21 minutes of me rambling, and a few fight clips, if anyone is that bored today!
5 Likes
Bop was a big hit in our house 
Look forward to seeing him in the flesh soon
bop! rebuild for Champs is well underway.
I did my first tool change on the CNC and I worried a lot.
Came out okay!
The ever wonderful JoeM printed another wedge
All the 10mm bits…
Quick pretendo
Very extra link door… But missing something
Better.
Today’s workshop progress!
With a friend
Casting wheels at home, maybe overfilled… But my first try
6 Likes
Looking great… Can’t wait to see the little bot all fresh faced 
Hello!
I left this kind of mid-build so about time to come and update, and do a little review of where bop! will go from here.
As I left you last, we’d cast some wheels. These new wheel designs were designed to combat the sub-par durability I had from then at Rapture, completely redesigned to have more PU, a hopefully better grip onto the PU internally, and a much stronger pink colour.
Happy to say they came out nicely! I cast 8 in total to have a full set of spares.
I mounted the wedges this time using a blend of the ol’ woodscrews, along with 1 barrel nut on either side. I had a feeling this would not only be stronger, but help a lot when mounting the wedge and ensuring it says level with the floor.
I designed these small notches into the front to give me a good indication of where to drill to meet the barrel nut perpendicularly
The whole bot was rewired to allow for connectors between the 2 sides to allow easier removal of the middle weapon section should I need to. These connectors were always cable tied together during matches.
A new link was made to facilitate how close the link door comes to the link itself, being as low profile as humanly possible.
And the steel pin in the hammer got a lil sharpen
And that’s largely it! This version of bop! was mainly focused on improving some weaker areas and making QOL that little nicer.
bop! went out of the competition 0-2 after taking some big hits in both matches. Paradigm Spin was on great form in the first match and the force managed to unplug the lipo from the rest of the machine (the one connector that hadn’t been cable tied). bop! also withstood an absolute battering from Bad Daddy with not much to show for it aside from some bruises on the wedge.
The wheels stood up far better than the previous generation which was fantastic, even after several whiteboard matches.
And finally, the very unexpected (and frankly bad form at your own event, but thank you judges <3) award, for losing with heckin’ style and building something cool and fun over something meta. At least, that’s how I perceive it.
The beetles also took a little trip to Cheltenham, for funsies.
Next up for bop!, more events! Having way too much fun with this machine to let it drop quite yet. For it’s next events, I’d like to look into a better belt tensioner, perhaps something sprung, and maybe even some of this fancy am32 stuff people are running on the hammer.
If you’ve made it all the way to the end, thank you for sticking it out with bop! and I, and hope you have a great festive period of rest and relaxation see you in 2024!
4 Likes
That’s one angry boi
Seem as though this thread has risen from the dead for some reason… have some updates.
After such belt-related hell last year, I knew this year would mean a move to gears, which have been proven successfully by bots like Grab Crab on similar brushless-and-gearbox combos.
GOAT Champ Jack came in absolute clutch here to help me design up a new gear system that would fit on the current model, but I could then move into the next model if successful.
Here’s a proud hand caressing a freshly cnc’d weapon gear.
The motor gear I had printed in TPU from the ever wonderful Joe M, to provide a slight clutching motion if needed. I decided to test these before going and cutting HDPE ones as not killing the motor or gearbox or esc is pretty desirable. These gear mount to the 8mm shaft via a pololu hub. Here you can also see some front ends for the new model.
As mentioned in another thread, I did a little OpenTX magic to get a button working that automated the hammer fire and retract
Battle scarred but ready for our event at LHG where the weapon system would really be put to the test before the rebuild immediately following the event ready for Rapture.
LHG was a gosh darn lovely day. Thanks if you came down!
Mr Cat’s Mouse House was pulled out of retirement by Rory so he could mess about with it. bop! and MCMH here hangin’ out.
Somewhat miraculously (it’s not a miracle, we just nerfed forks and all the spinners were plastic) bop! pulled off 3rd place. Some really fun fights so thank you everyone. It definitely looks tired enough for a rebuild.
The quarter final fight vs Flick! was particularly enjoyable - such a cool bot!!
(Mouse House came out less favourably but still SOMEHOW managed top 8 RORY and is now back in retirement)
Stripping the old chassis down just a few days later for the gubs to fit into the new chassis here pictured with some (now outdated and unusable) 5mm HDPE lids for hammersaws.
I’m putting even more work into the aesthetics this year, making more of the robot pink. Sorry.
I did some colouring…
…and some casting (these wheels are a lil smaller than previously, and also fit onto Repeat hubs instead of the old gross pololu ones)
Wiring coming together
And a few failed attempts later, some polycarb lids (some of which again aren’t suitable and I’m redoing tomorrow sigh)
A pro of the big gear sticking out is a new place to put a locking bar! Much less intrusive than having a cutout in the polycarb to stick it through the bulkheads. Also notably, link hatch has moved as the whole chassis is now smaller and the mountable connector couldn’t fit behind the back drive motors like ye olde days.
And that’s us basically ready for Rapture! A few little things left to sort (alternate setup and magnets mainly) but otherwise… let’s send it! Lots of forked control bots in my heat which is not the dream for a robot with 6 miles of ground clearance that refuses to play the ground game and a thick bouncy wedge for spinners but… I’m sure we’ll get a chance to play with them in some whiteboard after we go 0-3 
4 Likes
A few things.
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I guess I’m the forum’s resident necromancer now
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NO NOT MR CAT!
