SERVO 08.2015 21
Burgess Hill event.
Generously, Harry made a
couple of HDPE lids, an HDPE
baseplate, and front plates to
both save weight and reduce
how much time it would take
me to get Ash ready.
After Ash had arrived, a
wedge needed to be made,
wiring needed to be done,
and some modifications to
the baseplate were also
necessary. First of all, I had to
countersink the bolts holding
the baseplate on as the
button head bolts that were
being used were preventing
the wheels from touching the
floor.
After this, the wedge was
needed. I had a couple of
small four millimeter steel
plates lying around; it was
complete overkill for a bot in
such a light class, but it was
what I had on hand and it
worked (Photo 3).
So, Ash was ready to go
and the minimal amount of
testing I got to do seemed
promising. Little did I know that the
event would be plagued by
Beetleweight issues on all except for
two bots.
Both Ash and Terminus (my
horizontal spinner) blew receivers
because for some reason the BECs
that I was using on both of them
were causing the receivers to —
seemingly at random — take the last
input given and run with it for a good
five seconds before returning control.
After borrowing a receiver and
receiver pack from David Weston, Ash
ran as intended. However, the size of
the receiver pack would mean that
the lid on one side wouldn’t fit, so a
new one was crafted from tape and
hope.
Luckily enough for my bot’s sake,
the only other spinner there (RPM)
also had issues, blowing one H-bridge
on an ESC and losing reverse on its
left wheel before blowing a brushless
motor seemingly out of the blue
during a demo.
This left Ash as the only
functioning spinner there.
Fast forward to Day 2 of the
event, and we had arranged
a fight between Ash and my
friend, Craig’s Beetleweight
lifter, Mr. Snappy. This was to
be Ash’s first actual fight
against anything other than a
few empty cans to test the
spinner.
It started off with a lot
of trying to drive around the
incredibly wide opponent as
the acetate I had attached to
the wedge on Ash became
more of a hinderance than a
help. A few glancing blows
hit, and then Ash’s receiver
pack ran out leaving Mr.
Snappy as the victor.
Fight two was very
similar — a few glancing
blows with one decent hit
sent Snappy into the arena
wall and bouncing back onto
its wheels. The fight ended
when — while trying to
manouver around the tiny
frame of Ash — Snappy drove
head first into the pit giving
Fight three, however, was
where Ash shone as a bot.
The fight started immediately
with the bots going wedge to
wedge. Ash came up the
winner, forcing Snappy to run
directly into the weapon.
However, due to my box rush
tactic, the weapon had not
spun up to speed and instead
of throwing Snappy, Ash simply
nudged it up onto the top of the
frame. That did allow me to push
Snappy around.
After letting Snappy down, Ash’s
weapon ground up against the hinged
wedge of Snappy a few times before
getting under Snappy with the
weapon spun up and landing a
decent hit, sending Snappy toppling
over backwards.
However, my eagerness to gain
control of the fight meant I had driven
too far forward, and hit the bottom of
Snappy as it was flipping over, flipping
it back onto its baseplate. After this,
Snappy was now on the defensive and
tried to make an escape to the
opposite end of the arena. Ash
pursued with its higher speed and
forced Snappy towards the pit,
making the robot either go straight
into the pit or reverse directly onto
Ash’s weapon. The latter was chosen,
and Ash got a nice hit on the
Photo 1.
Photo 3.
Photo 2.
Photo courtesy
of Harry Hills.
