Team Phyte Antweight Builds & Event Reports

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James Williams
Posts: 94
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2018 5:07 pm

Team Phyte Antweight Builds & Event Reports

Post by James Williams »

Hi everybody

After attending AWS55 I've decided to get into the antweight scene. I already had a few events under my belt with my featherweight Neophyte, but after Shakey kindly invited me along & lent me one of his spares which I named "Rented for the Roboteer's Pleasure", as well as recruiting me to drive the yellow 1/3 of Wedge Wedge Wedge I've been bitten by the bug.

Despite being not only a complete rookie but also not even knowing what I would be competing with, I got surprisingly far, reaching the 7th round with both entries. Admittedly I was a bit lucky with Rented, getting a bye in round 1, having Oh Baby pirouette itself out the arena in round 2 & Not Playtested's weapon falling off by itself in round 3. However I did have a good, competitive fight against Yin & Yang, who ended up both getting under me at the same time & threw me out with some brilliant coordinated driving. I also got thrown out very quickly by Limpet, who ironically did the exact same thing the week before with the featherweight version at Grantham.

Driving Wedge Wedge Wedge was a lot of fun, even with my dodgy driving sending myself off in most fights. Competing alongside Alex and George who both finished in the top 4 on the day really did have a "me vs the guys she told you not to worry about" vibe, but comparing what they were doing to myself really helped me improve slightly from match to match. If any fellow noobs get the chance to drive as part of a clusterbot I strongly recommend doing so. Highlights included getting absolutely bulldozed by Considerable as well as an epic cluster battle against EPZ, including the one time my suicide dives paid off, taking 1/2 of EPZ with me.

Going forward I've decided to build a couple of antweights for myself to hopefully enter at AWS56 in October. I've already got a few ideas in mind, starting off with a basic pusher with large forks on the sides as well as maybe a mini Neophyte. I don't have CAD so I'll probably make a model out of card once all the internal parts arrive & work around that. The main reason I'm posting this now is to serve as a reminder to myself. When I have something more interesting I'll post in on here. Any feedback of any sort is more than welcome.
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Shakey
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Re: Team Phyte Antweight Builds & Event Reports

Post by Shakey »

Good to see you on here, I'm looking forward to seeing what you build!
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
Zanbots
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Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2018 8:01 pm

Re: Team Phyte Antweight Builds & Event Reports

Post by Zanbots »

Oh, Baby! Vs Rented For The Roboteers Pleasure was my favourite fight of the competition. You were quite good at getting hold of a part of me and somehow twisting the robot around. Then I had lots of fun trying to flail about and wiggle away. The way my bot would dance around in the chain configuration was so much fun. I'd love a rematch. Next time it's planned to be even faster and I've learnt to take more care next to the edges.
Jeremy Hall
Ants; 24601
Oh, Baby!
B-Bot
Valjean
James Williams
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Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2018 5:07 pm

Re: Team Phyte Antweight Builds & Event Reports

Post by James Williams »

Thanks! That was a fun fight. I think the axe pushing down combined with your own driving momentum was what was knocking you over. Another highlight was Dave Lawrie yelling "Leave him!" whilst you were over (in the heat of battle I forgot I could win if you couldn't self right). Also enjoyed watching the rumble that you & Duck Bot almost went the distance in.

I would love a rematch one day but since it was Shakey's bot I'll have to either make my own axe bot or maybe buy one of his once he's redesigned it (then I could name it Upgraded for the Roboteer's Pleasure). Hope the upgrades work out for you, more speed on a thwackbot is always a good idea.
James Williams
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Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2018 5:07 pm

Re: Team Phyte Antweight Builds & Event Reports

Post by James Williams »

OK A bit later than planned but I've finally been able to start on the circuitry for my first ant. It's not going to be ready for AWS56 next week so to my shame I'll resort to using some bots I've picked up on Ebay. Just wanted to check which way I'm supposed to wire the ESC into the receiver. The way I have it in the image the black wire is the 0V connecting into the inside connector and the white wire is the signal connecting to the outside connector.
James Williams
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Re: Team Phyte Antweight Builds & Event Reports

Post by James Williams »

The forum doesn't want to post images for me today so here's a link to the post on the FRA forum. http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/threads ... post473726
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GeorgeR
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Re: Team Phyte Antweight Builds & Event Reports

Post by GeorgeR »

I can't see the pic, but the signal pad is the inside connection, with the earth being along the outside edge of a lemonrx, so it sounds like you've got it the wrong way around currently.
Team Zero - AWS 58 Champion!
Zero - rambot - - Axiom - axebot - - Valkyrie - drum spinner
Blueprint - rambot - - Vampire - horizontal spinner - - Particle - ???
RBMK - quad spinner gyro walker - - Duality - dual spinner gyro walker
James Williams
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Re: Team Phyte Antweight Builds & Event Reports

Post by James Williams »

Thanks George. :D
James Williams
Posts: 94
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2018 5:07 pm

Re: Team Phyte Antweight Builds & Event Reports

Post by James Williams »

Well, AWS56 was a lot of fun, even if my performance was hit & miss. Thanks to Dave, Joe & all the BBB guys for putting on a great event. Congrats to Team Oink on a well deserved win, utterly dominating the tournament. I learned a lot here that will help me going forwards.

My new flipper bot Please Shut Up made it's debut & immediately I had a huge issue. After sticking acetate on I found out the bot was just a little too big so I had to compete without it. Needless to say I found myself drawn against two flippers who had little trouble throwing me out of the arena (p.s. The 1st round draw was For Fox Sake Please Shut Up? How was that random?). For future events I'll need to find a way to make it shorter or squeeze the acetate on somehow, as well as as adjusting the trims as the drive was a bit twitchy. Also a couple of people wanted to know where I got the wheels, so here's a link https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Black-Model- ... 0040.m2060.

Also on the team was Rented For The Roboteer's Pleasure, only this time it wasn't actually rented. Rented fared a little better, winning it's first battle (although mostly because my opponent broke down immediately after starting). Next up was Wedge Wedge Wedge, which was the robot(s) I wanted to fight the most since I was Shakey's wedgy wingman last time. Even though I got utterly swarmed & lost pretty quickly this was absolutely my favourite fight of the event. Finally I was knocked out by a flipper (Burnt Nuts I believe?), finding myself in a pushing stalemate with my back to the pit. I took advantage of the opportunity to hit them with the axe, which unfortunately lifted me off the ground giving them the chance to shove me out.

On the plus side, Rented did very well in the end of event rumble, eliminating several bots & attacking many more, lasting to the final 3. In terms of improving it, I'm thinking about putting a wedge on the back, since I seem to reverse into people a lot, as well as cooking up some double sided axe heads. Hopefully will have the upgrades for both done for Ant Freeze as well as maybe finally getting an ant of my own built.
James Williams
Posts: 94
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2018 5:07 pm

Re: Team Phyte Antweight Builds & Event Reports

Post by James Williams »

OK a bit later than I had originally planned but I've finally gotten around to building my 1st ant in time for ant freeze. It's nothing too special, a basic polycarbonate wedge bot. Introducing You Break It, You Bought It!! https://ibb.co/ydtdsBd
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