MichaelG92's Build Diaries

[Kyro]

i do indeed... although i have also used the servo as one hinge and polycarb as the other hinge which means it has better support before adding some into the chassis

like so




please ignore the spaghetti wiring and lazy painting overspray

[MichaelG92]

I was tempted by the idea of using hinges Lima, but all the ones I found were too heavy. Where do you get yours from and how heavy are they?

Having had a look at other flippers what I've decided to do for ArmamAnt! is make a thin bar as in the photo, and then I'm going to design two separate "p" shaped attachments and slot them over the thin bits at the end. The top panel/flipper will be attached to the tops of the "p"s. Design is still a work in progress, depends on how it works I might do something similar for my other antweight flippers.





As for how to attach the servo arm to the flipper to open and close it, I'm still working on that. I'm attending the BBB event on the 16th June and I'm going to talk to people there and see what I can learn from them.

[EddieJ]

That bit you have made there. At least double the thickness of it it will need to be stronger if it hinges the flipper.
(^ Says the guy who used M1 screws in his first bot! )

[MichaelG92]

Will do! Like I said it's early days...
But the concept itself is sound enough?

[LimaHotel]

So here you can see the hinges I use (some bought from barnitts, others from a small hardware store. Amusingly one claims to be 3/4" and one 1/2", though they're the same size?) (edit: just measured. They're DEFINITELY 1/2".)
Either or, they're light enough that they don't register on my admittedly not great scales, and they've held up absolutely fine under my usage. You'll notice I've only secured one hole on each - that's because otherwise the nuts interfere with each other and it can't move closed. By offsetting the nuts (m2 and I did need to drill out the nail holes to 2mm to take the m2 bolts) it retains full movement.
As to your bar hinge - I believe T_Y did something similar with his Hello World? I'm not sure about his other flippers. But yes, it's a functional method of hinging your flipper.
Good luck!

[Kyro]

i can also second that those particular hinges hold up pretty well to combat... the bot shown has one hell of a flip (gave a few bots a flying lesson at our little tournament) and suffered no issues...
although being brass they could possibly bend if it took a big whack from a spinner in the right spot, but for £1.40 a pair, it's well worth picking up a few spares... its better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them...

[MichaelG92]

I didn't have time to write this last week but I competed in my first event (June's Bodgebots event put on by BBB aside) at Roboshowdown last Saturday in Milton Keynes. I had hoped to enter MicroNewton, having taken advantage of Team Panoramic's new commission service, but a problem with the 3D printer meant it wasn't ready in time. Luckily Harry lent me one of his flipper bots, pictured below, so I could still take part.



First up was the 2v2s, for which I was paired up with Toothless. We lost both of our fights so were quickly out of the competition, but it did give me the opportunity to get used to driving a robot; something I had little experience with and it showed!

My first fight in the 1v1s was against The pushbot from Mars. When we first came together I managed to get underneath it so I thought I was in with a chance after all! Unfortunately I was then shoved against the wall, and then a good push from the side saw me end up in the pit.
So into the losers' bracket, and I was up against the powerful flipper of Unorthodox. In an incredibly one sided fight he flipped me four times in about as many seconds, gaining some great air time in the process, and I drove into the pit trying to get away from him. So I was out already having spent a combined total of about twenty five seconds in the arena!

But it wasn't the end of my day, as all robots who were 0-2 got entered into the losers' rumble The Show Must Go On! award. they split us into 3 bouts of 6 with the top two of each going to the final. Unfortunately by this point the spring on the transmitter I'd borrowed had broken, so the driver's stick would no longer centre automatically and it made driving virtually impossible as I would spin around in circles. So I wasn't filled with hope, but I managed to do ok. Because I was mostly spinning around in circles as I tried to drive straight I largely avoided the carnage, and I even managed to immobilise Dusty when I flipped him upside down. By this time others had been immobilised so I went through to the final! In the final I started ok and survived a few hits from the spinners, but the driving problems finally caught me out and I ended up stuck with one wheel over the pit and forgotten about until I fell in myself trying to escape.

I also took part in the gladiator rumble where, again, I did quite well purely because I stayed out of trouble because I couldn't drive. I think I got to the last five before my driving problems led to me reversing into the one remaining pocket of space in the pit again.

To finish off my day I took part in the boss fight against Tom Brewster's beetleweight Drizzle, along with ten others. Sadly I didn't last long at all, as after narrowly avoiding getting whacked by Drizzle's disk I ended up nosediving into the pit for the final time.

Overall it didn't go too badly for a first event; the big thing I need to work on is driving, which I'll practice when the real MicroNewton arrives. I'm also hoping to get a pushbot ArmamAnt! finished in time for Sheffield which I'll be working on over the next month. I've also started making plans for BBB's Halloween bodgebots event in November which I'm really looking forward to. Thanks again to Harry for letting me borrow his robot, it was a great learning curve competiting with it. And I'd like to think I'd returned it in pretty good condition..!

[MichaelG92]

I took a day off work today and decided to put ArmamAnt! together for AWS59 in two weeks when my ESC went on fire!!

It was the electronics kit I'd used in my bodgebot from BBB's June event, and it had worked fine. I snipped the wires by the motors,wired up the N20s and they worked fine in testing. It was only after I tried them out after soldering them on that the ESC caught fire, and the photo below is the aftermath:



What did I do wrong? Is the ESC, as I suspect, beyond repair?

[Kyro]

id say the esc is kaput...

you can always try it and see if it has any life... maybe the second channel still works and you can use it to power some sort of brushed weapon...

im impressed though, i have used many of these esc's and never had one pop...

[MarkR]

If you know what chip it is, then it looks replaceable, if no tracks on the board are damaged. The problem I always had with Dasmikros was the tracks lifting and making a short.

Personally I'd suspect a short circuit somewhere. If your motors aren't shorted now, perhaps they were briefly during your test?

Do you have a multimeter handy? A bench supply?

I usually try out my dodgy (home made) ESCs on the bench supply with a low current limit set, before I connect them to a lipo (easy to say with hindsight!).

Did the magic smoke escape immediately on power on, or after the radio was activated?

Does the 5v regulator still give 5v? Does the rx still flash its lights?