Houndeye - My first combat robot

Bot Builds & Designs
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This is my build log for my first combat robot, dubbed “Houndeye” (after the half-life 1 enemy). It’s a sportsman antweight. When finished it’ll be around 10 cm wide, 3 long and 1 tall (excluding wheels). Currently only the electronics and bottom panel are done, but once it’s finished it’ll be a lifter/grabber (I’m planning on making 2 interchangeable arms for specific matchups). I’ll admit, I have no idea about what I’m doing.

I would put up some images, but I’m writing this on my chromebook in my school’s library. Rest assure that the seat I’m in is indeed comfortable. I’ll post some images to this soon.

The robot runs on something around a 200 or 220 mAh LiPo, with the rest of the parts coming from the Bristol Bot Builders antweight kit. If you ask me, I’m in a similar situation to team Behemoth when making it’s first version: They have no idea how big to make it, and the only CAD of any kind I did was strapping the parts to a cardboard envelope thing to see if it worked.

I’ll update with photos soon.

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Ok… Just a forewarning for when I get some photos. The craftsmanship of it is so poor that the only robots built worse are bodgebots and even then, it’s close. The wheels aren’t lined up, and the electronics are held on by duct tape and whatever solder’s left on the wheels. Experienced roboteers may want to avert their eyes.

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Sounds great! :smiley:
Starting out is the most fun you can have in some ways, you have zero expectations that anything will work so even getting something to move gives a huge sense of accomplishment. When we went to our first comp one of my mates set the lofty objective of “being able to at least start the second fight of the day” which I think is a good aim for your first bot’s first outing.

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I promised a photo so here’s one. As I said, experienced builders, avert your eyes.

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Chopped up houndeye, ready for cooking!

I still have the switch to solder in, parts to cut and attach. I keep imagining it to be way taller than the side and back panels show. I think of it as 5-7.5cm tall, when it’s more like firestorm. The rear is incredibly open to lifters, but the front scrapes on the floor. That might even out?

For the future, I really want to make a drum spinner beetle. I subconsciously decided one day I wanted to make that a long line of robots that were all beetle drum spinners (current name “Drumroll”). My dad has some spare parts. There’s the idea of it being a wedgebot, but a 4wd cage spinner could be a possibility (to cover the standard antweights).

Now I’ve written this, I have a good reason to get the side panels on and finish it. I don’t know how I’ll cram all the stuff in, but I’ve seen internals that are crazily tight. Right now the only way to keep them on is sellotape, but the servo, dual ESC and LiPo stack is too tall for the actual bot. And the servo doesn’t start or end at a good angle, and I don’t know how to change it.

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Just realised how bad the image is, and that you can’t see the side and base plates. Side effect of photography with a chromebook, I guess.

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First thought was you were just laying out the motors and stuff :joy:
I think I can just make out the base plate though…

btw, there’s already a Drumroll in the UK (featherweight I think)

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I guess I’ll have to build a featherweight and duel to see who can have the name.

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2 other names I could do is Heavy (name for back when I imagined building a battlebots robot) or Thermite (cool name I made up 2 minutes ago).

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Here’s an image of the robot as assembled as I can get it. Note the poor motor soldering and the sellotape.

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Resoldering the motors is first on the list, then the back panel. Again with the photo quality, school chromebook (which I should be doing English homework on right now). In the future I could use the chrome logged into my account on my parents laptop, and send photos on my phone to it.

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Quick update: I may have busted the motors in resoldering. My dad may have fixed it, I can’t remember. Another problem is attaching the side panels. I’m building a PLANT (plastic/sportsman antweight). I have got an idea for using a bent piece of plastic and screws. Drilling through it at both ends and the shell would mean I can finally get it done. If anyone else has an idea I’ll “look” into it.

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Hey Alex, I’ve removed the non robot related post.

Keep at the bot building, have you got an event you’re aiming for?

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I’m working on a robot for rock and robots (sportsman antweight) but when resoldering the motors I might have broken them. I’m also trying to get around to adding the side panels, but the motor’s should come first.

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I know I might be filling this place up, but I just wanted to say something.

Houndeye is going through a renaming. It’ll be the same robot, but with a new name and a new exterior. Until it’s finished, I’ll be in radio silence. Everyone’s welcome to guess what the new name will be.

For anyone asking, yes my motors are at least slightly broken from bad soldering (I at least messed up the wire/solder tab bits). As for where (once it’s finished) I’ll run my robot, it’s a sportsman antweight, and the only place running them (at least near me) is rock and robots. It’ll probably be a bad idea to go there, since I’m well below the legal drinking age and I think it’s in some sort of pub, but it’s likely the only place my parents will drive me over to.

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After much testing, research and assembly I’ve come to the conclusion that the panels don’t quite fit together, and that nobody bothers with the 4 inch cube rule. As a result, I’m rebuilding the chassis bigger, better, faster, stronger. I also have an idea to use a big lego wheel and a gearmotor to make a slow, safe spinner for sportsman events. The wheels aren’t exposed.

Again as to why, the first of anything (pancakes or robots) is often the worst.

One question, can you use gearmotor for a vertical flywheel? Is that a good idea or have I been pretending to use Icewave’s engine exhaust as a snorkel for too long?