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Seems you got off on the wrong foot in the 3rd place playoff. Axes don’t seem to be that effective unless the tip is really sharp, the hammer is very heavy or the target has a lot of air armour, at least in terms of visual damage.
So Rapture was a thing.
bop! did okay, coming 2nd in it’s heat against 3 wedgy control bots - not exactly what it was designed to fight. It was an unfortunate draw. Day 2 was much more enjoyable, entering a bunch of side events and getting to do some goofy stuff.
Here’s a few picture highlights…
Ready to do a fight
My second match was against Rob’s very effective lifter Boom Zoom. I knew even with my regular setup I stood very little chance against his forks, so I decided to try the secret weapon… Monster bop!. It was goofy and very fun.
My play-in featured Tweedy’s vicious hammersaw Schism, so I switched to 5mm HDPE lids. They looked cool!
By the end of day 2 having fought 5 different horizontals over the day… oops
Pulled this reverse holo Farfetch’d in my first Twilight Masquerade booster. Hell yeah.
I came back from the event having had a good time but ultimately frustrated at the continued seeming requirement to have long forks to be able to have any shot of competing. I spent a few days doodling 4wd verts and a cool horizontal before I came back to my senses.
…so let’s try something different.
8 Likes
it’s been a hot minute and will continue to be so until i get started, but i started a fresh experimental (eg i changed more than usual) bop! out of boredom a few weeks ago, which has morphed into what is definitely going to be the next version. a lil preview of where we’re at, still lots to do with pockets and holes and nuts and bolts but the shape is definitely coming along
3 Likes
I’m digging the spiky front wedge aesthetic, got something of the F117 about it maybe?
Is anything changing on the inside?
Likely same old on the inside! The changes I made to the electronics on the weapon system earlier this year are pretty sound so sending it for now. I looked at doing 2 motors and geared/belted drive like the cool kids but I can’t have the motors in the middle cos big gearbox, and generally running gears down the side feels like a rough move for this bot. The 22mms still have plenty of grunt despite many moving to flashier counterparts
2 Likes
SO WHERE DID WE GO FROM THERE
My opinion quickly switched from ‘fun work break experiment’ to ‘I really like this let’s make it happen’. Let’s observe the journey down the road of bop!. Starting off with a bit of a pothole.
Anyway.
Some time later and some senses come to, the original wedgelet wedge was redesigned from the ground up to be a bit bulkier and also feature these new tpu forks, proven as a great option by Eoin with Babrog.
As I signed up to the event in Bognor Regis in early Feb, time was now against me to make this a thing with very limited free time.
It started, as it commonly does now, with Deepnest and I becoming reacquainted to make optimal use of material (still keepin’ it thrifty!)
Some hidden features on the baseplate as I was embedding the bulkheads into it anyway. Sadly the light doesn’t show them up as well as I’d hoped on the final version but it’s still fun.
Pulling the thing together, with the old internals still wired up to the hammer motor. Notable link block, as the event will not be allowing switches, but this machine is fully designed to switch (heh) it over as soon as possible.
We watched Invasion of the Bee Girls
Joe M printed all the goods for this one, including new wheel molds, hubs and a variety of forks.
Wheel time once more comes around. I’m often asked how my wheels are so vibrant - a tiny amount of mica powder goes a long way! i scoop some up on the end of a wooden skewer and stir it into my ~40g mix of polyurethane.
The rat observes.
Spare polyurethane got poured into the lil heart pocket on the bulkhead cos it’s cute.
Polycarb day came around some time later. Despite how much I hate CNCing the stuff, most of it came out fine. Most.
A New Greenhouse
Lil link door. Absolutely mandatory.
Adding colour to the wedges using paint pen. This is my ‘no pls’ wedge for horizontals. I expect it to need replacing after Bognor.
And, a few details aside, a completed bop!
so angery 
so aggressive 
so angular 
so paint pen bleed
Super jazzed about this build. Think it’s by far my cleanest looking build ignoring the wire spaghet. I’m really excited to bring it out for some events this year and, I’ll say it quietly cos I know what I’m like, I feel like this might be my ‘ultimate’ bop! build for the foreseeable. The Fusion folder for this robot is ‘bop! x’ and while that’s a silly title in my head and definitely not the actual robot name it has some finality? Building such a silly ineffective weapon into an aesthetic box is certainly somewhat limiting in a lot of ways and this is perhaps the zenith of where I want it to be? We’ll see.
9 Likes
Build pics are cool and all but I’m just here for the rats mate.
2 Likes
We’re all here for the rats! Will MONSTER BOP return someday? The offroad aesthetic is criminally underutilised.
That wedge is looking monstrous! Good luck getting through that so long as the user drives decently. I’d only get past either in a rumble/3 way or by borrowing team Whyachi’s 2 meter forks!
Lovely job as ever. That machined polycarb looks really tight. I’ve never tried it with anything other than a jigsaw before but am instinctively wary of it; is it messy to cut on the router?
Building such a silly ineffective weapon into an aesthetic box is certainly somewhat limiting in a lot of ways and this is perhaps the zenith of where I want it to be? We’ll see.
Perhaps, but I think you should always aspire to be less effective and more… box. It is very aesthetic though. And grompy.
We watched Invasion of the Bee Girls
Was it any good?
1 Like
It wasn’t no. Do not recommend.
But yes fun bots best bots. We’ll see where this goes but lots of future thoughts already 
Polycarb likes to jump a lot on the router. I screw it down at every possible point (making sure it’s not in any movement paths ofc). Lots of people double sided tape it down too. It looks stunning when it’s done but god damn I hate working it.