Team Shakesc : Build Diary

[shakesc]

Did more work on Spur 2. Sorted out the internal layout. Done lots of grinding to give clearance to wheels etc



Hopefully get through enough construction in the next few days to work out if its viable to enter for the champs.
Have a few bits on order that hopefully be here next week.

[shakesc]

Contacted Alien Power on their 4260 Sensored Outrunner brushless motor 300KV 1500W which has been out of stock for a while.

Apparently they are having to use a different factory and the new style motors for these will be stocked in March - and not a mix and match with the old type

So I have to buy 2 new motors for Olaf

[shakesc]

I've now got Spur 2 back to the stage of running. Haven't got the weapon built but this is a big change



Decided to test the pushing power. The gas bottle is 20Kg on an uneven dusty garage flow

[RogueTwoRobots]

Such a solid, compact robot. Nice work.

That particular type of tread on the wheels is exactly what I'm going to be looking for for retreading my Banebots wheels on Reaver. Is that just stuff you had kicking about or was it from a specific place? Looks a bit heftier than your standard bike tyre tread patterns.

[mrsam]

Agreed, fantastic looking machine, very solid abd powerful.

[shakesc]

Such a solid, compact robot. Nice work.

That particular type of tread on the wheels is exactly what I'm going to be looking for for retreading my Banebots wheels on Reaver. Is that just stuff you had kicking about or was it from a specific place? Looks a bit heftier than your standard bike tyre tread patterns.

I got it from Halfords. Looked for something with a close tread pattern. Werent the cheapest (about 20 quid) but great grip

[RogueTwoRobots]

Thanks, just had a look at the ones on their website and there are a few options with close tread so will swing by and have a look. Will probably be the first time I actually pay for a bike tyre to make wheel treads from, I usually just wait until I see one lying at the side of the road or at the skip and nab it

[shakesc]

Had a great time at the champs and learnt a lot about my robot
This is how it looked going into the champs - shiny




The rear motor eats brushes. I think there are a couple of reasons for this
- lack of airflow
- old motor with worn armature
First fix is I have ordered a brand new motor

We had fitted a magnet on the scoop. Boy did this work! In fact far too well (I did on reflection order too big a magnet). This was nicely solved in one of the fights where the epoxy resin broke, magnet went free. At that point Spur could drift nicely , normal service resumed

The scope was a temporary measure as I had ran out of time to make an active weapon. On reflection I have scrapped the idea for an active weapon. Running a couple of DeWuts it has loads of push. Therefore gone for a redesign at the front




I am going to move the TZ85's out of the rear wedge and fit to the battery box now I have a bit more space. This will give more airflow around the rear motor and make removing electronics a lot easier.

I will try and get it all back together but might be Portsmouth.
Oh - need more silver paint

[shakesc]

Well took Spur 2 for a run out at Portsmouth which is nicely just down the road

Not a good day
Tested the bot on the bench at home, everything fine. Retested on the bench at Portsmouth and it ran fine.
Took it to the arena, put the link in - nothing, no response to the stick.
Went back to the bench and after much plugging and replugging it appears that one of the TZ85a's BEC's had died. Pulling the channel wire out of the plug and connecting direct onto the receiver and it worked again. One TZ85a with failing BEC

Went in for the second fight and drove into the arena. Handling was off though and after a very short run around ended up going round in circles. Eventually Beast flipped me out
Back on the bench appears that the TZ85a completely failed

This brings the recent total of dead TZ85a to 3 including those from the champs. One died because some swarf entered into it (of all things!)
Ordered another one - hopefully this wont go pop

[Shakey]

Was it one of the original ones that were in it for the champs?

And I think you mean beauty, though seeing beast in with the feathers would be entertaining.

[shakesc]

Its late and the wine is kicking in

[Shakey]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcEF7kx_rHo

A video of Olaf in testing. Excuse the driving, I hadn't driven it before. In live shows it proves to be a pretty decent drive setup, due tot he front of the robot it has difficulty pushing from a standstill as it just loads the front and loses traction but if it can be moving before contact it is impressive. The speed of the robot makes it an excellent rambot. Then sensorless setup seems to be fine just by following the idea of have more power than you realistically need as then it is able to startup cleanly without any cogging. The ESC's still have the delay but I noticed it is only from forwards to backwards. Backwards to forwards is instant, so I configured it carefully so 'forwards' of what the ESC thinks it is is actually forwards, this means I don't have responsive reverse and if I turn on the spot right after going forwards the wheel going back just brakes so I turn with one wheel forwards (if that makes sense). However no matter what forwards is always instantly available.

[shakesc]

Well I've pondering the replacement for Spur 2 for a while.
Spur 2 is running on DeWuts which although great they are sizable, heavy and expensive. For this one I am moving to Brushless. I ran brushless on Olaf but had Alien Power motors which were good on paper but not robust and not available. Therefore moving to NTM's - cheap and I can have spares!
The wheels on Spur are Banebot customised to bolt the sprockets to them. I have looked around at lots of wheels and although Colsons look nice for the design I wanted to do would still require lots of work. Therefore I decided to make some custom wheels out of Nylon 66. This allows me to bolt the pulleys to them (using M5 rather than M3 I used before) and also screw my favourite tyre to them.
Spur although quite compact is also heavy because of the 4mm hardox. I've moved to 3.2mm Hardox and will be bolting HDPE as an outer skin to this.
Finally never got the lifter on Spur working and ending up modding the chassis to make it a rambot. I am determined to have a working lifter on this Sewer Snake style.
It also feels a bit easy to call the new robot Spur 3 (although there is clearly a family resemblance). Name will be ITL ...



Close to a rolling chassis for drivetrain testing

[shakesc]

Havent posted for a while
Work stopped on Spur 3. Trying to finish off a kitchen and a few other things

Anyway my Chinese lathe in the process of making the wheels (why didnt I just buy some Colsons) ate some teeth on the Hi/Lo which is plastic
Ordered some metal ones which happened to be on backorder
Spent an evening stripping down the lathe to replace them
The moral of the story is if you are buying a Chinese lathe get one with metal Hi/Lo teeth as the plastic ones will break and its close to a complete strip down to replace. In that process I found some components made out of a soft variant of Gouda and some interesting wiring.
My saving up for a mill is going to take a bit longer as after this experience I have decided to up the budget
At least the rugby was entertaining

[overkill]

The Sieg X3 is a nice mill with very little Gouda inside - you could even say its gouda enough . I stripped one right down and the workmanship is still fairly good on the bits you don't normally see.