Team Health & Safety - First Time Builder

[Jimmy]

Thanks Jimmy! I'm curious too to see whether I can fit all new improvements within the same dimensions (and weight, lol). Looking forward to the new Catalyst as well - are you going to post updates when the time comes?

My Build diary on here is quite a way behind already , I really need to make time to update it just to reflect how Catalyst is currently, but yes I'll try to

[Zenith]

DSC00974.jpg

With the crate back home from the Euros, it's time to see where This Is Not A Drill did well and where it could be improved.

The Bad

• Drive power. Dear god, it was horrible. The 16mm motors are enough to get it going, but once it experiences any resistance at all the motors can't be bothered

• The servo is too fickle for my liking. I'd rather have a simple motor with an ESC powering the lifter rather than something which shits the bed if the going gets tricky

DSC00992.jpg

• From a construction point of view the wedge mounts were a big risk. Had the bolts holding the nutstrips in place been torn through the HDPE then the entire chassis would have to be rebuilt. The wedge prongs also prevented me from using other setups.

The Good

• Despite the lack of power, I liked how it drove. Because the wheels are quite far back, it could 'swing' the front around when driving backwards - something I really liked.

• The electronics also held up quite well. I'd learnt soldering whilst building and it seemed all of the joints were in fine order - TINAD suffered major hits but kept going, something which thoroughly surprised me.

• The front armor. Both the wedge and the wedgelets held up fine, even though the big wedge suffered the full might of Bourbon's drum.

DSC00977.jpg

The one thing I was most impressed by though was its overall ruggidness - compared to other HDPE bots it struck me how obscenely overkill the chassis seemed to be. The chassis proved during the build it was already crazy strong without any screws or fasteners in any kind, and during the tournament the pieces of 15mm interlocking HDPE didn't budge at all. Oh, and still TINAD miraculously managed to stay nearly 200g underweight.

DSC00986.jpg

Also the wheelguards did the trick. 5mm HDPE can take a direct hit and remain in place - good.

For the new version, I'm upping the drive power and I'm switching to a similar lifting system to Catalyst, as I feel it's both more powerful and more reliable.

I'm also changing the front, aiming for completely interchangeability. I want various setups to be possible apart from the typical wedge, and this means the chassis will have to change.

The only area where sacrifices will have to be made is coincidentally also the chassis - with the new drive motors and lifter system the chassis will have to become higher, and the additional room (and weight) required will force me to slim down some areas. If anything though, I should be able to have the same width and length. I loved the dimensions of the first version, so for the next incarnation I'm going to try and keep it this way. Now let's hope I'm also within weight again, ha!

To be continued with the first build segment of Mk2! Watch this space.

[daveimi]

How did you bend the hdpe into wheel guards?

[Zenith]

How did you bend the hdpe into wheel guards?

The easiest way to do so is by using a heat gun and C-clamps. The trickiest thing is to get the dimensions right, as everything has to fit ofcourse. You always have to allow some space for the bend itself.

[Zenith]

Yeeeess we're back! Amidst all of this chaos I almost forgot to keep you update on what is what.

Because well, apart from me being a nerd and caving in to the Facebook team page malarkey the build for the new This Is Not A Drill is truly well underway. Straight after the Euros I went to the drawing board and started penciling out the new version, aiming to improve on where it fell short.

IMG_20170908_215934.jpg

I personally enjoy doing blueprints myself a lot more than I do making models on a computer - analog all the way baby. Usually I make a 1:1 scale drawing of all chassis parts as well as a top view (visible on the above picture) so I can fit possible new components. The blueprints then handily translate to parts.

Now, for Mk2 I was going to use different drive motors, different wheels, a different battery and a different lifter system... and all of this required the chassis to grow. The lifter motor alone would be exceeding the 30mm height of the original, so it was time to expand.

I really enjoyed the ruggidness of the original chassis though, so I want to maintain the same philosophy. I knew in the back of my mind that all the new more powerful components were going to gobble up those 175 grams of spare weight I had left, so I knew I had to slim down some chassis parts if I was going to keep the weight level. In some places, thickness went from 15mm to 10mm.

