Venator V2

[dotDominic]

So starting a new bot right after finishing the first one might sound like I'm jumping the gun a bit, but due to the constraints of staying in Uni Halls during semester time, I feel like I want to start a new design for the 2017 FW Champs as soon as I can. If I lived in England and could work on my robot somewhat regularly during semesters I would've have been to an event before starting a new build. But I hopefully will still take the first Venator down to Gloucester in October for some battle experience.

Anyway, this my CAD of Venator V2.

VENATOR V2.png VENATOR V2 IMG2.png VENATOR V2 IMG3.png VENATOR V2 IMG5.png VENATOR V2 IMG4.png

A Venator was an Ancient Roman hunter who often performed with wild animals (I'm a classics student so there is some relevance ), so I'm going for a sort of wild beast look with a face, tusks and horns etc. I intend to recycle as many parts as I can from the old version, so most of the stuff inside is the same except the battery, (Now 4000mah 4S 30C) and the Rover car seat motor to power the lifter. The front Wedge is 20mm HDPE, the sides/rear 15mm HDPE, and lid/base 10mm HDPE.
Was thinking the front spikes would be somewhere between 10 -15 mm thick Mild Steel and will be lasercut. Does that sound about right? I'm guessing they'll take a beating from spinners so I could take them off for fights against those.

So yeah, I do have some questions regarding the lifter. Won't be as many as the last time though! If anyone has any answers for them that would be great, thanks.

Was thinking of using these hinges: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Heavy-duty...8AAOSwv0tVFIox Is this overkill? They sound like they would be quite heavy. Would also have to somehow cut them a little bit as they don't quite fit in the cad.

I've read that actuators need limit switches, is the same sort of thing necessary for car seat motors? The lid and base prevent the motor from reaching it's full travel on both ends, so is it still needed?

Thanks,

Robot Wars - GloucesterRobot Wars - Gloucester

[TornTech]

Nice design!

Nice to see a 4 wheel robot with 4 motor drive.. what motors are you using? drill? do you have a speed controller on each motor?

How fast does it take for the Lifter to be closed to open? I suspect that although it doesn't reach its full travel there is still no way for the motors to know they need to stop without limit switches so may be required..... or am I missing something?

Keep the build log coming though! love seeing robots develop and i'm learning loads from these kind of things

[dotDominic]

Hi Tom,

Thanks , yes it's using 4 12v Argos Drills, with 1 BotBitz 85A speed controller for each side of the drive, and one more for the lifter.
Really not sure how fast the weapon will be. Others have posted that these car seat motors are quite slow, but since this isn't a long lifting arm the motor doesn't actually move that much for the lifter to open fully, so it might be a bit quicker.

Yeah I will try to update this thread a bit more regularly than my last one!

[daveimi]

If you look at Classics you prefer Greek or Latin

A lot of the yank robots with actuators dont bother with limit switches, just intuition to let go of the stick if it looks "up"

You can put them in but when your getting battered and knocked about your in that much of a flap trying to just "PUSH!!" lol you'll forget about it.

[dotDominic]

Haha, I guess I should say I do Classical Studies, which is more studying the translated historiography and art etc - but I have studied both briefly and I like Greek more as it sounds and looks cooler. It was very difficult to learn though in comparison to Latin! Have you studied in that area before?

Ok, thanks. Guess I should put limit switches in then. Since actuators/seat motors are way more torque-y, I imagine they break stuff easier from that sort of thing?

[dotDominic]

So I've been fiddling about with the design a bit - unfortunately it's now a bit more boxy looking as the angled sides had to be removed to save weight. I've calculated the total weight to be about 13.46Kg, which includes 300g worth of wires/connectors etc, so fingers crossed it actually ends up within the limit.

Was never really convinced by the wimpy looking stock bolt that would connect the car seat motor to the wedge, so the plan now is to chop that curved end off, and drill a new hole for a 10mm steel rod. Bit concerned that the part which moves along the threaded rod would bend, since I don't know what it's made of and it's quite thin, so I was thinking of reinforcing it with steel U-Channel or bent Hardox from KCut:
IMG_4030.jpg CarSeatMotorNewHole.png CarMotorToWedge.png

Could anyone recommend if this is likely to be too weak or overkill or actually ok?
Thanks,