Another New Antweight..

All things antweight

Moderators: BeligerAnt, petec, administrator

Post Reply
Rapidrory
Posts: 1160
Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2013 9:54 pm

Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Rapidrory »

So it turns out we lied about lying about EDF versions of our pushers.... Kinda...

The internet went down in our house on Sunday evening, so to pass the time I challenged Alex to an assbot building competition using our spare parts, where the only rules were it had to be visually 150g, and had to be able to fight on the ceiling. Although I tried to put as little effort into mine as I could, it wasn't really very ass... Alex on the other hand made a fine bodge job :L
Here are the results:

Mine: RKO
Image

Alex's: Why won't you love me?
Image

These things are very difficult to drive, but also hilarious. It's an interesting design challenge fighting on the ceiling, as unlike usual the robot needs to be as light as possible to get the most grip, and the ability to drive up walls onto the ceiling is quite tricky to get working as you loose a lot of suction as you go over the corner, and you need a scoop that lifts out the way.

I'd totally be up for challenging others to ceiling fights in the arena, where the rule could be that once contact was made, the first robot to touch the arena floor looses. I see this as a possible entertaining new use for EDFs :L

Quite tempted to do a tracked version without a scoop now so it can get round through door frames and the like. Think Robot Simulator 2014 meets Fandabbydozy... Wait.. :roll:

Just so people don't worry that Alex and I are entering these, they're gonna be demo bots only. May possibly throw them in at a friendly event some time, but that would only be so we could try dive bombing opponents from the arena roof :L

Video of the fights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJu7OI5 ... e=youtu.be
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
playzooki
Posts: 140
Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2013 7:34 pm

Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by playzooki »

dive bombing robots from the arena roof is a great idea why did I not think of that :P

i am now tempted to build an edf robot
Rapidrory
Posts: 1160
Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2013 9:54 pm

Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Rapidrory »

playzooki wrote:i am now tempted to build an edf robot
I approve only if it's for comedic purposes :L
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
playzooki
Posts: 140
Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2013 7:34 pm

Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by playzooki »

Rapidrory wrote:
playzooki wrote:i am now tempted to build an edf robot
I approve only if it's for comedic purposes :L
i probably would struggle to win more than one fight even if I did enter it in an event :V

of course, it is unlikely to happen since i am too lazy to even rebuild jaguar, which I have been meaning to do for about a year :P
Rapidrory
Posts: 1160
Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2013 9:54 pm

Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Rapidrory »

Back to marginally more serious robots, I gave up on the new walking mech, and just modified the original legs from Skutter to fit version 2. Much faster and smoother now, and doesn't get jammed nearly as much. Saved a ton of weight too, which means it has 10g spare now (I cut an ugly great hole in the front scoop for nothing :roll: ). Sorted out the flipper gearbox as well so that doesn't appear to be jamming up either now. All in all it should be quite a lot of fun come the AWS :)

Image
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
Rapidrory
Posts: 1160
Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2013 9:54 pm

Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Rapidrory »

Just put together one of the tiny ESCs I printed the boards for ages ago, but only just got round to finishing:

Image

Runs exactly the same code as the NanoTwos so handles identically, and has slightly better performance range than the NanoTwos (up to 11v instead of 10v, and 1.5A instead of 1.2A). It is also quite a bit smaller at 10x 8 mm
Downside is there is no BEC, but the LemonRX will take up to 10V fine, so it's good in most situations as long as it's not running a 5v servo.

This isn't really meant as a commercial product; their reduction in size is fairly pointless when paired with a LemonRX, and if used with a Deltang, you may as well just use a Deltang with built in drivers. It's more meant as a test bed for the tiny DRV8835 motor driver chips, and I have to say they seem to work very nicely driving nano motors, as well as regular ant motors at 8v. I'll probably use these in my Nanos, and possibly even use them in a nanoweight kit, but I have no immediate plans for them.
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
Rapidrory
Posts: 1160
Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2013 9:54 pm

Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Rapidrory »

Due to exams/ coursework/ etc. it's been quite a while since I last built a new ant. However procrastination sets in more the further into exams I get, so this guy happened:

Image

Alex and I were having a discussion the other day about how the super cheap MG90s servos don't work for flippers. I therefore set myself the challenge of building a decent flipper using only MG90s servos just out of curiosity. It was one of my more traditional 'by eye' builds rather than measuring it all up with templates like I generally do these days, as it was just meant to be something fun to play around with (My only working non-spinner ant atm is Bully).

To get a decent flip I used a pair of MG90s as the flipper hinges, and bolted the flipper straight to them. This actually makes quite a sturdy flipper set up, and gives some pretty nice flips to; the speed isn't massive, but with a combined torque of 4kg/cm it's got plenty of power. The design is kind of a cross between Why Wait, Haggis, and Void, but it seems to have come out nicely, and is great fun to fight with which is half it's purpose. Holds it's own reasonably well against a slightly worse for ware ICBINS, so I'm happy with it. With faster servos this'd be a very decent setup; was half tempted to rebuild it with a pair of Park HPX servos, but that'd kinda defeat the point (still might one day though)

Image

Here you can see the dual servo set up a bit better. I tried Pete's method of roughing up the flipper with sandpaper to make it translucent, but it seems i need finer sandpaper as it's still a bit rough (240 grit). The LEDs work quite well behind the flipper plate, though I may change the colour depending on how much I want it to look like a frog :roll:
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
User avatar
joey_picus
Posts: 1137
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 1:51 pm
Location: Lancaster, Lancashire
Contact:

Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by joey_picus »

kero kero kero~

I like the look of that a lot; also that's generally how my exam experience went as well :) Which LEDs are those?
Joey McConnell-Farber - Team Picus Telerobotics - http://picus.org.uk/ - @joey_picus
"These dreams go on when I close my eyes...every second of the night, I live another life"
Rapidrory
Posts: 1160
Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2013 9:54 pm

Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Rapidrory »

The LEDs are just some cheap super bright 3mm ones from ebay; I bought a load of different coloured ones a while back, hence why a lot of my bots have lights these days :L
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
Rapidrory
Posts: 1160
Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2013 9:54 pm

Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Rapidrory »

Image

Well, this could be fun.. :D
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
Post Reply