Team Kaizen - The Honey Badger

[Ocracoke]

So a new hub arrived and now it has a M4 hex bolt as a locking pin. Great, except the gearbox has jammed up yet again.

I know what the issue is - the gearbox is a 2 stage reduction gearbox and that just cannot handle the shock through the gears (and the bearing case by the looks of things). I can get 3 or 4 hits at the full distance the axe can reach of it before it packs up.

[Maxamuslead]

I know what the issue is - the gearbox is a 2 stage reduction gearbox and that just cannot handle the shock through the gears (and the bearing case by the looks of things). I can get 3 or 4 hits at the full distance the axe can reach of it before it packs up.

Got a video of it binding up ? and what releases it ?

[Ocracoke]

Because of where it is in the robot, you can't see it binding up, definitely got a video of the gearbox after the case has been dissembled, I'll post it shortly. Repositioning the shaft and bearings brings it back to life but a quick and dirty hack is to undo the 3x M4 screws holding the motor to the plate which seems to help.

[Ocracoke]

Here we go. A slight revision, it is a 3 stage gearbox, not a 2 stage. The key bit to watch is the gear on the topmost shaft, watch that wobble about.

[Ocracoke]

Pretty much ready for Manchester now except for some LEDs that were supposed to have been delivered yesterday but haven't. I do have another LED which if put in series with the other LED, should allow me to use the 19.8v battery set without blowing the LED but it is soldering time I just do not have. I'll be at the pits early working on it.

For the sake of longevity, I am going to switch the drive and weapon batteries around so 6S on the drive, 4S on the weapon and just take it, I don't think the gearbox on the axe will hold up to the strain of 6S in the arena, 4S and it might.

[Roboteernat]

If you have a single LED, put in a resistor. Use a 1k resistor or value around that (900 ohm to 1.2k will be fine)

[Ocracoke]

I don't have any resistors at the moment and can't leave the house to go get some. Putting the second LED in series, I thought, would half the voltage over the two lights.

[Al_]

I'll have a box of resistors at Manchester if you need any. What voltage LEDs do you have?

[Ocracoke]

I have a pair of 14v LEDs (they already have a resistor in them).

Just tried putting the batterties on charge, a 3S LiFe battery is reading < 5 volts! The other 3S set is not far behind but the charger has managed to get started with that one. Yikes.

[Al_]

More than likely be fine in series then, but bear in mind that if one fails short, it will probably take the other one with it.

[Ocracoke]

I would have thought so but one of the resistors have exploded (I might have plugged in the 6S set into that one without disconnecting the LED). I have got some higher voltage LEDs on order but they have failed to arrive. With this and the new battery issue, I am going to be having a late night

Update: So the LED hasn't blown the resistor, just the wire has snapped.

[Ocracoke]

So Manchester was a blast. It did feel more like "A featherweight event with some heavies thrown in" but when you are talking 28+ featherweights in the pits, it is easy to come to that conclusion. Congratulations to Aegis for the win over the four matches!

As for The Honey Badger, for those that didn't know, the lance was fitted the night before and then the M4 bolt that acts as the locking pin sheared so I couldn't get the lance off and since the LEDs hadn't turned up, I couldn't use the mechanical part anyway, leaving it as a good ol' fashioned rambot. It had rather put a downer on things from the off but I was determined to make it through one fight.

First fight was pretty crazy with all 28 in the arena. From my perspective, the lance worked OK, taking on a upturned Neophyte but the robot itself got wedged underneath the arena wall, got lifted by Aegis and then for a encore scored a TKO by one of the battery leads popping out after hitting the wall. Boo!

Second fight was a bit flat for me. The Honey Badger rode up on another FW's wedge (I don't know the name of this one unfortunately), which caused it to veer onto its side. Now the big wings on the side of the robot are supposed to prevent this from happening and for about 1/8th of a second, it did but then Blunt Force Trauma came rushing in and knocked into The Honey Badger, causing it to go over the wing and onto it's back. Eventually ended up in the pit

There was also a "Featherweight fun time" after show event which sadly I didn't film where I wanted to test out a couple of new trims I had applied to the controller. They worked amazingly and was having a whale of a time pushing Blacksmith around but then the robot slowed to a crawl and then stopped altogether. Turned out I had blown a set of LiFe batteries. Pants. I also managed to break off the lance and the weapon motor mount so things were not going well.

