Middleweight project

[Iestyn]

First, let me (very briefly) introduce myself:
My name is Iestyn, I'm from the Netherlands and have so far built two featherweights together with my brother-in-law.

Now on to the important stuff:
A few weeks ago, I started working on a heavyweight when I got the opportunity to buy the drive system form an old Dutch robot wars competitor, Scraptosaur 1.
Since Heavyweight events mainly take place in the UK, I figured it would be a good idea to start a topic on the FRA forum to get advice and post updates for those of you who are interested.

What I've got so far:

-2x 24V 150W wheelchair motors with 200mm wheels attached to the gearbox
-2x 40A speedcontrollers
-A chassis that came with the drive, the previous owner had plans to build a House Robot for the DRG featherweight arena but never got round to it. Still, it's useful for testing purposes.

Having taken it for a test drive, I'm now in the process of designing an entirely new robot around the existing components.

[Maxamuslead]

ah yes i saw this get suggested to be me on you-tube, only thing to be aware about is that parts of this robot could be rather out of data, also looking at it some of construction it could bend badly, i would highly suggest you look though build logs here and on Facebook

[Iestyn]

Update:

Since my last post i've worked on countless designs for a heavyweight, before i finally settled on something i'm happy with.

The idea is to use a hardox pipe as armor and build a torque-reaction thwackbot. To make transporting and storing it easier (or at least less problematic), i'm designing it to be modular and relatively easy to take apart.

One issue i did have with this design is that it was turning out to be very light for a heavyweight at around 65-70 kg. Rather than making it a lot bigger or adding a lot of dead weight, i decided to scale it down to around 50kg instead, making it a middleweight.

However...
There's not much point in making a middleweight if there are no events held for this weight class anymore. From what i've read on this forum there seem to have been a bunch of middleweights built in the last few years, but does anyone know how many of them are still active nowadays?

[Team Helix]

Lots I predict there were 10 regular attendees, then half a dozen ones that ocasionally turned up plus definately 2 or 3 new ones for this year from other known builders which we have seen metalwork cut for. So lots of robots a thwackbot would be good as we need non spinner middleweight robots for robots live if we want our own fights!!

[Ocracoke]

They most certainly do exist. It can be hard to get our own fights at events simply because of the lack of numbers but hey, it'll happen. :P

[Iestyn]

Is there a way to relocate this thread and change the name, since it's no longer going to be a heavyweight?

[Ocracoke]

Send a PM to one of the admins? I don't think a user can relocate a thread onve posted

[Iestyn]

Send a PM to one of the admins? I don't think a user can relocate a thread onve posted

Perhaps it's a stupid questing, but who are the admins? I tried sending a PM to 'fra", assuming that was the shared profile of the admins, but never got a reply. When i tried sending another message just now i got an error saying that fra can't be contacted via PM. I've looked through the entire members list, but everyone on that list is either a roboteer or a member so i don't know who to contact about relocating this thread.

[Ocracoke]

I would have said the fra user as well. Try "kane" as well.

[Iestyn]

Update:

The design is now about 99% done. I've had to ditch the idea to use a hardox pipe as the body, and came up with a more aesthetically pleasing (but probably less durable) "rollcage" design.

MW robot Somersault.jpg


The blue parts are going to be 3D-printed out of flexible filament, the gaps between the bars are about 18mm so unless someone brings a robot armed with a highly accurate sharpened screwdriver or somenting like that, i'm not too worried about it.


Before buying the expensive materials for the chassis, i'm going to make a mockup using mostly 3d-printed parts, and am currently in the process of printing the parts i need. (veeeery sloooowly...)
It may take a while.


Also, i'm torn between two potential names for the robot: Rollcage and Somersault. Any thoughts?

[Ocracoke]

Design looks good, will be interested in the 3D prints, what material is the filament? I'd go with Rollcage personally.

[Iestyn]

Design looks good, will be interested in the 3D prints, what material is the filament? I'd go with Rollcage personally.

The material for the "shell" i'm planning to use is semi-flexible TPE, and cheap and cheerful PLA for most of the mockup parts, as well as for the internal mounting points for the ESc's, batteries etc.

[Iestyn]

Update:

After a lot of trial and error, I finally managed to print al the parts in needed to build the prototype. I still need to install the electronics, but hey, at last there's actual (visible) progress!


https://youtu.be/kMhN9ilrT3I

[Ocracoke]

Looking good, can't wait to see it rolling about soon

[craig_colliass]

Interesting ideas thought I would show an old picture of Saint Hammer during its first build. about 2008 I think
Img00061.jpg