Another New Antweight..

All things antweight

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Rapidrory
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Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Rapidrory »

Well, having fought in both the 'Reading University Antweight Cup' tournaments today, both Nuts and Lionel lost every fight they were in, despite Nuts' awesome destructive power :P :

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Nuts did destroy Inertia 9.1, but lost the fight in the process.

Basically what I learnt from this is I could do with a more competitive ant. On the plus side I now have 5 Rxs, 16 gear motors, and a big box of ESCs now, so I've got a few shots to get it right! Not sure what my plan is yet; I'm hoping to come up with something before the AWS. Going to have to have a bit of a play around when I get back home

On the plus side, 8 out of the 10 ants competing today were running various versions of the N2xV, and all ran perfectly all day, despite getting smashed around a lot. Nice to get some decent testing in :) I'm also developing a little lashed together effects board to run off the 'gear' channel just for a bit of fun. All it'll do is activate some flashing lights and/or sound when the gear channel is switched; It'll basically be the equivalent of a very simple servo switch. Just thought it'd make for some cool effects/ pass the boredom of post exam uni life :roll:
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
Rapidrory
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Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Rapidrory »

Ok, so I got bored... which is dangerous at the best of times, buut this time I got carried away and bought enough parts to build 8 (yes 8!) antweights. Seeing as I now have no money left to do anything else, I decided to sit down and make up some chassis. However seeing as can only enter a max of 4 at a time to the AWS, I decided I could play around with something a little more entertaining that didn't have to stick to the rules...

Meet Mr Burns, my little antweight flame-thrower :D :

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It is just a test bed at the moment really, therefore currently resembles a ball of pipes, tanks and valves... however still spits a pretty decent flame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAune5F ... SCHzqPS4jQ

It runs of liquid butane from a lighter refill bottle, so my problem at the moment is that of the C02 flippers in the heavier classes where my gas pressure drops and has to rebuild as the liquid butane slowly vaporises every time the weapon fires. Unfortunately the pilot light runs off the same tank, which means it has a habit of going out if I'm not careful to just fire short bursts. I'm planning to modify a refillable lighter as a secondary tank for the pilot light to help avoid this, and also possibly build a better chassis at some point.
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
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peterwaller
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Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by peterwaller »

That looks fantastic I think the main reason flame throwers are banned is because we wouldn't be able to find venues that would allow them on health and safety grounds.
I did have a play with a gas lighter in the early days but never got anywhere near that good a flame. :o
Remote-Controlled Dave
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Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Remote-Controlled Dave »

Rory, what exactly are you bringing to the AWS to compete? You should so have a go at a walker next.
Die Gracefully Robotics
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Rapidrory
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Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Rapidrory »

I'm planning on entering Nuts and Lionel, a 4WD body spinner that I'm working on (that may or may not be called Flail Whale :L), and I will hopefully be making a walker (though it will likely be terrible: probably going to be called Anticlimax :roll: )

As for the other 3 ants worth of parts; my brother is coming along (due to holiday logistics) and so I'm planning on giving him a working drive chain or two and getting him to build chassis around them, so he has something to do for the day, and hopefully have some fun while he's at it.
The 8th drive train is a 40MHz set up that I threw together just to make use of it, but that'll probably be left out of the AWS.

I'm planning on bringing Mr Burns to the AWS just for show, but if there's time and space out side (and if I'm allowed!) I may fire it up for a little demo :wink:
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
Remote-Controlled Dave
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Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Remote-Controlled Dave »

Sounds cool. Though the name Anticlimax is taken. It was a pink robot with a brushed disc that was around not that long ago, and I believe its still active somewhere. Look forward to seeing them all in!
Die Gracefully Robotics
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Rapidrory
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Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Rapidrory »

Thought it might be.. I'll have to think of something else :P
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
Rapidrory
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Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Rapidrory »

Thought I could do with something to cluster my new spinner with, but seeing as my spinners getting pretty close to the weight limit, this thing needed to be pretty small..

I don't have a name for it yet, but here it is anyway:

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It's about 3x3x2 cm, and weights in at just 5 grams:

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It's made from 3 of those micro helicopter/ aircraft toys that I had lying around and a lot of hot melt glue. It has half a gram of 1mm thick polycarbonate armour to offer some protection to the lipo.
Still leaves much to be desired on controllability; I'm hoping to improve that a little by the AWS. Has no reverse as well which could cause trouble :L
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
Remote-Controlled Dave
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Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Remote-Controlled Dave »

New level of ridiculousness achieved! Got a video of it running?
Die Gracefully Robotics
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Rapidrory
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Re: Another New Antweight..

Post by Rapidrory »

Not yet; can't keep it in shot yet :P Decided it's probably gonna be called 'Smidge' :)

My spinner's coming along ok; only problem is that I'm using one of those 25/40c 180mAh 3 cell batteries, which have a continuous output of 4.5A and a peak of 7.2A. The spinner motor I'm using draws about 8A max. It's ok for the moment, but I feel the battery isn't long for this world :L
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

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