Tashic's ants

All things antweight

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peterwaller
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Re: Tashic's ants

Post by peterwaller »

Your robot construction methods are certainly unusual and by the looks of them quite effective.
I use quite a lot of PCB material myself but always without the copper so no chance to solder parts together like you.
Always nice to see someone thinking outside the box and trying new methods.
Tashic
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Re: Tashic's ants

Post by Tashic »

Thanks Pete!
I tried using epoxy glue, but I find it difficult to work with.
Soldering is faster because you only need to wait a few second to harden, insted of hours, and if you want to correct something you can just melt it again.
Much easier to do wire frame like designs, as you see on the crab like robot.
The only problems I found are that you need a powerful soldering iron, and it's a bit heavy.
This method was inspired by Beast at newport 2013, I actually went there to see the event live!

Edit:
Because I will use a 2 cell lipo battery, I bought the low voltage 50:1 from botbitz, is there an advantage using HP gear motors even if they aren't used at 12V ?
Right now the robot doesn't look too slow.
Tashic
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Re: Tashic's ants

Post by Tashic »

Ok, finally finished Vortice 3:
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It was overweight by 11 grams, so I had to trim and drill many holes.
This is one of the sides now:
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In a previous post you can see how it was before.
Also the bottom plate is bent in that way because the battery (250mah 2 cell lipo) is too high, 15 mm, even if in the site it said it was 11 mm.
Fortunately the wheels are big enough to prevent the polycarb to touch the ground.
And the wheels gets dirty very quickly.
haz
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Re: Tashic's ants

Post by haz »

Wheels look good. Custom? if so how did you make them.
Tashic
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Re: Tashic's ants

Post by Tashic »

The wheels are alluminium hubs that have a grub screw to lock it in a 3mm axle and I glued a rubber band around it.
The big holes have been drilled to reduce weight.
The wheel is then glued with apoxy glue to a alluminium gear.
The gears have been made by a turner.
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BeligerAnt
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Re: Tashic's ants

Post by BeligerAnt »

I like your soldering method of building the frame, but the copper is quite heavy. You could remove the excess after soldering, either by etching or cutting it with a knife, heating it then peeling it off. Might save a couple of grams...
Gary, Team BeligerAnt
Tashic
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Re: Tashic's ants

Post by Tashic »

Ciao!
Since the school holidays are approaching (Yes!), I decided to start the design of the new F3.
Before any building I want to move forward with the featherweight, but I have some ideas in mind:
because f2, as pretty as it is, is very weak in performance, so I would like to make something powerfull this time, by basically make a total rebuild, and use the previous parts for a flea (recycling part of the chassis for extra shiny).
The plan is making a spring powered flipper, but I'm not sure if the setup that I have in mind would work, and also the weight might be a problem (not something new in the end).
I will post the pictures when I'm at home, right now I'm at school, doing litteraly nothing, and waiting for android studio to load!
Remote-Controlled Dave
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Re: Tashic's ants

Post by Remote-Controlled Dave »

Ciao Tashic! Nice to know you're making progress.
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Tashic
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Re: Tashic's ants

Post by Tashic »

Here are the images:
You can see the external view, the mechanism inside retracted and extended, with the red line simulating the spring/rubber band.
It's not final yet, as I also need to work out how to release using the same motor arm.
I will use a a servo board for the motor, with the potentiometer attached to the motor arm, to convert it into a servo.
The motor is the 298:1 ones, and I will use two ESCs for the wheels, so one bec for the receiver and the other for the servo.
Thinking of increasing the angle of the flipper movement, as I don't think is enough, for self righting I need more force.
Should I make the top of the robot also part of the flipper?

Suggestions are welcome!
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Tashic
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Re: Tashic's ants

Post by Tashic »

Sorry for not posting any updates, but I wanted to have a functioning flipper first.
Here it is:
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I have a 298:1 gear motor, controlled by a servo board and it's potentiometer (black box with the potentiometer hot glued to it's side), that pulls the brass loop connected to the flipper, until the smaller brass loop on the base catch on the flipper.
then, the gear motor can move to the other side freely until the pin starts to move upwards instead of horizontally, and the loop on the flipper tilts and the little piece of brass on the left (in the third photo) pushes the catch down, releasing the flipper.
Hope the explanation makes sense...
The servo is powered by a 2 cell lipo, and it gets a little warm if used a lot, but nothing problematic.

The robot can self right if I put something under the back, so the flipper is flush with the ground.
I will post a video soon.

EDIT: video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_YjKY1 ... e=youtu.be
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