Team Shakesc : Build Diary

[shakesc]

I love the idea of interchangeable weapons. The Battlebots teams seem to put alot of effort in that area
You then have to think about the drive system being more a weapons delivery platform which is a bit of a challenge as a really like small compact robots

My first objective is to get the drive pods completed and then do some basic driveline testing. The choice of ESC is quite limited as I dont want to spend MGM money but then smoking a few Flier's you could of bought them. I am hedging my bets and allowing Ampflow A28-400 to fit if needed but I want to persevere with brushless. I got there in the end with feathers with alot of iterations and have a quad 5060 feather in the works (yes , stupidly overpowered but who says spending days building something with the expectation it will get smashed up is rational)

[R9000]

Nice! I'm quietly trying to make the move over to brushless too. Bought some for my next featherweight and I'm looking into heavyweight weapon drives - if Ellis with Pulsar, and the Big Nipper team can get them working well, then hopefully so can I.

I do like the Battlebots style, it feels like a fresh approach with a lot of diversity. Admittedly a lot of BB teams have much more funding than us, but I definitely feel there's a place in Robot Wars for lighter-armoured, fast aggressive machines, as we've seen recently to some extent. All the best with your brushless endeavours!

[overkill]

That custom shaft looks excellent! If you are planning to run the motor at its full 53V rating, you need a 300A ESC to cope with the motor's 15KW peak rating and there are very few choices. I have no idea if its possible, but simon K firmware on the Hobbyking Fatboy2 ESC would be a cheapish option.

[shakesc]

It gets tricky for sure. I want to run at 10S which narrows the choice even more. There are a number of 8S controllers around e.g. Big Nipper team run ToroRC Beast with custom software. The Flier ESC's due higher voltage but are the typical generic Chinese ESC. Some heavies have used them e.g. Sabretooth. If Brushless Rage was built that would be nice

[Ellis]

Fliers should be SimonK compatible. Just need the right flavour of code. Go for the 400a ones at least - they have the same fets as what even hobbyking calls a 250a (dlux) esc.

[shakesc]

First set of waterjet parts arrived
These are for the drive pods



I had the sprockets waterjet as well. You can get the number of teeth I wanted but they still need machining therefore I felt as easy to get them waterjet cut. K-cut only has toolsteel in 1/4 thick (its 1/2 chain). They wont wear out. I did forget to add some lightening holes. Since its toolsteel I'm not going to manually drill

Here is one of the sprockets mounted on the wheel



Finally welded up the drive pods. I can now start seeing what it looks like



Next step will be a basic baseplate to do some drive tests

[Redirect Left]

Ace looking bits you have there, would be interesting to see it combined with its baseplate to get a sense of how it looks in full!

I tried to shop online with k-cut, but the "buy online" button doesnt do anything for me. Shame, I believe they could help me greatly in my ventures!

[shakesc]

thanks

Just email john@kcut.co.uk

[shakesc]

well I got fed up of breaking the drive belts on Spur 3
Its an annoying habit but I have a solution
Its also a tyre shredder

Meet the layout of Spur 4



and before anyone says it there is more brushless than any featherweight deserves

[Giles]

What reduction are you running for the drive? Doesn't look like it'll be enough for the size of wheels. Those are some huge out runners though for the weight, so yea, maybe you'll be fine.

[shakesc]

Its not lots of reduction 5:1 , Spur 3 ran 5.5 : 1 on 2 motors
Its fine. The motors are low KV but so much torque for a feather that cogging is not a concern
I've ran smaller motors on similar reduction (Olaf) which was great

[shakesc]

Many things have got in the way of getting the bot this far

Finally took it for a test drive tonight.

Not quite finished yet. On temporary wheels and tyres which are rock hard. Strange though, they do wear quickly

It will need magnets in the arena thats for sure. Comes in at 11.6 Kg. Weight left for scope, side panels, lid and a few electrons for the battery
Have a lifter assembly if I can squeeze the weight to replace the scoop



and test video

https://youtu.be/3-aoZHdf0Yg

[shakesc]

Its been a while

Ran Spur 4 at a live event with the temporary wheels , they were awful
It also broke a pinion weld and went down to 3 wheel drive

Rewelded the pinion
Replaced the wheels with contact wheels - strangely 100mm wheels are quite expensive and took time for them to come from China
When they did one didnt match, so had to re-order to get 4 matching
Finally got a full set

[shakesc]

The other thing I have been working on is a heavyweight Spur 4

Made up 4 drive pods using contact wheels, 6368 motors

They use HTD5 belt and mod 2 gearing. This allows me to get the packaging I wanted




Did a test of one fully assembled. Seems fine and no real load. The TZ85 survived (I will be using focbox ESC in the bot]

https://youtu.be/IvXqGNshU6c

[adz600]

Racerstar 6368 motors ?

have you fitted sensors?