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Antweights - Slightly Evil Robotics - SA
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evil_steve



Joined: 06 Sep 2015
Posts: 304
Location: Adelaide, SA


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Given the current lack of a plexiglass enclosed arena locally I thought I'd better build a non-spinner robot for our next local event next week (wife's reaction: "Is that another robot?!"). Cut Above is an overhead thwack-bot built out of cutting boards:


It was nice to have one actually end up under weight on the first try! Here's a video of it in action, filmed with the ultra cheap "action cam" I bought to put on the arena I'm building. Not sure I'm that impressed with the video quality and the audio is beyond terrible, but it was only $40 and I can always upgrade to something better down the track.

Post Thu Jan 14, 2016 7:29 am 
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evil_steve



Joined: 06 Sep 2015
Posts: 304
Location: Adelaide, SA


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Well, this is what I've managed to put together this evening, from an early chassis attempt from The Force and other bits I had lying around. All the guts are shoved in there but I was too tired to accurately solder anything so that'll have to wait for another night. I'm also going to need to scrounge some bigger wheels, I forgot the pololu tracks are wider.



I didn't have parts to work on the featherweight on the public holiday so I messed about with the antweights instead. Picobyte now has shiny metal teeth, and is now a few grams overweight, so I'll have to get around to shortening the rest of the excess wiring.



I'm also working on a new front end for The Force, but that's currently down in the shed waiting for glue to dry.

Post Tue Mar 15, 2016 10:24 pm 
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James2



Joined: 07 May 2015
Posts: 115
Location: South Australia


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getting a fancy collection of bots there,
plan is to get the cover ready for the meet after.

Post Tue Mar 15, 2016 10:32 pm 
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Cpnwolfe



Joined: 29 May 2012
Posts: 454
Location: Rockhampton/qld


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looking good mate!
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Post Wed Mar 16, 2016 7:06 pm 
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evil_steve



Joined: 06 Sep 2015
Posts: 304
Location: Adelaide, SA


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Cheers! I just hope I can get some progress done on my featherweight(s) soon, the ants are a hell of a lot of fun, but I want something bigger.

Post Thu Mar 17, 2016 6:56 pm 
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evil_steve



Joined: 06 Sep 2015
Posts: 304
Location: Adelaide, SA


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Finished the spare bot, think I'll call it Push-Over. It's certainly within weight!



Because I foolishly made the chassis too big for the wheels I already had, I needed to make something bigger. While out shopping with the wife this afternoon I found some furniture protector feet that seem to work ok, although I'm not sure how long they'll last.

Post Thu Mar 17, 2016 10:55 pm 
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Valen
Experienced Roboteer


Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Posts: 4436
Location: Sydney


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foam works pretty well even in beetles, when it gets cut it just looses that chunk, still retains its inherent wheelness Very Happy
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Post Fri Mar 18, 2016 7:39 am 
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evil_steve



Joined: 06 Sep 2015
Posts: 304
Location: Adelaide, SA


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Well, after an awesome monthly meet where all our antweights except Picobyte got used, time for a post-mortem of how they went.

- The Force - the chassis remained solid, however the lifting forks remained ineffective and the servo again stopped working towards the end of the evening. I've almost finished a scoop attachment which should address the first problem, the second I suspect may be due to using a digital rather than analogue servo. I've swapped it for the identical back-up one, we'll see if it happens next time. Owen's more cautious driving style seems to be working for him, and got him all the way to the final.

- Cut Above - a disappointing event given one wheel kept falling off. Partway through the even Greg pointed out it had a crack in the hub, which then shattered later in the evening. After the event I noticed the other wheel has a small crack as well. I've ordered two more but I suspect that I'm asking too much of them, especially with my driving style.

- Flipper-Guy - works well for what it is, Nathan loves driving it!

- Push-Over - went about as well as you'd expect given how shoddiliy I built it. The scoop had to be glued back on twice, and the wheels had suboptimal grip on the arena and even less on the motor shafts. But by the end of the event with the scoop epoxied on and loaner wheels from James it actually started performing well. I've ordered some proper wheels for it and I think it'll make a decent spare bot.

- Botbitz kitbot - remains a solid bot, and a good one for new fighters to start out with.

Overall it was a really fun night!

