They are pretty much as hard to turn when disconnected. They don't feel being dragged by friction, but the magnets seem pretty strong. The fact that I was just turning just the shaft could also contribute to the feel.

I was just afraid that the ESCs will overheat, not that I actually experienced it. However, the motors themselves got hot faster than the ESCs.

Update:

Sorry school was very intense the past few weeks, couldn't do much to the bot.

Will be cutting the axles tomorrow, and the rest will be fitting everything and testing.

Bad news:

Due to my own stupidity and the conversion between metric and imperial, the inverted drive on Contraption IIC will probably not work. (the two wheels are too close to each other to fit.) I will fix this in future updates.

Good news:

I have some vague ideas of an update to this bot, including fixing issues and also some new features. However, those will come way after the Nationals. (I will need real fighting experience to evaluate the performance of the current design.)

Do you mean the main drive wheel and the smaller wheel above it? If they are Colson wheels, its not that hard to reduce their diameter. They need to be pressed together fairly tightly anyway, or the smaller wheels will slip.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Glad to hear that.

They're not exactly Colsons, but Banebot wheels.(I guess they are kinda similar.) How would I reduce the diameter btw?

On Colson wheels, you can spin them up on a drill and use a rough file to grind some tread off. The file need to be new & sharp and the wheel need to spin fast enough for friction to warm up the plastic - around 1000 rpm. You could probably do it with the Banebots motor & gearbox.

The Banebots wheels use a different plastic and may not behave the same way, so do a test on a spare wheel first.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

The banebots wheels come in a variety of hardnesses, so if you have one of the harder ones you might be able to shave it down. The softer ones are unlikely to file down well. The black banebots wheels are 60C hardness which are pretty close the the Colsons 65C hardness. The others are all softer.

I use an anglegrinder with a flapdisk to "turn down" Colsons/blue/simular wheels.

Kos (Tough as Nails) did rebuild a bench grinder as lathe-tool to do the same.

Thanks for the info guys, will try that out tomorrow.

Update:

The fit between the side panels and the weapon motors is worse than I thought, so I had to do some filing. Even then the motors only fit in one way, which means that the frame must be assembled in a weird order, and to replace the motor I must disassemble half of the frame.

Despite that, the frame still came somewhat together and last night I did weapon testing with only one motor. The test was... err... a failure. The belt slipped cuz I forgot to put the tensioner in, and that made a pretty disturbing noise. The weapon did start after like half a second but I was a bit scared to let it spin too fast. Also because of clearance issues the second motor would not fit in without its pulley scraping the weapon. More filing needs to be done.

After cutting all the axles the drivetrain can now fit together, will probably do some drive testing today after I get some lube for the gearbox.

I wonder what type of c-clip plier should I buy for the banebot wheels... There seem to be all kinds of different tips.

Just take the circlip along to Bunnings and find the pliers that just fit. I like circlip pliers with a bent jaws - they help in tight places.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Thanks Nick.

Well... I forgot to buy a power light. With the event coming soon is there a way to buy one?

A quick trip to Jaycar will sort that problem out. Most builders use LEDs; you could buy some stick-on LED strip and wire two sections in series to run off a 6S, 22V battery or they sell 24V LED bezels like this: https://www.jaycar.com.au/24v-chrome-bezel-led-red/p/SL2647

I would go with the LED strips - they look much better; you can also find them on eBay in many colours and brightnesses.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion