killercarrot

Start again

2011-09-06T20:31:00.000+01:00

I've had a look at what's left of our various fighting robots.
In the featherweight class there are only two real possible salvage options.
First up is Meathammer, a steel frame 4 wheel drive, 4 motor push bot. It broke a couple of gearboxes at Burgess Hill fight, probably in 2007? The tricky bit is working out where I left off with the repairs, and where the parts might be.
So at lunchtime I took the frame outside to saw off the problematic gear cages.

I put the batteries on the old supernova, and they seem to be hold charge, the speed controllers and wiring seem to be ok, and the armour is fine.

The other option is the axe robot, which has never really been finished. It had its first outing at the Norwich Eureka event in 2003? as an electric axe, but since then has been converted to gas, electric and back to gas again....

I'll try and dig out the Killercarrot chassis when it stops raining.

Worthing... again

2011-09-05T21:49:00.002+01:00

Last weekend I visited the Brighton mini maker Faire, and met lot of old friends, whom I hadn't seen for ages. There was a Robot fighting event going on in Worthing over the weekend, and it all managed to inspire me to dig out some robot bits, and see if I can get something competition ready for April next year.

Looking back at this blog I realised it was 2003 when I was last in Worthing for a Robot event. I managed to find a video, and stuck it on You Tube.

mounting wheels

2006-10-21T10:35:00.000+01:00

This is our sumo bot which runs 2 wheel drive, but is a 4 wheeled bot.
The spare corners just have a simple axle running through the wheel .. in this case to stay under 3 kg for sumo rules it's just a bit of 12 mm nylon pneumatic tubing

Rebuild

2006-09-30T11:06:00.000+01:00

well it's taken a long time.. but I've finally got round to fixing things. I dallied briefly with the old heavyweight carrot, and ran it in the FRA championships (see next post), and remebered why I enjoyed playing with feathers so much. They are samll and easy to carry, don't hurt your back or your wallet so much.
So my big problem was getting the time to visit Plumpton, my old college to machine up some new bushes.. so I asked the FRA forum, and Trev Wright came up trumps, and has machined me some lovely little bushes. In the mean time, I've looked at the power problem and procured some slightly meatier batteries Sayno RC2400, 24v... and squeezed a set of curtis 70 amp controllers into the frame.. which to be honest is a lot less messy than the old electronise with all the relay cabling.
So I have to fit the bushes now and reassemble the drive trains, and then go for a bit of a test.

Modelworld update

2006-02-19T19:41:00.000Z

The gearbox repairs went ok, and even with desperate amounts of slack in the system, Metahammer ran ok.. well sort of..
The new batteries mad ea big difference, giving us plenty of zip, and powering along enough to push scorpion jnr and pillow torque.. though they faded after a few minutes and that was that.. I need to add another pack to bump up the Ah rating, I could work out what the motors are using but can't be bothered at the minute.
AN investment in another battery, and 4 bearing blocks is called for..
not sure when the next outing will be.

Model World 2006

2006-02-18T19:44:00.000Z

Here's Meathammer with its scoop sitting on the bench charging quietly before some "football"

and here we are in the air after being shunted by KR3.
We failed the assualt course miserably, too much slide and spin.. cutting in the dual rate helped.. but too late.
Did better on the sumo table, won the first 3 bouts, but when we were up again against scorpion we were out shoved.
Playing football has broken a set of plastic gears in one of the gearboxes, which I can fix... but one of the pinions has come loose too. not sure If I can fix that in situ. The driveshafts are desperatly in need of more support, and I think I'll have to add some bearing blocks.

ready for action

2006-02-17T20:39:00.000Z

Just put the finishing touches to Meathammer
The whole setup works quite well.. I'm off to modelworld to run it through it's paces a couple of times.
The weak bits look to be the drive shafts, which I'd like to bulk up to at least 20mm and have some better bearnings for.
The battery packs are also a bit weedy, but we'll see how they last, and may invest in a few high output packs.
Of course it could also really do with running the 4QD 35's or 60's instead of the electronise speedies.. but we'll see how it performs and make amends.
Since I took this phot I've added a hinged scoop, so we can get under other feathers... it's a popular design in the states, should work over here.
I only need to wire in an LED to show power and then we are ok to roll.

2005-12-10T18:28:00.000Z

The electronise speedos fit quite nicely, and there's plenty of room for the 4QD's if I choose to swap over. I've run it up at 12v and 24v, and it sounds a helluva lot better at 24v. The motors are cheap 12v jobbies, so overvolting them to 24v may get them warm. The other decision is what batteries to run them on. I have a couple of 12v NiCad packs i made about 3 years ago... but they are only around 1400mAh.
I am tempted to buy a couple of 8.4v sub C 1900mAh battery packs from technobots, and see how it performs at about 16v. It's just a cse of how h=long the packs last really.
There's enough room in there for 4 packs, so that would be 3800mAh. The big bot used to get by on 15Ah, so just 12kg shoukld be ok on 3Ah?
We'll see.
I've drilled the hubs, and just need to weld them up now.

2005-12-05T21:44:00.001Z

Ok I went the easy route and trimmed down the plastic housings and araldited them to the cages. the motors mount up ok, and I've given each of them a test run and they all seem to run smoothly.
The next step is to wire in the speed controllers. I have the electronise to hand for starters, as I only need to stick a couple of crimp fit connectors onto the wire to get things happening.
Then I need to make the wheel hubs.. Might get some of it done this week, but I really am in no rush at all.

New featherweight

2005-12-02T17:55:00.000Z

This is the new chassis for our next featherweight project. It's 50x25 2mm ERW . The lumps on the inside are the gearbox cages from 4 cordless drill motors, there's a copper bush through the chassis and the shaft is circlipped on the wheel side. If I can be bothered I'll gas weld some tiny nuts to the cages to mount the motors.. if not then I'll araldite the cut down plastic cases.
I have 4x12v motors to run this, and it's a bit of a toss up whether I run them at 24v using a pair of NCC 35 24v's OR the simpler, but maybe less brutal electronise option. I like the idea of the electronise, as we could then run trhe whole thing at say 16v, whilst still keeping all the components inside the central box... all under 80mm high. However the ncc's would certainly make the wheels squeal better, and I have some 100mm wheel options that would make it caper about at an alarming rate. The whole idea of this build is to be as simple and robust as can be.. if a motor burns out I can easily get another from FOCUS DIY, the chasis is a solid as can be, and will be even tougher when I plate the top with sheet steel, and weld on the side bars. I even have a stainless outer coat to go over it if needed.

Just need to get another Supernova to quick charge the battery packs.

