Team Kaizen - Kaizen

[Ocracoke]

So I've had time to examine and start mending the damage to Kaizen and the long and short of it is that the drivetrain needs overhauling. Gimsons, as a complete package, are lovely but the wheel hubs are too soft and the three I have tried to get off I can't. I assume the 4th one is the same.

To make matters more complicated, the front right motor seized up and that caused the rear right motor to overdraw and now when it spins up, it explodes into a shower of sparks and smoke. I think that had the front motor not done this (bearing in mind, the front motors are from The Honey Badger 2.x and 3.x) and the hubs were made of steel, not aluminium alloy and the motor had a hole for a roll pin rather than a grub screw, this wouldn't have happened. Lesson learned.

So if I can't get the hubs off without mangling the shafts, I am planning on building a single stage gearbox for each corner with a set of brushless inrunners (something like this: https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-...-inrunner.html) with a 4.08:1 reduction. I would prefer to have some outrunners if I can find ones that are < 50mm high and can cope with 8S LiPo but I can only find 6S. Then again, it is independent 4WD so... that might work. If needed, I can try for a two stage box.

EDIT: Yeah... with that reduction and that motor specifically, its still > 10,000 RPM as a output drive. With that motor, a two stage is needed.

Long and short of it is that I don't think it'll be ready in time for Chelentham so it may have to wait until the start of the 2019 season, showing up at wherever EXR has the April event.

[Team Helix]

If you want 8s use 2 4s in series

[Ocracoke]

I do already :P 2x 4S1P 4200mAh LiFe batteries wired in series. The axe is a similar affair with 2x 3S1P 2100mAh LiFe batteries.

What I meant was that I wasn't able to find 8S Outrunners that fit within the 50mm clearence (unless I missed something when looking last night). However, happy to run 7S or 8S Inrunners for the same effect, it won't be as if it'd be lacking in pushing power if 4x 775 motors can shove ~80kg around

[Ocracoke]

So new motors have gone in and wired up. I've decided to stick with the brushed motors for the moment and will experiment with the brushless motors in a different robot (very likely The Honey Badger). New hubs are also on so in theory, the robot is mobile. I need to test it (and get some practice in actually driving it :P).

The axe, despite changing nothing, has come back to life. I think it might be the TX wiring but it definitely does work and now that the mechanism has loosened up a bit and the axe arm lightened a touch, it's firing a little quicker than it is was. I'll be fiddling with the controller to get it moving faster but really, the whole mechanism needs rebuilding to allow for a counterweight. Since I have a F30-150 Ampflow motor to use, I need to rebuild it anyway.

Anyway, onto EXR Cheltenham. :P

[Maxamuslead]

Power from a electric axe/hammer is a balancing act. There need to be a heavy head on long shaft powered by a strong motor at the right ratio. Get one wrong it can be really problematic. If you're gonna do. Complete axe rebuild I may have some useful for you.

[Ocracoke]

The robot is back together but a slight wiring mishap means 3 of the wheels are turning the right way, 1 isn't. Also, the mystery fault with the axe persists. It has to be a receiver fault, works fine on a different receiver but on this one, it really doesn't want to work. Will rewire and replace the receiver tomorrow or Saturday to see if that fixes it.

[Ocracoke]

The receiver was the issue - replaced that and now it all works, barring a slight mishap with the transmitter having mixing enabled at the same time as the ESC but it is back together. The axe has been lightened and now definitely seems to fire much quicker. The motor wiring I resolved by making up some Y connectors so that it is much easier to wire the motors to the ESC.

Now it is a case of charging the batteries and seeing how it runs.

[Ocracoke]

And here is the end result that is going to Cheltenham. Here's hoping it will come back in one piece. :P

[Ocracoke]

Well it came back in one piece but a very unwell robot.

First fight was between Kaizen, Backflip and Gaston and it did OK but ended up getting beached on Backflip's front flipper and we both ended up in the pit. I also had tried setting an exponential setting on the axe but I had set it the wrong way around so it's return was really quick but firing it was pretty slow. I also noticed the axe kept on getting jammed in the guides.

I thought that'd be it for me as I was only expecting to be in the competition melee but managed to get into a 2v2 matchas well for the second show. It was Kaizen and Two Headed Death Flamingo vs Beast and Backflip in the end. I had tested it earlier and seemed to be OK but powered it up in the pen, got it to the door, the announcer announced the robot and... the ESC kept on cutting out as it went into the arena. How embarrassing. :S

It got into position and ultimately had as good a fight as you can expect, even managing to shunt Beast (a robot 3 times Kaizen's weight as you'll recall) a little bit. The axe worked for longer this time but again got jammed. It ended in the pit again.

So yeah, no idea what is going on with the ESC. I can only assume it is current limiting but what was causing it, I don't know. I do know that at the end, the motors smelt like they had burned out. Least the axe worked properly this time but it was rather like a tickling stick.

2019 is a new build, probably going to get 2 more of the axe motors, getting the existing and a spare axe motor and making those the drive motors. That however means a new inner body so effectively a full rebuild. I'll be ordering the motors tonight.

[Team Helix]

Good luck, definately time to make stronger side pannels. If I were you I would invest in a welder!!!

[Ocracoke]

I must confess, I have never welded before but yes, it would be useful.

I've ordered the 2 new drive motors to make a set of 4 but they are significantly bigger than the original 775s so the entire bodywork needs rebuilding. This is a bit of a shame as the current body is actually in good condition. If I change the box section steel for some square aluminium tubing, rework the side armour and get a new ESC to replace the one that Kaizen has, then it could easily become a Featherweight.

With this one, because of the new height required, I'll likely change the dimensions so that it is a 500mm square sheet in the inner body and use 100mmx50mm rectangular box section lengths to make the inner side armour with. That makes the position of the drive motor's positions in the robot more square so less strain on steering and will only be longer in length because of the side armour.

I'll need to work out how to mount the side panels, which I want angled at 45 degrees this time, with the current skills I have.

[Ocracoke]

The build diary for Kaizen (now known as Jibril) can be found under a combined build diary for Team Kaizen: http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/thre...en-build-diary