Earthwormjim's Stuff

[earthwormjim]

Thanks Joey, yeah,I'm wondering what using the tail while the disk is going at full tilt is going to do!!
(Did you manage to get in yesterday, in the end, btw??)

[joey_picus]

I did, just about (the journey home was a bit fraught) and I might be doing a beetle now but I seriously underestimated them - it's going to have to be an order of magnitude stronger than I initially designed...

More robots should have tails I think

[mathias]

Has Blockhead competed? Are there videos?

Thanks in advance!

[earthwormjim]

Hi mathias.

No, unfortunately blockhead is sat on my desk doing nothing at the moment.
I missed the last competition unfortunately, and the next AWS is in November!!
If I get the chance to compete with it before November, I will.

[earthwormjim]

Hi y'all.
I thought I'd give an update on my new spinner robot, seeing as I posted a pic last week.
I have got all of the components together, and taped them onto a piece of card to see how they all fit together. Turns out they fit together pretty well, and it looks like it might be a feasible proposition after all!
I want to keep everything as light as possible, so I can get some good weight into the disk.
With all the running gear mounted onto the card chassis, with a nylon disk, it weighs 88g. I was planning on 30g for the disk, but it now looks like I might be able to squeeze 40 - 45g, so I am hoping to make it 10mm larger than the current mock disk, which is 50mm dia.
Anyway, here is a link to a short video of it moving around a bit...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp4MOltEfUY

After making the video, I thought I would have a go at the tail. Murray the Cat Robot had a tail, but it needed 3 bolts to mount it onto the gear motor. I wanted to keep things light, so I thought I'd try to weld a 2mm piano wire rod straight to the end of the gear motor shaft. I ruined 2 gear motors before this happened...

It is by far the most fiddly weld I have managed, especially with my big clunky 4th hand 1970's welding equipment!
So it now looks like this...

The tail will be trimmed back a bit, but it is pretty sturdy, time will tell exactly how strong it is I guess!!
I now need to re design the disk and body taking into consideration the bigger disk. But it is all going to plan for now!!!!!

[mathias]

Hi Jim,

It seems like you've standardized on those tires. Did you say they come from kids toys or did you find a source for just the tires?

[earthwormjim]

Hi mathias.
I really like these tyres. I bought 2 of the toys, 4 tyres on each. I have 4 of the tyres on 23, 2 on Block Head, and the last 2 on the new one.
They are a nice soft compound, it is hard to find a good tyre. They are smaller and thicker and heavier than I'd like ideally, but they are very grippy. I look forward to trying them out in battle to see how they hold up.
They are from kids john deere tractor toys. Unfortunately I have only found them in a shop in Australia.

[earthwormjim]

I have found a link to some of the toys, although they are not currently available on the site apparently.
They are John Deere Mini Monster Treads...
https://www.dailysteals.com/p/27645/Joh ... ter-Treads
"Because I like my tyres super bouncy!"
The hubs that come with the toys do not fit gear motors, so new hubs have to be made.

[Rapidrory]

There are plenty of options for grippy tires out there.. I think it's more the style that's usually lacking from them :L

[earthwormjim]

Rory is right, there are many easy to use and readily available tried and tested grippy tyre and wheel combos out there.
I like to experiment.Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't! I have fun trying out different ideas though!