Doctor Sweep - Beetleweight Build Log

TheScrappers · 8 November 2024 21:42

What does it take to get someone who hasn’t competed since January 2020 to actually finish building a robot? A combination of boredom, missing the thrill of metal mayhem and a Battle in the 'Burgh not too far away. Oh, and a spare dustpan.

I’d toyed with the idea of building a beetleweight for a while, so when BitB4 was announced I decided to take the plunge. Of course in true Scrappers fashion it’s going to be made by recycling an old object from around the house.

Thanks to BBB I didn’t have to go through the struggle of dusting off the bit of my brain that picks bot parts, I just grabbed their beetleweight kit, a few extra spares for the inevitable damage, and a big chunk of HDPE for extra armour and away I went.

Some hacking away with a couple of power tools later and the physical chassis had come together nicely, and even likely with a bit of weight left over for some extra armour when I realise a thin as a bag of chips dustpan won’t survive a harsh stare from the likes of Baby Shrekt.

What took a little more brain power (and another handy guide from BBB) was remembering how to wire one of these little critters together. But one whiff of some warm solder and I was right back in the groove, all nicely put together in one short evening without so much as a puff of magic smoke in sight.

So with our proof of movement submitted to BitB this evening, we’ve got a few weeks to gather up as many spares as possible, find all those tools that fell down the back of the workbench four years ago, and get ready to rumble once more.

TheScrappers · 15 November 2024 16:09

As the ever looming deadline of the December 1st creeps closer, I’m happy to say Doctor Sweep is in a state where I’d be moderately happy to toss it into an area and watch its 2 minute funeral at the hands of whichever bot draws our name.

It’s even happily driving around the floor of the house, smashing into various bits of furniture without a care in the world.

However, as with any new build there’s a million and one things to tinker with and keep altering between now and turning up to compete at BitB.
The dustpan, designed for… well, dust… doesn’t lay flush along the floor. So it’s going on a nice date with a hammer and a vice in the hopes of getting under at least one opponent on the day.
Should my very delicate hammering technique somehow fail me, I may have some acetate sheets sitting in a basket waiting to be rushed to my house in time to glue to every available bit of bot I can.
In the same vein, dust doesn’t tend to hit back with the force of a thousand suns, so I’ve acquired a couple more potential chassis in case of terminal damage to our very thin dustpan. In fact preparing spares for everything is a priority in the remaining weeks.
On top of all of that, we’re currently weighing in at a very handy 1051g. Meaning I’ve got approximately 3 antweights worth of allowance to throw more armour at. Assuming I don’t come up with some other enticing way to spend those grams.