FIGURE 5
This left the
problem of how to
power the drum. Poco
Tambor had been
successful for years
and its builder, Chuck
Butler, kindly showed
me how its drum
worked. It uses the
outrunners 1/8” shaft
at one end of the
drum and a 1/4” bolt
running in a bronze
bearing at the other.
The 1/8” shaft
allowed me to choose
a smaller 28 mm diameter
outrunner which could fit in a
smaller drum. The motor chosen
had 1,740 kV which would give a
drum RPM of about 12.5K at 7.2V.
EVENT REP RT:
Happy 10th Birthday for Motorama – Motorama 2012
This February 17th–19th, the Northeast Robotics Club
( www.nerc.us) hosted the 10th
annual combat event at the
Motorama Motorsports
Extravaganza and Custom Car Show
( www.motoramaevents.com) in
Harrisburg, PA.
One hundred robots were
entered in a total of seven weight
classes from the 250g Fairyweights
to the 30 lb Featherweights. Ninety
five passed through safety checks
and actually competed. This figure
was down only slightly from last year,
so the sport seems to be weathering
the recession reasonably well.
FIGURE 1
● by Pete Smith
As usual, the two smallest
weight classes did battle on the
Friday before the main show
opened. These weight classes are
fun to compete in, but lack the size
and action required for a paying
audience in a venue on the scale of
the size provided by Motorama. The
fights for these weight classes are
fought in a small 8 x 8 area (which
doubles as a very useful test box for
the big bots during the main event).
Nine 250g Fairyweights and 20
1 lb Antweights took part.
While this competition took
place, NERC members and
volunteers assembled the main
FIGURE 2
16 x 16 arena. The weight limits for
robots are decided by the arenas.
The big arena’s 1/2” of
polycarbonate plastic “glass” is only
really safe for bots up to the 30 lb
Featherweight class.
In the Fairyweights, Kongol with
its moving blade arm had a good
run while a new bot, Tracked Terror,
overcame drumbot Lolcat and then
the wedge Baby V to get first place.
The Antweights were hard
fought. Wedges Antelope and
Kobalos, and full body spinner See
You Next Wednesday (Figure 1)
and bar spinner Vile Ant made it
through to the semis, and Vile Ant
FIGURE 3
34 SERVO 06.2012