K3

2005-11-29T20:34:00.000Z

Here's a photo of K3, the undocumented and underappreciated replacement for Killercarrot2. The 25mmx3mm box chassis was designed around a 100x125 16bar ram, T type axles, a pair of CIM2 motors balanced at 36v, and Pro 120 speed controllers. The regulator was a very nice Kenmac high flow unit, and all the plumbing was custom built in the Hydraquip workshops at Crawley.
The body is armoured at the front by heat treated steel, and the end of the flipper plate is cut from a laminated steel plough body.

Northern Allotment

2005-11-29T20:24:00.000Z

Well, looks like Simon didn't want to paint over the carrot on K3's flipper arm, so we may have a new Northern outpost for Team Dangerous Vegetables and the Killercarrot Crew.

Simon will be running K3 with the T type axles powered by a pair of Littons at 24v from the standard Hawker SBS 15's and Curtis speedies. There's a new 160x100 10 bar ram to fill the hole left when I broke the 16 bar jobbie.. should make a nice little run around. I reckon it'll need a gyro as the 16" wheels made it a bit flighty when I ran it, but that could be my poor driving skills.

Welcome back Killer-carrot

2005-11-27T22:40:00.000Z

Well it's been about 2 years since I updated the killer carrot website, and whilst I did try to run a blog from it, it never quite worked.
I've just sold the chassis of K3 to Simon of team Mongrel, so the decks are clear to revitalise old KC2, and get it ready for a bit of a laugh in 2006.
I've also made a start of a new featherwight chassis, a rammer, 4 drill motors, with the gear cages welded direct to the chassis.

Robotwars results

2003-12-24T21:10:00.001Z

24-12-03
Well we've been on air now, so there's no harm in a little write up. We were in heat F, against a variety of nasty machines, including fluffy, and Xterminator. I'll leave the in depth blow by blow write ups to other sites, as it doesn't really interst me that much. Strange that, hours of work, and I don't really care too much about the telly side of things, though it was a plus for the boys. I was impressed by the power of exterminator. We've never had much luck with spinners, they do lots of damage, but then again we usually drive away from it. In fact we took more damage from Scorpion in the qualifiers, but that's another story. Anyway, Richard came and gave a hand and after a 3 hour blast everything was back to the way it should be on carrot. It was drivable straight out of the xterminator fight, only a Rx wire coming loose The next event was at worthing and I took Dom and Adam, we won our first fight outright, and of course had a good day out. Easier to see from the photos, and the AVI clip.

can't tell you

2003-08-27T21:29:00.000+01:00

27-8-03...can't tell you
I can't go into any details about what happened at this years RW7, suffice to say we had a good time, the boys enjoyed themselves, and I was pleased to finally see the new House Robot I drew for Chris Reynolds alive and punching... well shuffling amusingly. Lots of help from everyone as always, special thanks this year to Dominic of Constrictor, Team UKRobotics, who found us a couple of connectors just the right size, George Francis for taking the trouble to let me test some bits and bobs, Alan Gribble for ransacking Dereks stores ... etc etc.
			This is what the boys spent a lot of their time doing instead of helping their poor old dad fix the robot... signing autographs, talking about themselves... and playing on Lee's PS2 (thankyou for entertaining the children this year team roobarb)
			A selection of multiplayer games keeping the monkeys occupied. And below we have some of the development sketches for the new house robot.

we're in...

2003-08-23T21:31:00.001+01:00

23-8-03... we're in...
Ok we made it. A horrifically long wait to get in, and then the usual hours of sitting around. We weighed in at 97.7 kg so I added a couple of lexan flaps over the tyres, and some bendy plating in front to stop us getting stuck by something spikey. Our fight was against scorpion, our chums from Nutley postoffice, Sir Chromalot, and a machine from some new chaps, which sadly got trashed by scorpions spinner. We had trouble with the pressure from the reg, and this stressed the flipper a bit, but it coped ok... though gave up a bit later into the fight. The Hawkers really gave us some zip, and we flew around the arena, not bad for a cellar floor speacil, the ncc 70's were nore than enough, though we could have used a bit more grunt for shoving the others. we drove out fine, which I consider a success, and were joint winners with scorpion, and through to Round F 10.30 am on Tuesday 26th... I nipped to work today and after hours of poncing about trying to straighten the bends in the flipper arm, Richard came in with Ben and told me to stop pratting about, and cut out the rot, and weld in some fresh metal, which I did...
			The new flipper has bracing in an "L" section, as I thought that might cope with the sideways stress from spinners better. If we have any weight left at weigh in (and I think we might have lost a kilo on the flipper), I'm going to experiment with bolting kart tyre to the edges to slow the impact force. I still have to bolt on the face, though I'm tempted to spray over it and give the beastie a long evil carroty nose...Not that that has any effect on anything.
			Last pic is a shot of the steel that scorpion cut through, thats a piece of 2mm steel at the front, edged with 1.5mm ERW inside another bit of 1.5mm ERW. Ouch! However we took it and survived. More later

ready to go RW7 qualifiers...

2003-08-19T21:30:00.000+01:00

19/8/03... ready to go RW7 qualifiers...

Well here we go again.
KC has been more or less "finished" for a while now. Tests prove it self rights, there's plenty of gas to go round, and it drives much better than before.
The Hawkers really give the old fella a bit of zip, wheelspin and wheelies even.
Unfortunately, there's no room for any armour, just a bit of cheesey ali plate... I'm sure we'll be Mullered, but to be quite honest it doesn't matter, it's only cost the steel for the chassis this year, a pair of Rogers wheels and a couple of cans of orange glow, all else is salvaged from various other builds.
I guess the build cost this time is around £60. plus £90 for the second hand Hawkers .Of course I don't want to get all the internals smashed up, but they have all served their purposes for 3 years now

Carrot Cubed - The "quick" chassis rebuild of KC2

2003-07-08T21:09:00.000+01:00

8/7/03 Carrot Cubed - The "quick" chassis rebuild of KC2
We worked KC2 hard at Modelworld 2003, and after about 6 fights, there were signs of the real damge we'd taken from Disco and Mr Psyches. the chassis had hairline cracks, as well as whole members bent beyond repair, so we decide it was time for another robot. I already had a new ram, care of STORM, a 50x135, that I intended to run at full pressure. I had new gearboxes and a pair of CIM2 motors,I had a set of Hawker SBS15 batteries, I even had a cellar full of new ERW steel for the chassis, and money set aside for a set of RobotRus Speed controllers.... but as with all things Robot wars it doesn't go tthat smoothly. I came to scrap the chassis on KC2, and looked at the components and thought it was probably worth spending a "couple of days", rebuilding the chassis, so we had a fun live event machine. This was fuelled by Noel Poncelets flipper spreadsheet, which occupied hours of my time, fiddling this and taht to see what would happen. eventually I decide it would be worth building a platform to test the spreadsheet, and quickly cobbled together a CAD plan of the new chassis. It took AGES to build, simply ages, and at the end of the day I'm not sure if we're any better off. In theory the new chassis and flipper geometry should throw a robot about 73cm on the air, 18cm clear of the flipper, which would be great, as we old ever managed a limp bit of lifting with KC2. Unfortunately as with all things RW Compomises creep in, and the end result is a bit of a bodge up, not enough flip for what we want, and nowhere near the armour we need... but hey this could be the last great swansong for KC2.

