Figured before I do more event write ups I will start with a brief breakdown of the design decisions and adjustments over the last year to get from the 1-4 abomination it began life as to the semi competitive machine that it is today. Enjoy!
Vanquish originally was going to be a much more extreme machine than it is today, with a frankly ludicrous 120mm 5.5mm thick titanium blade, this was a little optimistic however as with all of the parts in space, we had a monumental 11g for an entire chassis, top plates, and wiring. Needless to say this version of Vanquish did not go forward.
Vanquish was then reimagined with a slightly more sane 85mm sweep diameter and a very good 15mm of biting tooth. This was yet again done in 5.5mm titanium and came out to 36g. What differentiates Vanquish from most other large verts of its class is it’s very overkill 3s power system, its microscopic M10 drive motors, and it’s very very large weapon motor, that being a 32g 2306. This motor is actually so heavy that I could fit 6 more drive motors in its place weight wise. This puts it overall just shy of 70g in the weapon system while still being on wheels. Such a large motor is used as with it, it could probably self right with a shuffler ontop of it, and for better (or for worse) spinup time was near instant. What I failed to account for however was torque reaction, which proves to be the number 1 killer of this robot to this day. Such a large heavy weapon being spun up so quickly to such high rpm’s made the thing an absolute menace to floors, and very near impossible to actually spinup without rolling forward and hitting the floor. Regardless this was the first iteration of the robot and now it was time to actually build the thing.
I dont think there are words to describe the experience of wiring this bot up. It being my first time ever actually using a soldering iron I naturally killed 2 HV malenkis, which is never a good start. Describing the process is near impossible, but the wiring itself is very easy to describe. The word to describe it is tight. Really, really god damn tight. Accessibility is also an absolute nightmare, with everything except the battery (in this version) being hard soldered and so closely packed together. Eventually after a few revisions that included some more forks, I got it good enough for a spinup test. Headphones warning, seriously.
Sweet jesus this thing is loud, despite being a good 5 meters away from it behind a brick wall, my ears rung for days. Probably should mention that the weapon has a tip speed of around 319mph hypothetically, so it’s no wonder it generates abit of noise, but this was entirely unexpected.
After a lackluster first event at botfest, going 1-4 I was shocked to earn best newcomer. Still alot of work was to be done. The drive was bad, the ground game was bad and the weapon was way too overpowered for it’s own good. None of these would be fixed, but some design changes were made regarding other issues.
Most notable was the new stability forks, now being separate from the chassis. These would later be cut from 3mm hardox for something very strong and very stiff. This version of Vanquish was taken along to the beetleweight loughborough event, which did an ant rumble in the beetle arena later.
Yeah not a good look, but on the other hand it was awesome so who cares. Due to poor print settings the 64d tpu chassis had cracked severely and the weapon had come detached from the rotor due to improper super gluing.
After a few events with minor changes I decided to make a hardox anti tpu weapon, which would eventually become my main weapon, as it was becoming apparent pure concussive force with such a wide tooth on the titanium one would not do against tpu spam control bots.
After yet again battling the million headed hydra that is the wiring in this thing, this version of vanquish was showing some promise, with some frankly terrifying hits, notably against Birdemic and Jungle man, 2 good robots that were very very damaged within a very short time frame.
After a couple dojo’s and a visit down south to ORCS 11 and GROCS 5 and 6, it was time for some stability and drive upgrades. Along the way I picked up a radiomaster zorro, a controller that can do some fancy things, in my case this would be custom ramping limits, this allows me to set a speed and how long I will spinup for to reach the speed. This dramatically helped with piloting the thing as I can focuse more on driving the thing than slowly ramping up the throttle manually. The upgrades listed below took the bot from like a 4/10 to an 8/10 instantly. Who would have guessed staying on the floor and being able to move toward the opponent is useful in a fight?
The upgrades that debuted at AWS77 were long 100 walled PLA-ST forks, the switch to n10 drive motors, new wheel hubs and stiffer top plates. The difference was immediately noticable just driving around at home, it was incredibly fast and in a pinch had some shoving power. In competition the new forks proved themselves worth it, as they provided a much needed stability buff which allowed it to get all the way to a joint 5th place at AWS and a put on a tremendous show at ORCS 12 and Loughbrough Ants.
And with that, we are just about caught up. Its been a very interesting journey for Vanquish, many ups and downs with a very inconsistent competitiveness across most of its lifespan, but I’m starting to tame it I reckon. Mostly. The big spinner has proven itself viable-ish despite the pits, although I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to see a less pit orientated box and I look forward to what it can do in the future.
Thanks for reading, any questions feel free to ask
