Can a brick be successful?

[mrsam]

That shape would work well at deflecting spinners i think, only problem i can see is if say a vertical gets underneath and tears your shell up it would be very difficult to bend it back into the original shape.

[Liftoff]

At this rate we'll soon be looking into ceramic armour to beat the spinners... boron carbide, silicon carbide, aluminium oxide etc...
maybe a porcelain tile could do the trick who knows!

[knightrous]

The robot on the right here looks like a good shape for fighting spinners?
http://www.robowars.org/wikka/SchmackOff
Obviously with covered wheels and some other changes etc.

Wow, haven't seen that photo in a long time! The robot on the right is Knightrous Wedge (formerly called Schmackhed), however that is a very, very old photo, mid construction actually.

This is a "clean" finished photo of it from a couple of years back


It's good against spinners, the shape and armour make it very hard to damage. It pretty much out wedges everything which allows it to control and win matches despite being an exceptionally boring robot. It should be a lot faster, but has traction issues on MDF floors like we use here but goes like a rocket on concrete.

[maddox10]

Chris, why bother with the hugely expensive stuff if cheap stuff like natures own carbonfibre will do the job as consumable armor as well.
Even the best spinner wil chew on a telephone book for a while before the function is lost.

With 3 machines in full Hardox armor as experience and a few others with HDPE, I'm leaning to a combo.
And Explosion is a prime example of that combo.

[mrsam]

Mario has a point, a hardox frame with some sort of consumable armour e.g hdpe is very effective. Not exactly cheap but when you look at how long explosion has lasted it's well worth the money.

[Liftoff]

That was just a thought Mario, I had checked for suppliers of those types of exotic materials some time ago and couldn't find any. And even if I had to find some, it would be next to impossible to cut it tho the required shape. I agree with most of you saying disposable armour is the way to go...had no idea spinners were getting so good that they could cut through 6mm steel. I had previously thought l'd be safe with 4mm Ti..by the looks of it l'm not!

[mrsam]

According to others at this years champs the spinners took a huge leap forward from last year, if you saw what conker did to massacre you'll see what I mean. Massacres 8mm? Creusabro bar which is similar to hardox was bent like a banana and the 3.2mm hardox base had a huge bend put in it.

[daveimi]

Do you have any pictures of the insides of Knightrous Wedge? Wonder how Satanix, Bonx and Tiny Toon faired in the 2014 FW Champs against the big spinners?

Edit just found the robowars build diary!

[mightymouse]

People are forgetting Ironside - the original one;

http://robotwars.wikia.com/wiki/File:Ironside.gif

Totally boring and useless against flippers but against spinners it reigns supreme. At Yeovilton it fought 7 spinners in a melee and broke every one. 3.2mm hardox octagon, no sharp corners.......

Currently owned and run by Shane Lale.

Trev

[daveimi]

Anything the Trev guru meister has made is legendary in my book.

Is it drill powered Trev?

[mightymouse]

Dave,

Sorry for the late post but only the works pc connects.

Had Gold 24v motors - now obsolete - on 20:1 reduction but drill motors would have worked just as well. The key is to get rid of sharp corners, hence the octagonal shape and a slight taper from top to bottom. Discs tend to glance off angled faces, and if you hit the disc hard enough it destroys it's bearings, flips itself out or breaks whatever belt or chain is driving it.
Tiny Toon was originally built by John Bell who deliberately took on the hardest discs until it stopped breaking so look there for inspiration.

Trev

[cavecrusher]

Do you have any pictures of the insides of Knightrous Wedge? Wonder how Satanix, Bonx and Tiny Toon faired in the 2014 FW Champs against the big spinners?

Edit just found the robowars build diary!

BonX main problem was a self inflicted design flaw... It either didn't move, or was too fast.

[daveimi]

"The key is to get rid of sharp corners, hence the octagonal shape and a slight taper from top to bottom. Discs tend to glance off angled faces, and if you hit the disc hard enough it destroys it's bearings, flips itself out or breaks whatever belt or chain is driving it.
Tiny Toon was originally built by John Bell who deliberately took on the hardest discs until it stopped breaking so look there for inspiration."

I have been going through the pictures I can find all afternoon and I understand. The sloping sides and shape deflect the energy away and don't present anything for it to bite to.

"BonX main problem was a self inflicted design flaw... It either didn't move, or was too fast."

Bonx looks a right weapon. I think you smashed me round the walls at Doncaster. You bent a GR01 output shaft so must be doing something right!!

[Mouldy]

ramming a hardox box into spinners used to kill them.... not so much these days as technology improves, so does the reliability of the spinners...a good vertical can beat a hardox box while causing big damage... aka tiny toon v 720.

The problem with hardox box's is once there bent... there really hard to fix at an event...

[Mega Masher]

The problem with hardox box's is once there bent... there really hard to fix at an event...

Big hammer?