radio-controlled

I managed to get the little Jansen style walker up and running on radio control. Probably overloaded the central supports with a huge 5 cell AA Nicad pack, and 7 channel Rx... and indeed it did "realign" the gears, which caused a bit of skipping. However the point of the exercise was to see if it would take a radio signal, and it does. If it takes a radio signal it means I wan swap in an Arduino and use the PWM channel.

On another tack I nipped down to #buildbrighton last Thursday and with Adam's help disassembled a Dalek voice changer helmet, and stuck the sound circuitry into the head of our "real" Dalek.
It works after a fashion, and flashes the dome lights too.
Once I've done the hard work building the neck section, I'll strat wiring stuff up properly.

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The weakness of machines

All of the robots I have built have failed in fights, and usually at the axles/wheels, it's like a running joke. So why should it be any different with this featherweight? Meathammer was designed back in 2005/06 when using 4 drill motors was a bit of a novelty... it was made more novel still by mounting the epicyclic gear cages directly to the chassis, which unfortunately sends all the drive shocks back through the gearbox. The original version ran for a number of fights at modelworld 2006? and even won some, especially the sumo, which favoured its very low profile. I've just rebuilt the gearboxes with all metal gears, and tested it, and it seems it should last for at least one fight… but as I put it in the car after testing, I noted one of the wheels had nearly fallen off. Mark that bolt for Lockthreading! All this got me thinking if I could make something less likely to lose a wheel, break a gearbox etc I have a huge pile of bits and bobs that were destined for heavie...

robot rebuilds

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...

Still waiting for the gears.... so no wheels yet

13/2/01- Still waiting for the gears.... so no wheels yet Revised Specifications for Killer Carrot 1 Chassis Mig welded 35x15mm 2mm box ERW steel, forming a 400x400x200 cross-braced perimeter frame. Motors 2 x 24v surplus hi torque (weedy) motors from display electronics. (Don't buy these, save your cash and buy something decent from Roger Plant) Speed Controllers 2 x 4QD NCC35-24 through a DCI, pots linked to 2 Futaba S3003 servos. Radio gear Futaba Skysport T6YFK, 6 Channel Tx, 40MHz fm, FP-R138DF 8 channel dual conversion receiver, with 1 RF-1 failsafe. Weight Middleweight, under 50kg Drive train Motorcycle sprockets and chains 8.2:1 reduction on new 10" pneumatic tyres, giving around 8.5mph top speed Batteries 2 Micro kiel 18AH 12v's Weapons 40mm pneumatic ram giving around 60kg's of lift via a pivoted arm, rear mounted spikes for ramming. Armour 3mm BASF RESART polycarbonate Special features Can run upside down. So here we h...

killercarrot

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