Electric Axe featherweight - first build of FW

[Maxamuslead]

you getting on well,

See if this Axe sheet will help you it is from Team Run Amok.

http://runamok.tech/root/hammer_v1_2.xls

[Roboteernat]

I been meaning to look at that spreadsheet but sadly it is blocked at work, and by the time i get home i have forgotten.

Anyways, today has been a buying day.

have finalised the base plate design and got that sent off for machining, hopefully receive it monday/tuesday next week.
i have bought the bearings for the axe gear stages, probably regret it, but there we go, have to try first!
And i have redone the plates i need to cnc out on my machine, my bed is A4 even though i bought an A3 machine...
i have decieded to remachine the rear rib piece to give me the 45mm clearence to allow my 40mm linak to sit comfortably if i need to add a lifter instead of the axe.

[Roboteernat]

pictures! pictures to come shortly, as there mostly on my phone in another room...

So, alot has happened with one busy week and weekend!

I will just say that it is less than a week to go, sorry its 3 days away...

Hmmm...

And what a day to loose your transmitter

So update:

Front panels drilled using some solid cobolt drills from tool station
middle plate made and welded together so the front panel is nw a single plate.

Side panels made and welded together - todo weld on mounting plates and add screw holes (welded nuts)

Rear motor plate split and parts made to extend the base to add more mounting holes. Expect this area to take a beating

Axe arm made - making axe head tomorrow by welding plate hardox together

Panels for internal framework made and fitted.

BASE PLATE - omg what a lovely thing, Made by Adrian - contacted through the forums - weblink. Quick turnaround and good comms, also very good price. Thank you!

Screws made to hold wheels in place.

Spare wheels bought and nut inserts made

Gearing for the axe mech has been made, however im not happy with the gearing, sadly due to my design i wanted the gears not to be exposed, im left with a gear ratio of 6:1 so 3 revs of the motor is an axe hit... i need to wire this up to check but it should be much bigger than that to get the hit.

And finally... the electrics.
Now i have the framework done, i can get to finally fitting the electronics. Thats right, its only had a test drive with bits stuck in with tape... not a fully finished job.

Thnk i have my work cut out! and some late nights at work comming.....


PICS COMMING

[Roboteernat]

I dont know what to say...

I seem to have lost my controller and my ESC setup and cannot find them anywhere... not home, not work, will be checking the makerspace (Swindon) tonight, but these are vital parts and i cannot compete without these...

I do have some Electronize esc at 30Amp and an old 40Mhz TX, but unsure if i will get time to fit all this in...

[Ocracoke]

Oh no, I hope you find them! Made me a little paranoid about where my weapon circuitry is now. :S

[Roboteernat]

good news!

Just checked my battery bag... FOUND THE ESCS!

So as long as i can find my vintage failsafe units, i can run using 40Mhz TX so should be ok~!

[Roboteernat]

Further update... (and i feel very silly)
I went into a room at work which I don't frequent that often, which, however, stores the large postal scales i use to weigh my bot, and...

HURRAH! on the side is my Spektum Dx7 transmitter!

Yay its all go again!

[Maxamuslead]

pictures! pictures to come shortly, as there mostly on my phone in another room...

you lied to us Nat, there are not photos

[Roboteernat]

Funny enough I'm on my phone uploading some pictures :-)

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[Maxamuslead]

Looks great how powerful is that weapon motor

[Roboteernat]

I cannot remember off the top of my head, but im uploading a test video i made a couple of nights ago

https://youtu.be/m8Yqug4WOxw

I am cutting it fine!

[Maxamuslead]

looks cool, btw Totally jelly of that square being cut on a (cnc?) mill. *CRY* i hate doing by hand and i need loads

[Roboteernat]

The cnc panels I was lucky enough to have bought an A4 cutting routing machine when i was at uni, only now has it actually had some proper use!

The base board was too large to fit on my bed so i gave Adrian a shout and he was able to machine the base at a very good price.
He advertises his services here: http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/thre...inting-service and can be found on ebay, multirotor and RC car forums, so if you need anything big, give him a shout.

[Roboteernat]

Well, as its been a couple of weeks since the last update and of course, Portsmouth Robot extreme, i should really update with what happened!

Let me start with Friday before the Saturdays shows...
This was the current situation:
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This was at 2pm. In bits, and overweight by 215 grams.

