Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 2729
Location: Gold Coast
quote:Originally posted by Valen:
Your sort of missing something about the MDF bots, MDF is fairly brittle, it will snap pretty easily. You can tear chunks off and it will hold up well, but kick it once and you will snap the sheet. Its all over real quick and not all that spectacular.
Most people were only mentioning MDF as armour, not as the entire building material. I want to build a few of these robots for public events and I was planning using a welded steel frame that the MDF bolts onto. As long as there are no spinners, just saws and drills, the damage should look good but the robots will be able to have the damaged panels replaced and the robot brought back to new condition before the next round. Spinners (and possibly good rammers) will tend to break the steel frame, which is why I said not to allow them, but flippers won't. Building a robot competley out of MDF won't work for more 3 or 4 fights even without weapons and the exibition class would be more boring then the real robots.
And I'm not sure why you worry about flippers killing a robot too quickly but then say you want a Plan-B spinner in an all MDF class. That would kill them even quicker then a flipper would.
Wed Oct 24, 2007 8:25 am
Valen Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Posts: 4436
Location: Sydney
Because it wouldn't.
Plan-B attacked the MDF wheels on El-Bravo for the full 3 minutes. By the end of it El-B was still driving.
When a Plan-B style spinner hits the MDF its really just like a big saw. It tears bits off about the size of a 5 cent piece. If your bot cant stand having bits that size taken off for 3 minutes then you have problems.
Drop your mdf bot from 10 feet up and your going to break things.
Drills and saws suck, they only work if the other thing is totally immobile and firmly held. Like say on a workbench. _________________ Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets
Wed Oct 24, 2007 8:54 am
Bort Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Posts: 696
Location: Sydney, NSW
You're both right, and yet equally wrong
Flippers shouldn't kill them, and small spinners, possibly slightly less powerful than plan b shouldn't kill them either.
What about the robot from I think Mike from WA made of MDF. That bot took good punishment and was still moving. The actual components except maybe the wheels would survive both flippers and spinners.
Still assuming you have some sort of sacrificial bot as well as a second impressive bot (my suggestion. see above). Then other armour apart from MDF would also be good against some bots. One with thin stainless over wood against tungsten tipped saw. Nice and sparky.
Oh and definitely not just made with MDF as the frame, like the MDF class was going to be.
Wed Oct 24, 2007 6:02 pm
Fish_in_a_Barrel
Joined: 30 Sep 2006
Posts: 673
Location: Perth, Western Australia
I can cover my bot with atainless steel for the next robot wars if you guys want me to build it? _________________ They say that he crossed the fine line, from insanity to genius.
Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:00 pm
dyrodium Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 6476
Location: Sydney
It took good punishment yes, but don't forget me and Mike bolted titanium to it before the spinner fights and covered it with gaffa so no one noticed!
Only problem i see with that design is it might be *too* sturdy, as in panels won't really get pulled off, just bits. _________________ ( •_•)
Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Posts: 696
Location: Sydney, NSW
Yeah I mean it still took good punishment when it didnt hit the Titanium wedge, and it hit somewhere else. You might be right Angus about being too sturdy. I think Steel frame with MDF armour or similar would work well. I also like the idea of people not building with the intention of winning with these robots, therefore people won't be tempted to make them less destructible.
Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:44 pm
chrisjon65 Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Posts: 754
Location: blaxland
'Bloody Mongrel' was all MDF wedge and it won a round in our comp,i believe it stood up to spinners very well ,i still have the chassis and its all in one piece.
'Frank" was another all MDF robot i competed in our comp with, granted i had mechanical problems but the body is still perfect.
Constructed well, a 100% mdf robot could go toe to toe with any spinner, so i definately wouldnt have a problem going all mdf ,you just have to design and build them with the mdf in mind. _________________ Photos - http://community.webshots.com/album/154092733uokpXC
Photos- http://community.webshots.com/album/166819552PDWWqP
Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:02 am
Daniel Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 2729
Location: Gold Coast
The thing is we arn't talking about an all MDF class or a beginners class. This is a class of robot purely for audiance entertainment. If your entertaining an audiance you don't just have robots that explode, but also that the robots needs to be repaired and recharged in the quickest amount of time while still being exactly the same as the last time they entered the arena. Another thing is that the fights should be as long as possible, but with the most visual damage.
I know that saws causing scratches to the other robot do not seem like such a big deal to us, but if the other robot is loosing a lot of paint and cosmetic parts such as claws or spikes made from MDF, then the audiance will think it is great. And I doubt if most of you realise how much damage a circular can cosmetically do to an MDF armoured robot.
The idea of this class wouldn't be to try to KO the other robot but rather to try to inflict the most damage without KOing them.
And since the NSW guys are so afraid of Marauder how about I add limiting pneumatic pressure to 150psi.
I'm sure not many of you have been in large stage shows but I can tell you that the most important thing is keeping the show going at a constant entetainment level. Turn around times, keeping the audiance informed and keeping the energy up are all thing we are terrible at. I beleive this is what Danny is trying to fix and I know exploding MDF robots won't be the answer.
Thu Oct 25, 2007 12:42 pm
Glen Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 9481
Location: Where you least expect
quote:
And since the NSW guys are so afraid of Marauder how about I add limiting pneumatic pressure to 150psi.
Joined: 17 Jun 2004
Posts: 1459
Location: Brisbane
quote:Originally posted by cerberus3112:
quote:
And since the NSW guys are so afraid of Marauder how about I add limiting pneumatic pressure to 150psi.
Im not
I am. _________________ Get Some!!!
Secretary of the Queensland Robotics Sports Club inc.
Thu Oct 25, 2007 5:14 pm
Bort Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Posts: 696
Location: Sydney, NSW
sure.........
So difficult to tell if that was a friendly jest or not. That's the problem with forums. Because I'm not sure how one person's view (Jake's) means all NSW.
I agree that the momentum is key to entertainment. But having fast crap matches isn't going to be better than slow good matches. The aim should be fast good matches. But keeping up the speed is something we are pretty bad at, and probably NSW is the worst. But we know it and try to do better when it matters.
With less emphasis on winning people's stalling for time should decrease. If its even half working then it will get thrown in.
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Has a weight limit been considered???
It took good punishment yes, but don't forget me and Mike bolted titanium to it before the spinner fights and covered it with gaffa so no one noticed! 
