Particle 7.0 cometh forth
Here we see the corner joint. On the old chassis it was bolted together,going to steel allows me to weld the joint together, six ways to Sunday even. The second picture has the original Particle Accelerator's top cover for reference. in this configuration the frame is 53 pounds.
First we see the cross brace with slots for clearancing the motors and the chain run. The second shot is of what I call the triple joint. It was actually a mistake, in that the channel was drilled to be symmetrical. When I looked at the piece it was replacing I found it was not. So one end of the channel was short. This neccesitated extending the channel. In doing so I created a joint which instead of being welded on 4 sides the joint is welded on more like 8. Aluminum is used in areas where structure is less important. The primary reason for going to Steel is rigidity. the aluminum, being bolted together got loose rather quickly and most of the holes were stretched when dragging other bots around on the arm.
Here is the frame standing on it's side. And the interface for the weapon system. The al plate between the two frames is 1/2 inch thick and somewhat mangled by Tornado Mer.
And here we see the transplanted tail from version 6.0
I painted the frame and mounted the filler panels.
Then inserted the inner bearing supports, these are mounted using 3/8 alloy bolts through nylon pipe and Jeep CJ spring bushings. They just fit together. Theoretically this will allow some adjustment to align the bearings.
This is the chain tensioner I came up with this time. The chain should hold it down and bits of angle will be glued in place to keep it from walking. This chassis will be an order of magnitude stronger, stiffer and more efficient than prior versions.
bottom plate is now mounted and looking pretty.
Lifter frame is mounted to drive frame. Tip to tail 64". Haven't weighed it yet. Not exactly man portable though.
Got the bearing blocks back from the machinist today. Spot on, accurate and pretty to boot. Too bad the wheels will hide them.
Here you can see the mod I am doing to allow the drum to be driven with less friction. I have notched the frame to allow multilink v-belt to be fed through. The piece of tube mounted between the frame rails reinforces the areas which were chopped out. The drum frame is notched as well. I used the piece that was removed for the notch as the insert to cover the open tube. This will provide a smooth, rounded contact face in case the belt rubs.
axles and motors are installed. I made new covers for the r-81 motors. For some reason the original covers no longer fit under the top cover. The new one's look better though.
Here's a comparison of the original and current motor covers. They were easy to make using the original as a template. Next we have Particle 7's first drive.
Now with the lifting arm mounted. in this configuration with the 3/8 lexan top it weighs in at 188lbs. Plenty for additional armor.
Oh and the drum weapon is back in one piece. Still have to redo the teeth. They will be fully welded on this time.
version 6.0
The drum system worked good when it worked. The problem was, this new motor I got as scrap from the shop was incredibily hungry. As soon as the weapon was turned on the drive power would drop off precipitously. The wiring for the brushes, suspect from the start, failed due to overheating. The Team Delta Contactor did it's job well and the batteries could supply the juice for a while. After the brush housing failed I was resigned to no more weapon for this event. For all I knew the motor I was using was a special one, designed for a single purpose. Fighting robots not being it. Ed McKnight suggested that the motor looked familiar. He suggested I talk to Mike Phillips, who had been using what is called a D-Pack motor to good effect. When we compared the two motors, the D-Pack and the one I had, it became obvious that they were from the same family. He loaned me one of his motors to try and get my weapon to work. The D-Pack is twice as long as the motor I have. I am informed that this is an A-Pack. The D-Pack brush housing was a perfect fit and has stud type terminals to the brushes instead of wire lead. With this motor cap installed and wiring redone, the weapon was ready to go again, almost.
In my annoyance at the weapon failure earlier in the day I had cut the v-belt off the drum to facilitate strip down to fight as a simple wedge. OOPS! Now I needed a belt and it was late in the day. I sent My pit minion extraordinaire, Mike Jacobsen, on a hunt for a belt. He came back with a belt I had seen used before but never played with before. Multi-link V-belt from Carl Lewis and John Mladenik at The Robotic Death Company. This saved my bacon. so now the weapon is ready to rock.
Sunday My first match is against Sewer Snake. He was mangled by Megabyte the day before. Still Matt knows how to drive and his bots will put it to you. I knew this and spent a good 45 minutes reseating connections, taping them down and preparing for some shock therapy. He had a new anti-drum thingy to test so I was game to test it for him. Here the inefficiency of my drum's design reared it's head again. I chewed on him a bit and then the drive goes into slo-motion. He rams me full tick into the side rail. I realize I have no power as he lines up for another wack. I tap out knowing that I had nothing left. Investigation of the power failure proved blatant and embarrassing. All those connectors I reseated and glued and taped for this fight? Forgot one, the master battery connection. 3 75 amp anderson powerpoles ganged together. Oh well.
Drum UPDATE!
The weld hammers are on and ready for some shaping on the mill. Yes, that's right. Piled up mig wire fully welded into the face of the drum. Not likely to break off in combat. Not the hardest steel on the planet. But it is really a blunt force weapon now isn't it?
On another front, I have received my Solidworks Battlebot sponsorship materials, this includes Solidworks Office and Cosmosworks. From this point on Particle Accelerator and it's variants will be modelled in and designed with Solidworks. The following link will take you to the SW Battlebots sponsorship page in case you would like to apply.
And now for Particle's next trick, the lifting arm revisited.
This assembly bolts onto the same end as the drum was mounted on. It is self contained and there are only 2 wires going to the interior of the robot. An e-drawing is available below. UPDATE! (9/12/2003)
The arm is done.
The lovely nose end with the Designed with Solidworks sticker in place. The lexan which is on top of the sticker is what I call the polymer tensioner. After assembling the arm I found gravity was enough to cause the link to collapse. the two 1/4" sheets of lexan act as a spring to bring the 2 segments into line. This allows the tips to ride the ground. the tips will come up once enough weight is in the pivot point. The arm goes up from below the ground to 25 inches in the air. Solidworks was an indispensible tool for the design. The end of the arm assembly was basically already built. And the linear actuator was a specific unit, so everything was built to accomodate those 2 parts.
Here you can see that particle retains the invertibility that has been paramount from the beginning.
Here's some shots of the whole bot, I will be adding teeth to the underside of the arm to prevent the actuator from hitting anything that gets into the mouth area. I should be able to grasp anything that the struts get under, though that is not the primary mode of attack. You can see the HDPE wedge or cape as it were. It rides the ground fairly well and can take a good hit.
And Finally, the teeth are installed. These don't do anything but protect the linear actuator from getting struck by another bot when closing. If perchance a bot does get in the mouth I should be able to grasp with some force.
UPDATE!. At Castaways Survival Series. the linear actuator was severely damaged when I left the arm up. Bullistic mashed the cover tube and this destroyed the motor. I have now received new actuators of a much higher rating and strength. the cover tube is easily 3 times the wall thickness of the old actuator. This will require a new arm to be manufactured due to the larger scale component. I will manufacture and test fit but for SDC I will use the current config until it gets damaged.
updated 6.22.06 send comments to TEAM3RDLAW@YAHOO.COM