That's it for now. Things to do for the future:
- Finish the top and bottom plates
- Finish machining the wedgelets
- Machine a slot in the wall for the weapon belt to pass through
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I spent a couple hours in the machine shop this past week working on the UHMW unibody of my new beetleweight robot I've decided to name "El Tigre". Drilling the holes in the top and bottom for where the top and bottom cover plates are going to be screwed in. Milling out the pockets in the inner rails where the motors will slide in Flipped on its side to drill the holes for the weapon shaft and mill flats for the nut and bolt head to fit into. It was a little annoying to machine because the UHMW is so flexible and I had to turn the entire body on its side so it chattered a lot and isn't the prettiest looking. But the bolt that I'm using as a shaft fits great so I'm happy. I also milled up a couple of blanks that will become the little wedgelets on the front of the robot to help feed opponents into the beater. These still need to be drilled and sharpened into a wedge shape. Using a 1:1 scale drawing of the top plate as a template to cut them out of a sheet of Garolite. I haven't done a build progress update in a while, so I don't have any pictures of them actually cut out, but it was really easy to cut using a band saw and drilling the holes using the paper template as a reference. With a lot of the machining done, I went home to start working on the electronics for the bot. I wired up the motors with the Vex 29s using this handy guide by Jamison Go on how to use these ESC for purposes other than the Vex kits they were designed for. I forgot to take more pictures during the wiring process because it went so quickly. But it looks like I'll have plenty of space for everything, despite how messy it looks in this picture. All of the electrical components are listed in the original post. Only other thing to note is the 3D printed motor mounts I designed for this robot. They clamp down on the diameter of the motor right on the seam between the gearbox and the actual motor. This will hopefully help keep the motor together while being strong enough to hold the motors in place. With significant wheel protection and foam wheels I'm not too worried about it.
That's it for now. Things to do for the future:
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I know it'e been a long time since I updated this. But between school and work I haven't had much time for combat robotic's lately. My schedule is starting to slow down so I'm starting to get back into building and competing. As part of my 1st place antweight prize from Motorama I received a Fingertech Beater-Bar Kit with electronics. I've had the idea of a beetleweight beater style spinner in my mind for a while. I had a model drawn up in Solidworks as one of those ideas that I would build "someday". Well "someday" apparently turned into today. I adjusted my model and came up with this: The design is based around a single piece frame cut from 2" thick UHMW by Big Blue Saw. I was very impressed with how their low-taper waterjet cutting turned out. It was basically identical to the model that I had drawn up. Here is a looked at the planned insides for now: Weapon: Fingertech Beater Bar Assembly
Weapon Electronics: Fingertech Beater Bar Electronics Drive Motors: Botkits 22mm Motors Wheels: 2.75in Lite Flites Drive ESCs: Vex 29 Motor Controllers Receiver: Spektrum AR400 Battery: E-Flite 3s1p 800mAh LiPo More updates to come as the construction actually begins. |
AuthorMy name is Michael Connerton. I'm a mechatronics engineer at a robotic automation startup company. This blog serves as a record of my exploits into the world of engineering, robotics and especially combat robotics. Archives
April 2023
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