Dark Reign

2003-07-06T21:20:00.000+01:00

6/7/03 Dark reign

After running dark Carrot at a couple of events several mods have been made.
The batteries have been bulked up to 24v, to stop the relay drop out we were experiencing at 18v, and because of the increased speed at 24v the wheel size has dropped to 7cm. This removes the ability to do Dantomkia spins, but doesn't warm the motors up so much, as the wheels spin.
The original ram jammed open and was replaced by a slightly heavier item, putting the whole build a bit overweight. This could be rectified simply, but to be honest I enter so few competitions that it doesn't seem worth it.
The whole set up works remarkably well, and has plenty of shove, the flipper has plenty of flip throwing out all of our opponents at the Inspire event, Cutlet, catrip and Bodgeit, only sucmbing to Rampage 2, due to feeble driving on my part and a broken link in the nicad pack.
In theory Dark carrot is Adams robot, but it gets shared around quite a bit.

Fight report

2002-08-30T21:08:00.000+01:00

RW6 Fight report
Well after we got back from Qualifiers we went straight to a school fete. and gave a tyre flipping demo, drove around a bit and generally entertained the crowd. The fete was for new Team members Richard and Ben Killners school, and by coincidence was also the school that Guy of Barberous's sister teaches at. Barberous were supposed to show, but didn't becuase they were repairing damage from the qualifiers. As we unloaded from the fete, Neil charlwood rang to say we had a discretionary place, Adam was delighted. We were placed in heat L, a tough one with 2 very tough robots, Bigger Brother and Behomoth. Our first fight was against Bigger Bro, Riptillion and Major Tom. Iwas pleased with the way carrot worked, we managed a running flip that rolled Major Tom around the arena, and evn had Bigger bro over and pinned at one point, but I felt bad about pinning them as they had put us back on our feet so to speak. We experienced problems when we were inverted, as the aerial was touching bodywork and messing up the signal,this was rectified by a healthy layer of duct tape. Next fight was against Disco inferno, and I wasn't too bothered as I've never seen their disc perform as it should.... sadly it performed very well against us, and mashed us up pretty well. But like a punch drunk old boxer we just kept on limping back for more, in the end disco caught fire, and were imobilised, but judges decision went to them, so with relief we could go home. Damage wasn't a sbad as it looked, a couple of new tyres and half an hour with the welder had us ready for extreme 2. Extreme 2 This was the minor meltdown event , with Adam driving. We were pitted against Rick an invertable flipper with a lynch powered spinning disc, and Tetanus, a marvellous monstrosity in rust. Suffice to say the driving was patchy with Rick tipping tetanus at one point and Adam pushing it back on it feet.... however he made up for it by doing a lovely shove and reversing tetanus into the pit. Next round we weren't so lucky, though it made some of the best TV I've sen. we were against lambsy, and early on picked them up, shoved and pushed, but then we lost a wheel. I have read that one should never use grub screw... I had a 3 grub screws holding the wheel carrier onto the axle, and they simply wore loose. The wheel rolled off... Mt Psyches carried back to us, and we spent the remaining 3 minutes fighting him off, and dead metal and nearly got Refbot over. A very much more exciting fight than it could have been. Adam was of course gutted, but managed to just about hold it together until we got back to the pits. After a few sweets he was back on form, and had decide that he was a far better driver than I , and from now on would take the lead. A good day, and a good finish to the season.

Birth of a monster

2002-08-16T21:20:00.000+01:00

16/8/02- Birth of a monster.

Here he is, built in a week, though still in need of "refining", much of the build is "Duck taped" in place so I can do some test runs, but The basics are in place.
	12kg's of brutality. Power comes from 2 power devil 18v cordless drill motord that I bought in 1999 to build our first robot wars entry... back before I realised they weren't big enough. The speed controllers are from KC1, a pair of ncc 35 24's, again purchase in 1999 before I realised they weren't big enough.
Having said that the 35's have powered KC1, and 2 , so they work ok. Wheels are screwed onto the drill gearbox outlet and R clipped in place. The flipper is a Festo 40x100, that was in KC1, but broke, when we smashed the lifting arm. It should have a tip lift of 128kg at 10bar, which results in the ability to lift about 20kgs at the tip through a height of 60cm. The system is powered by illegal sodastream technology that was in KC1, with special adaptor made by Woody, cheers chap.
The regulator is a Oxygen cutting reg that was bought for kc1, and the solenoid is a 5/3, In fact there are 2x 5/3 on that manifold, and oce I've done the final weigh in I may slice off half the manifold, as it weighs a few grammes. Chassis is absolutely gorgeous 15x15mm ERW, which welds beautifully, (if I use the decent welder at work). The mixer will eventually be the prototype board that Dominator team gave me to test,as Chris is sending a new production board out for KC2. Well, that's all for now, Adam will be driving it at Southfields, so the batteries are on charge for driving practice.

RW Qualifiers 2002 - Life's hard when your 9.

2002-08-05T21:27:00.002+01:00

RW Qualifiers 2002 - Life's hard when your 9.

We went to the RW qualifiers and what happened?
We lost to a team that did no damage to us whatsoever. The man said we might get a discretionary place, but I don't think so somehow.
We got there and had to wait for ages in queue, while while we waited for all the other cars to unload. Then we got weighed.

We registered and did our transmitter check and sat down and waited. We didn't do much apart from reading books and going to the loo and eating. Then we found we'd been shifted so we had to wait another load of hours. Then when we were about to go on we had to go in with another bunch of robots, Night raider and Derek2, Derek 2 won, and it's was bloomin unfair too!

RW Qualifiers 2002 - Retraction

2002-08-05T21:25:00.001+01:00

RW Qualifiers 2002 - Retraction

Yes! Yes! And Yes! Again!

