Piecing together a budget heavy

[Shakey]

I was told fire extinguisher valves weren't allowed/discouraged from being used as main bottle valves.

[maddox10]

It's just not the smartest way to open a bottle in a robot, all or nothing.

[Shakey]

I've started mounting the ram into the base, the slight slant lets me get in a good bit of extra throw, it is supported on a hardox structure that bolts to the bulkhead. Ordered a die to shorten the tie rods tot he right length.

[Shakey]

https://youtu.be/sPkOCu-d6ug

Another test but driving it as full as I can, seems nice and quick even missing 5v off the voltage I'll run at! The TZ85s did heat up a lot though and there was a tiny bit of smoke either from a TZ or a connector. They still work though.

Churkets are also on route for working the flipper, I just hope they arrive in time.

I fixed the robots ground clearance issues with the application of bike tyre.

[Shakey]

So had a slight setback. When I put the robot away everything appeared fine, the LiPo was not warmed at all by it. It was also fused under it's predicted rated.

However it did not appreciate the testing at all:





I think part of it is that this LiPo is old, 4 years old and so had had a decline in quality that meant that though it was all fused and stuff it was already not in the best of shape and the load of testing this heavy (which while it was under the theoretical peaks of the LiPo) was too much to cope with.

On the otherhand, EO's... Dry powder is excellent at containing LiPo fires, far better than CO2. Sorry to all future competitors who have to hoover their bots but the TZ's under 1cm away were saved nicely. Also always have an extinguisher to hand, our one was handily right next to the bot and it was quickly booted into the garden and sprayed.

[Shakey]

Heavy update:
Nearly ready, just waiting on the final parts to arrive in the post and need to rig the old valves from the extinguishers into a suitable valves to go back on. The tanks are M25x2 threaded making it difficult to get the right components ordered in in time.

The ram is now mounted and the flipper arm modified to give it clearance:


It's a slight hack but it works well, just need to add the top support for the ram to ensure it doesn't bend the hardox mounting.

The throw on the flipper seems quite decent aswell with a tip force of 600kg



I did have to repaint it to whatever I had lying around however as the nice paint got ruined, I'll get it done properly when I have more time. Needs a few btis going over where I have cut and welded.


I've now moved on to sorting out the armour with a backplate being cut and only the link cover area remaining to do.


8S A123 cells made up to power the robot, even had to get a bigger iron in order to solder them without overheating things!



Spares for the motor have been located aswell so it should be rolling again very quickly.

[Shakey]

Proper screw down valves now sourced and ESC arrived. Hopefully the churkets turn up (they were scheduled to this week) and the bot will be good to go!