Showing off my 1st Battle Bot

[65fastbackmaniac]

I just wanted to show of my first battle bot build/robot build. I plan to take it up to Dragon Con next year for my first completion unless I can find a completion close to Savannah, Ga.

I cheated a little and used a Fingertech Sumo bot chassis to give me a starting point but I have made some mods so it isn't a sumo bot anymore. I have to re water jet the weapon because I broke my tap drill in it but I should be able to post a video of it moving and spinning tomorrow plus I'm having a slight clearances problem with the shell but I will also be fixing that tomorrow. So after about two months of fiddling around and scrounging the internet I have came up with this design. I'm running it off of a Rhino 360 and I am using a silver spark motor to power the weapon ( a .61lb) chunk of aluminum. With the sliver spark motor I'm not so sure if it will give me the force I want but I will be attempting to test that at some point before I go to a completion. The spinning devices is attached to the motor shaft with a #4 bolt with the actual spinner having a threaded hole to hold it in place.

[MikeNCR]

This might be of interest to you-

http://sparc.tools/forum/index.php?topic=215.0

Also, moving this topic to the progress reports section.

[65fastbackmaniac]

Thanks for both and I noticed the progress report section after I posted it just didn't know how to move it. And thanks for the heads up on the competition.

[Coboxite]

Some things:
Aluminum is fine for a weapon body, but is rubbish as an impactor. A good low cost weapon impactor heads are black oxide socket-cap screws( Black oxide counter sunk screws are fine too, just leave them jutting out).

Your weapon motor is way too slow to spin the weapon, you need at least a weapon capable of reaching 8000 to 10000 rpm to be effective. Think of using a brushless out-runner for spinner needs.

The machine is too tall, using a slimmer weapon motor, you can greatly reduce the height.

You need more speed. The highly geared motors are fine for sumo, but make you easy pickings for much faster wedge and drum bots. You can up the speed considerably by dropping the gear ratio(20:1 Goldsparks or 11:1 Sliver sparks for example).

[65fastbackmaniac]

Thanks for the advice on adding the socket screws luckily I have about 90+ extra seen I need a size I could only buy in quantities of 100. I will definitely add them. I will definitely look into changing that weapon motor at least the height of the robot was decided by the motor + minyQD I could shrink the height by 1/2 if i soldered wires going out sideways instead of using minyQD. I will think about changing the the drive motors but I was thinking of using the robot as a sumo bot/wedge if I ran into weapon problems or if the spinner was not working against a opponents design. As for the motor you suggested would a BLHeli BEC 1A 5v Lipo 2s-4s speed controller mesh well with it(I accidentally bought them for use with the silver sparks). The bots current weight is at 2.1 lbs and the competitions around me run 3lbs so I do have .9lbs of play to add. I also thought about adding a heavy counterbalances to make the robot have an extremely low center of gravity to counter act the spinner being mounted so high.

[Coboxite]

The design would not work very well as a beetle weight. Your speed is still way too low, and now is even more of a detriment as the beetles are even faster and tougher. You really need to up the wheel size(2.25" to 2.5"), as the wheel size is . Build to one or the other, because Sumo and Combat  requirements are very different.

Also, while ballasts would help keep the bot low, building lower would be even better. Lower is always better, unless the design mandates the machine to be built tall.

You could run the motor above with the ESC(Maybe, I can't find a reliable source that says how much current the ESC can take), but a bigger motor more suitable for the weight class and a higher current esc would be even better.

[65fastbackmaniac]

A short video of my first robot up and running(mostly). I'm still getting a hang on the driving of it and will have the weapon attached this week hopefully.

https://youtu.be/g0HwBgFuPHk

[FingerTech]

Drives well!

[zacodonnell]

It drives well but that is one seriously expensive test surface!  I hope you don't end up tearing the felt with a rogue bolt or piece of sheet metal.

-Zac

[65fastbackmaniac]

Never tested the weapon on the pool table and it has plenty of clearances for the shell to the ground. I'm actually building a 8' x 8' testing area currently.