Finally ready to start building a featherweight.

I'm aiming at a wedge, with a high KE vertical spinner for a weapon.

The wedge is going to be a sliced up 10kg gas bottle. The idea is to have a nearly-ground-dragging wedge front, with the sides and rear being rounded.... and therefore it will hopefully be hard for opponents to get a grip on.

The high KE vertical spinner was inspired by Team Storm's feather "Storm Vortex". I'm aiming to get a 2cm thick piece of steel plate water cut to my specs soon. It is going to be powered by one of those plane starter motors, the gear-down ratio will probably be 4:1 at a guess...
I'm positioning the weapon a bit over half way up the wedge, with only about half of the weapon outside of the gas bottle shell. The idea is to ram other bots, push under them with the wedge, then as they slide up the wedge, their chassis/under armour is attacked by the spinner..... the 3kg spinner of "storm vortex" was sending other feathers to the roof of the arena - sounds hurty enough for my liking.

As for drives, the good old drill motors will be used, but I'm making up some mounts to accept RC car wheels/tyres. Other chassis support will be in the form of roller-bearing blocks.

Due to the weight of the gas bottle, the 2.5kg to 3kg steel spinner and the starter motor, Malice of Forethought will be powered by Li-Poly cells (13.6V 1800mAh..... I think) with one pack for the weapon and another for the drive motors.

Probably go with an IBC as well.....

I'm not rushing into it... probably start with as much wooden mock-up as possible before paying the engineering shop to cut anything.

more to follow...
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There is no such thing as excessive carnage.

Traded a spare 2 channel radio with a bloke today.
I got a 45kg gas bottle, a 5/8ths thick steel plate (about 70cm by 50cm) and a 1cm thick steel plate about (60cm by 15cm) back from the trade

Weighed the Prolux (RC plane starter) motor today... only 400 gramms
the intended weapon is looking quite likely at this stage, I'm allowing 4.05 kg for the weapon system alone, batteries not included...

One problem though is not knowing how strong drill drive is... I want the motors/drivetrain be able to carry 30kg. Can drills do it ?
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There is no such thing as excessive carnage.

Last edited by original_carnage on Wed Feb 23, 2005 9:32 am; edited 1 time in total

Is that your robot and another one on top? I would think that drills would handle 30 kg.
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So even the rain that falls isn't actually going to fill our dams and our river systems

that's the idea, it is because I want the pushing power to be able to force opponents up the wedge so that the high KE spinner can do its job.

besides that, those two books I've got from the US both reckon you should aim for motors that can move twice the weight of the bot they are to drive...
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There is no such thing as excessive carnage.

the us books are great in many respects, i learned most things from kickin bot' by grant imahara..

problem is they assume you have wheelbarrows full of money (i think you can get that idea by the fact the "Test bot" has dewalts, nicads, pcm radios and victor controllers..)

the new robot sounds good, alot like nick/andrews orbit - http://robowars.org/forum/album_pic.php?pic_id=584
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www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz

yeah, I noticed that too (the test bot is rated at $2000 US for a featherweight brick bot !) , one of my books is that "kickin' bot" by Grant Imahara, the other book is "combat robots complete" by Chris Hannold (one of the organisers of NC Robot Streetfight) .... I'm going to order another book by Chris Hannold soon "combat robots - weapons"

one solution to the drill drive problem I'm considering is to use a two stage gear down in a pulley system.... the only problem this may create is the space to fit it and the old idea of 'less moving parts = stronger and more reliable drivetrain'
The RC tank sites have a lot of ideas to turn simple electric motors into a drivetrain that can make a large/heavy object do a stationary turn on grass/rubble - a hard thing to do!
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There is no such thing as excessive carnage.

I would love to see pictures of what you are planning. You would have a lot of knowledge on RC type parts with your work.
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So even the rain that falls isn't actually going to fill our dams and our river systems

Photos shouldn't be too far away...
The armour weighed a little more than I'd thought... but some minor changes to the interior design has allowed for the weight.
The weapon will hopefully be cut within the next week.
The main problem has been sourcing light batteries. Origionally, I was to use Li-Poly cells but they have worked out to not be so crash hot for featherweight bots...

I've found a great gel cell though... "Genesis" brand NP2-12 (through Master Instruments) it's a 12V, 2 AH battery weighing only 700 grams and costing only $20-$30 AUS! It looks like a squished car battery - 48mm wide, 97mm long and 54.5mm height.

quote:

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You would have a lot of knowledge on RC type parts with your work.

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A flaw in my design I'd completely overlooked.... my victims would probably slide off the sides before comming into contact with the nasty spinner I'm going to have.


Now to attach some kind of rail or flat plate... weight I hadn't counted on.
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There is no such thing as excessive carnage.

Found a 'Porter's Engineering' in hicksville (Toowoomba)... all the pulleys and belts I need for weapon and drive systems, for less than $50 for the lot and in stock !

My Genesis 12V 2000mAH AGM sla's (700grams, 40amp draw-standard, up to 80amp draw capable, 3C rating ...$24AUS) turned up finally too... yahoo.
Charger, 'base-loaded Rx antenna and 'rubber-ducky' TX antenna will be in my hands on Thursday..... yahoo - about f'ing time.

Just need to hunt down a 12V high-amp switch and some 'welders cable' - I think it's the same thing as grounding cable for welders.... 200amp capable wire - no meltdowns for this black duck...

The weapon will finally be water-cut soon. Looks like it will be 3kg -3.5kg, 32mm thick.... spun up to 4000rpm - should be quite hurty... heh heh heh.
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There is no such thing as excessive carnage.

how many $$ are the base loaded antennas and what freq. do they work off?
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www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz

firstly... the base-loaded antennas are not the 'deans' brand. Unfortunately the Aussie importer of deans product doesn't bring in the antennas with the plugs...

The antennas I have access to are 'radioactive' brand (from the UK). They are for 36meg and retail for $12 where I work.

I know the deans are still available o.s. - but I'm one of those freaks that would much rather keep my $$$'s in as many Aussie hands/businesses that I can - even if ultimately my dollar goes overseas, it has first helped Aussie business and Aussie people..... rave rave rave....
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There is no such thing as excessive carnage.

they wouldnt happen to sell 29mhz versions would they
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www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz

You don't need 4guage welder wire for your bot You'll only need 80amp continous 8 guage at most. We used that on Annihilation and have barely had it get warm when pulling well over 200amps through it.
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https://www.halfdonethings.com/

nick runs 12g through most of basilisk im sure
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www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz