That Brighton reference was so niche and so well played. Kudos.
Oh great bot too
Welcome to the cursed GT5 club. I went through exactly the same process on mine. I really struggled to react quick enough with the location/action of the stock buttons and switches, and after some really frustrating events I started messing with it. Many attempts and many vestigial holes (ventilation for my sweaty palms) later I settled on a single microswitch under my thumb. Googly eye for grip, blue roll and superglue hinge because the lever fell off during my first fight at the last ORCS and it’s the only way I know how to fix things in a hurry. Finally feels natural and for the first time I can actually actuate a weapon when I want to, not when my finger or thumb eventually finds the tiny stock button.
I also hot glued an M3 nut to the middle finger button, I use that for weapon on/off on the vert, with weapon speed on CH6. The microswitch is the “full send” button.
They are not well built transmitters and after a couple of years of regular events mine is just barely hanging to life by a thread. The wheel pot died, so I grafted on the monstrosity pictured (looks hideous but feels great though! ) because I couldn’t find a drop in replacement pot (and was unemployed enough for three days designing a self-centering wheel assembly that felt right to be an appealing choice). Bits have fallen off. It’s too top heavy with just a 600mah lipo in the bottom and falls over sometimes. I had some 18650s in there but they died for some reason and the juice came out of one of them.
I did make a new trigger assembly though, with a more progressive spring ramp in the forwards direction and (I think, it’s been a while) I tweaked the mid point so that you get more trigger travel in the forwards direction, it’s now about 75% of the total range of motion. Also a hoop trigger rather than the weird triangle one it comes with and which my sausage fingers kept slipping out of. If you want the CAD let me know, it’s a drop in replacement (same spring even) and I do think it’s a big improvement over the feel of the stock trigger!
It’s had a good run but I’ll be putting on the shelf soon in favour of a Radiomaster MT12. Ari got one recently and I got to have a play with it, it’s a much better built transmitter and also means I can go ELRS for the teeny weeny surface mount receiver modules with integrated antennae.
Still gonna bodge weapon switches on, though.
So the finish line is in sight so I should be resting on my laurels and just doing little bits of housekeeping. That’s what I should be doing, so naturally
“Once again, I am asking you to rebuild the actuator”
That’s right kids. I’m doing all I can. The last saga was cutting reduction out, but now I’ve gained enough weight back I can potentially put some back in.
I played with the numbers and found dropping to Mod 1 I could get a tasty little reduction in the same space as the 19T mod 1.5 gears. I priced them up on technobots, and it was a decent chunk of change. I then figured I’d give Accu a go and it was more expensive again (but closer to ideal) but with a 15 day lead time.
AliExpress, ten days and £8 later I had an exact set. I attempted intelligence for a change and worked out how best to drill the holes for maximum size to remove as much weight as possible without upsetting the grub screw.
For a ten gram increase I feel the benefit of extra pinching power is absolutely worth it.
I put some shallow holes in the lead screw so that I could swap out the M3 grubscrew with a bolt, just getting that extra holding power and positive engagement. Should help keep the thrust loading assembly from exploding.
Assembly is properly buttoned down now - I feel like it’s best to put a pin in it before I undo all the progress with unnecessary fiddling.
So there was still a bit of a lack of fasteners holding the front on. This is traditionally an important part to make sure doesn’t fall off. I had decided to make my own aluminum barrel nuts to save weight. I bought this rod of 8mm 6082 and shoved it into this printed jig.
Little bit of saw abuse and I had my custom m4 barrel nuts.
It’s a mixture of these captive square nuts and the barrels. At least I’m not putting all my eggs in one basket of techniques.
I finally made myself a little bottom covering with some #branding. I need to get a finer paint pen to do the rest of the lettering and try to correct the wonkiness. It means the back end has changed to 6mm TPU over 1mm titanium instead of 2mm HDPE on the last version.
Somehow I’m still in weight! I will be leaving jolly well alone at this point with no other major additions or subtractions!
Full glory to the grabby chappy. Helpfully I left my fasteners and fixings at work so it’s stuck missing a couple bolts but it’s very functional.
Despite my best efforts it’s ended up about the same footprint as it’s predecessor but a lot shorter. As a result the jaw is a lot smaller meaning my bite is going to struggle at anything greater than 45-50mm tall
POV: you are a lipo protected by a TPU lid.