I set to rebuilding the frame and decieded to machine out some pockets within the aluminium central rib and the top triangular HDPE parts to reduce some weight in the areas that wouldnt be so much of a concern.
Whilst i was assembling, i also thought that the side armour plates, which by design had 3 brackets and 6 M8 bolts holding it onto the HDPE side panels, could be made less heavy. Off came 1 bracket and 2 bolts. The brackets were from welded 3mm Hardox so this was quite a weight saving.

Also decided that around the rear mounting plate i could do away with some plastic as it didnt really protect anything once
covered by the armour.

I needed to add grip to the wheels as they were riding on the mold line in the centre of the tyre. I bought from the carboot sale an old Rasp and using the lathe to turn the wheel, i skimmed off the surface to leave a flat grippy edge. blue fine rubber powder EVERYWHERE!

As it was 10pm by now, i needed to leave work, so off to makerspace in Swindon for some further grinding away of Hardox. this is where i ground some more armour down from the front wedge so it was level to the ground as apposed to riding on it, And also from the central hole in the rear Hardox motor cover. In case this wasnt enough, i ground down some detail into the side armour plates so it would reduce some weight, but also add to its asthetics, making it look more like a shell from a snail.

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2am came.
time to head home, hopefully the evenings weight shifting was enough to allow me t fit under the 13.6KG weight limit and legally compete.

Extreme Robots.

Now, im going to have a few words in this next para which may be a bit of a shock, i dont tend to moan publicly but things were just not as i think they should be.

10am, i drop by my Fiances mums house and head to Mount Batten Centre, many childhood memmories flash back to me including rolling down the bumps on the side!

Anyway... without my team tshirt (still in car)

I follow in the direction of well known roboteers into the side door.
I walk in, carrying nothing, i walk to the center of the pit area. no one batters an eyelid.
I walk back out of the pit area and back to my car...
...
I pick up a bag of tools - not knowing exactly what i needed or what to expect i brought everything in the car!
I walk into the door, carrying some tools. I walk to the cebntre of the Pit. no one there from Extreme Robots to see, sign in, receive days procedures from, register into a fire list, be told where fire exits are, procedures of the day, times of things, if food was available... nothing.

Now to me, as a newbee, this is odd.
In fact it came across as extremly bad organising on the part of the ER staff. The first time i walked in as a newbee, i was expecting something like a desk to sign in, and receive a piece of paper that says hello, thank you for coming with your robot, this is how we work at these events. Please read this nicely laminated sheet indicating fire procedures and sign here to say you understand them and that you acknowledge there is no responsibility on ER that should your robot die, its not their problem.

Nothing...

As a regular attendee, then this may just be an expected process of how the day works, but for a newbee, i would have expected some sort of organisation. quite frankly it came across as extremely bad organisation.

Edit: considering it was the roboteers themselves offering their bots to the arena giving Robot Extreme a show to put on to a paying audience, there needed to be some formality which didn't seem to be there. Even just a 'Thank you for coming' would have been nicer. Lunch was alright though, thank you.

rant over...

So as i stood around wondering what the heck i do,a fellow roboteer, one of the nicest guys i have met came and gave me some help, said about where to set up a desk space etc. Thanks Greg!
so with that, i went and set up a bench next to Greg and Dave - turned out Dave was working for ER.

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Bench setup, and now... that job i didnt get to do last night... the electrics...

I still had to finish off wiring the bot up so with the help of Daves soldering iron i managed to wire in the fuses and get the thing working.
As i put the finishing touches to it, one of the ER staff cam round shouting for Feathers to get ready.
Sadly i was not in time for the first battle having not completed the failsafe section of the tech check.

The first Melee battle went on and i decieded to test the weight of the robot using the scales outside for gas filling to see what its official weight was now it had all been completed...

13.5Kg!!! yes!

Once the first featherweight battle is completed, Dave comes by and completes the tech check. Pass! With the encouraging words that its not strick on these shows about the weight limit, so there is a little bit of flex. this wasnt a knockout tournament. aahhhhhh

so, its now a waiting game for the battles for the afternoon show.

My team mates come by, Fiancee and her mum, they are given a nice tour by Greg, Thank you! and shown the pits and Clare was chuffed she recognised people from the TV!

All of a sudden clare comes running over saying they have called last call for the Feathers.
I panic and grab my bits but forget the link.
Clare gets that for me and were in the pits ready to go...
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Battle.

Drive seems to work well, looks like i have a bit of control sticking sometimes, but im impressed about how well it is going over the arena floor. i have had no tests with this steel flooring.
managed to get the wedge to scoop up a few high riding competitors but BAM... NO AXE!

