Flux v1.0
Specs:
Weight : 150g
Dimensions : roughly 130x100x35mm
Tracks: Timing belts with gecko tape grip, 3d printed pulleys, 16mm overall diameter
Drive Motors : Pololu HP 30:1 gearmotors
Drive ESCs : Fingertech TinyESCs
Weapon Servo : Saturn S44
Weapon Valve: SMC VM1000
Weapon Ram: Large Lego cylinder, with bored inlets and heavily lubricated
Tanks: 30mm diameter x 48mm long, lathed aluminium body, lathed nylon end caps
Reciever : Deltang RX31
Power : 12.6v 100mah 3-cell lipo pack
Chassis : 3D printed
Armor : 1mm polycarbonate
Status : Retired
Dimensions : roughly 130x100x35mm
Tracks: Timing belts with gecko tape grip, 3d printed pulleys, 16mm overall diameter
Drive Motors : Pololu HP 30:1 gearmotors
Drive ESCs : Fingertech TinyESCs
Weapon Servo : Saturn S44
Weapon Valve: SMC VM1000
Weapon Ram: Large Lego cylinder, with bored inlets and heavily lubricated
Tanks: 30mm diameter x 48mm long, lathed aluminium body, lathed nylon end caps
Reciever : Deltang RX31
Power : 12.6v 100mah 3-cell lipo pack
Chassis : 3D printed
Armor : 1mm polycarbonate
Status : Retired
Information:
I really wanted to have another go at a pneumatic flipper, and after some research and thinking I decided to go for a design based off American heavyweight Ziggy. The design is a long 4-bar system, designed to throw opponents far and high. The tall, long shape of the body also allowed me to fit a lot of air storage into the chassis.
During testing I was very pleased with how the robot was shaping up; the flips were powerful and flung the opponents in the manner I expected, and the robot had surprisingly good pushing power due to the thin tracks which ran down the side.
Unfortunately, when I started putting everything together, things started going wrong. Firstly, one of the tanks exploded while I was pressure testing it, which caused serious damage to one side of the chassis. There were endless other problems with the pneumatics during the construction, however after hours of testing and rebuilding multiple times I thought I'd finally got it airtight. Sadly, though, on the day of competition, it started having problems again. It worked well for it's first couple of fights, but then sprung another leak somewhere (which I could not diagnose or fix as there was no way for me to get the pneumatics out of the robot without destroying it), and so I couldn't use the weapon for the remainder of the tournament. I still performed well; the drive and tracks were powerful and I won most of my fights simply through brute force.
Once again, though, the problems pneumatics have given me have made me reticent to use them again the future. However, I did really like the design and how well it performed even with the problems it did have, so I'll be looking at doing something similar in future, but with the weapon being powered by something different.
During testing I was very pleased with how the robot was shaping up; the flips were powerful and flung the opponents in the manner I expected, and the robot had surprisingly good pushing power due to the thin tracks which ran down the side.
Unfortunately, when I started putting everything together, things started going wrong. Firstly, one of the tanks exploded while I was pressure testing it, which caused serious damage to one side of the chassis. There were endless other problems with the pneumatics during the construction, however after hours of testing and rebuilding multiple times I thought I'd finally got it airtight. Sadly, though, on the day of competition, it started having problems again. It worked well for it's first couple of fights, but then sprung another leak somewhere (which I could not diagnose or fix as there was no way for me to get the pneumatics out of the robot without destroying it), and so I couldn't use the weapon for the remainder of the tournament. I still performed well; the drive and tracks were powerful and I won most of my fights simply through brute force.
Once again, though, the problems pneumatics have given me have made me reticent to use them again the future. However, I did really like the design and how well it performed even with the problems it did have, so I'll be looking at doing something similar in future, but with the weapon being powered by something different.