I’m Omer, from Colchester, and after 27 years, 9 months and 4 days (points if that means anything) of saying I would do it, I just made and test drove my first (antweight) combat robot!
I recently attended a MITE event over in Norwich and decided I’d finally take the plunge after almost-starting a few times over the years. The have a tournament on Jan 18th, so I’m hoping to enter!
Anyway, I’ve made a flippy wedge thing tentatively either called “Battle Metal” or “Warlord” using mostly parts ordered from BBB (ESC, wheels, LED, switch, receiver), and tonight I got everything in the right place.
Absolutely chuffed with the result, considering I have next to no engineering, CAD design or electrical knowledge, and I know it’ll need tweaks (she self-righted once, now she can’t) and I want some armour over that hole, but have some pictures and a video!
Sup Omer, nice to see someone else from Colchester around here. Big thanks for coming up to MITE, so glad you had a great time!
The robot is looking sick, really big fan of the name Warlord. I’d recommend some kind of covering over the big gap in the flipper arm, wouldn’t want anything spinning to get into that! May even give you some shaping options to help with self righting!
Also would recommend getting some Acetate on the end of that flipper arm with some double sided tape, makes it way easier to get under stuff!
Super awesome to see it, really looking forward to seeing you at the next MITE event <3
It was a brilliant little tournament. Dragged my family along and expected to watch a few fights, but needed up staying for the whole thing. My daughter is busy designing us a team logo
The hole is purely a weight saver, I plan to have some sort of sheet over it that I can replace, maybe metal, maybe something else. She’s 137g, so I’ve got some wiggle room. Tempted to make the front a bit “scoopy” too.
Great tip on the acetate, I couldn’t quite remember what people were using.
Wonder if there are any optimisations to be made to your flipper linkage to get a bit more throw distance and more torque? Of course the stronger servo will help with this too but may be handy to see the linkage design to help point at some potential future mods!
I was waiting for that comment! Funny enough her proportions are almost exactly matched to Roadblock, as originally I wanted to make a little tribute called “Speedbump”, but then things… evolved.
Before my current job I was a commission miniature artist specialising in things like tanks and Star Wars ships, so I have a LOT of acrylic paints. It’s not the best for painting this sort of thing, but I’ve also got some heavy duty clear coats that are doing the work.
The servo is limited (through the transmitter) to 78•, or it starts shutting again.
The only things I can think to try are a longer servo arm (but my printer is having trouble with the details) or a longer link, but I’m also at a limit for space.
Here’s a diagram explaining how to optimise flipper linkages.
I would also advise against hot glueing wires to the chassis, when you need to remove them (and you will need to remove the wires when doing repairs and the like at an event), you risk damaging the wires. It also looks like you’ve hot glued some of the wires coming directly from the LiPo battery which is dangerous in my opinion, once you have access to the internals of your bot, you should be able to remove the LiPo quickly in case of emergencies.
I’ve poured over that diagram before, but due to where things need to go, and it being a wedge, I always end up in the last picture, with basically no real power or movement, so I’ve gone for the reverse version as it pushes the other way. I’ve seen some wedges have success with it that way around but it’s a matter of mm’s to get the best angles.
As much as it looks like it, it’s not hot glue fortunately, it’s a silicone on the wires so it shouldn’t melt anything. You’re right on the battery wire though. I’ll try to get that held in another way. The battery is sitting on a tiny piece of Velcro so it’s held in, but also has a little give for bumps, and can just be ripped out in a hurry.
but it sounds like your ok with that
