EVENT REPORT:
Gulf Coast Rob tics
Sports 2
● by Seth Carr
July 11th was the second Gulf Coast Robot Sports event at the
Robot MarketPlace in Bradenton, FL.
Fifteen robots showed up for a
chance at one of the prizes, totaling
over $150. It was a fun event, with
an even mix of old (chronologically)
builders and new ones. Notable
entry Sting was one such newbie to
SECR-FL events. Sting swept through
the three-pound
Beetleweight
class, going
undefeated to
first place. In the
one-pound Ant
weight class,
overnight-built
Sporkinok surprised everyone
— even its builder
— by coming in
second place,
with both losses
to first place
winner DDT. In
the 150 gram Flea weight class,
there were only three entries, so
the fights were in the round robin
format. At the end of all three
robots fighting, everyone was even,
so a double elimination round robin
tournament was held.
The event took place inside the
Hobby MarketPlace, which is the
physical store front to the Robot
MarketPlace. Fighting happened in
the enclosed and permanently
set-up arena which used to be used
at SozBot events. The event drew a
good amount of spectators, most of
whom heard of the event through
word of mouth and flyers that were
posted in the store. The next event
is slated for mid October. SV
The Robot MarketPlace arena made the
move from the west coast to Florida.
Pirhana is a long time participant
in Florida insect events.
PARTS IS PARTS:
Col ring Titanium
From the RioBotz Combot Tutorial
● Original Text by Professor Marco Antonio Meggiolaro; Summarized by Kevin M. Berry
Acuriosity about titanium is that its surface can be colored without paints or pigments; just using
Coke (or Pepsi) in a technique called
electrolysis or anodizing.
To color it, you need a piece of
stainless steel (SS) with an equal or
larger area than the one of the
titanium to be colored, a SS screw,
a titanium screw, Coke, and a DC
power source (of at least 30V). The
setup is shown in Figure 1. Polish
the titanium surface well and clean
it with alcohol or acetone — do not
leave any fingerprints. Place the
titanium part (which will be the
anode) and the SS one (the
cathode) submerged in Coke (the
electrolyte, which can also be
replaced with Trisodium Phosphate
[Na3PO4]) very close together but
SERVO 10.2009 33