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Did some RnD and got some alright results. I mean, I can get power to it. I’m not sure how to turn it on or off remotely, or if I’ll get kicked out of the event for bringing what might turn out to be a (far safer than average) spinner setup. Still, that’s not the attitude that let Razer and Hypno-disk forge ahead.

I know I said that I’d be going radio silence, but I honestly don’t entirely know what I’m doing with this sportsman-friendly vert. After doing some more research on the BBB guides, I might need a few beetle parts to hook up the transmitter for gearmotors. Some suggestions would be very happily accepted.

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So you’re just using a regular speed N20 gearmotor driven wheel to flick robots upwards? That should not count as a spinner by any metric. Driving it should be as simple as just adding a single channel ESC like the red one offered by BBB or using the 3rd channel on the Malenki if you’re using one.

What beetle parts do you think you would need? I do not understand quite what you are asking or what you intend to do.

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I’m intending to use a lego wheel I have like a vertical spinner, but the only place that does sportsman antweights has a roofless arena, making conventional spinners dangerous. I’m trying to make a big 3rd wheel hooked up to my weapons stick on the front of my robot to send the competition flying across the arena.

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Said possible vertical spinner. This is either going to work or people will say I have to stop using shunt as a toothpick

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After 4 long months of “I really should get around to that”, I present to you…

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SEAL OF APPROVAL

This little fella may look simple, but under the fur it’s surprisingly complex. For instance, the face is at the back of the robot to confuse it’s opponents, as well as stop them from attacking for the simple reason that you wouldn’t hurt this little fella, wouldn’t you…

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Skin him alive!!!

Shoutout to my dad for making most of it. Also no seals were harmed in the making of seal of approval (SOA).

As for a Mk 2, there’s a gaping hole that means the top half of the wedge just does not exist. I suppose strapping a doorstop or something else made out of rubber to a servo would stop it from getting pushed around. It also tends to tilt back when accelerating. Making it so it can drive on it’s back by moving the wheels would help (speaking of, I could use some bigger ones).

This fluffy little fella is on it’s way to rock and robots 9 (once “I” (my dad) sends an Email).

PS: BBB guys don’t ban me I only meant the name to be a joke.

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It’s the night before SOA’s big day. The LiPos are charged or are charging, the shoebox (flying baby seal carrier MK 4 or 5) has a packing list on it.

Before the event, I’d like to share my prediction for how this is going to go. I think I might go 3-1 or 1-3. This is either high hopes or the average for a first build. I’m leaning towards the former, but this isn’t helped by the fact I’m around 25-30g underweight. I’m going to make a bet and say that if I my predictions are correct I get to be the forum’s resident predictor (since I got banned from being the necromancer. Sorry Joe and the BBB guys) and if not, there’s always next time!

Update will come tomorrow, or if I get back late the day after. As you may be able to tell from the slightly unnecessary post, I’m more than a little excited.

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My prophecy was correct. Sort of. I did say going 1:3 was a possibility!

I was able to draw the fights out with some decent driving, with the first being vs Grey Fox 1.1, an Apollo looking antweight that I knew would be a problem when I heard from the event manager that he thought it was the best flipper in the competition. Like with almost every fight, someone got in the pit. It was me. Weapons don’t actually do all that much here.

After that was Shova Those! or Whatta Doze!, I can’t remember the name. I think it was the latter. He had better ground clearance, and could push better but with good driving I was able to reach the exposed tracks and get in a few pushes and pins. I still lost, and wanted to challenge the driver for a grudge match, but he said that it’d be whoever lasts the longest in the rumble at the end. The record sits 2-nil to him.

The third fight I can’t remember, but the fourth one I do. Despite possibly being a part of gen alpha, I despise their weird meme stuff. So when one of the 2 other kids brought Skibi (you can guess the theme), a 3d printed axe, she would face my wrath. After a long pushing match I was able to pit Skibi to make my record 1-3. That got my 3 points, not enough to qualify for the tournament. Whatta Doze came 2nd, and I believe the winner was either Grey Fox or Bag Full Of Rocks (named after a song the event host, Eli Gumble, wrote on his way back from fossil hunting with a bag too full. When someone said to add more rocks, he said that the bag is full). I lost the rumble, but didn’t fall first.

In a sort of after party, speedy (a rapid clone that was named by the other of the 2 kids there on the spot) it was revealed that Seal Of Approval was prone to doing The thing when flipped from the front. I also found out that it’s hard to drive a robot in VR, especially if you’re controlling a different one to the one you’re looking from. Thanks to my dad for getting me there, adding a last minute tape over to the wedge and stealing the information behind the enemy’s flippers. Also thanks to Eli Gumble for hosting the event. Would have posted yesterday, but I got home at quarter to 11.

The Mk 2 has all sorts of ideas for it. The easiest was moving the front plastic to be more of a long fork that’ll also cover the bit on a baby’s head you aren’t meant to touch. Others include using bigger and grippier wheels, moved further back to stop the thing, a full sheet of plastic for the wedge (to stop there being that spot you can’t poke on babies) and an electromagnetically powered spring flipper that’ll have 1 big shot.