The third fight, the first one on the Sunday, I had patched up the hole where the lance would have been and promptly sent it back out in the arena. I had heard that Drumroll (3?) was in the arena but I wasn't too worried immediately. However, Get Shrekt had me worrying for a moment when it got close to the drive wheels but the wings did their work. They then did their main job when The Honey Badger clipped the front end of Barróg and went up the wedge. What would normally happen in this instance is the Badger would land on its side and then it's back but the wings allowed it to skid across the floor and landed right way up. The design paid off...

wings_of_glory.jpg

...briefly. In all the excitement of still running, I had "forgotten" that Binky and Blunt Force Trauma was still in the arena. Looking at the video, I think it was Blunt Force Trauma who ripped the lid off the Badger though Binky got real close. It was still running without a lid but then Drumroll came and smacked the corner of the The Honey Badger, which caused most of the internals to come flying out. For a brief moment, it was still running with its guts hanging out but subsequently died. For a final encore, Binky and Drumroll focused a dual attack on one side of the robot, causing the entire side to be ripped out with the motor still attached. I then got pitted by the house robot.

kaboom.jpg

Now, in all fairness, Alex and Jamie did come and see the mess afterwards and offered to help rebuild it but I know there was a opinion floating that the The Honey Badger was dead (even I had that momentary thought when I called out "destroy it" after it had been ripped apart).

DSCF6320.JPG

The heck it was.

Many thanks to Arc Robotics for getting the motor connectors soldered back together and for the various offers to help rebuild. In short, the front crossmember had been torn off, the side panel obviously taken off forcibly, the front panel was a write off and all the electrics were in a bit of a state. However, the electronics were still working so with a bit of haste, reattached the "old" front panel to the Badger, remounted the motor onto the torn off panel, reattached that back onto the crossmembers with the best screws I could find that wasn't snapped or twisted.

DSCF6323.JPG

The fourth fight was nerve racking to say the least. With The Honey Badger not really working at its fullest (despite upping the voltage from 13.2v nominal to 19.8v nominal) with it wobbling around the arena and the front not really connected to the base plate, keeping my nerve as I was driving it around was arudous. At one point, Drumroll did clip me but it seemed to have little effect. In the end, I got stuck on Madusa's flail and the arena flipper got me.

I will admit, I was a little gutted I didn't make it to the end of a fight, let alone "win" any of them (I am beginning to take this roboteering lark a little more seriously this year) but rather pleased with managing to get the robot back into the arena. I also managed to fry 3 sets of batteries, though this was more down to lending a 6S set to Tango and a 4S set to Madusa along with the 4S set from Saturday. I am not sure on the health of the 6S set in the Badger either... time for a battery upgrade me thinks.

It won't be in this robot though. Perhaps a little unsurprisingly, I've made the decision to retire The Honey Badger 2 from combat and get started with The Honey Badger 3, the design of which I was pondering on the way back home. However, I am not sure if that is going to be the priority over Kaizen though, I need to work out timescales and so on. I might yet be at EXR Guildford but I simply don't know yet.

I'll add a video of the fights later on when I've had some sleep. However, it was great seeing everyone at Manchester, especially the Madusa robot who I've been advising/helping over the weeks prior to the event and even then, getting involved in getting their wheels to stay attached to the robot. Also helping with the soldering on Eric to get it into the arena on Sunday plus meeting and greeting new (such as the Barróg team) and familiar faces.

[Retroman]

Saw fight 3, was shocking to see such carnage, and I was impressed at how well the Badger held up to some pretty hefty abuse, can't wait to see what you come up with next... also can't wait to join in the fun proper.

[Retroman]

Sorry dude, typed on my phone and didn't see the autocorrect there, that sounded nasty and wasn't supposed to.

[Ocracoke]

I didn't see anything nasty there, I wouldn't worry.

As I say, I've got an idea in my head for the next one. I'll need to sit down with a pen and paper and work it out properly. Can't wait to see Pushover in the arena.