IMG_20170917_170734.jpg

But I wasn't going to buy a whole new sheet for that monkey business ofcourse. Time to clamp a bit down a do some magic with the saw. Added bonus was the 2mm HDPE strip of waste - I'm sure I can find a use for that at some point.

IMG_20170918_111502.jpg

Here's new vs. old. Thickness is the same, but the new part is taller whilst still providing space for the other interlocking parts. The added height provided me some more possibilities to make the structure even stronger than before.

IMG_20170918_115551.jpg

Here's the two sides connected by the front chassis member. As you can see the front member 'drops' into the sides - this is to further absorb any impacts on the wedges which are attached to the side frame members.

IMG_20170919_110342.jpg

Then there was the matter of the sides. Thanks to the guys at Metal Skull Robotics I got my hands on some threaded inserts, so I thought to give them a go. First some pilot holes...

IMG_20170919_110826.jpg

...and then put the little buggers in. Best way was to not use a hand drill, but to put a bolt in the insert and screw them in place with a long hex key. This minimizes the chance of screwing up the thread.

IMG_20170919_111535.jpg

Very nice.

IMG_20170919_124156.jpg

I also chose to give the plastic motor mounts another go. They worked well on Mk1 - with some minor adjustments they should hold up in the new version as well.

There was going to be a major setback though, one that is pushing my hobby to the edge of an obsessive disorder...

But more on that next time!

[Zenith]

With the main chassis done I thought I’d do the honorable job of actually weighing most of the parts to get an impression of the eventual weight.

IMG_20170919_155440.jpg

The outlook was grim. This was the total amount of weight of all present parts, with one glaring omission: the 210g lifter motor. This naturally would send the eventual machine overweight. My eventual calculations, including all various bits of metal fasteners and the like, predicted a weight of over 1600 grams.

Now even though TINAD Mk1 was never actually weighed at the Euro Champs (confession time OOOO) one needs to play fair in these instances, so this meant I was to experience what has become a rite of passage among roboteers: putting the machine on a diet. You immediately start looking where there’s excess fat that can be trimmed off. There’s some titanium edges sticking out? Cut them off. That piece of plastic is too wide? Narrow it down. There are some unattended pieces of flat metal or plastic? Drill holes.

After shaving of some more plastic, I grabbed some cardboard, put on the wheels and mocked it up to get a feel for the new design.

IMG_20170921_175643.jpg

I must say was rather pleased... all chassis parts were new and different, but somehow the machine looked very similar - something which (in my opinion at least) a next evolution should always strive to do.

Having the mock-up I also got to test-fit the components that I’ll be using - it’s all nice and dandy to have the dimensions on paper, but the actual practical dimensions are slightly more important. There were however a few concessions I was not willing to make (and which I’ll probably end up regretting but hey, one needs a challenge every now and then).

1. Them new RC wheels are staying. Yes, they’re more than three times as heavy as those foamy Fingertechs the Mk1 was sporting but OHMYGOD do these look sexy. And they grip, oh yesss they grip. I know it’s a bit style over substance but hey, I also ride into battle sporting a Playmobil figurine which interferes with selfrighting so there’s also that.
2. Speaking of which - Tina the mascot stays. She’s 12 grams but you can’t compromise on awesomeness ofcourse

Nevertheless, for slimming down I carefully looked at each part and decided on a plan of attack.

• The wheelguards could be slimmed down from 5mm to 3mm HDPE. The 5mm was overkill anyways - two vertical spinners hit either side head-on and barely got halfway through.
• Both the baseplate and the top plate would change from Ti to 3mm HDPE. This would also give me a chance to prevent them screw heads from protruding the baseplate. The Mk1 top plate was made from 2mm Ti, which was ofcourse INSANE.

In the side rails of the chassis I saw there was also some excess meat, begging for a hole to be drilled into it. Being HDPE it wouldn’t save that much, but as it’s not in a vulnerable place behind both a wheel ánd a wheel guard I’d say every bit helps.