After the battle, i had a look at the axe to see why this wasnt working. Turned out the decision to use grub screws failed, predictably to be honest. they had come out of the 1st stage chain pulley with the motor shaft. The shaft had a flat but the screw had just come undone.
Time to drill. I drilled through the motor shaft with a 2.5mm drill bit and tapped an M3 bolt through it. This wasnt going to come out.
The link cable had also been split, this was because it was exposed at the top of the bot. Greg suggests using cable ties to poke out and to allow the wire to be folded internally. I make this great mod and patch up the wire.
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Charged batteries and ready for day 2.

Day 2.

My brother comes to watch the morning show on the Sunday, bringing my nephew along too. They were told to buy tickets on the door that morning through contact on Facebook, however sadly when they got there, they had sold out.
I took my robot outside to show my nephew so he could see it whilst all the action went on inside.
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He was excited! I said i would bring it round to his house after the day so we can have a drive and smash stuff up in the garden, he wasn't so disappointed then.

Battle time.

This time the axe worked!

made a heck of a loud bang as the axe hit on its return firing. this was because it sits lower than the base plate!
Drove around a bit, avoided being flipped on the floor flipper and other robots, but i did get overturned in the battle, so tried using the axe to self right. It seems to have worked?! but i can be certain as another bot may have assisted.
Then i started to loose drive in the right hand wheel. Uhoh, batteries?
The other side was fine so maybe not, maybe a broken gearbox.

Turned out, my motors gearbox pins that held in the 2nd stage came out, allowing the gears to incorrectly mesh. The torque setting also loosened making the drive skip as the motor rotated.

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Luckily i had some m3x35 bolts and could replace the pins to hold in the gears permanently. The torque setting, i didn't want to use the grubscrew mod for my first experience in case i broke something. so the torque setting loosened.
As i had some grub screws i decided to give it a go and locking this off. This meant a complete disassembly of the RHS of the bot to get the motor out.
In doing so, i dropped one of the balls from the setting ring. maybe next time i will do this. i put it all back and just retighten the torque setting.

Ready for the 4th battle...

Go!

[Roboteernat]

Continued - max character count reached.


Axe chopping, driving OK ish with my lack of experience. i get shunted pushed and meet the lovely Red lobster robot who grapples with me
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Just as the hydraulic crusher robot (INSERT NAME HERE) turns around...
Its as if the lobster bot holds me as a sacrifice, the hydraulic crusher drives into my front and starts compressing its jaw.
Thoughts of when i went up against Tiberius 3 in Series 6 of Robot Wars springs to mind - although i didnt get pinched, just went up against him. Supernova was the baddie in that fight...

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I flail my axe in an attempt to get the hold to stop. were both lifted onto our sides by another bot driving into us and the grip is released.

Am i alive?

Axe works, drive works, yes i survived! The bot to avoid and i got it!

I drive around a bit more and axe at other bots. i drive around the flipper as its activated, turn too soon and BAM! im stuck! thats right, im stuck under the returning floor flipper. Game over for me!

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As i wait for the tech crews to retrieve my bot, a guy comes over to me all apologetic and excited saying he hopes he hasnt done too much damage! the driver (NAME) great chap, No i say, its still driving, its all in the nature of the game!
cant wait to see what has happened!

so get the bot, place back onto the bench to assess damage.

The hydraulic crusher managed to get enough reach to get to my HDPE plastic panels at the top. The ones where 2 days ago i removed some material to save weight.
(NAME) comes over to look, and explains he was only using half crushing power as it was a live show as apposed to combat.
PHEW i think.
The point where he would have continued to pinch down on would have been the front of my Axe drive motor. Although it was free from an old scooter, it would have been a £35 repair.

Anything further back would have been straight into my Electronize ESC.

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What is noticeable in the 2nd picture above is that the support given from the wheel surround framework meant the flex was limited to only a small section of the plate. I think this strength gave more resistance to the hydraulic system meaning it could have saved the motor from this lower pressure crush.

Further investigation shows that the HDPE bracket around the motor had a very small flat from the pressure of the plate, and that the crusher didn't get through the whole of the HDPE plate, so damage was minimised to just aluminium plate and HDPE.

I think i can save some weight in some areas still meaning the top 2 aluminium plates will now be replaced with some Hardox.

Battles over and damage done. am very impressed about how the bot went and those niggling little things that showed allowed me to improve. I have the bug again. Im already looking forward to the next show!

This time i know what to expect and know how the show works, and that i dont need to bring plate Hardox, 500x500 sheet HDPE spares with me in case!

And, my nephews, brother and his wife loved seeing the robot take it out on an aluminium can and some ice cream boxes in their garden!

Then the battery died.