I’ve been wanting to get back to events again, given my last event was 2018 (and the one before that was 2012) and I haven’t built anything in a while. My new year’s resolution is simple: Get Team Driving Force into a winning lifetime record.
According to my records, Team Driving Force stands at a lifetime record of 3-13*. (3-17 is you count 4 unrecorded whiteboard matches). Which for a team that started in 2001 isn’t great. To do this, I need to start attending events again.
We are taking a foray into a new weight class for Team Driving Force: Antweights. Antweights have always been interesting to me with the weight & size constraints, and how flexible of a class it is for prototyping, so I thought now was as good of a time as ever to build one!
Over Christmas I purchased a Bambu A1 Mini and started printing.
I initially started with a flat and wide lifter shape, however I realised that fitting a BBB Dual ESC in there, while technically possible, was always going to be a pain and I couldn’t be bothered.
I pivoted into a bigger chassis with a more conventional cheese wedge shape. This provides more breathing room for stuffing electronics into and I prefer the shape anyway. The weapon went from a rear hinged lifter to a front hinged lifter for a few reasons:
- With a 90 degree arc from the servo without a servo extender, it’s easier to self right with a front hinged lifter.
- Improper firing of the weapon leaves you far less exposed with a front hinged lifter.
- Front hinged lifters are cooler.
Many revisions happened to the initial design, bringing the overall height down and adding in some side angles to prevent being stuck on it’s side.
A lot of plastic later, I present Propaganda, the latest Team Driving Force creation.
Printed out of PLA-ST, he needs a horn of shame to self right, and in testing the lifter doesn’t flip things, moreso pushes them away with gusto. This carries on the proud tradition of Team Driving Force robots having weapons that don’t actually do anything.
Propaganda debuts at The Premiant League, hosted by Merseryside Robot Fighting. Looking forward to going to see how other people build their Antweights and to find out the hard way what needs to change for V2.
*Malc 1.5: 1-1, Phoenix: 0-1, Johnny 2x4: 0-3 (or 0-7), Orpheus: 2-8