IMG_20170928_135357.jpg

The beauty of the interlocking structure occurred to me again though. You can just pick the chassis up from any corner and even though there's not a single screw or bolt keeping plastic together, you can still fling it through the room and it will not come apart.

Fitting the lifter motor it dawned on me there was some extra space I could make use of - mainly to make the chassis 10mm narrower, which would spare me some further weight.

IMG_20171001_123340.jpg

However, this in turn also meant I had to take a bit off the lifter motor axle. I took the motor apart, shaved off the excess metal from the shaft and then put it back in. I also saw it as the perfect opportunity to loctite all the screws holding the gearbox in place.

IMG_20171001_180340.jpg

After some fiddling about, this was the assembly of the lifter motor. It's still lacking shockproofing but it gives an idea of what to expect. The added bonus of the HDPE front plate is that it gives some springiness to the motor assembly.

IMG_20171001_180650.jpg

And here's how it looked inside the new chassis. As you can tell space is quite limited, but as there's more room higher up everything should fit. All motors are now tested and seem to be working perfectly.. I'm looking forward to fitting all the electronics in there.

(not so much looking forward to then putting the thing on a scale but alright)

[Zenith]

It's about time I gave you an update on proceedings... just to proof I haven't been slacking.

IMG_20171006_191449.jpg

With the addition of the lifter motor I thought it was time to get to the innards. Three motors needed to be soldered in, and I reckoned it would be wise to first solder some wires to the motors to simplify future soldering jobs (and god forbid, internal repairs).

IMG_20171006_204800.jpg

I also fiddled a bit with the rest of the internal circuitry. Place of the power plug, removable link... it was LITERALLY coming down the wire.

Now, you will noticed that the lifter motor assembly is not fixed to the base plate or any other of the chassis members - it simply slots in place between the front and back of the robot.

IMG_20171012_093834.jpg

The reason behind that is quite simple: accessibility. I'm not going to get my finger stuck in any impossible crevices trying to fish any wires out, so to remedy that, I chose to make the entire lifter assembly removable, and also wired on an XT30 plug to disconnect it from the electronics.

IMG_20171012_093852.jpg

That makes everything just a whole lot easier, I'd say.

The next hurdle was also a good one. If I wanted to get all the ESCs and whathaveyou in there, I was going to have to do the lights first as the major electronics should go on top. So much for saving the aesthetics for last, huh?

IMG_20171012_121210.jpg

Wiring the flashing lights proved a bit of a pain, but as soon as I figured out not to put the 4 of them in series with the power LED and its satanic resistor buddy, all was well.

You will notice (yes, a lot of noticing in this entry) that the front member is also not screwed down into any of the chassis. This is to enable me to remove the lifter assembly - the front chassis member is held in place by the top plate, which screws down on top of it. This forced me to leave some excess wiring for the front LEDs.

IMG_20171012_121540.jpg

Anyways, the new lights look great. I then wired up all the ESCs and went for a test drive.

Bear in mind that this assembly is missing the front wedgelets and lifter assembly, so I don't expect it to do wheelies in the future.

SPEAKING OF THE LIFTER ASSEMBLY,

IMG_20171008_153313.jpg

I finally got round to bending an actual weapon in there. Looks quite neat, although I still have to test the system properly.

IMG_20171012_142241.jpg

On schedule when it comes to weight, too. It'll be rather tight though, as it's still missing a Lipo, the front wedgelets and wheeguards in this picture. Tight spaces seem to have become a thing whenever I'm building.

With the drive sorted out though, now comes the task I dread when building.

IMG_20171012_130003.jpg

And that's trying to fit this spaghetti into the chassis bowl alongside the lifter motor AND battery.

Anyone got a spoon?

[Zenith]

Deary me, it's been quite an adventurous week.

I went right ahead with trying to fit all the spaghetti within the bot and actually got everything to fit. Went for a testdrive, and all was well - I had even hooked up the lifter to see how that behaved, even though the lifter couldn't close fully yet (it's quite fiddly to make an accurate prong which both extends the lifter blade as far as possible, but also makes it close fully).