You know in my previous piece I said we might get a discetionary place? Well we have!
We're all happy, but Dom (see "meet the team") was a bit grumpy at first because he wasn't going. But now we're all happy and :-))
Well We had some good fights, I can't say much more than that, but the main thing was ,it was fair. We had a laugh and it was fun... I can't say much more than that for now!

All over

2002-07-05T21:07:00.001+01:00

5-7-02 All over

Well, that's RW over for another year. I feel relieved, but I can imagine how dissapointing the process must be if you have a spinner or something that can only be used at RW. Anyway, we drove up to Leicester to stay at my Sisters on Wednesday night, (thanks Lisa), and then strolled up the remaining 27 miles after a leisurely breakfast and laze about.

the place is a bit of a warren, and very poorly signed inside, it's very much guess the route in... aha a queue of cars in an abandoned airforce base... must be Robot Wars. In fact we pulled up behind Si, Guy and Chris, fellow stout Southerners of team Barberous. We then spent half an hour walking up and down a line of robots peeking at this and that. Once we had a space for unloading, there was the usual rush to get everything out, so we could stand around for hours...bizarre.

The scales were weighing under by some 3 kg I reckon... then inside, Photo, Tx check with Val, Drop of a cylinder with fireman Pete, Tech check with Alan Gribble... Then into an intense bout of waiting, and waiting... we had our little chat from Matt Irvine to break up the standing about... then down to some serious hovering, drinking tea, chatting, tea, wee, tea, talk, walk etc... We were sorted in the pits at 12.30, and didn't fight till 7.30.

The fight we were originally lined up for was against demolition man (easy), ICU (easy), Barberous (very hard and dangerous)... however we got shunted up, phew I thought, we'll have to wait another hour but at least barberous won't shred us

.... the new round was composed of us, Fluffy, with its horrible petrol powered spinning bone, velociripper, an enormous full body spinner and Typhoon, a hugely sponsored air force full body spinner.
In the end when we finally got to fight we'd been moved again and faced a beautifully made milled aluminuim lifter called Derek, and a twin rammed flipper called Night raider....
The fight started badly, Night Raider got wedged in the pits, once under way we ripped it's battery lead off and that was the end of it. Then we got stuck into Derek, we shoved him around, but neither of us were really putting on much of a show... We shoved him about, and then he got his lifter tine stuck in the polycarb... couldn't release, and sowe ended, us shoving him about, him lifting us to stop it, then not being able to move...

Judges decision to Derek, prettier Robot, Adam was hacked off, I was releived. 175 mile return trip took 2 hours.. you do the maths.
Highlight of the day was Adam Clarks 259, a vertical spinner that killed it's opponents in about 30 secs... and got a deserved round of applause.

-The Final Countdown....

2002-06-29T21:05:00.001+01:00

29-6-02-The Final Countdown....
Ok, it's all done, bar the last minute fiddles that we always only notice need fiddling with in the minutes before a fight. KC2 evo, is all there, and has a fighting weight of 97kg if the bathroom scales are to be believed, and on Monday, I'll be putting the robot in the calf weigher down the farm to check. The revised layout reminds me of Thermidor, and were both orange, except he's got a good flipper. This is definately the last revision to KillerCarrot, and once we've been battered at the qualifiers, and limped through this years technogames, it's going to be time for a new start. Anyway, spec stays much the same, 2 Littons @24volts through 16.75:1 gearboxes, giving about 7mph, at the 10" Kart rears. Power comes from a pair of 4QD NCC70 speedies mixed in the new Quazar-design prototype interface board, weapon is an SMC 100x125 ram running at 10bar through an O2 cutting regulator and a pair of 3 port solenoids, quick exhaust valves, and high flow hosing, switched by 2 Powertrac swithes, to allow power up, power down, gravity down.The whole shebang is invertable, and the chassis is 15x30x1.5mm ERW steel box, badly welded together, and covered in 6mm ally chequer plate, and 6mm RESART polycarb armour. that's about it... I thought it only fair to post all the details I could before the qualifiers, as I know I've been scouring the sites of those I may be drawn against thinking how to use the information. GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE!

Something Nasty in the woodshed

2002-06-21T21:04:00.000+01:00

21-6-02- Something Nasty in the woodshed


Well here's the results of our grinder fest... we removed about 15kgs of unsightly fat,(steel and lexan), and then welded back in about 3kgs of extra bracing, wheelie bars and support struts. this should mean that the flipper now has something to flip against instead of merely lifting the front end. You can also see the delightful conditions which I usually work in... ie a 4 ft wide leanto. The snails are very fond of this carrot!

Here's the revised face of KC2, the flipper is basically U and Box section 2.5 mm steel that I blagged from some engine stands that were being lobbed from the college workshops. The surface is covered in a dual layer of 3mm lexan, which won't stop the axes, but does give a nice shiney canvas for my artistry. The new interface has been relocated. Pete Hollaway phoned to say he'd looked at the site and noticed that I had the interface in a box with the speed controllers. Apparently this makes a nice Faraday Cage, cause all manner of japes. I go on the line to RS who sold me a new ally box, then told me they couldn't deliver as it was the last on ein the Country, and someone in Reading had picked it up first..BAH! So I contacted Paul at Technobots, who said he had a stash of boxes, but then RS phoned back with an alternative. The moral of the story is to go straight to Technobots who won't mess you about Talking of Technobots I've now installed my new stubby extinguisher, which meets the standards in the RW regs, and has a certifcate of conformity. The two switches on top of the box are running the flipper at the minute, as the prototype interface board can only put out 1amp, the production units should handle 6 amps... ouch!... more about this as and when.

Finally, the last shall become first. Yes what was the front of KC2 is now the rump... I left the eyes as they looked a bit cape fear, and I'd run out of lexan... talk about scrapheap challenge. Overall armour is dual 3mm lexan with 6mm ally chequer plate, over vital (expensive components), 3x3mm lexan over other bits and whatever was lying around in the lean to for the rest,
Next most important job is to weigh the beastie, so I know if I can add some more struts to guard my poor wheels.

The Angle Grinder dieta

2002-05-26T21:01:00.000+01:00

26-5-02 The Angle Grinder diet


Well here we are the bare frame of KC2 from the front, or what was the front. Weight had to be shed in abundance, and sadly I had to loose the big spike (that fared so well, putting holes in Lightning, Mulsanne Monster, Panic attack, and so many others). I should have simply ditched the chequer plate ally armour, but I can't afford to keep replacing axed motors and speed controllers, so the armour stays and I loose a weapon.

