22/9/00 Decisions... | |
Term has started back at college so I'm snowed under inducting students, however I have had time to sort out the pneumatics order. I've sent off for an SMC LDT100-125 piston with a couple of SMC VS 3135 3 port valves and some AQ3000quick exhausts, all from Graham Leacock, who is an unreasonably helpful chap. Following Killerhurtz recommendations on the RW forum I phoned up a local fire extinguisher company "Pyrotec" who service our college, and asked if they had any spare extinguishers I could use for the high pressure side. They very generously gave me 2. Then I found out the regulations require the extinguishers to be under 5 years old, so I e-mailed them and they are giving me another 2, all I can say is Thanks. I'm still chewing over motors, but it looks like I'll be using Roger Plants Litton motors and cut down axles as it seems the least expensive route. I'd hoped to get some Bosch GPA's but Wheely big cheese did ok with the Littons, and they are considerably cheaper. |
For two years in a row I've missed out joining in with Ian Watts robot bash at the Uni. So I'm making sure I've got something running before it swings around again. So I welded a couple of new gearbox cages into the 4 wheel push bot, and dug out a set of Electronize speed controllers. I fitted the titanium plate that has been cluttering the basement for a decade and have been doing some testing with a set of LiON batteries that used to belong to a cordless strimmer, which fell apart from overuse. I've run it up and the battery doesn't really have enough life to power 4 motors, but is useful for testing. I've stuck some old NiMH units on a charge cycle to see if they have enough life for a bout or two. The only things I actually need to "buy" are a 2.4GHz radio set, as the old 40MHz stuff is against the rules these days, so I've ordered a Hobby King 4 channel set for £20 off ebay. Strangely yesterday Mentorn emailed a bunch of robot folk to
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