Team Phyte Antweight Builds & Event Reports

[James Williams]

Ant Freeze was a lot of fun, an interesting event for me as it was the 1st antweight event using a bot I'd built from scratch, You Break It, You Bought It. Before the event I did a bit of testing & found a couple of issues. Firstly, it is very sensitive when steering & rather twitchy. Secondly, when inverted the top panel is pushed downwards by the weight of the internals almost lifts the wheels off the floor. A little tape fixes that though. Also due to an oversight of design, the front wedge panels sat too high. Even with acetate on though I suspected this would leave them vulnerable to wedges & verts/drums. Oh well, off I went anyway.

Rented for the Roboteers Pleasure was first up in the nuts mini-game, sporting a new axe head. I was tempted to leave the presents from BBB6 on but I thought I might get DQ'd if they entangled someone again. The game itself was odd for me, I spent about a quarter of the match with my axe stuck inside one of my opponent's & another quarter beached on a nut, but eventually escaped to scrape together 12 points, finishing 2nd. The main tournament wasn't that memorable really, winning 1 & losing 2 fights, mostly due to my driving (I'm getting better, I promise ).

You Break It, You Bought It did better than I thought. I picked up a win or two before getting drawn against team Oink's brilliant cluster (Lil Voink I think). For those who haven't seen it, Voink is a rambot that hides within a moving pigsty, which drops a door to release the main bot. Since it takes a couple of seconds for Voink to get its wheels onto the arena floor, my plan was to huff, puff & blow his house down before he got a chance to attack me. Unfortunately, I drove up the door & got stuck inside there myself. By the time I'd got myself out, the box had moved towards the corner & I was quickly beaten. I managed to get one more win before facing Valkyrie, who quickly proved my suspicions right & ripped off 2 of the front panels. Following some advice from Dave Weston I'll cut some slots into the supports so I can add more sideways to increase the surface area to glue the panel onto.

I also entered my spare Shakey flipper for my cousin to drive (since she prefers it over Please Shut Up) who did a great job, despite being nervous (especially about spinners). She managed to pick up 2 wins, including 1 against Pete Waller's drum Anticyclone. Overall things went well though, not much to do before the next AWS. I'm hoping to start on some more ants soon so I have something different to use at tournaments later in the year.

[James Williams]

Well, with AWS57 in the books it's time for me to bore the unfortunate souls who read this about what I thought about the event. Overall it was a lot of fun with my robots having varying degrees of success, all of which found themselves against incredibly tough draws in the 1st round.

You Break It, You Bought It was 1st up against AWS56 runner up Bzwroink. It went like every fight I've had against Team Oink, pitted after less than 20 seconds. In those 20 seconds though I learned that not only was the drive as twitchy as ever but I wasn't getting much grip on the arena floor. I trimmed the acetate on the front a little which made it a bit better. It's second fight was against Juggernaut, which became a driving match between a 1st time competitor & a robot that couldn't drive well with an "inconsistently skilled" driver. Control passed back & forth between us, but Juggernaut was far more effective with it's attacks, almost eliminating me several times. I cheated death by flailing myself off the wall, I cheated death by floating over the pit & somehow driving back in the arena, but I couldn't cheat death from the judges hammer & YBI,YBI was out.

Please Shut Up made it's return, now with the old folding acetate trick (thanks to Dave Weston for the idea). Having acetate on makes a huge difference, as I learned at BBB6 that with acetate PSU can reliably get under most robots. It is rather fragile however, but as long as I avoided large horizontals that would hit it before I could get under them then I should stand a fair chance... so of course PSU was drawn against Chaotica. As soon as the fight started I charged at Chaotica, causing it to bounce towards the walled corner. I charged a second time & with an insane stroke of luck caused it to bounce upwards, over the wall & into the pit beyond. After the fight I saw that the flipper had 2 nasty cuts in it, one of which was about 5mm from the lipo, so in the future the panel will either need filling or replacing.

Please Shut Up's 2nd fight was against Pete Waller's PiedPurpleAntEater, where I felt like I had the upper hand until cruel irony struck where my acetate got stuck between the gap in the floor panel & the wall. I couldn't escape & was counted out, meaning having acetate was responsible for my losing instead of not having acetate like last time. Up next was vertical spinner Error 3XE, which I was quickly able to tip over & thought I'd won for a few seconds until it self righted. I was able to flip it over a few more times until the back panel came off 3XE & was forced to forfeit. PSU's luck finally ran out against Fred where some appalling driving took myself out.