Next step is to get out the plasma cutter and slice off any other unnecessary bits, and grind excess stuff away. A couple of members need to welded into the front and the frame is going to have all the rust wire brushed off, and a coat of rust convertor, then a thin coat of hammerite. I also need to fix up a couple of outriggers to provide a leverage point for the flipper. So much work, so little time. I'm picking up the steel tommorow lunchtime, castor wheels arriving from screwfix tommorow (and a nice new trolley to save my back!) ,a new extinguisher ordered from Technobots, and a NiMh Tx battery which should keep the signals running for twice as long....more as and when

Rebuild for the Wars

2002-05-20T23:07:00.000+01:00

20-5-02 Rebuild for the Wars

This is the new Speed control set up. The entire system is now housed in these die cast boxes, and links to the real world via 3 anderson connectors , and 2 RC leads to the Rx.

The new interface sits centrally in the case mounted on rubber diablo mounts to damp out vibration. The 4QD speed controllers are mounted directly to the lids with brass screws and heat sink compound. I have plans to add a fan/ filter set up, but to quite honest the ncc70's don't get hot enough. (Need bigger controllers, or more volts at the very least)
The same connectors that ran to the DCI, now connect the speedies to the new board, one for the left motor, one for the right. The pink and black wire take power directly from the battery, (so no need for Rx batteries), and convert it to a useable Rx voltage. The other two connectors run to the Rx. There are 5 input connectors, 2 drive channels and 3 weapons.
And this is what that tiny 4"x4" board replaces...

2 servo's connected to potentiometers, plus brackets.
A servo and microswitch connected to a failsafe.
A DCI interface board.
A powertrac Rc switch
A 4.8v Rx battery pack (not shown).

Once the board was mounted,the whole system takes about 15-20 minutes to setup, has reassuring led's letting you know what's going on. The performance difference is quite marked, previously there was a small but noticeable lag, from the servo twisting the pot to action and speed control response. Now the response is instant, giving a very precise and accurate control. I ran the first real test at at evening "demonstration" to the local church youth group, and it went very well.

With the controls sorted I decided I really should get ready for Robot Wars. Rumour has it the qualifiers are in the first week of July, which gives me just short of 6 weeks to get up to speed.
I started the afternoons efforts by weighing the whole setup. With full armour kc2 weighs around 110kg. I need to actually ADD metal, to make some outriggers at the back, to give a leverage point for the lifter, so I'm going to have to remove something substantial. The only option without going for a complete new chassis is to chop off the whole front of the robot, so I drilled out the rivets holding some of the lexan in place, and wheeled out plasma cutter. I finished the initial surgery off with a 9" angle grinder, and lugged the chassis back to the blacksmiths shop, where KC2 lives at the minute. The steel removed weighs in at around 9kgs so I still need to trim things down. The most obvious option is to trim down the ally plate armour, which really does weigh a lot.

Antweights

2002-05-15T21:12:00.000+01:00

15/5/2002: Well we have 2 new antweights now. DC2 and DC3 are modifications on the original theme. DC2 is a design in aluminium, usually this would not be allowed in antweight circles, but as the entire body is structural ly part of the flipper and doesn't act as armour, it's ok. DC2 has 2 tiny drive servos, HS 50's, a larger hs81mg pushing down the flipper, and another smaller servo as the latch. When armed the flipper can be driven under opposing bots and chuck them in the air. At Modelworld 2002 it faired well, only getting stopped in the end by Buzzant cutting through all the exposed wiring. It won a fair few fights, but I have yet to repair it, spending too much time on Heavyweights.

DC3 as seen in the above shot has extra large can end wheels, with super grippy arrow puller material stuck on. These wheels were swapped for wheels from Dom's duplo as they gave much more push, in fact in the revised set up DC3 proved unbeatable at modelworld 2002, shoving all comers out of the arena, until one of the servos began to stick. Sadly I haven't had time to fix it yet, but I will get round to it over the Summer.

Sussex Robot Rumble

2002-04-20T23:05:00.000+01:00

20/4/02 Sussex Robot Rumble

This was an Excellent day out. 2 shows to a thousand excited children. We had bouts of 4 in a ring, and suprisingly drew both of ours with Gooroo. The best fun was to be had later in the grand melee though... 10 robots in a ring the size of a postage stamp!

And we survived, only loosing our aerial! In fact only Axe Awe ceased to function by the end, and lay upside down in the ring. I really must get round to fitting our big regulator! We now have our prototype control board built by the Dominator 2 boys, and it's fitted and working well. Report ASAP! These shots show the afternoons grand finale... Clearest from the second shot, thats Killer Carrot 2, Tornado, Bulldog Breed, Dantomkia, Axe Awe, Hells Teeth, Gooroo, and Humphrey, not forgetting Comengetorix and Bigger Brother... Phew what a ring full.

We took full power axe blows from Axe Awe, which dented our 6mm ally plate armour, but didn't go through! Just need to make sure were underweight and We have a winner!

Broken Again

2002-04-07T00:37:00.000+01:00

6/4/02- Broken again

I took KC1 to work, to test out whether the relocation of the batteries made any difference to the steering, which has always been "sensitive", and indeed it is much more controllable.

The weight is now neatly balanced over the front wheels, and there is now very little pendulum effect. The remaining problems stem from the appallingly slack drive chains, the slow servos, and the cheap pots which they drive. I have been promised an experimental control interface from the Dominator team, but it still hasn't turned up.

The second reason for taking to work was to test the flipper. I tested it in the workshops, and knew it wasn't going to be too powerful, as it's only a diddly little 40mm ram. After flipping a dustpan around I tried to get a bit more power out of it by winding up the power from the regulator to 12 bar... Big Mistake, as I blew the ram in 2. Not so much of a problem though now as the new regulations prevent the use of sodastream bottles, so the whole set up is illegal. I am tempted to rip out the insides and fit them into keeler carrot to make a reasonably powerful swimmer for next years Techno Games. Ho hum...

Robot Mania at Whitehawk

2001-09-22T22:59:00.000+01:00

22/9/01Robot Mania at Whitehawk

After the huge rush to get KC2 ready for Wilsons Day, I was too exhausted to get repairs done for Robot wars qualification. I'd been up till about 11 each night, cutting grinding, welding, who knows what the neighbours thought? I'd created a whole pile of extra armour after the Dom2 incident, unfortunately it put us way overweight. The flipper alone weighed in at about 20 kgs. After much "lightning" we were down to just about 100kg, and I thought I'd do a test run. That's when the speed controller went poop! I almost cried.

