30lb Fighting Robot-Nyx

Step 5 Day 5, wiring and the first test drive

The final day of the build consists of a great deal of cutting, crimping and soldering with a bit of gluing and velcroing thrown in for good measure.

The electrical system consists of the following components:
1 Hobbyking R610 receiver
1 Team Whyachi MS-1 switch (discontinued, MS-05 should be adequate)
1 Turnigy Nano-tech 6s1p 2650mah Lipoly pack
1 Digimix V-tail mixer
3 Holmes Hobbies BR-XL motor controllers
A small pile of deans connectors, wire and bullet plugs

The three BR-XL controllers are velcroed to the baseplate between the three dewalt powerdrive kits. The motor side of the controllers each  connects to 1 motor, the positive lead on the battery side runs to the MS-1 switch, which has the positive battery lead connected to the other terminal. The negative lead for each controller connects directly to the negative battery lead. The drive PWM cables connect to the V-tail mixer, which then connects to the Ail/Ele ports on the rx. The weapon controllers PWM cable goes directly to the rudder port on the rx. A power light built using a high output LED and a resistor is connected in the same fashion as the power leads for the motor controllers.

The foam padding that the battery is resting in is to minimize the risk of shock damage in combat.

Once all of the systems were hooked up and calibrated (full calibration instructions come with the BR-XL controllers, only calibrate one at a time to avoid issues) the robot was ready for its first test drive.

Comments

[Kelpbot]

It seems like a very solid robot! Very nice job. Im not sure about what you want from this robot, but it seems that it has almost more speed than it needs. I would consider using a 1:3 or more gear ratio for the drive system. Although some speed would be sacrificed, the control over turning would increase, and there would be less stress on the motors (although they are very durable). I personally would prefer this to lowering the motor power to slow it down.

[MikeNCR]

With most modern radio systems you can adjust steering sensitivity to make it easier to drive. The high speed allows me to out maneuver the opponent and control the match, or at least that's the idea.

[lawsonuw]

A better idea is to keep the speed and install a tail-rotor gyro between the receiver and the v-tail mixer. Even the cheapest gyro will let you power-slide around the arena like a god. (works great on ice too :D ) The Holmes Hobbies controllers look like they do synchronous rectification so they're better than the Victor 883's my first bots used, but a gyro is the best.

Also, the side plates holding your wheels look fairly weak. A spinner hit to the corner of the bot and the long spacer bolts will bend right off.

P.S. My most successful bot is Micro Vice http://www.buildersdb.com/botdetails.asp?botid=6135 uses a steering gyro and is a blast to drive.

[MikeNCR]

A gyro would likely make the bot easier to drive, but I'm pretty happy with the handling as it is.

This bot was built for the NERC sportsman class and Dragon*Con robot battles. Neither event allows high energy spinning weapons, so they're not a major concern for this build.

MV looks pretty good, same with Vice and Insomnia. Planning to take any of them to events again?

[lawsonuw]

Ah, a no spinner class. In that case you're armor's too heavy :P

No plans to compete right now. While Insomnia had a wicked weapon, it was lightly armored, so it got "retired" in it's last battle. (certainly still competitive with enough spare parts) I botched up the execution of Vice, so it's mostly a sculpture now. Micro Vice was born as a test-bed for a rebuild of Vice, but is FAR more effective than I expected.  I was slowly iterating the design when I got a good idea how to make an AWD motorcycle.  The motorcycle has since chewed up all my time.

P.S. the GWS P-03 was my gyro of choice.  Cheap, fairly symmetrical CW to CCW, and a minimal dead zone. 

[Kelpbot]

Valid point. Just an idea. Good luck with your battles!

[VinceJDJ]

I logged in just to favorite this. Nice work dude!