Catalyst - My beetleweight Build

[Jimmy]

With the Kinematics UK Beetleweight championship in mind I've started to upgrade my first bot attempt.

(first version is here: http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/thre...a-beetleweight )

However a dimension changed here and there......one thing led to another and I've basically ended up rebuilding it again . As the champs now has gotten a little further away, it will probably change again before then (but hopefully not). Its a 4 bar lifting robot, still using 8mm HDPE and it will be 3mm Polycarbonate and Aluminium on the outside. This version will have bigger ebay motors rather than servo drive, but only 2wd this time, plus botbitz controllers and a LiPo battery.

As I've mentioned before, I'm not an engineer or anything, and this is still my first bot, so I still don't know what I'm doing, and welcome any comments

Providing this isn't a name already being used (which I can't find anything yet after searching) it will be called "Catalyst".

This time I tried to be a little more precise with the marking out, as I know how it should go together. After drawing everything to exact size, I copied the parts onto clear adhesive vinyl using a normal, run of the mill printer (after checking it actually came out the original size)
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A whip round with the jigsaw and voila.
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The main parts of the chassis I've built to slot into each other, hopefully for extra strength. Then it will be self tapping screws to hold it properly. Here it is slotted together.
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Motors and baseplate
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More to come soon!

[R9000]

I like this 'slot together' chassis design. I hope it holds up well.

[daveimi]

God that's neat. My parts look like they lost a fight with a lawn mower.

[Andy]

that is beautiful!

[Jimmy]

Thanks for the positive comments guys. Had time to do a bit more in the last few days, so now we have wheels, a battery, servo for the lifter and wiring.
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I'm using an xt60 plug for the link, although I'm not sure if i like it being near the front, but thats where it has ended up at the moment, maybe see if I can shield it some way.
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Also realised that i also had to squeeze a stand alone BEC in somewhere, as it turns out the servo I'm using draws just under 4A at stall, so more than the one on the botbitz ESC could supply.

[suvv]

i like the look of it man but one piece of advice find different tire material i had similar ones on bone-crusher at last years champs and although they worked really well on the lino at home on the steel floor of the arena they get next to no traction and just spin alot of people are finding success with either finger tech foam wheels or the bane bots wheels

[Jimmy]

i like the look of it man but one piece of advice find different tire material i had similar ones on bone-crusher at last years champs and although they worked really well on the lino at home on the steel floor of the arena they get next to no traction and just spin alot of people are finding success with either finger tech foam wheels or the bane bots wheels

Thanks for the heads up, I had heard people having traction problems. I was going to persevere with the rc one for now, mainly because there are loads of different compounds and constructions that fit them. I used to race model cars years ago, so im hoping I can find something no one has thought of.

I'm sure I'll be wrong and end up with the foam wheels haha

[suvv]

i was running tires similar to these... http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s..._Compound.html
and they did fantastic wheel spins but nothing else i think a really aggressive tread will be your only hope though one person is experimenting with liquid latex(not like that) to see if that improves traction so you might want to look into that aswell

[Jimmy]

What sort of thing do you think would come close to replicating the slippy floor for testing this out? A Smooth dusty, painted piece of metal maybe?

[suvv]

a sheet of unpolished unpainted metal i think thats what the bw champs arena floor is made off the paint would provide traction

[daveimi]

The floor is dusty metal.

[Jimmy]

Time for some panels on the outside I think. The scoop on the front is actually a cut down kitchen dough cutter, and the corners are recycled off the front of an old boiler.
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Also, I got a bit carried away, and made some fancy stickers for the sides. I'm finding this whole thing really quite fun
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I also tried the new drive out on the kitchen floor. I got myself tied in knots trying to set up the mixing on the DX6i. Ended up having it "2 stick style". Here it is having a little fight with some bathroom scales that were lying around. Think I'll be adding some little wheels or something at the front, because it seems to dig itself into the floor when it lifts something
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=skFsgMuvapU

[R9000]

I might be able to help you out with the mixing. I had a little trouble with it at first too, but I figured it out on one stick

[Jimmy]

I think the problem is also related to the escs. I've got the elevon mixing on, and then gone in the "mix 1" and "mix 2" and set the ail-ele / ele-ail to 100% so full forward gives full power. However when turning, itseems to want to give more than 100% to either of the channels, which causes one of the escs to cut out. This only happens when turning full right (left motor is cutting out so it just stops). Turning left it behaves just how i want.

[Shakey]

Turn off elevon mixing. You want one mixing method or the other not both.