the motor stalling or the speed controller not liking it. Either way, it's going to require a bit of troubleshooting...

Other than that, I've found out that my wheels weren't designed for 4s LiPos and I've had my first burnout and tire explosion, so I need some new ones. It's looking good now though, may upgrade to 4WD and try to get a lifter on the front or a disc on the back still, but obviously getting it to run smoothly is the focus at the minute!

[plargen]

when it cuts out is it both motor or just 1

[Flag Captured]

Both motors do from time to time, it seems like they're just losing power until I return the stick either side to netural...

It's not both at once though, they're completely independent when they do cut out if you get me

[plargen]

i had a similar issue but it was due to not enough power being available as i was using nimh battery once i switch to lipo's it solved the issue, looking at the pics the only thing that springs to mind is that the wires from the battery to the esc are look a bit small and might be restricting the flow causing the BEC to cut out

[Flag Captured]

Ah, that makes sense - they are quite thin wires... I'll upgrade to thicker ones and see if that makes a difference - thanks!

[Flag Captured]

I've tried everything with these speed controllers and still absolutely nothing. After that flat out tragedy, I've decided I'm going to do it right and get myself a set of BotBitz hacked TZ85As (or hack them myself) and a 5s LiPo. And upgrade to 4WD.
Downside is that I might have already spent every last penny I own on the previous parts so that may be quite a while yet...

Until then, I'm going to get building this wood bot using drill batteries and the old, beaten up motors and speed controllers from HardWired. It's not going to be impressive in the slightest, but it'll make some nice splinters when it's done - might take it down to the next featherweight championships and pick a fight with 3 spinners like Tiny Toon did last year, for a bit of a laugh!

[plargen]

dunno if its worth a try but do you want to take a pic of the esc's board and i will see if there are any obvious component differences to the ones i have on the off chance there might be something you could just disconnect or adjust

[Flag Captured]

That'd be brilliant if you wouldn't mind! I'll take them both to bits when I get a minute, still need to take that switch off too... probably be tomorrow now, like, but that'd be a huge help - thanks!

[Flag Captured]

HardWired and all derivatives thereof have now been shelved for the time being.
Realised I simply don't have the knowledge, money or tools to even attempt to compete with other Featherweight machines at the minute, so there's no point wasting money trying to make things work. Going to start putting money aside for more expensive pre-built or custom made parts - my intention being that all I have to do is bolt it all together and drive it at events.

Does seem a bit of a cop-out, but I have zero engineering experience, and only a cordless drill and kitchen side at home with which to build these things, so it's my only hope really...

In the mean-time however, I'm going to be building an antweight out of some old parts and transparent acrylic I found the other week, it'll stand up to nothing, but it'll definitely look cool!

[Ellis]

But, how will you develop engineering experience without experiencing the act of engineering? I can relate to the lack of tooling, but perhaps the money you can save could go towards improving your tools situation, which gives you the whole second dimension of custom building your machines. Buying all off the shelf will get boring eventually, and if you spend your savings on expensive parts, you still won't be able build your own parts later down the line. Spending a bit on tooling up gives you access to both worlds.

Also for the record, the above images of Hardwired look as good as any first machine, please finish it!

[daveimi]

You're robot is awesome and a million times better than mine! Mine is a chopping board with a 50cm length of inch box section bolted to it! I built the whole thing in the end of the kitchen on a work mate and the back step (much to the mrs' disgust). Just get it running and we can have our own bash around class! lol. Please look at my robots there so rubbish but such a giggle to drive! My drive motors sit an inch out of line with each other and at different angles! I have plans to hammer a pieces of ally into a top cover and to get to one of these non spinner events I make stuff from bits I find randomly!

[Flag Captured]

But, how will you develop engineering experience without experiencing the act of engineering? I can relate to the lack of tooling, but perhaps the money you can save could go towards improving your tools situation, which gives you the whole second dimension of custom building your machines. Buying all off the shelf will get boring eventually, and if you spend your savings on expensive parts, you still won't be able build your own parts later down the line. Spending a bit on tooling up gives you access to both worlds.

Also for the record, the above images of Hardwired look as good as any first machine, please finish it!

It's just the space, I don't have enough room to have tools like pillar/heavier duty drills and all that... I would do if I could, but it's just a difficult one. I'm trying to find if there's anywhere I can go to use tools such as these (hopefully when I get to Uni they'll allow me to use any facilities they do have) but for the minute, there's not a whole lot I can do.

Thanks! Hardwired will get finished, that's for certain, but I don't want to do much more with it until I can do a really good job of it, even more so with me adding in that 5.5 kg spinner on the back of it... I've realised that I don't have as much power in the drive as I'd like, nor is it the most well armoured of machines, so the best form of defense is offense as the saying doesn't go. Besides, I wanted to make something a little bit more exciting than all the previous incarnations of HardWired!

You're robot is awesome and a million times better than mine! Mine is a chopping board with a 50cm length of inch box section bolted to it! I built the whole thing in the end of the kitchen on a work mate and the back step (much to the mrs' disgust). Just get it running and we can have our own bash around class! lol. Please look at my robots there so rubbish but such a giggle to drive! My drive motors sit an inch out of line with each other and at different angles! I have plans to hammer a pieces of ally into a top cover and to get to one of these non spinner events I make stuff from bits I find randomly!

It's not! It's plagued with issues, is old HardWired! I am making a wood bot though with some bits of scrap that's laying about, so we can definitely still do the bash around class haha! Also making a great big plywood bar spinner, just for the sheer hilarity of seeing it explode into a thousand pieces! I can deal with wood quite easily, because it's a lot weaker than metal (obviously!) but that's no good for what I'm intending to build for the championships. Maybe it'll get done, but I don't think so at this rate... a friend's building me a slightly smaller version of HardWired Evolution in stainless steel to accommodate the spinning disc, but that's going to take a while to get sorted too, so I have no idea how that's going to go!

Problem is, I need about £100 for speed controllers, another £40 on batteries, about £120 on brushless motors and a good £40's worth of bearings to even get the thing running how I'd like, not to mention the new 18v/24v drive system, wheels, and drive belts... its going to take a lot to save up for it now :/

The design's evolved to a state that I literally don't have space for much more than a battery, two ESCs two motors and the brushless system - I need it small so that I can use steel and it not be too thinly spread for armour, but big enough to get the spinning disc in the machine. It'll take engineering way beyond what I'm capable of...

[daveimi]

Most of us just starting have some sort of simple drill powered box, you could just try something simple for now just to get competing? It's only cheap etc.

[Flag Captured]

I suppose so, but that's all HardWired really was, I want to do something a bit more interesting... Not saying that drill boxes are bad or anything, but I'd much prefer having something with a weapon. Gearing down a fan motor to a lifting mechanism is always an option I suppose.

[RoboLibre]

Both motors do from time to time, it seems like they're just losing power until I return the stick either side to netural...

It's not both at once though, they're completely independent when they do cut out if you get me

Is it 2 escs your running, and is that on the 4s lipo you mentioned?
if not, what battery are you using?

also what mixer are you using?

I'm running the same escs in the robot I'm building atm, so know the circuitry like the back of my hand now after the hicups they've been having haha
great escs once you work out the quirks though! (gives thanks to Plargen)