So After a couple of attempts at repair, with the help of many people on the forum,(thanks, you know who you are!) and in real life from Paul Chitty, a local electronics wizard,I realised I was stuffed. I had the choice of running KC2 on an old pair of NCC35's for the qualifiers, with virtually no armour, or of going on holiday as had originally been planned. After a small bribr to the kids, I spent the week on a beach eating ice cream and looking a pretty women... (my wife).

on return the replacement board still hadn't arrived from 4QD, so instead we stuffed a pair of NCC35 24's in and put our names down for the footie at Ian Watt's Robot Mania, Brighton 22nd Sept
. 2 Teams, Our team(Bigger Brother) versus the others (Panic Attack), very quickly we were down from 5 robots on each team ... to us versus the rest.

We scored, they scored, we scored... then Panic attack blocked us, and they scored again.3-2. As I said a Moral Victory.

Robots were failing left right and centre, we came out with a few scratches, but I have photos of the damage we did to Panic Attack, (sorry), I'll post them soon.

KC2 is now sitting in the shed, awaiting a rebuild, not from any damage, but just to make it small enough to lug through the living room more easily, (like Bigger brother)
We've also lent a speed controller to the dominator 2 boys as they are planning to create a range of products including an interface for 4QD boards.

So until we get the speedie back, KC2 is on ice. We've decided not to bother with techno games this year either, a lot of standing around in a cold shed... we'll miss not seeing Alex, but there you go.

At present, Im working on a rebuild of Diced Carrot, KC1 has been stripped out to remove excess metal, strengthen some welds, and put more of the weight over the wheels to try and stop some of the pendulum effect.
I've changed the regulator too so I can use the Soda stream adaptor that Alan Wood (Onslaught) made for us.

The Original team

2001-09-05T21:23:00.000+01:00

Team killer carrot started as Team GM Farm, a poor attempt at humour, the idea was that the killer carrot was a genetically modified form of life... however this went down like a lead balloon at Robot Mayhem, so we stuck to Carrots, because the robot was orange.... and sort of pointy... feeble I know but what can I say.

	Dom (6)and Adam(9), the brains behind Team Killer Carrot, enjoy fighting, climbing on furniture and playing Pokemon on Gameboy. Dislike eating normal food, tidying up or behaving like human beings.Dom, alias Monkey boy is prevented from attending Robot Wars due to his age and criminal record. Adam, alias Dodge only wants to build a qualifying robot so he can get his club membership fee back.
	Rob (34),alias Zorro, (or Big Rob) Team Captain and tired father. Used to be a fox so cunning and free, now does a day shift at Plumpton College lecturing in Agriculture, IT and stuff, and a night shift as a freelance illustrator. Inept robot builder and visionary.
	New Boy, Mark, alias Bob the Builder. Can he fix it? well he'll give it a go and he probably knows a man who can do you a good deal. Robot Wars fanatic and chief of acquiring stuff, (all legitimate , honest!)

Build for Discovery

2001-07-26T22:51:00.000+01:00

26/7/01- Build for Discovery
Just back in after another welding session. The site hasn't been updated for ages because my modems been dead for ages. This is a brief outline of the build over the last 5 months.

I finally decided on a shape, and on May 16th I started building, we'd put off building so we could show the whole design process to the discovery channel film crew following our progress.
We started by building a chassis with the ERW steel, Hell look at the photos,watch the programmes.

So here he is KillerCarrot 2. If you've seen the discovery channel program, "Robots Revenge", you'll know we started the build for KC2 on May 14th, about 6 weeks before Robots@War. The first job was to solder in some bigger leads to the motors, then we welded up a frame, added some spikes, a bit of Lexan body work... and Bob's yer uncle. The flipper took a bit more work, so we put it to one side until after Wilson's Day.

The first trial for KC1 was Lightning, another of the "Robots Revenge" bots. We Fought and were shunted onto the tyres round the ring by Lauries robot, which really was VERY Fast. However we made a come back, and as can be seen, we managed to bash old Lightning up a bit.

As you can see, we spiked the back of Lightning quite a bit. It was the only part we could get, as Laurie created a very low stealthy shape. Very impressive! Apparently now he's fitted the flipper plate, but the extra weight has really slowed it down. Look forward to seeing Lightning again though. Anyroad up... The round went to a crowd Vote, and we shouted louder.... foolishly.

Foolish because we drew Dominator 2, huge nutter axe machine. On your left you see a small child laughing insanely at our chances.

We Tried to run, but there was nowhere to hide...

The Dominator boys were very good about it though, they could have really mullered us, but instead they just put the axe through our body work...Through our Motors, and...

Through our speed controllers..

This is Keith the Discovery Channel presenter, noticing our plight and sympathising deeply. However our shame at being spiked up wasn't part of the show.

See that motor, that's knackered that is. The speed controller just needed a couple of capacitors, unfortunately the other speed controller took a fatal dose of power when they spiked the motor. Total repair cost ... £45 new motor, £70 new speedie, a few more bits of lexan...

All together

2001-03-24T23:35:00.000Z

24/3/01- All together
Well... look at this the little fellow is up and running, finally got the drive chains sorted out, We took it for a test in the church hall, and we've got loads more torque thanks to the reduction gearing, unfortunately we've also got quite a lot of wheel spin, and we were starting to make nasty black marks all over the floor, so had to stop.

I took KC to work to try and have a good thrash but, the brakes on the car seized on the way so I spent my lunch hour stripping them down instead of testing. Next week I'll take it in, give it a good thrash, assuming the weather is fine, and try and fit the gyro, as the steering remains a little sensitive

I've started welding up a pivot for the flipper, and Gary at work soldered up an adapter to the regulator, all we need now is some more flexible pipework, as the nylon stuff has a good bore size but won't bend around the tight turns. finishing touches needed include some ramming spikes on the rear, the removable link, and a couple of lexan panels to cover the side of the battery.

Time to concentrate on the big boy now!

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

2001-02-13T23:30:00.000Z

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 have the smashing new chassis with new crossmembers, clad in an attractive BASF LESART, that's polycarb to you and me. You can see the "snout" on which the flipper will rest.

This is head on with the new paint job... strangely enough we've gone for fluorescent orange again. The paint is applied to the reverse side of the polycarb so it can't be scratched off, but it does mean I had to paint back to front, which was weird

And here's the top panel, the slot on the top is for the flipper. The ball transfer unit is at the back giving us "upsidedowny" operation.

Standing on it's tail, (yes we've got to weld on a spikey tail to prevent it doing just this in the arena) you can se the rough position of all the electronics. The pneumatic valve block is on the left back, speed controllers mounted on either side, pot/servo interfaces are on the right and the laser is dangling loose on the end. It will be a miracle if we ever manage to squeeze everything into such a tiny box!