Rented for the Roboteer's Pleasure had the best run I've had in an event so far, going 5-2. It's 1st fight was against Concussion & having seen 1st hand what the heavyweight version was capable of I was rather nervous. Fortunately, Concussion ended up in the pit before I took too much damage but not before chewing up the bottom of the wedge & cracking it in 3 places. Whilst this damage wasn't too bad (I've already fitted a new one) I was now worried that the wedge wouldn't be able to hold up against another spinner fight (I had learned there were several spinners in my group) but I added another layer of acetate to try & strengthen it a little & to try to make up for the lost bottom sections of the wedge, as well as some tape a couple of fights later. I then fought Team Effort's cluster Devious Plot in a losing effort (I think I beat my 15 second record against those guys, at least) before racking up a couple of wins against Killbo Stabbins (which is an awesome looking bot) & No Parking.

Up next was one of the aforementioned spinners, Combatant. Fortunately for me, Combatant's spinner had broken in an earlier fight, giving me a huge advantage which I was able to capitalize on & secure another win. Then same the dreaded rematch with Concussion. Pretty early on in the fight my wedge finally gave way & 1/3 of it snapped off, but in yet another lucky turn the same hit also broke one of Concussion's bulkheads causing the weapon to fall apart. I wasn't too excited just yet, as I knew Carl was still very much capable of outdriving me, so I carefully picked my spots & eventually pitted the beast for good. I had barely enough time between fights to "reassemble" the front for what I suspected would be my last fight against Wedge Wedge Wedge. Sure enough, just like the last time I faced these 3 I was utterly overwhelmed & Carl got some degree of revenge & took me out.

Overall I am happy with how I did, with my highest performing bot finishing joint 17th in the (tied) largest AWS ever. I'm getting better at driving (apart from the odd blip), but I still need to figure out the best way to fix PSU's flipper & I have a few ideas for the future. But more on that soon...

[James Williams]

A couple quick updates, firstly Rented has a new wedge after AWS57 I've still got to figure out what to do with PSU's flipper though.

More importantly, I've decided that my next antweight will be a spinner, with a design similar to S5 Wild Thing, only invertible (with some other variations I'm still working on). I've started gathering components, including a DYS BE1806 brushless motor & Afro 12A ESC. My question is how do the wires on the motor match up to the ESC? I'm guessing that because the red & black leads are on each side of the ESC that as long as the middle leads match up, that the other two shouldn't matter & swapping them over would only change the direction, but I really ought to make sure 1st.

[James Williams]

https://ibb.co/GTpw4jV

[Kyro]

i wouldnt assume that about the wires, i purchased a bldc and esc kit and on mine, i assumed it was like that. could not get it to work until i hooked the right esc wire to centre bldc wire... very odd i thought, but it could be the same with yours... my newer smaller esc and bldc i had to guess straight up as the wires entering the motor are hidden so i couldnt tell which was centre... luckily, i hooked it up right on the first try... no wires were colour coded (all blue on first bldc and all black on the second, both esc's had red wires to connect to)

someone else might have more info on your particular models, but just a heads up

[James Williams]

Don't worry Kyro, I'm no stranger to wiring things the wrong way. I've researched it on some rc forums & it seems I've got it right. Of course if someone reading this knows otherwise they're welcome to tell me (hint hint).

[James Williams]

I spent today at Botfest 2, an event I wasn't sure I was even going to attend, since I've still got a couple of things to sort out for Burgess Hill next week, but I am sure glad I did. I decided to give Rented a break this time & instead brought my Shakey flipper appropriately named "What Are We Doing With Our Lives" (leave suggestions down below).

The day started off with "fixing" Please Shut Up's flipper panel by sticking googly eyes over the damage (thanks to Sevalent for that). The event started atrociously, with 4 losses between my three bots, mostly due to stupid driving mistakes. But then something happened & I somehow managed to win almost every single fight since. I haven't seen any official results yet but off the top of my head I'm guessing You Break It, You Bought It & What R We Doing picked up 3/4 wins each & PSU got 6 wins in a row.

