Last weekend I had an INTRUSIVE THOUGHT that I don’t actually have a functioning beetleweight of my very own, and it was the BBB champs signup shortly, and maybe that the latter was a timely occasion to rectify the former? So the intrusive thought became jsut a regular ol’ thought, and I figured I could make a simple, fun to drive beetle based on the Hobbyweight I made for Dojo (and have never written anythihng about ever), which is essentially a big tonka toy-come-moonbuggy thing:
This was lots fo fun to drive, for the 30 seconds or so before it threw its drive belts.
Brickladdie has a whisky-themed name, based on the Bruichladdich distillery for reasons that elude me (possibly the idea came while imbibing said beverage), so as a placeholder that will inevtably stick Slamnavulin (after Tamnavulin) works as well.
I have a tendency to overcomplicate designs, so I am really trying to keep things simple here. Also, I already have batteries, a couple of motors and the materials already, so all I need is a few supplemental bits from BBB (more motors and a Scarab board, already ordered) and maybe a new reel of filament (buying filament is just an inevitable part of life, right?) and I’m OK to go.
After a few hours of CAD tinkering I have this:
Drive is all classic BRUSHED, with a slight reduction (something c. 2:3) as the 80mm wheels might be a bit much otherwise. The insides will be quite sparse:
If I have time, inclination and available mass, there may be a small vertical drum on the front as well, but the current baseline is jsut a selection of wedges, dozer blades, forks, etc.
I have optimistically tagged this as a build log on the assumption that this isn’t just a vapourbot.