The next chapter in the saga of the seal is nigh! I signed up for rock and robots 15 That mean’s I’ve been to over half the rock and robots. Since Freddy Fazbot left, that makes me the veteran that does abysmally! I still have to put a front scoop on it. It’s a very tight squeeze AFTER I drilled some holes in the chassis and cut some bits off the bottom. All the electronics are meant to go on the top. If that’s where your robot’s electronics are, you’re in a bit of a pickle.
I’ve also noted a most concerning development. One of the robots entering is Sargent(somethingsomething)Ant(something). As a member of the Air Cadets, I went to my squadron leader to get permission to beat it up. She neither confirmed nor denied. All I can hope for is that I don’t get put in the same bracket and to not actively attack it in the rumble.
Seal Of Approval’s redesign has been finished with minimal incident, aside from not having a switch soldered in. The forks have been taken straight from another 150(+25)g robot I found lying around in some corner of a 3D printing website. It should run inverted, and the forks will give it decent ground clearance against most other robots. The only concern is the likes of Sir Googly, since its forks are longer and might even be able to fit between mine. It should still make for an easier time against Grey fox 1.1 (maybe even 2 now) and Flipside. The traction is great, but the wiring is a bit of a mess. Every time I close it up, I’m afraid I’ll snap some of the electronics. I also had to have the wiring put together really weirdly between the motors and the ESC to get it to drive normally. Probably because it was meant to run the other way up originally, as well as have the back be the front. 2 spare forks means that with that shiny red ESC/transmitter chip, it’ll be omnivertible!
With all of that, I should be able to go 1:2 or 1:3.
The shiny new Seal and his silly little friend The Seal Avenger! As you can see(al), SOA has another fork, but the changes go further than that! It’s got heat shrink on the switch, so it isn’t a rolling OSHA violation, and those snazzy combined transmitters/ESC. It’s having a little trouble, since the new ESC doesn’t do turning AND going forwards and backwards, but it easily won all it’s test matches vs The Seal Avenger (so long as I’m the one using it). I also taped the fur down harder. This should be it’s final form until rock and robots 16 (how has it become so many…), but putting the switch on the outside should be the next change.
TSE is also just sitting around, I’ve seen a really good looking 3D printed undercutter model that I want to use. If you know where you can buy antweight spinners, please tell me!
Oh and also my Dad is there holding the electrics in. He said to say this so nobody gets mixed up.
Rock and robots 16 already! How time flies! 22 robots, 1 prize. I had 3 fights in my heat, however the driver of one robot wasn’t there, so after a nice little win followed by getting my boi beaten up (I tried ok) I had a lot of time to kill. The drummer also didn’t arrive so a roboteer had to take over. When he had to do battle, I had around a heat’s worth of fights to drum for. I’ve never played the drums before, but I think I did alright. Freddy Fazbot showed up and I slam dunked him, getting in an 8 way melee for a spot in the semi finals. I made it to the final 3, but blundered. I also lost a robot football match, totalling 2:3. Close, but when will I win more than I lose?
We’re in the hours before RnR 17, and I’m going to make my prediction! I think I’ll go 2:1, maybe 2:2 depending on the format. A nice safe bet this time. As for the changes, I’ve recharged the battery and… that’s pretty much it. At least it’ll be full of energy and go fast since when it isn’t topped up it gets pretty sluggish.
I went 2:3 or 3:2 (I can’t remember). Take off a loss if you don’t count a very unfortunate error. The modern version performed well, delivering several good pins in it’s second fight and overall causing a 3 way joust. However it had an issue that pushed some of it’s fights back.
The connectors between the motors and the ESC were pretty loose, and I lost my roll of electrical tape. Still, nothing to worry about. At least until the joust. In a very comedic moment, Seal Of Approval’s connectors came loose again, so I opened it up, jiggled it a bit, and it worked. Then I sat it in the arena and it broke. So I fixed it. As soon as it started working again, the joust began. You can’t make this up!
At least it came 4th in the rumble. It again suffered faulty connections, but it fixed itself after a second.
