Unfortunately we haven't quite finished all our design work, so we haven't been able to order everything we need in time for this three-day weekend, so we're going to have to amuse ourselves with some general building this weekend. We headed out to the build space to dig out some parts, and to figure out some design issues. Click Back after viewing an image.
One thing on our list is unearthing the DeWalts and omniwheels for Formidable Fustigator 0.9. We last had them installed in a middleweight we didn't get to finishing, which we dug out from behind all our materials, and unbolted the top plate from.
As you can see, there are four DeWalt/omni setups in the 'bot, so hey presto! We have a spare. We're still not 100% sure whether we want to use the DeWalts, or some Craftsman 19.2V drill motor/gearboxes - it'll come down to weight at the end of the build.
Next on our list of things to do is to design a new gearbox for Nihilistic Naysayer 2.0's Handiworks motors. Last time one exploded from a hit, and we want to make them a little tougher. We remembered back to making custom gearboxes for Anaphoric Antagonist 1.6 and it was a fairly simple operation. We took apart the damaged Handiworks from version one and took some measurements.
Part of the reason we haven't finished our design work is because we need to design lifting arms for our fairyweight and a beetle. Starting with the fairyweight Machiavellian Malcontent 0.9 we took some 1/4" balsa and a 1/16" drill bit, and started joining things up with rivets.
The first stab, and we realized that when in the 'down' position, the arm wouldn't be sitting flat on the top of the 'bot, which obviously isn't ideal.
Also, with the arm in the 'up' position it sits over the 'bot, rather than toward the front, or even in front, so we need to rethink this position.
After making the rocker (the shortest piece) a little longer, we used a piece of aluminium to represent the top and bottom of the body, and worked around it to ensure the arm laid flat in the 'down' position.
By moving the pivot points closer to the front of the 'bot for the longer upright, we were able to see more of a forward motion to the movement of the arm, which is what we're looking for.
To finally nail down the sizing and positioning, we cut the balsa to the actual size of the 'bot, and checked the geometry in the 'down' position ...
... And the 'up' position - you can see here that we have a much more forward final position, which is what we were shooting for!
Here we're playing with the micro-servo which will power the arm in the 'bot. It took a while to find both a working receiver and a working BEC to power it - must remember to order a new receiver! The little servo seems to have quite a bit of oomph, so it ought to do fine in powering the arm.
Second verse, same as the first. On to the arm for our second beetleweight for Motorama. We used the rough geometry from the first attempt to pin together the pieces here. With some extra wood representing the size of the body in the middle, the arm looks right in the 'down' position.
And looks pretty good in the 'up' position too. All in all we're happy with these designs, so we recorded the measurements of the pin holes, and went back to the CAD for the two 'bots to work on designing the arms.
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