After about 5 minutes though, disaster struck. Smoke. More and more smoke started pouring out of it, so I carried it outside and prayed the lipo would be fine.

IMG_20171017_122944.jpg

And it was. The rest most decidedly wasn't though. Apparently the left drive ESC couldn't take it anymore and chose to go the way of self immolation, taking its two compadres with it. Oh yeah, that was why in Mk1 the two ESCs were not on top of one another.

IMG_20171017_133859.jpg

The bundle of ESC was now fused together, so I cut it out, and started to do a post mortem to see how bad things were.

Surprisingly enough, except for the stench and a scorch mark on the base plate, everything was rather fine. The light circuitry still functioned without problem, but still I ran though the motions of checking the leads.

IMG_20171018_100420.jpg

The power plug was mildly scorched and still fine, but I chose to do the sensible thing of changing it out entirely - if anything, I needed to make the power leads longer anyway.

Now, I have registered Mk2 to compete at the coming Bright Day event the weekend of the 18th of November, so I realized this left me with 4 weeks to rebuild the internals.

This was also when I realized that now, I could make the entire inside how I actually wanted it to be. With the first setup some wires were too long, others were too short and the placement of some stuff was also less than ideal (like the ESCs, AMIRITE?)

IMG_20171018_105756.jpg

I also noticed the blessing of the design of Mk2 - the removable lifter module made the repairs a whole lot easier than they otherwise would've been. Now, I just had to disconnect it and take it out and voila, tons of room to work in.

An added bonus is that part of the lifter module also gives the lipo its own separated compartment. Simply put, had this not been the case, the ESCs would've also taken the lipo with it and the entire thing would've been a puddle of molten plastic. All clouds have a silver lining I guess.

Speaking of the lipo, I think it's prudent if I maintain 3S for Mk2. I don't feel comfortable using the Botbitz beyond its rating (even though people do use it with 4S) and since I need the weight, I'll be switching back. I'm also going to downgrade the battery's amperage to save weight - I reckon 1300mAh for a lifter is more than overkill.

Anyways, with the insides cleaned up and ready for new ESCs, I set my sights to the outside. I wasn't happy yet with how it looked - the titanium wedgelets from Mk1 left quite a gap to the side because the wedges have been moved forward slightly. In a spinner-laden environment as the beetleworld I thought it to be necessary to address this.

IMG_20171019_134515.jpg

So I chose to play around with some HDPE. I gawked at how good it actually looked from the side. I assure you though, this is an accident. It won't happen again, honestly.

IMG_20171019_134401.jpg

Now, I know that 3mm HDPE is not going to be enough to upend all those balls-to-the-wall RPM guzzlers that roam these lands, but there's a catch. Together, these two HDPE wedgelets weigh in at 44g, which is considerably less than the 107g from the two titanium ones fitted before.

This leaves me some weight to put wedgelets on my wedgelets - I aim to carve up some of the 1mm Titanium I used in Mk1 and use it to provide the bottom half with some proper shielding. 3mm HDPE + 1mm Titanium ought to do the trick, I reckon (FAMOUS LAST WORDS).

To be continued when I lay my hands on new ESCs, which is the coming week.

IMG_20171019_134535.jpg

Until then, here's a bonus pic showing the front angles of Mk2 as they currently are. I was rather pleased how well it all seemed to fit together... hopefully it stays that way.

[Zenith]

Today's entry boys and girls will be all about recycling! Yay!

I have come to realize that making a plastic chassis can become rather wasteful, especially if you want to revise your work now and then. Time then to make amends and prove I'm not a gas-guzzling smog-breathing panda murderer!

IMG_20171026_124216.jpg

First off, here's the old base plate from Mk1, with even the battle damage courtesy of Bourbon still visible in the bottom right corner. It took a little puzzling to find a spot big enough for the rear plate, but eventually, I manage to pencil something out. I drilled out some holes...

IMG_20171026_130133.jpg

...and there we are. Looking good.