The solution to the problem is pretty simple: directly solder instead of using those bad connectors. I’ll look through SOA and TSA and replace any I can find.
It’s that time or the month again, and SOA is having it’s drive issues repaired. The motor was desoldered, but something might be going on elsewhere.
As for the prediction… It’d say either 2:2 or 2:3, seeing as I’ve got a tough draw in the only heat that has anyone with more than 3 events under their belt, including Guido, a cam-lifter that’s a hard counter to my boi.
I was able to go 3:1 in the main competition and 1:1 in the racing side event! I was put in heat D, which was pretty nasty since it was one of the only ones without at least 2 newcomers, and had my hard-counter Guido.
In my first fight against Sir Googly (which brought forks longer than it to counter Guido, but didn’t use them for this fight) I was able to move faster than it could turn, which is surprising for a robot with tracks, and was able to get in some good shoves that ended with it in the pit. This was followed up by Guido, which was a harder opponent to use the strategy on but I was just able to have some control over the direction when lifted and got in a cheeky little pit. From there I disposed of a newbie swiftly and without hesitation to go straight to the quarter finals.
I immediately got pitted by Outrun Neon (Think Storm 2 but a 4wd antweight with a front-hinged flipper). Yikes!
Following this surprising defeat I went into the rumble and went out fairly quickly. My main comment on the rumble is that Wide I Build This?, made by a seasoned builder that’s recently returned to the hobby/sport/art form who’s name I’ve forgotten, didn’t win.
I went into the race side event not expecting much (tracks are usually a slower movement option, only beaten by true walkers and bristles) but with the power of being able to drive straightish, I came second and was able to go to the finals which I lost. I also entered the wife calling contest, and entered by video calling my mum. Despite promising to give the ultimate wife sash to my mum as a birthday gift, I was beaten.
Overall, I’d say that I might be able to reach the semi-finals next time, though rumour has it a coalition of antweights is being formed to besige the upcoming London beetleweight event. Stay tuned for more info on that.
Seal Of Approval hasn’t had as much work done as it’s friend, but there have been some improvements. Shortly after '19, a mysterious figure appeared and offered me a link to a robot similar to mine that he wanted testing out. In retrospect, I probably should have been more suspicious, but now I have 3 much fancier forks.
I’ve got long forks and short forks, I’ve gone for 2 of the former and 1 of the latter. They have those hook things at the tip and also kind of work inverted with those things that stop robots going straight over. They might make it less manoeuvrable, but on the other hand, ground game.
As it turns out, having gear motors full of fluff is suboptimal, and can lead to them breaking as soon as you go backwards. Needless to say, I went 0:3, but made it decently far in the rumble! All the fights were pretty enjoyable, especially the second one where I spent at least a minute doing nothing but holding the stick forward at the edge of the pit. Better yet, that was against Jet, a very fast pusher, with only 1 track. Sure, it was being used as a loanerbot and had almost split in half by the open arena section, but still!
I haven’t had a good chance to test the forks, but they did alright in the first fight and during a quick pre-battle test. I’ll keep them on until I can have an event with de-fluffed gearmotors.
Oh yeah there was a cool walker there too. Very spidery!
Another thing I just remembered, a lot of the usual folks (Vlad, Sir Googly’s builder) weren’t there. Maybe they were busy repairing after CAT 1? There were also some photographers, who apparently might stick Rock and Robots in a newspaper. Robot fighting isn’t the most popular hobby, so some more visibility is good. Then again, not knowing what it is makes people think my hobby is punching robots, which gets me more cool points!
So Rock and Robots 21 happened. The heat featured former (and eventual) champion Guido and Cygnet, as well as a newcomer. After a bodge fix to fix the hatch coming open mid fight, I had the new robot as my first opponent. I went 0-3 in total, less said the better. I think it’s because the tracks have become smooth, so the stopping immediately my dad keeps talking about isn’t true anymore.
I’m hoping for a better performance at CAT 2. Also I’m planning something for Friday, so remember the date!
Continuing today’s relentless assault on the forum, Seal Of Approval is 1 year old today! Yipee!