Ah look at this, there are the new servo pot connections, and the servo failsafe cut out switch. Unfortunately I've had to saw it all up to fit inside.

Big Ram

2001-02-12T22:35:00.000Z

12/2/01-Big Ram

Still haven't done anything much. I've spent time debating the shape of the new 'bot. Traditionally KC has been an invertable wedge. this however prevents us using an oxygen regulator as it would probably ice up if inverted. I've still got a strong urge to fit the air chisel , and the extra 20kg's added in the new rules mean I might just succeed. Mark is keen to use a suction gripper, to stick on to the opponent then pummel it. Whatever, we've got the drives, we've got the speed controllers, we've got most of the pneumatics and we've got the lexan and steel. We've even got some new thicker cable, 6mm2 which hopefully won't get so warm, and some capacitors to prevent interference (Thanks Paul!)

Simply need to put it all together. As soon as KC1 is up and running we'll get on with KC2. KC1 will also give us a chance to get used to driving , as I've probably only clocked up about half an hour of robot driving all told, It should also give us a chance to test out the gyro....

I leave you with a picture of our main ram SMC 100-125, close to 800kg's of lift, better make those welds a little stronger!

Hmmm....

2001-02-09T23:11:00.000Z

9/2/01- Hmmmm....
I have found that if I feel obliged to get on with something that I don't want to do, i.e. getting down to some illustration work, then I will much more readily get on with lots of other tasks, hence the recent burst of energy with KC1. I have got the rams, valves, regulator, (currently being adapted at work), have welded up extra struts to the chassis, knocked up a lift arm and covered the little fellow in lexan. I've mounted the ball transfer units and even managed to negotiate with M&P over the chains and sprockets (still haven't arrived though). I have mounted all the electronics and made up much neater brackets for the pot/servo connection. The current aim is to get a single ram operating a lift arm, and maybe set up a surrender flag with the other.

I had fun working out how the solenoid valve operates, and connected it to the battery the wrong way causing a huge explosion and much melted wire, Graham Leacock sorted me out and I removed a surge voltage protector and lamp from the solenoid housing. soldering the connections direct.

I thought I'd have plenty of room but yet again it's going to be a real squeeze getting everything in, especially bits like the valves which are such an awkward shape.

We have also got the laser running.... photos to follow.

2001-01-13T23:24:00.000Z

In the qualifying rounds at Robot Mayhem we met Mike Hammerton of team Eric (before they beat us) touting for robots to come to the Uckfield live robot bash.

Having spent two days doing very little as reserves it looked like a fine opportunity to actually give carrot a run. We had switched steering to "Speed and Steer "mode on the 4QD DCI and were actually going sort of where we wanted to .

We were matched to have a demonstration bout with mincer, but unfortunately his aerial connection broke and required a fix, we then seemed to loose all power and limped about more like a wet lettuce than a killer carrot.

On returning home we found the batteries hadn't charged the previous night for some reason, and were down to about 20v,then I blew up the charger. Carrot went down to the workshop for a strip down and rebuild, but with a little time on our hands before it's next outing at Robots@war on June 30th 2001, it was decided to do a complete redesign with very little salvageable from MK 1. Plans for Killer carrot 2 were drawn up and materials "acquired"

On the plus side we saw some smashing little antweight robots and decided to have a go.

Antweights can be controlled by the kids without destroying the furniture, you can't let them play with a heavyweight robot in the living room

13/1/01- Waiting

The wait for parts continues. After much email advice from Woody on Team Onslaught we have ditched the idea of the air chisel for the time being as its consumption rate of 113 litres per minute would prove excessive. The order has gone in to Graham Leacock for some Festo 40mm rams which should provide just enough oomph to lift a middleweight robot if I make some minor adaptations to the regulator. Thankyou Woody!

The design for KC1 will either follow it's original shape, but in steel and lexan, or might remain as a stubby truncated box with a lifting arm. It all comes down to weight in the end, and I really need to seem how much the gear train will weigh before I decide.

Spending money... shhh!!!

2001-01-04T22:33:00.000Z

4/1/01- spending money.... shhh !!!

Well what can I say, Very lazy! but hey I've acquired some bits, the axles with motors attached have arrived and been sitting doing nothing for months,

the pneumatics have been sitting doing nothing and the controllers and batteries have also been doing nothing. The only thing I have attempted is to dismantle one of the Litton motors to find out if it has space for a capacitor inside, it does but only just!

Waiting

2000-10-28T22:32:00.000+01:00

28/10/00-Waiting....

Still waiting for the motors and gearboxes. Another parcel did arrive today, an Optimate III battery charger, which seems to be putting a bit of life back into my sad old Steatites. I will post how efficiently it worked after I get round to testing. My students are keen to see one of the robots so I may take KC1 in before he's stripped down, his gears and chains are providing some reduction gearing for our swimmer Keeler Carrot.

further comment...(26/4/02)
The Optimate has proved a complete boon. It wasn't cheap, about £40, but it works well, if slowly. I believe there is also a version called the Accumate now, that can be switched to cover 6 volt batteries.

antweight world series

2000-10-28T21:15:00.000+01:00

28/10/2000 After months of fiddling we finally took our baby for a scrap, at the Antweight World Series at Guilford University. For a full run down check out he comms section on the Dangerous machines website. Suffice to say, I was sick and suffering after a painful Judo injury, and the kids were a bit bored, but we had a successful morning. We had 3 fights and lost them all! But did manage to hurl another robot off the arena. We learnt a lot and new plans for more voltage (6v), smaller wheels with more grip, and a slightly more dangerous weapon are all underway.

No photos as the digital camera was on strike and I foolishly left the normal camera behind. Check out the http://www.robotwars101.co.uksite for all antweight details.

Offered my services to design a Tee shirt for the event, and there have been many suggestions. Here's the first draft, all comments and alternative designs welcome. I think either Pete Collier or Hairy Steve will be organising the thing.

bits and bobs

2000-10-16T22:31:00.000+01:00

16/10/00- bits and bobs

Cylinder, valves and pipe-work have all arrived, I'm now waiting for some axles and motors from Roger Plant.
Once all the gear is together The steel which is cluttering up the office can be mocked up to find the most effective chassis shape. I'm inclined to use some steel mesh for armour as I've become infatuated with dead Metal, and it's bizarre Mad Max looks, but I will still have some panels for the Carrots "face".
Having trouble with regulators at present, the one I've got only does 2.5 bar which is nowhere near the pressure I'm hoping for, however BOC want £187 for a Co2 regulator.
Today I also took delivery of an air chisel, only £9.99 from Northern Equipment, but reasonably rugged and capable of delivering 5000 blows per minute running at 90 psi, I'll test it in the workshops on Wednesday, but it looks to be a most cheap and effective weapon. Pictures to follow.

antweight first attempts

2000-09-23T21:17:00.001+01:00

23/09/2000 Well the SMA axe is proving to be very difficult. In theory the flexinol requires 400mA, and gives a contraction of about 5%, the problem is fixing the ends, soldering de-natures the wires abilities and clamping is a nightmare.