PSU qualified for the finals where it racked up more wins against Ant Kev & a much anticipated rematch against For Fox Sake putting me in the grand final against Bodacious. Unlike other events Botfest had a best of 3 format for the grand final. The first fight was a draw, the second fight went to PSU, the third fight went to Bodacious & in the fourth fight, I blew it & drove myself off. To be honest though, if it went to the judges I think Bodacious would have won anyway so congrats to a worthy winner.

Overall I am very happy with Please Shut Up's performance. I always thought PSU was a good bot that was getting let down by silly little things & I'm glad it finally got it's chance to shine.
https://ibb.co/Snc0T7w

[James Williams]

AWS58 was great, thanks again to Chris, Ali & everyone for hosting. My performance was pretty much the same as last time, Rented made it to round 7 & the others fell pretty early. I did have one weird issue where one of my bots somehow had a battery failure & a wire came loose at the same time, just before a match (it was definitely fine after the last match). A HUGE thank you to Shakey for diagnosing & fixing the issue, even if we still had to forfeit the match. Oh & I was co-winner of the second 3 minute rumble, so yay.

Going forward I'm hoping to up my game regarding actually building bots. Now that I have a new NanoTwo LT (that Shakey guy sure is helpful) to try out I have an esc small enough to try more creative ideas. One such idea is to have an overhead spinner but with a very long chain instead of a bar & I already have a name in mind (Epic Flail). I also have a couple Brewster Blades that I'll be using at some point.

[James Williams]

I've been to a number of events since my last update so here's a quick rundown of how things have been going lately;

Please Shut Up has been through spinner hell lately. At Showdown, Botfest 3 & AWS59 it has found itself against spinners in the early rounds & although PSU is still (somehow) undefeated against them, the damage has started to build up & it may well be time to retire it soon. On the plus side it has had a pretty strong showing over the last 2 events. It only lost 1 fight against Kev Baxter at Botfest but didn't get enough points to proceed & was on a nice little run at AWS59 until it ran into its arch rival For Fox Sake as well as Kev Baxter (spot the incoming trend).

You Break It You Bought It had only 1 appearance over the summer at AWS59 where it managed to beat Super Nintendo Chalmers, only to drive itself into the pit against one of the bloody Lego bots...

Rented continues to be the star of the team, finishing int the top 16 at Showdown, 3rd at Botfest & 7th at AWS59. It had a bit of a scare at Showdown during one of the whiteboard fights, when Wu Ben cut through both axe mounts in 1 hit & sent the axe flying followed by a beatdown from Error 3XE, but nothing glue couldn't fix. At Botfest it also lost only 1 fight in the group stages against Kev Baxter & made it to the semi finals where it lost to... Kev Baxter. Rented did at least beat Kev in the 3rd place playoff. Rented also did great at AWS59, scoring a win over the mighty Valkyrie as well as cracking the shell of Eyesorasaurus (Eyesorasaurus did make it easier by flailing it's weapon though). Oh, guess who beat it?

The Little Sytes made their debut, which was more me testing them than anything. I've found that they outwedge pretty much everything brilliantly but lack pushing power, so I'm hoping to upgrade the internals at some point. They also lack strong armour, so I made a massive wedge attachment to fit onto one of them if needed.

I'm hoping to get 2 more bots built for the next AWS & have even signed them up as motivation. More on them to come...

[James Williams]

Well, I only managed to finish 1 of the 2 in time for Saturday, but nevermind, introducing Epic Flail!!!



Epic Flail has a very simple design philosophy: Big motor, big rubber band that will stretch out upon spin up, & 2 big metal teeth on each end. The plan is that instead of delivering a single big hit the weapon will repeatedly swipe at opponents, impeding their driving & scoring points with the judges.

Upon testing I've found the flails do have enough force to easily swat away an empty tub of grapes, but don't quite stretch out as far as I'd hoped, so I'll try & find a longer, thinner band. If the flails let me down I still have a big wedge similar to the one on Rented. I've also had to hold the lid on with electrical tape due to weight concerns.

I'm hoping it manages at least 1 win, but to be honest I suspect it's success will depend more upon how good a job I do with the acetate on the day than anything. PS. It can self right... sometimes.