Team Ignition

[Badnik96]

boom boom stuff's getting done for bot blast

unfortunately due to work obligations (i start a kitchen staff job at a boy scout camp tomorrow, and i'm basically staying there for 90% of the summer) i don't have any more shop time so i had to crank everything out today, but here's what i have:

first things first i have a sick new team logo that i put together on the fly


FireArrow didn't get the full rebuild i was planning but it did get some new carbon fiber panels and some brand new attachments that will serve it well. hoping it can ascend the throne once again.

Spinjitsu is waiting on a new shell but it should be done in time. Going to downgrade to 22.2 sparks as i think the 11.1s are a little too low-torque for it to turn properly (and are stripping because of it)

Early Grave is fully ready to roll, I just need to re-attach one pinion gear that slipped out in a drive test. It has a new much thicker front wedge which should serve it well

LandShark is back! cracked a pinion gear in the gearbox conversion today so i'm going to need to order a few more of those but other than that it's fully ready to run.

looking forward to come back to bot blast. it sucked missing out last year.

[zacodonnell]

Totally digging the logo.  Not so much looking forward to facing LandShark in the Mantis class though...

-Zac

[Badnik96]

Decided at the last minute to revive the original FireArrow for Bot Blast, mainly as an experiment. It filled out the bracket to an even 24 too. Should be interesting to see which FireArrow performs better.

[Badnik96]

Bot Blast was great! FireArrow managed to come one arena seam away from top 4 and won the rumble, while Early Grave also managed to take 5th as well after a pair of solid victories. EG is going to get some upgrades (namely a battery with an xt60 and not a jst, as well as the botkits wheels instead of snap wheels) for next time.

[Badnik96]

Franklin went insanely well for the entire fleet despite a lack of upgrades from Bot Blast. The only real change was upgrading Early Grave from snap hubs to the Botkits dragster wheels for improved grip.

FireArrow dominated the ant class, taking first place despite a half-dead drive ESC that left it not driving straight. Uber-Saw took a few chunks out of it but other than that it did perfectly.

Spinjitsu finally picked up some wins, beating Tiny Huge on a judge decision after both bots' weapon belts fell off and fellow full-body spinner Gravitron after it flipped itself over on a big hit. I also got an absolutely massive hit against Quicksand that sent both bots flying, so all in all I'm really happy with its performance this time out. Its main issue this time around was throwing belts, but I think I have a solution to that.

Early Grave picked up a pair of wins against Purple Nation Army and Beedle, as well as a very very close judge decision loss against the eventual champ, Captain Doom. The brushless drive is still fairly unreliable (I don't think I still had 2wd at the end of any of my fights) but it's incredibly fast and fun to drive so I just need to improve its reliability for next time.

Also waiting in the wings are another beetle, this time a drumbot, and a new fairy for moto. the sportsman may also get done still, we'll see what happens

[Badnik96]

Been a while, hasn't it

Motorama went insanely well, with one-day build Sparkplug winning fairies (despite some tough competition), FireArrow ending up 4th in ants, and Nitro Hornet ending in the top 12 of the beetleweights, all great results. Now it's time to get things ready for Bot Blast. First things first, Spinjitsu is getting a new shell with a new tooth design:



This shape should hopefully hold up to vertical and horizontal spinners better, and help keep the shell from warping as quickly.

I've also finished up the CAD of my new 6lber Salamandra, a Sawblaze expy using a lot of the parts from Landshark:


Main improvements from landshark will be the higher-voltage motors, which I hope will keep the current motors from dying mid-fight like they seemed prone to last year. Right now the arm is being actuated by a 99:1 Pololu 25mm gearmotor (basically a higher-torque variant of the kitbots beetle motors) and the saw itself is being powered by a small turnigy brushless I had floating around for another project that I never started. the saw model right now is a placeholder, I don't have any actual saws picked out yet.

[zacodonnell]

I find that every time I make a shell I wish the teeth were longer against the shell than the last time. On the last version of Triggo and Tetanus before that they stuck out 1 inch and were 2.5 inches along the shell. Triggo had serious bracing on the inside of the shell right where the teeth attached, but they still dented in from huge vertical hits. Anything less than 2:1 I think is asking for shell buckling, especially without some more internal bracing.

I look forward to seeing how your design holds up. I like the tilted back shape for the vertical spinners. I tried to do something similar and I think it helped a lot. The best bet against horizontal spinners is making it so the teeth mesh (traveling the same direction as the other bot's weapon). The design you have can only work one direction, so I think that is a big detriment.

-Zac

[zacodonnell]

Did you leave a dark grey Quebec hoodie at Franklin this year? I picked one up near my table and was thinking it might be yours. I can bring it to Moto or if you need it before then I can ship it.

-Zac

[Badnik96]

yep that's mine. it's not super important so i'll just grab it from you at moto. thanks!