Data Breach Beetleweight Build

Coolspeedbot · 7 February 2025 15:08

The last bits of metalwork are done. 8 new long forks and 10 aluminium motor mounting plates for the Repeat Max V2s. Thanks to Jed Preist for organising the metal order.

I had the forks cleaned up and ready for action. The mounts had the centre hole enlarged to the correct size and then the bolt holes were countersunk 2 of the mounts got scuffed by the countersinking and had to be binned. I already fitted 4 of the mounts to Data Breach (no picture sorry) and the spare bulkheads.

The last thing to do is do some self-righting tests and maybe a tweaked anti-overhead/ axe armour setup.

Coolspeedbot · 11 February 2025 20:05

The revised extra top armour was thicker to keep those overhead attacks at bay.

Popped on the scales with the heaviest forks. 1.478kg making this configuration the 2nd heaviest.

The heaviest setup goes to the anti-HS wedge paired with the extra top armour, hitting 1.484kg on the scales.

Should the British weather stay clear tomorrow I’ll be outside testing how well each setup handles self-righting.

Coolspeedbot · 12 February 2025 17:11

The weather held up so I got testing the self-righting of Data Breach MK3.2 with the more unusual front setups. I can’t take chances when it comes to not checking if each setup can self-right.
Happily, Data Breach can self-right with ease.

Coolspeedbot · 24 February 2025 16:08

Back home from Bristol and I’ve had some rest after a brutal BBB Beetle Brawl. It’s event report time Data Breach reached the top 16 once again, before losing to a podium-finishing bot Grey Area.

The first fight with Detonator and Wheeie Big Lad was a tough one, I had counters for both weapon types but neither were designed to be used together. I put on my extra TPU armour layer on top and swapped to my big wheeled bot lifter arm. After I added the heavy forks I popped this combo on the scales as I wasn’t sure how heavy this mixed-up setup would be and it turns out it was nowhere near the limit thankfully.

3 Very different bots not much else to say.

There wasn’t a real game plan it was to attack one bot while the other was in no position to attack me in the process hence the zipping around the arena trying to attack and evade getting some good lifts in. Luckily both Detonator and WBL had issues with their weapons that had them on the back foot. I opened the pit and Detonator knocked WBL into the pit taking them out of the fight. Detonator’s weapon died and I simply tried to get some good lifts in granted the lifter arm wasn’t really designed to lift normal bots as it has no forks attacked. But by more good luck Detonator high-centred itself on the oota zone wall. I saw my chance and I scored my first beetleweight oota earning me a place in the top 32.
https://www.youtube.com/live/cCd0SGRfj0c?si=5TcNbGY9pqaKDyVD&t=3084

The big-wheeled bot lifter arm was damaged but had done its job. Slight damage to the tyres which I either swapped out or gave a quick clean once I had given them a once over.

After a tense wait for the redemption fights to finish, I was up against Jackhammer. Keeping the tpu top on I switched to my slightly lighter 8mm forks and put the standard lifter arm back on.

The fight was a good back-and-forth the main aim was just to keep Jackhammer inverted as much as possible thankfully Jackhammer helped with that effort bouncing off my tpu top, lifter arm or the floor with their attacks I was in full control for the first minute of the fight but I went for a lift that ended up dropping Jackhammer and it’s already extended arm perfectly on the front right drive belt. That loss of the front right wheel meant the drive was struggling a tad (which I get to why a bit later) this gave Jackhammer a free shot that took out the back right belt leaving Data Breach on 4 wheels. I was crab-walking for the rest of the fight which thankfully so was Jackhammer after a pinion gear came off their drive motor on one side. Jackhammer managed to tip me onto my compromised side with the spinner and thought me dead but luckily extending the lifter tipped me over. Despite only having one back wheel running I was able to self-right and limp through the rest of the fight dealing with high-centring issues which was odd as Data Breach has a high ground clearance to prevent that. After limping around and Jackhammer trying to use its weapon to move the fight went to a JD with Data Breach declared the winner.
https://www.youtube.com/live/cCd0SGRfj0c?si=OyJPVfOJJdQwGO6g&t=15134

A big repair job followed I swapped out damaged wheels, added new belts, took off the tpu top, swapped the lifter arm, replaced the hair band that pulls the lifter back down as that was close to snapping and had to swap the HDPE lid as Jackhammer hit the only exposed area of the panel next to the link door.

