Team Kaizen - The Honey Badger

[Ocracoke]

Well, I think I have achieved ESC programming zen, I've managed to get the ESC to respond to the elevon channel in both directions of travel rather than just the throttle channel. Just need to sort out my dodgy wiring and then I can see if it works properly. If it does, well I'll be enormously chuffed.

UPDATE: Spoke too soon. The ESC coding need a bit of fine tuning. When the motor does decide it has a good enough connection, it constantly spins in one direction but is responding to input so

[AdamST180]

Had a good read through this, excellent work and nice to see it come together, plenty of ideas/encouragement for a 100% rookie like me

[Ocracoke]

Taken advantage of the weather today and been cutting out the panels for The Honey Badger 3. Main things done are the holes for the rails that the weaponry and the defensive plate will sit on and motor plates cut out. I still cannot cut straight for toffee though :P

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You'll note the plate in the middle of the rails, that is where the battery will sit. You'll also note that the original Gimson motors are in place rather than the brushless drive. The pinion gears arrived but they are too big for the space available in the gearbox. I suspect this would have worked with a 5mm shaft motor (as noted previously) but time is against me here so I've gone back to the brushed setup. I'll be recycling the brushless motors into another robot but I've yet to decide on what yet.

I am going to call it, I am not going to make it to EXR Portsmouth with this. The bandaged up motor's wiring came apart again and I've no suitable wheels to mount into this plus it needs a complete rewire. EXR Guildford is the next one after Portsmouth so I'll know closer to the time.

Had a good read through this, excellent work and nice to see it come together, plenty of ideas/encouragement for a 100% rookie like me

Good good, happy to answer any questions and such here or at an event - we all had to start somewhere . Hopefully I'll have this running properly before RL Herne Bay & Grantham.

[Ocracoke]

The rails are now in position, secured with M5 bolts. That was more fiddly that I thought it was going to be but hey, they are in now. Time permitting, I'll replace these with a plastic variant but these will do for now. The front scoop (on the longer section) will hide the hole for the link, the rear rails will need a bit more finesse to house the weaponry.

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Also remade the wiring loom. It needs a separate branch for the weapon ESC but considering the patchwork quilt that the old wiring loom was, this is a vast improvement, especially know that I know how to solder properly. I'll need to modify the rails a little to include grooves for the wiring to go over but otherwise, all is well. When I get paid, I'll be getting a replacement motor and a set of wheels.

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[Retroman]

That wiring loom is very neat looks like it's coming together nicely!

[Roboteernat]

Looking good, shame you went able to make it to Portsmouth. I took inspiration frim your wiring loom to build mine this morning so was able to compete in the afternoon. Thank you for the inspiration!

[Ocracoke]

Many thanks, I thought it was rather good as well considering it was done in a room with light only from a desklamp on the carpet of my office. I should be on course for EXR Guildford, depending on how much time I can commit to The Honey Badger 3. Morale of the tale - don't have 4 robots in build/repair simultaneously. :P

Tried mounting the loom in the robot, nearly fits but the removable link is too long so I'll need to cut it down to fit. New motor + wheels next week.

[Ocracoke]

The motor arrived today so been busy mounting those into the robot and getting the wiring into the robot. If I was doing this again, I'll make the body slightly longer than 100mm, the wiring loom looks very... compressed With the motor here, I got the wiring into the robot and a deck plate secured over the rails to make a void for the removable link and fuses. The batteries will sit on top of that.

To show how I got the motor mounted into the robot, I had already drilled a 10mm hole for the shaft but needed to work out where to drill the holes for the motor mount. So I got some flange screws, mounted them in as far as I can so they are lower than the output shaft, got some blu tack on the panel over the hole and pushed the motor as square as I could into the hole.

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This leaves an impression in the blu tack when the motor is carefully removed. I then got a small crosshead screwdriver and smacked that through the centre of the blu tack

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Once done, I pulled the blu tack away and there are 4 marks on the panel, ready to drill (I used a 5mm drill bit here).

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And here is a finished article. The only thing I need to do is add some shakeproof washers and something for the motor to sit on at the rear but the motors are now attached.

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I've then wired up the robot and now it is running, if not moving. The wheels are en-route so it might be running by the end of the week. Next thing is to mount the hubs onto the wheels, wheels onto the motors and build the front wedge. If I have time before EXR Guildford. work out what to put at the rear. Getting there though.

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[Ocracoke]

The wheels have arrived but TBH, now they are on there, I am not really happy with them so I may end up changing these. Anyway, drilled some grub holes into the hub they have, plopped them on and although the controls are all a bit back to front, it is now moving...

...briefly. I am possibly going to end up building some custom HDPE hubs for these, remove the hubs on the wheels that are there and then bolt them onto the hub.

[Retroman]

That looks very tight in there indeed!

The little 'oops' made that for me, so understated...

Good to see some good progress being made on it, seems you've got another quick little 'bot on your hands.

[Ocracoke]

Thanks, it is indeed very tight in there. What I'll do is extend the wiring into the back part of the rails and then cover that up with HDPE, which will also make the basis for the weapon section as well.

I think it is 15-17mph with those wheels on, The Honey Badger 2 was capable of 14mph with the 110mm wheels on.

[Ocracoke]

So I've finished one wheel adaptor to make the Gimson hubs go onto these wheels. Need a bit of tidying up but seems to hold on quite well.

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With any luck, I'll have the other one finished by EXR Guildford though I'll need to make a blanking plate for the rear and front.

[Maxamuslead]

you coming to Grantham with anything ?

[Ocracoke]

I've already booked a hotel to Grantham so I'll be coming. Provided The Honey Badger 3.0 isn't beaten up too badly at Guilford (and I am already umming and ahhing about not going), it will be there along with Shu! for the Beetleweight event there as well. As for Kaizen, provided I can focus on getting the armour fitted and wheels fitted, that might make an appearance as well. Had a bit of a setback over the weekend with the power drill so... we'll see

[Ocracoke]

The test wheels from Kaizen have now been attached and the The Honey Badger 3 is now mobile. I say mobile, one of the wheels did explode in style.

I know what this is, the shaft on the motor is the new motor and it simply hasn't been worn in yet. I'll add a rough surface to it and that should hold it for a while. Definitely need some rubber tread on the wheels but I don't have time to get and fit some. The screws holding the motors in also came loose but I think that is a case of a few spring washers and away I go.

Need some blanking plates over the front and rear to protect the electronics and then we are off to Guildford for the day.