Team Ucalegon's ants

All things antweight

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Paulmchurd
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Joined: Sun Dec 10, 2017 4:39 pm

Re: Team Ucalegon's ants

Post by Paulmchurd »

Wow. Awesome amount of stuff you have built for your kids. Hopefully you can get more people involved and get some good use out of the arena.
tomchaps
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2016 4:51 pm

Re: Team Ucalegon's ants

Post by tomchaps »

I'm building another clamp/flipper, and the "pink" Turnigy servo is out of stock at HobbyKing. What other 150g-appropriate servos would folks recommend?

Also, if I'm just clamping, I presume I don't need as burly a servo as the "pink" I use for a flipper. Is there a popular weaker servo that holds up to the abuse my daughter is likely to inflict?
tomchaps
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2016 4:51 pm

Re: Team Ucalegon's ants

Post by tomchaps »

Well, I finally got another "pink" servo, as well as a couple of others to test. One is rated at 7.4V--should I NOT run it directly off of a 2S lipo, since it's 8.4V fully charged? I'm not sure how sensitive these things are to being overvolted. (The "pink" is rated to 8.4V, and I've never had an issue...)

Also, the small one I got (https://hobbyking.com/en_us/corona-919m ... c-12g.html) only takes 4.8-6.0V. So, should I run an external BEC to it? Something like this? (https://www.banggood.com/DC-DC-Converte ... rehouse=CN).

I'd rather not find out the limits of these new servos the hard way, so if anyone has any experience...
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DieGracefullyRobotics
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Re: Team Ucalegon's ants

Post by DieGracefullyRobotics »

Aw man, I love your robots! Would I be being presumptious to assume Jellytussle might be inspired by a certain heavyweight or is it a coincidence?

Regarding overvolting, I know there are people in the past who have done it successfully. 8.4v into a 7.4v one SHOULD be OK if used a little conservatively in battle, though with the kids driving conservative might not be an opinion. Unfortunately, in my experience, there isn't really a straight answer. I've had servos of the same model and type, some run overvolted without complaint, others popped instantly.

Maybe one of the more technically minded people on here could give you a better answer, I tend to just try it and see what happens.
Dave
Die Gracefully Robotics - Barely Even a Proper Team.
tomchaps
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Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2016 4:51 pm

Re: Team Ucalegon's ants

Post by tomchaps »

Nope, it's a coincidence! The name is from a character in the old, bizzare Uncle series of kids books. The Badfort crowd of villains have wonderful names I'm hoping to use for our bots: Nailrod Hateman, Hitmouse, Jellytussle...

Man, I loved Jellyfish, though--as someone whose first bot built not long ago was all UHMW screwed together with deck screws, it was great to see.

I guess I'll test the overvolting, hope they survive. I'm excited about the tiny cheap servo though--it's $7, 12g, and just as fast as the "pink" servo. If it can survive, I'll be super happy.
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DieGracefullyRobotics
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Re: Team Ucalegon's ants

Post by DieGracefullyRobotics »

In that case I'm glad I didn't assume! Haha. I'm glad you liked it though. Most of the time I have to listen to how much people hated it so that's nice to hear.
I hope the overvolting goes well. They really are very cool robots.
Dave
Die Gracefully Robotics - Barely Even a Proper Team.
tomchaps
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2016 4:51 pm

Re: Team Ucalegon's ants

Post by tomchaps »

Robogames was a blast, and my 150g bot finally won a match. I think Swarf might have been one of the only flippers in the event, in a field full of scary kinetic spinners. Still, I ended up going 2-2, losing to a wide dustpan that I couldn't flip (no 4" cube restrictions here!) and a spinner that broke my servo linkage, leaving me unable to self right. (I cut it out of polycarb, and for some reason made it super thin, for no discernible reason. Dumb!)

In the first round, I had the bad luck to face my friend's bot, driven by his son. His weapon motor broke after a big hit that I survived, and the rest was easy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4xm7WMmD6o

Here's the rumble at the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVm2zuISvQE&t=4s

My son was driving Jellytussle, which got golfed over the wall by a horizontal spinner (running on 4S!) that was temporarily gyro-balancing upright. Swarf lasted right to the end, although it spent much of the time on its side. (Flat sides are a bad idea, and I had trouble self-righting when the battery got low.)
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DieGracefullyRobotics
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Re: Team Ucalegon's ants

Post by DieGracefullyRobotics »

Being the only something in a field full of other somethings is always a worthy exercise! Your robots stand out proud in those videos. Glad you all had a super time.
Dave
Die Gracefully Robotics - Barely Even a Proper Team.
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ShootyMcExplosion
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Re: Team Ucalegon's ants

Post by ShootyMcExplosion »

You deserve mad props for going into Robogames with a flipper and winning fights. Nice work man!
tomchaps
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2016 4:51 pm

Re: Team Ucalegon's ants

Post by tomchaps »

Thanks! It's slowly getting better, as I'm learning from my mistakes:

Last year:
Match #1: My servo arm was a paper clip, which broke. Cut a polycarb arm to replace it.
Match #2: Forgot to actually screw on the servo arm, which broke. Screwed it in.
Rumble: Thin taped-on plastic flipper extension helped! Having only two zip ties for the hinge wasn't enough.

This year:
Match #1: Took a hit well, could self-right, my first win! Woo! You can break spinners by flipping them and letting them hit you.
Match #2: What the heck do you do against an 11" wide dustpan with clamping bunny ears? No lessons learned, except a fear of bunnies.
Match #3: Against a cool lifter that could run inverted as a clamp. Close match, I flipped him a bunch, but he pushed me around more. No-one was pushed out, and he generously conceded the match to me. (He was also a judge!) Lessons learned: Clean wheels between matches for better traction, so I don't lose pushing matches.
Match #4: Lost to a taped-together vertical spinner when that polycarb servo arm I cut back after Match #1 last year snapped. Why did I cut it so needlessly thin! Cut a fatter one in time for the rumble.
Rumble: Took a ton of hits, and only had one (of four, now!) zip ties break. No damage to the Ti wedge or chassis. Learned that I can't self-right when on my side, so I'll add some angle or side arm for next time. Learned that I can't self-right well when the battery is low or I'm pointing upwards. (I cut a zip tie that sticks out the back of the bot that keeps me from tipping back too far when I fire the flipper, but isn't so long that I can't flip over it the other direction. Well, I didn't test it with a low battery--I don't quite make it back over.)

Of course, beefing up the servo linkage system added weight, so now my polycarb chassis is full of holes and hacked-off bits, so I can make weight. Thinking about redesigning it to make a prettier version for next year.
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