Hi all
Thought we better do a Banana Bender build thread.

Here we go!

So we Started off wanting to try building a shuffler drive with a lifter arm for our new sportsman robot, so naturally it would be called Shifter.

We did some tests using drills with hinged arms attached to blocks of wood.


This actually worked but was pretty difficult to get both sides to stay aligned .Even so it was possible to steer. But there had to be a better way.
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[img]http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i396/milesandjules/Mobile%20Uploads/CC4A5488-6360-47AD-8812-02452439A2B4.jpg~original[/img]

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Jules discovered an awesome video that Antione Trabulsi did for his amazing shuffler robot Pitter Patter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuMb-HgBbx0&t=15s


We had met Antione in La at battle bots in 2016 but didn't even know he built Pitter Patter at that stage...such a nice bunch those Canadians.


In the video he explains how it works and gives measurements of the bearing sizes so that was it , we were going to try and make one using Antoine's cam/bearing design.

So we ordered the sixteen 35mm id bearings and started to work on it.

So started lathing the alooooominum cams. the hard bit was chopping them all up evenly. In the end we never got them to an even thickness ...which is probably why we couldn't get spacers in between the cams to fit snuggly.



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Scooter motors....they are heavy but I've never seen one blow up...thats what we want...no blowing up please.

The holes in those scooter shafts are from judge mental big scooter wheels from builds ....to many years ago.



We used 3d printed stencils to get the holes lined up on both cams and shafts. You can see a few bits of m5 rod shoved in so when we rotate the abs block in the vice to do the other two holes they wont go out of alignment.

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these prints started out as m2 holes, just so we could get a centre drill in there first, then drilled em out to m5 for the dowel pins to go through



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We had to rebuild the curry scooter gearboxes since they were used in Judge mental. They were pretty wrecked after an encounter with scissor hands at the 2014 nationals.
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We needed bread board for the legs so found a kitchen supply place just near our favourite second hand shop.

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making sure the edges are all accurate so everything lines up.



Recognise those cheap 1/2inch bearings?...they are from Wanda's super cheap auto $10 trolley wheels that we have collected over the years...they are great for this cause they have the flange that stops the bearing from falling out of the aluminium side panels.

I can hear the bearing shop guys cringing at these"shit" bearings...but i tell them its not going in a car its going in a robot that probably will get destroyed and replaced at some stage.


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This is when the name Banana Bender came to us....it was the yellow banana coloured chopping boards!

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After band sawing these.... its time to get them even...bring on the ancient old fly cutter that came with the ancient old mill.



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Nice work fly...show that hdpe who's boss!



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These are cam makers...3d printed stencils that hold the cam in the off centre position while we make the holes with a centre drill.



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then drill em out with the 4 jaw



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is this cheating?...we don't know how to do this properly but this is how we got the centre holes for the dowel pins to go through the cams straight.



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making those feet all the same...accuracy is hoped for...a lot.



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The two fancy CEO's of m&j Robotics



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looks like something a knight would use for jousting.



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No jules hasn't been bitten by a taipan ...that is from a drill bit going straight through...lucky it was a little one!

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We actually drew this whole robot in 123design ....this is the claw lifter that looks exactly like Mike Jeffries robot Nyx....hoping that when it gets cut it wont look exactly like Mike Jeffries NYx...Another amazing robot.



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Sometimes our tig welding actually looks like we know what we are doing...quick get a photo.



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its base is all in one piece now we can see if legs will fit.



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time to hack the winch



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this robot has some serious stomping power...its first casualty this poor innocent screw.



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no no ....these don't look like Nyx lifter or anything.

...But great we got something inc plasmaed and its actually the right scale.Yaaay!



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milling out pockets to start making it lighter.





Jules premo soldered the a123 battery packs

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winch is on and welded....its coming together.



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no those holes are just for aesthetics....oh yeah and weight loss...you can see the rubber blocks we are using to stop the arm....works well when the winch pushes on the rubber and when you let go of the rc stick ...the rubber springs it back into position...no exploding motors...another Glen suggestion....he knows everything.




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Damn those 10mm aluminium front and back supports have to go next

looks like its only going to be four M8s on either side holding those side panels on and feet together.



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omg its finally under weight



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Some grills added to the front to give it that apple mac pro look...should really annoy those pc users.



Several of the holes in this scooter rod are from when it was in judge mental ...there is only meant to be four holes for the 4 dowel pins that hold the cams in place.

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Had to reduce weight so replaced two of the m12 lifter bolts with 16mm aluminium round bar with threaded ends it was about half the weight of the steel bars.

Tested out the knurling attachment on the lathe....no time for this but did it anyway.

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The beautiful plasma cut lifting arms had to be shortened as the robot went on a diet and became 60mm shorter...just welded the top and bottom thinking that if we welded the faces the heat might weaken the arms.

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Jules screen printed matching m&j robotics tracksuit tops for us

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The original 5mm chunk of aluminium flat bar used on the side compared to the new 10mm flat bar milled out chunk that was way stronger and actually lighter. It got a few comments at vivid even though its rough as. I guess cause it adds a tank-ish look to the bot.

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we didn't like the green led ring in this pic so we covered it with red gel and it became a nice orange colour ...far more suited to banana.

here is its fight with Flippen hell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SP26lffpJ8&t=4s

in our fight with tumbler we discover that robots can get under us from the front once our lifter is up, so we will try and add a bit lower cover grill to try and fix that problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJjcvkFFV6U&t=11s

The extra weight defiantly helps them from getting under the sides of it.

In our fight with Triceracop we lifted Dons bot 3 or 4 times, but on the last lift the lifter stopped moving. Turns out the tz85 the controlled the brushless hacked winch had died so might need a bigger esc for that in future....it wasn't a fresh one so maybe a fresh one will last longer.

So Banana Bender actually drove pretty well. Jules was driving and me (miles) on the weapon. This dual control is great and we are thinking of doing it on a few of our other bots.

Its only real problem was its speed. Because we used 24v scooter motors on 22v (6s a123) is was a bit slow. If we used 12v scooters then it would have been way faster. But the set of 12v scooters we had were a bit wrecked from previous battles so we had to go with the 24v scooters. Next Mod for Banana is brushless drives
_________________
Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

Last edited by miles&Jules on Tue Oct 03, 2017 3:27 pm; edited 1 time in total

Very nice detailed build. Not the simple bot it looks from the outside.

Have you considered a 4 bar lifter like wombot with a winch. Playing with geometry could make it lift up and forwards giving you better lift.
_________________
Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Interesting idea ...the Wombot lifter might be back one day
_________________
Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

nice build up guys!!!
_________________
Creative Instigation - Build Something Awesome!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTuWeJ4OrAcsmjKir9L4JNg

https://www.facebook.com/CreativeInstigation/

Hi guys/sorry😢
Been epically absent from the forum for that past 6 mounts ,ever since photo bucket raped everyone by making everyone have to pay- so any suggestions for alternatives?we have loads of progress pics to show you guys including loads of ants, new feathers and oh god two heavy weights 😀

Cant seem to get our drop box to do photo sharing is that a thing / what’s does everyone use now ?
_________________
Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

I was using tinypic but I've moved to flikr. Flikr lets you make albums which is handy.

Was talking to Brett about photo sitch, he was going to look in to ways of hosting them.
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Satisfaction is proportional to effort and results.

yay our first image from Imgur woo hoo Watch this space for upcoming Robot Builds from M&J Robotics
_________________
Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015