IMG_20171026_134741.jpg

With changing the battery capacity and switching back to 3S, some weight was freed up. Just to be sure, I cut and bent myself some 5mm wheel guards. Like that other bit of protection, it's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

IMG_20171026_141451.jpg

Here's the wheelguards and back plate fitted. I was wondering what would be better - to put the back plate flush with the rear or put it atop the wheelguards, leaving a gap of 5mm between the rear plate and the chassis.

I chose the latter. It looks better and air is free armor!

IMG_20171026_173108.jpg

Ready for paint! The old wedgelets from Mk1 also got a trim, to make sure the flashy lights would stand out better. Yes, I am that mental. I am sacrificing armor for lights.

The two parts at the bottom are the new wedgelets carved from the old spare Mk1 top plate. I tried getting them symmetrical as well as I could, but still had to allow for one hole on the side.

IMG_20171026_181229.jpg

That's better.

IMG_20171027_171724.jpg

Then, more recycling! I took a scrap part to make some offsets for the wedgelets - this would raise the front a bit, so it wouldn't scrape and the bot as a whole becomes more agile.

IMG_20171027_173741.jpg

Time to screw them in...

IMG_20171027_180811.jpg

...and mount them up. Getting them on the right height took some patience with a box cutter, but this seems about right.

IMG_20171028_200723.jpg

And that concludes the outer assembly of Mk2. All in all, I'm pretty chuffed with how it's turned out - after testing is done, I'll finish it off with the visuals (and mascot, OBVIOUSLY).

IMG_20171028_201403.jpg

Oh and by the way, this is the reach of the lifter. Can't wait to test whether that thing will actually work as well as intended.

Next entry will probably be the final one before the Bright Day event in Utrecht (that's here in the Netherlands - we're taking feathers, raptors and beetles, and you can sign up here), revealing the final look of Mk2.

Three weeks remaining!

[Zenith]

Dutch Robot Games @ Bright Day 2017 - 18th & 19th of November 2017

Day 1

When I put my name down for the Bright Day event it was all dependent on whether the new This Is Not A Drill would actually be finished in time. I knew I should have no real problem getting, but as zero hour came closer and closer the pressure started to mount.

IMG_20171117_212357.jpg

Reason behind that was that thanks to some dodgy mail service work the new ESCs took quite some time to arrive. The chassis and visuals were all ready to go, but it wasn’t until the Wednesday before the event that I could finally finish the internal workings and test it as intended.

I had also taken it upon myself toimprove the DRG Beetlearena with some Polycarb sidewalls, which I’d ordered, carved out and built in the final few days before the event was to take place. This made the final week rather….stressful.

IMG_20171118_104510.jpg

The event was held at the Bright Day technological convention in the Jaarbeurs, Utrecht. Various companies were present to show off new innovations and gadgetry, ranging from drone racing to eSports and from Virtual Reality to robot football.

For the first time though, we were there to represent the madness that is robotic combat.

IMG_20171117_222908.jpg

The logistics proved not as big of an issue as I thought beforehand – all the gear neatly fit into a cabin size roller suitcase with room to spare. I was curious whether the new TINAD would be up to scratch with all the new changes – I approached it as a testing event smothered, as always, with a thorough Just-Here-To-Boogie mindset.

IMG_20171118_102727.jpg

This Is Not A Drill was already ready to go and just required me to plug in the battery, so most of my time in the start of the event was dedicated to getting the beetle arena up to scratch. It was a bit of a frenzy (during which one of the panels was mounted the wrong way) but before long, I could christen the new ring with the first beetle fight of the day: This Is Not A Drill vs. G2.

G2 is a vicious German brushless undercutter built by Ralf Schneider. If it works as intended, it spins a 4mm Hardox 500 blade with insane speeds. Ralf was quite reassuring in that he didn’t expect G2 to be working that well though, as previous events had revealed problems with the weaponry.

Ofcourse, today was not a day like that.

After resetting, G2’s weaponry span up like mad and I quickly learned why I probably should’ve taken the time to change the front assembly before the match. Now, TINAD was sporting the 3mm HDPE-1mm Titanium combo for lighter fights and after some sparks flew, G2’s blade dug deep into the left-hand wedgelet to basically tear THE ENTIRE FRIGGING THING OFF CLEAN. The impact sent G2 flying towards one of the new sidewalls but it hit the side and bounced out of one of the lower-wall sections. This Is Not A Drill miraculously was still going, albeit missing half of its face.

IMG_20171118_111431.jpg

I had just won my first fight ever. I knew though that I had quite some repair work to do, as I saw that the impact had also sheared off the 15 mm HDPE chassis mount for the front. Damn. I gave Ralf a souvenir from the fight – he ripped up 1mm Titanium like it was tin foil.

IMG_20171118_112814.jpg

Luckily though, my salvation lied in my obsession with interlocking structures – the mounting structure of each wedgelet also slots into the front, so I could still mount itback on with some screws and handywork.

IMG_20171118_113737.jpg

The next round saw me face off with The O'Neill, a robot I'd faced twice before in the Euros. I'd agreed with Cosmin we'd try to make it last for as long as we could, but about halfway through I saw what I'd dreaded would happen – one of the wheels had worked itself loose. I originally thought it was the mounting screw that had come undone (this had happened a couple of times during testing, and I loctited each side to prevent this) but when I grabbed the wheel I saw the mounting hub was still attached. It was just not attached to the motor shaft anymore.

Oh, okay. That's new.

I took both sides of the drive apart to loctite both hubs properly, and awaited my next opponent. As I had lost I was now in the loser's bracket – should I lose again I would be out of the competition.

IMG_20171118_140338.jpg

This Is Not A Drill would be up against Ralf Schneider's other beetle Anxt, which is an axe bot. I briefly contemplated using the other 1mm Titanium shield left over from the first fight for lipo-armor, but in the end I just went with it as it was.

IMG_20171118_154133.jpg

Things went pretty even up it seemed. I noticed how the new bot had still no torque whatsoever, and also the weapon power was still lacking. I decided there and then the come what may, the next version surely was going to have 4S. Just when I was starting to get worried about the fight, Anxt came to a stand still. I initially thought it was stuck and tried to free it,but it was to no avail – Anxt was dead... and so, This Is Not A Drill ended the first day of fights with another win.

There was one catch though – because I won this fight I was now up against Bequinox, first thing in the morning of Day 2.

Oh dear.

[Zenith]

Dutch Robot Games @ Bright Day 2017 - 18th & 19th of November 2017

Day 2

I must say that going to the venue in the early morning I was nervous. Bequinox is a machine that's vicious and fills people that have to face it with nothing other than sheer dread. This was also the case for me.

IMG_20171119_090345.jpg

I'd pondered what to do – TINAD's front mounts were barely hanging on on one side, so going for separate wedgelets would most definitely be suicide. I decided to go full on Sewer Snake and try and break its fist with my face – I screwed on the plow I'd brougt 'just in case'. Originally it was made for Mk1, but as it was only used in 1 fight at the Euros it was still pretty much unmarked. I'd made sure the mounts had the same width as on Mk1 so the plow would fit and now, it was time to see whether my franksteined little warrior could hold on against the worst.

Now I have a secret to tell you – going into combat robotics there's one thing I've always dreamt of experiencing myself, and that is my own 'Hypnodisc v Bigger Brother' fight. When that particular fight happened I was actually there, and I'll never forget the beating Bigger Brother took before proving to everyone that even if you lose your weapon and your body gets ripped up, you will still have a chance if your drive keeps going.

Unbeknownst to me, this fight was about to bring me awfully close to make that a reality for This Is Not A Drill.

Despite being afraid of the plow getting ripped off I decided to just plow straight into Bequinox and see what would happen. I had sacrificed the lifter to make it just a self righting arm, and straight from the word go, Bequinox seemed to have trouble with getting around the plow. Sparks were flying throughout all of this but before long, Dennis caught an edge and in a huge release of energy sent TINAD flying.