(Insert photo of first version with a 3d printed party hat on)
I’ve decided to do a quick retrospective. First version was good, but would have been better if the bigger wheels weren’t used/mounted better. Might have made it an extra event or two then. The second version is stinky and has been banished to the polycarbonate and 3d printed target practice chassis box with all but the main plate being stripped. The new version is pretty good, I’ve finally gotten back on my review of those forks around now ago. They’re good, but I’ll stick with the old ones. The tracks are getting less grippy too (Probably from SOA vs Jet in '19), which is a problem.
As for an extra thing, I’ll do an alternate history of Rock and Robots 20 where SOA didn’t get fluff in the gears (and performed like the time before that). I’d say that it’d probably win against Mighty Atom. I’m not sure about Jet or Scoot, but I think that I’d beat 1 but not both. Let’s say Jet get’s beaten but Scoot prevails. This puts Jet and Mighty Atom out in the heat, with SOA taking the latter’s place in the quarter finals. Whether it could beat Little Lift is debatable. If no then it’d be a loss. What were you expecting?
Let’s say it’s a win for the sake of keeping this going. Let’s say it was with some good driving like against Guido and Sir Googly at '19. Cygnet ended up beating SOA at rock and robots 20, and it’s here in the past too. Even with SOA in peak form, I doubt it would be an easy fight. If Seal Of Approval loses, Cygnet makes it to the semis where it likely falls to John St Cloud, and I doubt it could beat Scoot even if that did happen. From then it defeats Grey Fox 2 for a third place win. But wait! John St Cloud now goes to the final, but it loses to Scoot. Oh yeah, Seal Of Approval. If it does beat Cygnet, then It’d likely out-fork John St Cloud, before losing again to Scoot to claim 2nd place!
I did think for a time when making this that maybe it’d affect Rock and Robots 20, since the tracks wouldn’t be worn down from a long pushing match against Jet. However, the extra fight time would likely take it’s toll on the tracks and give a similar result to what happened last weekend, restoring balance to the timeline.
That was a lot more words than expected. Hoping for the best tomorrow at CAT 2 (no prediction as I have no clue how many fights are in each heat)
A week and 3 days ago Was CAT 2. I don’t remember which robots I fought, just that I went 1:2 and didn’t make it to the single elimination tournament (it was a fight nights setup like Battlebots). Domino from rock and robots 1 and 2 (oh yeah the champion of champions too) was there, and I got to drive it in the 2v2s, where it went 1:1. It got upgraded a lot, with side scoops, bigger forks and a minibot.
I’ll next show up at Rock and Robots 22. Oh how the events have worn away… I remember when we only used 1 digit!
The seal has sean much success, only rivalled by the run back in ‘19. I went 0-3 in the heat, defeating fearsome opponents such as Guido (I think I also had to contend with Angel 2 and Dropstep, but I’m not sure on them and the only real threats were Guido and maybe Boris 3.5 anyway). Point is, I skipped straight to the semi-finals, where I promptly got discombobulated by Cygnet (2nd place and rumble winner) then Horny Forker (a rather questionable name as you’ll agree, but highly effective).
Overall, I’d say a good performance where just one small change in the group stages could have led to great success. I’ll still take 4th any day.
Also, how do you turn of dark mode for the BBB website? It makes it hard to tell which forum posts I haven’t read.
I’ve mostly been working on The Seal Avenger, getting it combat ready for ORCS 9, my dad’s been working on a flipper that has potential to be a 4th version of SOA. It’s pretty much just Flipside 2.0 but white. I am having issues keeping the servo attached to the flipper arm though, and the rod holding the flipper assembly together from falling off. It should be in working order for the next Rock and Robots.
Tomorrow SOA departs for CAT 3. I’ think I’ll get at least 1 win, maybe 2, but nothing spectacular. I’ve been working on a flipper, which I’ll likely bring along to test it out. In less fortunate news, my school’s made it so images don’t load on Chromebooks, sorta messing up the shop, and the forum is entirely blocked . Expect less frequent updates.
moon / sun button bottom left.
. Expect less frequent updates.