So we're looking at another servo to power a rear flipper/ax/SREMECH, though the liitle guy runs upside down fine. We've got plenty of weight left, as we're only upto 104g so far.

The wheels are now sporting rubber bands for improved grip too.

Adam and his friend Duncan have been practicing driving the little guy , so hopefully he will be team captain for the Antweight wars in October.

I can smell victory.

History:

A 4.8v NiMh PCB mount battery provides the juice and at present were working on a shape memory alloy powered axe, which weighs almost nothing, but we keep frying the wire, so for simplicity we may just bung another servo in there.

Chassis is now made from an old Rotring pen case, with packing foam armour

First outing should be the world championships at Guilford on October 29th 2000

Decisions...

2000-09-22T22:29:00.000+01:00

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.

Useful links

2000-09-20T21:32:00.000+01:00

The following sites have some really useful robot building or web site construction information on them:

www.Technobots.co.uk This is what we've all been waiting for. Paul Cooper has created a site selling everything you could ever need to build your robot, and it's not overpriced. Cheaper and more convenient than RS Components! Better friendlier service than anywhere else. Paul knows his onions as well, he runs the robot M2, which we first met as Mincer back in the Summer of 2000 at the Uckfield bash. M2 is a terrific evolution with a terrific flipper running at 16bar.

www.bcentral.com/fastcounter/ : Free hit counter that works, unlike the frontpage ones, (freeserve don't support frontpage extensions)However now I'm a grown up and have cast aside childish things (Frontpage), the counter is still useful, and links to a site that keeps stats on your site.

www.distel.co.uk : pages of useful bits, some aren't as cheap as they appear when you add VAT and delivery, Don't buy Hawker batteries from them, (see warning tale on Tornado site)

http://www.bull-electrical.com : these guys sell lots of dodgy hydroponic (i.e. hash growing gear), but also some cheap batteries, Micro kiels, 12v 18Ah, hopefully legal now, but you can never tell. (Probably better to get them from Paul Cooper's Technobots)

www.robotwars.co.uk : The official uk site, the only useful bits are the discussion forum and the technical datasheets, it hasn't been updated in places for Years.(Bad, bad Adam)

www.geocities.com/wickmesh/rwars.htm :Team Tornado site, these guys built one hell of a machine. It's ramming power nearly smashed down the safety barrier, just watch it trash gemini in RW4, (and gemini was damned impressive too) They are now top seeds, (and jolly nice chaps), and regularly turn up at non RW events.

www.4qd.co.uk : Of course. Helpful hints and calculations and a jolly helpful company too, reasonably affordable, (not as expensive as the rest ) speed controllers

www.gt-electronics.freeserve.co.uk : Hey its George Francis's electronics site, the RF1 failsafes cost about £14 and work

www.hpcgears.co.uk :Very helpful site, and useful free catalogue which lets you work out costs for different gear setups, which will all be outrageously expensive, and make you think again about using chain instead.

www.bigcheeserobot.com :Alternatively you can buy your motor and gearbox from the big cheese boys, theirs certainly worked ok. Roger Plant is an intersting character, and very helpful if the mood takes him.

www.steatite.co.uk :Helpful company, supplying identical battery to the originally unapproved Kiel at twice the price, don't tell my wife.

www.robotwars101.com/ :Here be the antweight stuff as well as Big Pants. Useful section on antweight rules and modifying servos. Pete Collier is the man who launched a thousand (well maybe a hundred) antweighteers, though Adam Clark claims the glory of creating the format. Antweights are excellent fun, cheaper to build than heavyweights, won't strain you back or smash up your living room.

http://pyrotec.co.uk Very helpful sponsors of our pneumatic system, maintain all the extinguishers at my college too.

http://engsurplus.btinternet.co.uk Graham Leacock, one of the most friendly blokes on the planet, with shed loads of very useful engineering surplus including very cheap pneumatic components, like cylinders for £35. Getting low on cylinders these days, but still has shed loads of things you never knew you wanted until you looked at his site, take care it's as bad as looking in an RS components catalog and suddenly realising you simply can't live without a left handed thingle sprocket.

ant mayhem

2000-09-16T21:16:00.000+01:00

16/9/2000 We gave up on the flexinol, it will return in next years ant, (a walker), as we've got about 4 metres of the stuff.

So the flipper axe is now a boring servo actuated affair made from an old packing tape dispenser. The servo itself is a Hi tec HS81MG (metal geared), which was slightly more expensive than standard, but should prevent the gear skipping problems we've had with the drive servos:

All that remains is to add scapel blades to every available surface up to the weight limit, we've got plenty of leeway as were still only on 126g and because of the 4" cube rule, we've had to truncate the body a little.

It all seems to work though I can't drive it to save my life, same problem I had driving Killer Carrot at Robot Mayhem, over sensitive tank steer. Hopefully we'll be at Antwars 3, in Guildford on the 22nd and I'll let the kids drive it.

Big Orange and Dangerous

2000-09-01T22:07:00.000+01:00

Ancient History

Killer carrot 2 is a much more serious bucket of fish than anything else we've so far attempted. At first we thought we'd like an axe, a flipper, a disc cutter....and these sketches show what we came up with:

disc cutter and ramming spikes, keeping carrots original big wheels and running upside down configuration

Spiked flipper and nose spike (real back of the envelope stuff)

Inspiration comes from those robots that achieved success without fancy weaponry, but by sheer brutal ramming power.

Watching Tornado smash Gemini against the arena barrier when we were reserves, I became convinced this was the way to go.

However being an agricultural fellow we have access to a range of nasty things to ram people with. The whole design of carrot 2 rotates around a large bale spike, focussing all the punch into one point instead of tornado's multiple points.

First step was to visit our local kart race track who gave me 4 wheels and tyres, thankyou Crawley indoor racing.

Then we managed to procure some more meaty speed controllers, a pair of 4QD NCC 60 24's which put out about 70 amps hot, and around 100 cold. What's worrying is that the guys we bought them from (Rotracktor) are moving up to 300amp speedies! They generously donated a spare DCI board which means I don't have to salvage anything from Carrot 1, and with a bit of slimming down he should be up for the middleweight class for Wilson's day 2001.