TINAD narrowly avoided flying out and landed upside down. I tried to selfright, but before I could do so Bequinox attacked again to turn TINAD into a UFO. Coincidentally he also turned TINAD right way up and turned itself over through the impact. TINAD's mascot flew out of the arena, with the flag even dropping outside of the main arena's polycarb (!). Knowing how awfully Bequinox drives wrong way up I decided to raise the selfrighting arm slightly and try and control Bequinox to where I wanted it to go.

And where was that? The side wall. And that's where it ended up eventually, lying on its drum, seemingly stuck and unable to move. The countdown was started... Bequinox tried feverishly to release itself. 5.... 4..... 3..... 2..... 1...... cease. And that was it. This Is Not A Drill had seemingly done the impossible and was crowned the victor against a robot widely feared for its ferocity and precision engineering.

IMG_20171119_101156.jpg

I was shaking, actually. TINAD was not at full strength prior to going in, and had Bequinox caught the edge of the plow again during the fight the bodged mount surely would've come loose again. Bequinox had chewed up one of the wheelguards and damaged the other, chewed the hell out of the plow but it was not enough – This Is Not A Drill was in the final against The O'Neill.

IMG_20171119_111116.jpg

I decided to have fun, try something different, and removed the wedgelets altogether. Probably not the best decision, but the final went the full 3 minutes. I wasn't able to lift The O'Neill though – with much of the weight removed from the front I struggled getting the lifter underneath, and when it did, it didn't seem to have the power. I suspect the contacts of the lifter motor to have become a tad dodgy, but it also reminded me to switch to 4S for future tournaments.

Anyways, I lost, and The O'Neill deservedly won the Beetleweight crown. I'll get you some day, Cosmin!

23621294_1806872919345522_1130211294379356868_n.jpg

The rest of the event was basically spent having a look around, and decorating Dennis's toolboxes. Ralf had suggested to have a fun match of This Is Not A Drill against two of his 500g antweights, one of which was fitted with a drill. Why, ofcourse!

I went into the ring once more up against Orbit and The O'Neill. Cosmin helped me put the plow on again for this fight seeing Orbit is pretty much one of the most powerful beetle spinners out there. The fight was quite fun and the plow seemed to hold on fine...but when Orbit turned TINAD over with a huge hit I found out I probably should've checked the leads. I am usually able to selfright, but now I couldn't do anything other than show the bellytext scribbled on.

IMG_20171119_155405.jpg

In the end, it was a great event where the new This Is Not A Drill surprised not only me but also all of the onlookers. What was most surprising to me was that not only did it manage to beat two fearsome spinners, the mascot is STILL MYSTERIOUSLY UNHARMED. I originally put it on for the Euros so that it could get splintered to pieces (I hated Playmobil growing up, as it is far inferior to LEGO), but by now, after having done 10 fights with it, it seems the little action figure is here to stay. You can bet your ass I'll be putting it on Mk3.

23659267_1523472801035876_4101927337240755227_n.jpg

I aim to take my time for the next incarnation, but rest assured that when the new build starts, I'll keep you guys posted.

Here's all the fight footage - TINAD's fights are at 00:00 (v G2 ), 01:09 ( v The O'Neill), 06:23 ( v Anxt ), 08:50 ( v Bequinox ) and 10:33 ( v The O'Neill again in the final)

Lastly, the Event Compilation! It's the entire run-up to the event including a best-of from the event itself.

Enjoy!

[McMullet]

Great writeup, love the DRAMA!

[Deathly Hallows]

A career in sports journalism is waiting. I totally agree, it's a brilliant commentary. Sets a high bar for everyone else's write-ups.

[daveimi]

Is it ok to ask what you use to cut out all the small plastic parts that make up your robot? And also, where do you get the nutstrip type stuff from?

[Zenith]

Thanks for all the kind words! The small plastic parts I carve from HDPE with either a jigsaw and/or boxcutter. You'll have to be careful with your fingers though.

The nutstrips were made by Stef from Metal Skull Robotics (the team behind Equinox, Omega, Bequinox, Orbit etc).