Post Sun Mar 20, 2016 2:38 pm 
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evil_steve



Joined: 06 Sep 2015
Posts: 304
Location: Adelaide, SA


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Zenghiaro is almost to the drivable chassis stage - I was hoping to get that done by the end of this week, but I ran out of 1/4" nuts and have been too busy at work/tired afterwards/taking our crazy Kelpie to the vet to go get some more. So I've been intermittently working on the antweights.

With careful pruning I've managed to get Picobyte down to fighting weight - helped by discovering a random machine screw that got lost in the nest of wiring.


I attempted a glamour shot, but my ancient digital camera is having focus issues, and tonight it decided that the calibration-bananas were more important. Most of my bots are probably flattered by the the "soft-focus" look anyway.


And I thought I'd better do a spin test - given the shiny new metal teeth I hid behind some polycarbonate sheeting for this one. While the shell is balanced about as badly as before, the new teeth don't actually impact and tear chunks out of the chassis any more. I hope.

Post Thu Apr 07, 2016 9:02 pm 
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evil_steve



Joined: 06 Sep 2015
Posts: 304
Location: Adelaide, SA


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Did a chunk of work on Zenghiaro today but it all seemed to be two steps forward, one step back. In between I prepped a few of the antweights for next weekend.

Picobyte now has a combination weapon lock/stand for when it's out of the arena.


The Force has a new scoop in preparation for facing spinners. Unfortunately it's now 152g and needs to shed some excess wiring.


Push-Over has new wheels and has had it's scoop re-attached again, this time with screws as well as glue, so hopefully the bloody thing stays on this time.

Post Sun Apr 10, 2016 8:59 pm 
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Fryddog



Joined: 24 Sep 2015
Posts: 75
Location: Adelaide


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Looking great Steve!

I'm getting a little nervous after hearing over the last week or so about how everyone is reinforcing/redesigning to protect from spinner damage... Confused

Post Mon Apr 11, 2016 1:24 am 
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evil_steve



Joined: 06 Sep 2015
Posts: 304
Location: Adelaide, SA


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Given how well put together Amber Ant is, I think we're all a bit worried about what you're going to bring to the table with a spinner! Very Happy

Post Mon Apr 11, 2016 8:18 am 
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evil_steve



Joined: 06 Sep 2015
Posts: 304
Location: Adelaide, SA


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The Force is now fighting weight and looking scary!

Post Sat Apr 16, 2016 4:30 pm 
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evil_steve



Joined: 06 Sep 2015
Posts: 304
Location: Adelaide, SA


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While I'm enjoying the process of building featherweights it was actually nice this week to step back to ants. After winning some motors a couple of weeks ago Owen had come up with a design for a new bot (on the drive home from that event actually), which we'd been slowly working on since. Owen was doing a lot more of the build himself this time but needed me there to supervise and help, which meant that not a lot had got done between work and the feathers. Thursday afternoon though we decided to go flat out and complete it - just in time for Friday's event. Here is Bladetip:



And here is it's first test drive, the morning of the event. Owen did well, taking out third despite taking some serious damage along the way from Shrapnel and Don't Need Roads.




I had a less successful event - I ran Cut Above again, which continued to suffer from broken/loose wheels (they keep cracking around the shaft) and eventually another trashed gearbox. Damian has kindly offered to 3D print me some wheels which might help somewhat. I did take a moment to put Picobyte in the arena and try out some advice Valen (I think!) gave me at Vivid - to be less timid with the weapon throttle and just let the gyro stabilise the shell. This seemed to work reasonably well so I might run it next month for LOLs (and as I'll be focusing purely on the feathers between now and then!)

Post Sun Jul 17, 2016 8:07 pm 
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evil_steve



Joined: 06 Sep 2015
Posts: 304
Location: Adelaide, SA


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Man, it's weird to be building antweights again after Nationals, and worrying about every gram! Bladetip is rebuilt for Owen to run on Friday, with 1g of weight to spare.




I'll probably run Picobyte again - last month it had a slightly better showing than usual - two losses in a best of three but in the first I managed to keep it upright and knock a track off of my opponent ... before driving into a wall and pinballing myself into the pit. The second one Picobyte ended upside down Smile

Post Wed Sep 07, 2016 9:22 pm 
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