HardWired II

[maddox10]

We use that NTM in Valkiri on 4S.
And we're thinking of downgrading, lower rpm on an smaller disk. Even with a wheelbase over 500mm the gyrodance limits any kind of turning to "use a calendar to measure time to turn 180°".

[overkill]

That's why both my vertical spinners are eggbeaters - so much less gyro effect at high RPM

[maddox10]

On full speed they turn fast enough to be meassured with something more accurate than a cuckoo clock?

[overkill]

Wait for our National championship next weekend to find out. As long as Mr Mangle can turn a bit faster than all the disk spinners, that's a a win for me. There is some complicated maths to prove that gyro forces favour small diameter spinners but I never attempted to work the equations.

[maddox10]

Nikc, you know I'm a follower of your building thread. And I'm eagerly awaiting the fights over there.

[overkill]

I can't resist a free plug to get everyone else watching the event:http://www.robowars.org/forum/viewto...1978&start=180, There should be heaps of video and possibly a live stream.

[Flag Captured]

My theory at the minute is to have the bar very torquey so that I can essentially have it on tick-over and then when I end up lining an attack up I can spin it up to full in very little time... of course, it's all just a theory but I can see it being at least somewhat usable I guess. Going through a little bit of a redesign once again though on the drive side of things, may or may not look alarmingly similar to Electric Boogaloo now... That said, I'm borrowing from the best! The utter carnage that caused against Original Sin was frankly incredible.

I'm also looking forward to those fights too Nick! If you happen to need a livestream chat moderator or something whilst it's all going, give me a shout and I'll be on hand to help! Particularly looking forward to seeing how everything pans out though, there seems like there's going to be some really solid matches!

[daveimi]

Wish you'd go and build something so we can have some piccies!

[Flag Captured]

[Flag Captured]

Seriously though, I'm hoping to make a crack at getting HW2 running soon... it's just about money and time, being a student I have little of each! Not to mention a few side projects I need to get doing. Robots have definitely taken a back seat, but it should only be temporary!

It seems counter-intuitive to have what will essentially be 3 machines running for the champs I realise, but if I have HW2 running I have a fallback - if I get the other two running then it's a job well done! HW3 should be simple but expensive, Archangel a lot more complicated but cheaper. Just depends on what I can get sorted really...

Oh, and I found a solution to HW2's drive problems - single stage RS775s. With a certain combination of gears I can get something like 9.5:1 on 80mm wheels, which might tax the motors a little but the thing will move, and that's good enough for me at this rate! Would love a pair of 900s to just drop in, but unfortunately I simply can't afford the asking price for them these days, and then there's the worry of breaking one too... RS775s are much more common I'm led to believe (hence, cheaper) so would potentially be viable to at least get it operational.

I've done some interesting things to the design of HW3 though, which in turn should hopefully negate this sort of problem in the future... hopefully!

Or at least, I've built it with edits/upgrades in mind, not just to directly fit the size of the 900s, which has naturally led to many problems with it being a relatively compact gearbox choice length wise - would stick a pair of drills in there but it plain and simple isn't big enough!

[Flag Captured]

Archangel MK1 (Aka Matt can't CAD part 2)












Still plenty of refinements to make, however this is the sort of thing I'm going for on Archangel. Those Hardox bulkheads are 233mm front to back and 5mm thick, will be welded together with a 30mm fixed shaft acting as the 4th wall on that inner box, if that makes sense?

Black sections are HDPE, and the box section bits are mild steel - 4mm wall, 50x60mm. Bar's 330mm now and about 4kg.

It's 530mm wide too, not including those wheels (which are only placeholders, as is the bar) - do intend to have a single toothed bar and some monstrously chunky wheels but you can get the rough idea of what I'm going for with this! Still plenty of improvements to be made, but it's on the way now to being finalised.

[overkill]

I like the rear wedges / stabilisers . There seems to be more 'dead air' than needed in that central section; I'd look at moving the bulkheads in towards the blade a bit to give you more space for parts in the rest of the frame - it won't affect the strength either way and might save weight by allowing a smaller frame. Also with those bulkheads, adding some cut-outs in the area just behind the box section will save plenty of weight with hardly any strength reduction.

Those small triangular front wedges are going to get hammered by horizontal spinners; of course if NST is retired for next year, you won't have anything to worry about . You might still want to make them out of two layers of Hardox. The floor level front prongs are also going to be spinner bait; depending on how far out they stick, you might find floor scraping spinners like 720 will hit them before you make weapon contact. Based on fighting Demon for years, I would change the prongs to just one wider and shorter prong which will be stronger for the same or less weight.

[Flag Captured]

Thanks! I got the idea after seeing how Demon occasionally flips itself over backwards, thought it'd be handy to keep everything on the floor at least!

The plan (though I realise it's not clear in the slightest from that awful, awful CAD) was actually to have both the front and back wedge things as bolt-on pieces so I could replace them if needs be, or just do away with them entirely if fighting a drum. Would need to watch the speed of the bar though, given I'd not have the stabilisers on it!

Regards the bulkheads, I need to refine the whole weapon system so I can push them closer together, it's an NTM 5060 that and already is half sunk into the bulkhead , need to get that sorted as soon as I've refined the mounting method too (thinking an aluminium block which would then be bolted onto the bulkhead itself). I will certainly look at some cut-outs though! I'm going to attempt to learn to use a higher end CAD software that has the stress-testing function to see exactly what I could cut out without losing any strength.

Hopefully I'll end up learning to CAD properly sometime soon and can keep making adjustments but it's a lot tougher than I thought haha!

[Flag Captured]

Well, the inevitable's happened and Archangel's had to be shelved for the time being. Because 'massive vertical bar spinner' and 'student budget' don't seem to get along too well. Instead, I'll be putting HardWired 2 back in the ring. Probably with a weapon though!

On that side of things, does anyone know if there's anywhere else other than AlienPower that sells sensored outrunners? Alien's have been out of stock for quite a while now if I recall rightly, rather hoping they haven't gone out of production for good...

[overkill]

I know of one other place and they have been out of stock for a year or more . I can't see why sensored outrunners are so scarce!