HardWired - Upgrades and general build diary

[Flag Captured]

HardWired Evolution (the flatter version of the original) is getting some new motors in it and whatever speed controllers I can cobble together, but nothing substantial for now! May upgrade the armour and enter it in some Robots Live/ Robot Wars events but I can't see it being amazingly competitive or interesting in main competitions

[Flag Captured]

Wheels are here! Got 4 80mm castor wheels and 2 100mm blue rubber wheels for when I inevitably make the wood bot, finally have almost everything I need for HardWired Evolution to be complete, just need an LED (have an LED and a spare servo to reciever plug that I cut off a broken servo, if there's a way to light up the LED with those then please let me know!) and better radio gear as well as a proper removable link (made one out of chocolate block connectors) so things are looking good! Unsure as to whether HardWired REvolution will be ready for this year's championships, but I may have a robot to enter now so things are looking good.

[Flag Captured]

Update to HardWired's next version - I'm currently looking into that brushless drive again, seen a pair of motors which would have 8000 RPM and put out about 2400W of power (about 3 horsepower?) at 8s so I'm going to have a look for an ESC that'll go in reverse at that voltage - I know that's the difficult bit, but it's worth a try. Might as well do something interesting where I can!
I have seen the Trackstar 150A one from Turnigy that reverses and manages up to 6s so maybe I'll just have to leave it down at a lower voltage until an alternative comes up.
The power in brushless motors seems quite large proportionately so if I can turn that into a successful drive system then I can sense it being moderately successful. May take a while to get it perfected, but I'd like to have it done for the next main championships!

[Eventorizon]

Ok... forget everything that was here.

[RogueTwoRobots]

I don't see much difference in behaviour compared to a brushed robot. It's just a case of using the right parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwu8y8ScA5w

[Flag Captured]

I don't think there's a ton of difference, but it'd be nice to change things up a tad! I'm hoping to find a reversible ESC that handles 8s and up so I can get the full 2400W out of these motors (or so Hobbyking says). May need to do a bit more research into more powerful motors, but I can see it being a viable substitute to some of the high-end brushed motors if I can get it working reliably...

Of course, getting it to work reliably is 90% of the problem. Likely going to make Mk1 out of spare bits of wood if that'll work so I can iron out any of the creases, then make the final thing out of either clear polycarb or HDPE, would need about 20-25mm if what I've heard is correct, so naturally it looks like it'll be HDPE but I still like the idea of a fully transparent bot. Unless of course those hydraulic crushers that I've been hearing about come to the next championships, in which case it definitely won't be that transparent!

Also, it's funny you should post that video, that's the very one that inspired me to start work on this particular project! I think it's a machine from the Australian combat robotics forum, seems to work pretty solidly!

[harry hills]

Yeah it is an Oz robot.
I won't bother saying too much about brushless drive as I have no experience with it myself. A bit of advice I would give is that it is probably a good idea to have a brushed setup ready to go so you could just sub that in if the brushless has problems or fails during a comp.
Also think about how exactly you mean to put down the power from the motors... Its not really any good having uberpower if you can't use it. Its all very nice to play with big numbers but they tend to get a lot smaller when reality happens.
I wish you luck with the build though Might want to rethink the frame though, some tougher plastic or maybe steel or aluminium. Of course, I'm in no way experienced enough to really advise or anything, I just thought I'd add something I felt relevant.

[Flag Captured]

Thanks! I will remember that! Chances are I'll just make sure I can sub it with a set of drills or similar, I bet there'll be plenty of teething problems with it! Think I might have a look at some hefty magnets so I've got torque and 'weight' behind it, definitely need to re-visit that! I think the motors come out at about 2.5/3 horsepower each without a reduction assuming my calculations haven't gone horribly wrong (I wouldn't put money on that) so it'll be pretty beefy if it works alright. Quite liked the idea of omniwheels too so it can simply carry on driving sidewards, but one step at a time!

Thanks too! May end up going the plastic route for now, easier for me to work with! Would like to move to clear polycarb in the future because I've always liked it! May be an update for HardWired though when I get round to it! Speaking of Hardwired, I'm working on the power LEDs for it, got a standard LED on the top, but then on the back I'm cutting out the name 'HardWired Evolution' and putting a load of LEDs behind it to make the name glow, a bit like New Ripper actually... Thought it'd be a nice effect! As always, pictures up when it (eventually) gets done!

[Flag Captured]

Update on the plans, my intention is still to use brushless drive, but I'm trying to find the highest torque and lowest RPM ones possible, and loading my machine up with magnets. The disc will remain, but naturally it'll not be quite as heavy as I first wanted. Maybe about 2.5/3 kg at a higher RPM, but I'm hopefully going to put plenty of magnets in the bottom of the machine, dependant on how heavy they are. The idea is that I'll make an entirely flip-proof machine, whether it works in the end is something else entirely, but hopefully it'll work!

Worth a shot in any case, would like to work on something a little different!

[Flag Captured]

Remember I said a long time ago that I made a wooden prototype of HardWired? Well, since I've been waiting for the equipment to put the hex nuts into the wheels I've bought, I decided to spend a bit of time fixing that up. Hopefully getting the motors put up to it soon (they used to be direct drive drill motors but they were not very reliable, as you can imagine) but other than that, no changes at all to it. I have the wheels right at the back and it pulled some awesome wheelies on the first tests, so I'm hoping I can replicate that!

Obviously not a serious machine, but it was fun to drive that one time before the battery shorted out.