Perhaps it’s a bit wishful but we live in hope for perfect draws eh?
5 Likes
Great work. Hoping for a video update!
My word.
Where do I begin.
Last bit of work on Nips was this little window into the soul. What this did was let the larger spur gear clear the base so it would sit properly when fully retracted. I kinda just hacked the titanium about and then made myself a printed window frame to hide my shame.
I also added a little plate to protect the switch and also clearly identity where it was. Safety features are always an afterthought and I’m a bad person because of it.
Hard Nips scraped under the limit being 1490g with the thicker armour so I’m calling that a win. I did my normal trick of turning up and immediately tech checking before retreating to my hovel to wait for the draw.
Photo shamelessly stolen from Dave Weston but my first draw was Bad Daddy and Lilith which was a pretty tough lineup out of the gate.
Despite Moulds being my biological father, I got no respite from Tom who dispatched Lilith by removing the lipo and then wearing my robot as a rather fetching hat before booting me about the place.
I had been able to do a few self righty flicks with the right movement of wheel and actuator on the kitchen floor but once I was knocked upside down in An Real Fight I couldn’t replicate the movement. It was even harder as he’d clouted the actuator which spat all the gears out of the gearbox and bent the leadscrew.
I was unscathed aside from an actuator rebuild and a tip replacement. I just had a cup of tea and listened to people chatting while I slopped it all back together and waited for my redemption draw.
I had a really good feeling things were looking up and the hard part was done.
I was intensely mistaken.
Yes I had drawn Bby Shrekt and Mr Price was not having an A1 super special day until he drew me and I think it’s fair to say his luck changed.
Nips was basically being used as a damage sponge, getting tipped early doors and once again being a bit useless. Being able to crab about and limply define movement meant the fight had to continue.
In situations like this I’m willing to continue because I don’t like to tap out, I’m fighting robots for a reason and you never know when someone is going to hoist themselves on their own petard. Much like the national lottery and Russian roulette, ya gotta be in it to win it.
He made no mistakes and I was eventually beached upside down and counted out. I take my pride where I can get it, and the fact that the robot was still very much on and driving is a little tick in the plus column… Quite a lonley tick mind you.
All things said and done it wasn’t catastrophic and it’s on the borderline of having a spare actuator (which the last version had!)
The robot is such a fantastic upgrade in durability over the first one. While battered and chewed the resilience is galaxies ahead of the last one. Upgrade from paper-mache, HDPE and spit is a low, low bar but I have been known to trip over it on my way to the gutter. Big big win for everything here. Could not have been happier.
A little gutted at the actuator but it was made out of hollow aluminum and comprimise so I can’t be too harsh a judge. The motor getting clipped was almost a certainty with the exposed nature of its existence. The subsequent removal and disassembly of the entire actuator was an unexpected novelty, though.
So, it was not good at being a robot and I still am not very good at being a robot person but hey, it’s all good data.
Yet another mixed bag but it’s more like a bag of pick ‘n’ mix than colostomy I think. The robot felt really far ahead in terms of design and it came together in months not years. I’m happy with it, despite the 15 seconds of fight time and the brutal nature of its demise.
Material use and construction was improved, style felt like a move in the right direction too. Still running despite the hard knocks was encouraging.
Disappointing was the lack of effectiveness of anything to do with the weapon and the ease with which it could be tipped over and doomed. I seriously need to sort the control aspect and have a word with myself about maybe trying to move the robot in a way that could be considered “fighting” or at the very least “moving towards the opponent”
The drive is still remarkably smooth and didn’t miss a beat which is borderline remarkable considering it’s an over/under constrained mess of sour gears and ad-hoc printing. It feels like it’s wasted on this, however and it is a bit of a boat anchor with regards to weight. Cheap and cheerful though.
Probably the best feeling I had coming away from an event in a long time though. No wibbly little emotions just a busted robot and a list of “try harder” bits to action. I left fully intending to put him on a shelf and just concentrate on clearing my plate. Naturally I have had a stupid idea already and I can’t leave well enough alone.
Have a sneak behind the curtain at my wisps of vapor.
Big love, forever and always xoxo
3 Likes
was gutted you drew bby shrekt especially when sam was out for blood by that point. glad ya had a good day and looking forward to seeing it again soon pls! would do very well with much less chance of rapid disassembly at pub beetles, just sayin 