They aren't bad they are just small. A direct impact from a spinner on the wheels and you will be shearing gears inside them.
I have external wheels on this robot so I wouldn't trust them externally. If you really want to save them just run one of the orange or green urethane belts to your wheels so there is some give.
The last one I used with HK foam wheels they were good until Miles with judge mental hit one straight on the shaft.
Joined: 29 May 2012
Posts: 454
Location: Rockhampton/qld
So if I am running them internally shouldn't be a problem?
Thu Feb 27, 2014 7:46 pm
Nick Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 11802
Location: Sydney, NSW
They would be even better if you have room for a simple outside bearing like I made for Mr Mangle. Officially that doubles the axle load capacity, but in combat bot situations I think it is higher due to the impact situation.
Shouldn't be too bad. Just don't go putting huge wheels on them. _________________ Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com
Thu Feb 27, 2014 8:24 pm
Valen Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Posts: 4436
Location: Sydney
I feel with outside bearings if you can take any thrust loads out of the gearbox it really makes a big difference too. _________________ Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets
Since its been such a long time since I actually built anything thought it was time for an update on my bots/projects, their current state is and what plans I have for next year.
Guess I should start with the big bot.
Double Dragon
Double Dragon is still sitting at Aaron's place and literally has not been turned on since it came back from the US. It has two issues. The need for speed controllers and the need for replacement motors with lower gearing.
To this end I have been looking at hacking the 200A Turnigy controller from hobby king but at this stage I have run into some difficulties. I have identified all the pinouts for the FETdrivers and have code which will run on the controller but it doesn't seem to be generating the outputs that I want. I have hooked up my OpenBench logic analyser and have confirmed that it is actually sending the logic to the FET driver but I don't know why it won't tern on the FET of the controller.
I may have actually killed the ESC which would be bit shit but can't be ruled out at this stage. I think I might buy a second ESC when I have some spare cash and just pull the logic board off it and check that both of them work by swapping out parts. This is currently on hold while I am in QLD and will be something that I hope to get done early next year.
As for the motors that hasn't really been looked at too much at this stage. Current plan is to add another stage to the current winch boxes which should bring the current draw right down. Once I get the ESCs working might make the trip to aaron's to pickup all the gear depending on if its in QLD or NSW but ESCs are step 1.
Naked Turtle
Poor Naked Turtle. After a very long time thinking about how I could fix him up and what I should do he has been dismantled into a pile of parts. It could still easily be reassembled and I think it will end up with a bunch of parts from Flying V which has also been decommissioned. I would say it has a 50% chance of being present at nationals this year in one form or another.
No immediate plans to fix him up at the moment but one I get my workshop sorted out the parts may one day magically appear in robot form.
Dool Saw
Dool Saw is probably the most simple robot I have to get up and running. The shell is still 100% fine. The rear pin was cut out after a massive hit from catastrophe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqSAXNaSTSE this took a good 30min and some serious hammer and hacksaw work to get it out.
The main failure at last years nationals was the drives. They were two speed gearboxes which had shitty clips to hold them together. I sort of liked the low speed driving but it wasn't exactly the most effective in combat. So my first step will be to upgrade the drives and put it back together without the weapon.
Not sure what I want to do for weapon yet. As the bot is 3mm hardox its probably going to be fine in the full spinner comp. Might need some slightly less flamboyant top plates as they will just get bent and some better welds but think it could probably hold its own. I am tempted to play around with some interchangeable weapons which can be bolted in. I think the simplest one would be to redo the vertical in a stable non-acutated manner.
This will probably be the bot which gets finished up for a Sydney comp or the nationals next year.
Green Ants Nets
The green ants appear to have gone down well again at the nationals. They are currently in the possession of Andrew for some more use. Not sure what the current state of them are but hopefully are all still somewhat running.
I still have plans to automate some battles between them using overhead cameras and code but it is unclear if I will get time to do that in the near future. I have all the individual parts but not a complete system that will work yet.
I am also considering doing a custom board to integrate a charger, radio and ESC for a complete ant weight controller. One ssue is that it would have to run off 1S which may be too low for the LV motors. I drew up a concept board in Altium a while back for use with a Bluetooth radio but might redo it to work with Tims Wifi Module and get a few boards made.
Budget Bot
The Budget Bot challenge for < $100 is now doable. I even have plans to do a board for $20 which will give you most of your functionality short of PWM and could work with the same ESP wifi module.
The robot will be completely constructed out of two drills and a sheet of ply. I have ideas in my head just need to sit down do a basic proof of concept driving board then do up a real design in cad then sit down and cut it out.
The end result that I want to get to is a tutorial which anybody can make for < $100 and a cheap controller board.
Events
I always have a few event ideas on the go currently there is the Nationals to work on remotely and also trying to do something in Canberra.
The nationals is mostly paperwork and few tweaks from last year so should be pretty simple to keep that going. I will hopefully be able to attend this year. Though I can't make any guarantees on that at this stage.
For canberra there is the issue of having an arena. I will see what I can do in my spare time to rectify this although with the issues surrounding storage and transportation this will likely be a long term goal.
Summary
Well it has been a pretty uneventful year for me robot wise. I only got to compete in one event with naked turtle in QLD at my parents place but it has been good to see that people have still been going in QLD without me and hopefully the nationals will continue.
quote:Originally posted by marto:
Guess I should start with the big bot.
Double Dragon
Double Dragon is still sitting at Aaron's place and literally has not been turned on since it came back from the US. It has two issues. The need for speed controllers and the need for replacement motors with lower gearing.
I will endeavor to bring it home when I go to QLD for xmas.
I think the quickest and easiest way for getting the robot going is to switch to a less hassle drive motor. I think the MY1018 450W geared scooter motor on 36V (RageBridge and current limit?) will be a suitable upgrade.
This could allow the robot to have a good 100mm cut out of the middle and make it narrower to save weight for a weapon (Winch lifter/grabber?) _________________ https://www.halfdonethings.com/
Mon Dec 22, 2014 2:38 pm
Jaemus Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 01 Apr 2009
Posts: 2674
Location: NSW
Re: It has been a very long time.
quote:Originally posted by marto:
Dool Saw
Dool Saw is probably the most simple robot I have to get up and running. The shell is still 100% fine. The rear pin was cut out after a massive hit from catastrophe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqSAXNaSTSE this took a good 30min and some serious hammer and hacksaw work to get it out.
Haha, sorry about that. But super good to hear it's still very useable and that we will see it again! It's a very cool looking bot, could be a crowd favourite if you get it competitive I reckon _________________ <Patrician|Away> what does your robot do, sam
<bovril> it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls
Ordered some beetle motors off the Ebays. I know I am probably too late for the next event so whirlwind will get a rehash and might play around with a few other ideas for drive motors.
I think I will try and get a steel pan which I can weld a lip to the bottom of. The old one did not really last very long when getting hammered by glen and I really have heaps of weight to spare.
I also need to redo the weapon pulley as the threads in it are completely stripped I think I have enough ali to get it done. Not sure if it will happen tomorrow but should happen soon.
I am also working on kickstarter campaign for Sydney event in the background to which I will need to launch in a week or two so that is eating my time when I really should be doing Phd work.
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