HardWired II

[Flag Captured]

No need for welding mask as you need to see where you're cutting, but definitely yes for protective eyewear.

Oh yeah, I'd never give protective eyewear a miss (someone I know learned that the hard way...) Just wasn't sure if it was intense light that'd need that sort of welding mask. Thanks!

[Flag Captured]

Little bit of a design update, I've almost finalised the list of interchangeable weapons for HardWired II, hopefully to give it the widest spread of advantages across the range of other weapons as possible:

Back hinged lifter,
Front hinged lifter,
Lifter with scoop/ shovel (as opposed to just a ramp)
Small drum/beater
Vertical claw crusher

And then the following are all potential additions:

Heavy horizontal spinning disc
Heavy vertical spinning disc
Horizontal crushers
Low pressure flipper
Hydraulic claw?

The reason the former weapons are all pretty much a given is that I can near enough get them to work using the same linear actuator (except the drum, maybe the claw), and I know how to make them all now. The latter group are a bit out of my comfort zone, or in the case of the pneumatics, way out of my comfort zone. They're very unlikely to appear in the 2014 champs (should I even get a place in it) but they're definitely something I'm looking into. Again, it seems like a lot of weapons, and over time it's almost a given that some of them will disappear from use, but I'm testing out what works best with the machine and against specific weapon types.

I've opted for as close to 20mm thick 6082 Aluminium for the shell, and probably some kind of either steel or HDPE for the baseplate - I very much doubt I'll be able to use the full 20mm, but I'm trying to get it as close to as possible for defense against the ever scarier spinners. May end up being along the lines of 15-18mm at most, but aspirations never harmed anyone! I'm working on getting the prototype as compact as possible now, got quite a sizeable chunk of empty space out of it, just need a decent car seat actuator then I'm good to go.

[Max]

If your using the same actuator for all those weapons if be tempted to buy something like a gimson linear actuator as this will be faster, lighter, smaller and probably stronger. Or could make a simple one with a drill and threaded bar or even get hold of a cheap car seat actuator, take the threaded rod out of that and replace the motor with a drill as Thai shoudo be lighter and more powerful I imagine.

[Flag Captured]

Well, I've been looking at the Gimsons ones and they seem pretty decent, just a bit costly for me at the minute though. Might mean having a much weaker drum (or no drum) and going just for the lifters this championships. How would I go about making my own as well? I know roughly how they work, but I wouldn't be sure how to make one with the right strength in it...

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Does anyone happen to have any suggestions for suitable baseplates too? I need something that's strong in a smaller thickness, but I'd assume it doesn't really need to be anywhere near as thick as the sides... would 3mm 6082 suffice or would I be better going for thicker/different material?

Also, getting the designs for the weapons drawn, potentially CAD-ed up too if I can find something that will run on a computer from the middle ages...

[Mega Masher]

3.2mm hardox????

[maddox10]

1.4mm Titanium grade "unweldable".

[Flag Captured]

How expensive are both of those? The baseplate's about 35-40mm square, Titanium might be my best bet, not seen Hardox about as much, but both might be viable options if I can source them! Thanks for the help to!

[Eventorizon]

Its not really the cost that will get you, but the Titanium will be more expensive, but actually sourcing a large enough sheet. There is lots of 4mm hardox around, and even 3.2mm, but findings someone who is willing to sell you some might be tricky since if they have it, its usually for a reason.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_fr...&_skc=25&rt=nc

This seller is where I got my Ti from. There is nothing of the size you need at the moment but some big sheets come up occasionally.

[Flag Captured]

The size may well be a killer, I've redesigned the whole thing to be even more compact - not got the exact measurements down, but it should be even smaller than HardWired Evolution, maybe even able to fit in a 35x30x8 cm box. I don't know if that's small by featherweight standards, but it should be a squeeze!

Rough draft of the design are attached, with 2 setups - the rear hinged lifter, the drum and then the basic machine with no attachments at all. Not everything's labelled up, but I've gone for a dual battery setup - one battery being for the drive, the other being for the weaponry. I'd like to aim for a 5s and a 6s, 5s for the drive, 6 for the weapon (or maybe 4 for the drive, dependant on whether I can upgrade from drill motors). Everything's subject to change, but this is the style I'd like to end up sticking with, in a roundabout sort of way! Will probably build a prototype out of MDF at some point and try to get it all working, but it's more likely I'll just finalise the design and then go straight to the build.

On a side note, I'm thinking of trying to re-create Tiny Toon's famous spinner showdown at the Gadget Show Live championships if I get in there and everything else permitting like spare time and other teams being up for it, for no other reason than I'd like to give old HardWired Evolution a viking burial since I most likely won't use the chassis and a few of my original homemade (scrap) parts anymore. And it'd look absolutely hilarious on camera...

[Liftoff]

Looking good, nice and compact, I think most FW machines have an approx. similar base size (mine is quite larger)
The only thing I'd be worried about is side and back armour...the material looks too thin judging from what I see on the cad, Earlier on you mentioned 20mm alu but it seems to be less at the wheels.
Other than that it looks solid.

[daveimi]

That looks really good what will you make the chassis and bulkheads from?

[Mega Masher]

Btw, what motors are they, as they look very short (in length).

[Flag Captured]

Thanks! I did slightly misjudge a few of the sizes on the CAD, it should be around 15-20mm aluminium or hardox/aluminium depending on what's cheap/available! The innards and bulkheads will all be that 6082 aluminium I spoke about, again at about 15mm to make it all structurally solid, and I'm going to try to make the motor mounts also the inside wall/centre column to again try and make it that bit more compact.

One weapon I didn't post was the front-hinged lifter, which will be a similar design to the back-hinged - I'll be using that one most likely against any spinners that'd be able to get inside the machine when the back hinged lifter's up...

As for the motors too, they're supposed to be drills but I think I've misjudged them a bit. It was adapted from my original which had Banebots gearmotors on it, but they proved to be a bit too expensive so I had to adapt

[Flag Captured]

Minor change to the machine, since I'm having to run on as minimal a budget as I can at the minute, I'm opting to go for just having two-ish weapons at GSL at the minute, the lifter(s) and my anti-spinner weapon. Which is actually just a more intricately designed scoop, but it sounds more threatening to be an anti-spinner device.

It'll still be built with the interchangeable weapons ability though, just the drum likely won't see the light of day for now since I can't afford the motor to run it. Truth be told, I'm still trying to get a spinner on there in the form of a cutting disc to create some sparks and hopefully slight damage to the tougher armours. More about the show appeal of it than anything else, but it's still all up in the air for now.

Also, a quick question for anyone who knows, would I fail a tech check for using a fuse as a removable link? I think I've queried it before, but I'd just like to double check before I design around it!