I made the repairs and headed to the ready table only to run back to grab a hex key after discovering the high-centering issue was a loose bolt in the base plate so a quick tightening of all those bolts and it was ready to fight Grey Area. (Sorry for the blurry photo I was rather nervous and shaking from the intense repairs)

The fight was a driving match and sadly Scott is a far better driver who kept on top of me the whole fight. I lost the front right drive belt super quick and the drive struggled. I managed a few lifts when our forks locked but I could only steer Grey Area around so much before the offset weight and their weapon gyro were pulling Data Breach over. After a little back and forth Grey Area got a good pin and went to town of DB snipping the front left belt before chewing up the lid right above the lipo a little deeper and DB would have died a fiery death. With both front wheels no longer running the middle and back wheels couldn’t do anything. It turns out Data Breach MK3.2 is too front-heavy heavy so the middle and back wheels don’t have enough weight to push them into the ground to keep traction. I barely kept DB moving to get to the full 2 minutes but everybody knew Grey Area won that hands down.
https://www.youtube.com/live/cCd0SGRfj0c?si=FAgLbeUXIcMgDmR9&t=18969

With that DB was out at the top 16 with another repair job to finish off my day. The lid, base, wheels, wedges and chassis were damaged, and DB is now on my last four belts.

I was able to fix DB to a fighting state again so I can be proud that DB is a survivor.

I have a list of issues to resolve: protect belts better, fix the weight distribution issues, simplify the lifter linkage, consider converting to a switch and perhaps commit to running as a lifter fully from now on.

Coolspeedbot · 26 February 2025 19:10

With the report done let’s focus on changes for Data Breach MK3.3

So with MK3.2, the main issues were:

The centre of weight being near the front means the middle and back wheels lack the weight to provide traction on the floor when the front wheels lose the belts.
The belts are more exposed and need extra protection to prevent sniping.
The lifter needs a little tweak to increase the range while simplifying how the hair band is attached to the servo and lifter arm.
While I have fixed the link popping out the huge link door and space needed to give it clearance to open leaves a big corner of the bot unprotected when using the TPU top armour layer.

To fix the belt snipping the wheels will be running with the pulleys the next size down. This does require moving the front and back out 1mm to match the required distance the new belts will need (will double-check that down the line.) This will make the belts and pulleys clear between the top and bottom plates which will be tweaked to provide some cover. The idea is the wheels and the covers reduce the chances of the overhead weapons getting deep enough to hit the belts. I’ve designed a variant of my bulkheads that have mounting holes for the FT switch. I’m also applying the changes to the link-supporting version as not all events will run switches.

As I don’t want to go mad with changing the shape and layout of parts inside I’m going to try magnets to help the middle and rear wheels get better traction. I’m not planning to run crazy powerful magnets just enough force to have all 6 wheels able to drive the bot. Here I’m going to pocket out 2mm deep circles in the 5mm base for the magnets and their holders closely based on what I’ve seen used on Frenzy. At the moment 20mm x 2mm N42 Neodymium magnets are what I’m designing around just to get the ballpark. Based on a calculator they should pull roughly 400g. Any magnet gurus feel free to offer advice.

The lifter has been running great I just want to give it minor improvements. One being range and overall high. The lifter unit has been lowered by 4.5mm and the lifter arm pivot point has been moved back 9mm. This should add 10-20 degrees of range on the arm which will hopefully make self-righting a little easier. I might swap out the 45kg servo for the 75kg servo I bought for Malware for a bit more power (will do some tests)

Coolspeedbot · 25 May 2025 20:47

With some months focusing on other things, gave me enough of a break to return to Data Breach and well, things are taking a different direction. Realising that with all 6 wheels fitted meant the middle wheels are getting zero traction, which was a big issue when I lost the belts to the front and back wheels. So effectively DB has been running on 4 wheels this whole time so opting for the simple solution, it’s with a heavy heart I introduce Data Breach MK4.

The main changes besides the change to 4 wheels are:

Wrap-around armour.
Revised mounts for the wedges.
Smaller pulleys to provide clearance to add belt covers.
Single-piece chassis fully designed around the lifter.
Fully retired the axe.

Other than that, it’s still more or less MK3.2 underneath, and some of the planned changes I had planned for MK3.3 will still be in MK4, such as the tweaks to the lifter.