@geekmomprojects@mastodon.social
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geekmomprojects

@geekmomprojects@mastodon.social

Tinkerer Maker Solderer Mom • lateral thinker • LEDs improve everything

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geekmomprojects, to random
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Sadly, I wasn't able to fix all of the flaws (a tendency to explode being the primary one) in my robot, "Footloose", so we won't be competing. However, I'm here at UIUC to cheer on my son Justin and my bouncing 1-lb grand-bot, "Singularity," (pictures below) as well as his team's 30 lb bot "Collosal Avian." The tournament is livestreamed ("Live" link at the "Robobrawl UIUC" YouTube channel) if you want to check it out.

geekmomprojects,
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@smellsofbikes yes, fair. My mistake was testing it before the competition.

geekmomprojects,
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@lePetomaneAncien thank you!

geekmomprojects,
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Here's a video clip from a fight with an interestingly designed bot. The larger of the two bots has a bristle bot locomotion system, with metal bristles and vibration for propulsion, and gets a 50% weight bonus as a "shuffler." It steers with its weapons system, which consists of two side-by-side horizontal spinners. By varying the relative spinner speed, it generates force to the right or left, though it can't travel backwards.

A 1-lb match between two small black 3D printed combat robots

geekmomprojects, (edited )
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Clip from the Livestream showing a 30-lb bot getting hit into the ceiling (hard). Apparently when the tournament first started years ago, the arena had no ceiling, which presents obvious problems. https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxxDw1w4kVM0-ceYzdRr9aZ1eJg9ejeo5C?si=qy1sFHEAzXWnFc2z

geekmomprojects,
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Another 1-lb match clip from the Livestream. This was the end of a very slow moving match. The blue/white bot was literally held together with duct tape. At the end the larger black shuffle bot quite literally pulled the taped cover off to end the match. https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx7prGhDSdvv-87nARrusTObXVA-6GEyNh?si=n5O3QQKBFH9uaoAJ

geekmomprojects,
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@gadgetoid I was wondering that myself. Gonna try to ask the owner to find out and will report back

geekmomprojects,
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Got a chance to talk with the designers, super nice students from Purdue who were happy to talk to us about the bot. The vibrations which propel it are all from the weapons motors which spin in the same direction as each other. As a "shuffler" it gets a 50% weight bonus. Each spinner has steel "teeth" which get embedded in the 3D printed weapon by stopping the print partway. The bristles are angled to point backwards so they let the bot slide forward but resist sliding backwards.

geekmomprojects,
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@gadgetoid Got to talk to the bot designers and posted the answer here: https://mastodon.social/@geekmomprojects/112219774141575873

geekmomprojects, to random
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Well @#$&!!! My bot blew up again during testing. 😡😡😡 This time I managed to turn off the power before the LiPo caught fire. Looks like one of the drive motor ESCs blew (hard) taking the receiver with it. The LiPo took a bit of damage but appears to be a bystander. Now I'm not sure if I'm going to have a functioning robot by Thursday. I have (different) backup parts arriving tomorrow, so if I can jury-rig something there is a shot, but I don't know... UGH...

geekmomprojects,
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RIP ESC

geekmomprojects,
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Triage reveals that the other individual electronic parts are sooty, but still functional, including both motors. Amazingly the receiver still works fine though its shrink tube cover was completely black. I still have one working ESC left, but considering that two others of the exact same type exploded, I don't trust it. I have two 70A (replacing 15A) ESCs arriving tomorrow, so if (a) they will work with my motors and (b) I can figure out how to program them appropriately, it may just work 🤞

geekmomprojects,
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@jwcph thank you for that, it made me laugh out loud!

geekmomprojects,
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@bornach I have no idea. Right before this one blew, I was spinning the weapon up, but that shouldn't have impacted the current through the drive motor, and in yesterday's test the weapon motor was disconnected, so 🤷

geekmomprojects,
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@DenOfEarth that's the thing, there is no coding involved. I purchased the motors and ESCs as a set, so they should work well together. It's a hardware/wiring issue of some kind.

geekmomprojects, to random
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My combat bot, "Footloose" is coming together. I had a lot of problems with the shuffling mechanism due to the 3D printed cams deforming over time. Amazingly, I found a business that could laser cut an aluminum set for me with a 24 hour turnaround, and the locomotion is now much more stable. Weapon is working, (and fun to test!) Now I'm going to add a wedge in the front and figure out how to shave off about 20g overall to make weight. Almost there...

geekmomprojects,
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@brokenminded and yes, googly eyes would add something!

geekmomprojects,
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If you ever need any fast turnaround small metal machining jobs in Los Angeles, I can highly recommend Daniel Reetz who works independently and didn't have availability to take on the job but went out of his way to help me get set up with Rudy at Laserbend where I ultimately got the cams, and whom I can also recommend highly.

geekmomprojects,
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Exciting moment/unexpected setback late last night while testing the shuffle drive without the weapon, I blew a motor, an ESC, and started a LiPo fire. The exploded LiPo is on the bottom right. Fortunately the bot was running in the test box at the time, though watching it fill with thick white smoke was disconcerting. I'll be keeping a fire extinguisher next to the test box from now on. I had 2 spare motors and 1 spare ESC, but I won't have a spare ESC going into the competition now...

geekmomprojects,
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@brokenminded thank you! what amazes me are the European Antweight bot competitions where the weight limit is 150g (!)

geekmomprojects,
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@ChiefRobot yes, lots! I was testing it in an enclosed test box with a plexiglass lid at the time, and I watched it fill with this smoke and crossed my fingers that the box wouldn't catch fire.

geekmomprojects,
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@ratkins apparently! I'm not actually sure, so I redid all the wiring just in case. And also limited the drive motor speed in the controller since I can't control it well at high speeds anyhow.

geekmomprojects,
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@makingtolearn he was so nice and really went above and beyond to help me even when he didn't get anything out of it. I'm still amazed that I was able to get custom metal cams fabricated in less than 24 hours.

geekmomprojects,
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@chipperdoodles LOL!

geekmomprojects,
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@ChuckMcManis burning lipos are definitely distinctives but I hope it's a skill you won't have to use often.

geekmomprojects,
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@makingtolearn thank you so much!

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