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Day 1. I laid out the components that I planned on using from Complete Control on my floor to determine the general layout of the machine
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Day 2. Machined up a cylinder mount as well as an axe shaft and weapon axle. I decided to have the shaft piviot at the back of the robot (scorpion style), so that I could use a really long shaft but have it hit just infront of the robot.
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Here it is extended. The robot was shaping up to be nearly 4 feet long!
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Here is the key to the pneumatic system, a quick exhaust valve. This would allow for the air to exit quickly out of the cylinder when the spring was in action. I bought it to use in my 510 wagon's clutch actuator, and it found its way into this robot.
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Day 4 - time to get serious. This was the day before I left for Phoenix. Here's the robot at my shop in the morning. I machined the spike mount the previous day. The spike is a smaller version of the Home Dept rock chisel that Pressure Drop used.
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Later that day, a finished robot -- woo hoo!
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Shot from the back. I used two strings of #35 chain to pull the weapon back. The bolts sticking out are for mounting the spring element -- surgical tubing! Armour is heat bent 1/8" Lexan.
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Louis holds up the 30" smasher for the photo. You can see the blue 18 cell nicad pack in front. The tongue sticking out of the robot is designed to get under the opponent so that the smashing is more of a "clapping manouver". It also keeps the front end of the robot down. |
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Finished robot weighing in at 30.2 pounds, minus surgical tubing, plus a rattlecan of paint. The ghetto-fab writing on the armour says "queuebert Tech Combat Robotics - Mister Smashy 2001 - East Van BC Canada"
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Everything else I took -- I like to travel light. I put the robot in a cardboad box.
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Flash forward to Phoenix -- Bot Bash 2001! Robot in the pits after its first fight (which it lost to Pipedream -- luckily it was double elimination). You can see the tubing in place here. Initially I had more, but as it turned out the cylinder could only cock the smasher with the amount shown here. I found that out upon the first real test firing, right before my first match.
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Battery charging. The robot was terrible to drive, as with the axe cocked, the center of mass was waaay far back. This is especially bad with a 2 wheeled robot with wheels up front. It was really slow and unmanouverable because of this. With the smasher down it drove quite well though.
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My Team Delta surplus power supply. I had to build a cover for it. I was short on time and long on Dominos Pizza boxes. 1+1=2.
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Jerome's robot Sublime showing off its supar-fast lifting arm in the box.
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New titanium laden Toe Crusher.
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Infernolab mini-robot Hell on Wheels! Fancy pants carbon fiber chassis.
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Jerome showing off his walker, Hyper Active --- the only walker at the competition, and the only 12lber with a scary weapon.
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Sublime apres Backlash. Ouch.
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Heavy Metal noise - the loudest robot at the competition. It was impressive though, a sign of things to come from this machine in the future.
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Pipe Dream, the robot Mr Smashy faught 3 times. Pretty much the worst shaped robot for an over head smasher type robot -- no flat surfaces.
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Herr Gerpounden sporting flashy red tires and and an even flashier disco lighting system.
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Close up of Hyper Active. Duct-taped down armour.
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Nicely built 12lber named "Kram".
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Garm VS Locust. Some how Locust ended up behind Garm here.
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KA-POW! Garm was voted "Most Aggressive" for a good reason!
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Ziggo and Herr Gerpounden engage in battle. Herr's Tornado Drive tracking lights are visible here.
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More Ziggo and Herr Gerpounden action.
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Jason took Hell on Wheels off roading after rescuing it from underneath the arena. The pan it is sitting on was the mold for the chassis parts.
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Subject to be Change without Reason changed quite a bit at the hands of Garm.
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The pits -- they were pretty dark at night.
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Some familar faces showed up for the Christian Ristow show on Saturday night.
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Mr Ristow walking in front of Subjugator.
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Drunken Master's teeth.
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Subjugator getting up close and personal during the performance.
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Ristow and crew controlling the machines.
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Booya. Fire is cool.
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Subjugator heats up its claw with its gasoline flame thrower.
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No kidding! At some points when the florescent fixtures were exlpoding I wished I was wearing safety glasses.
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Robochrist style hangover Sunday morning. Quite the mess.
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The secret innerworkings of Garm. He using a pair of 18V DeWalts with surprising results! 10HP Surplus Center motor originally from Nightmare (I think).
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Ziggo after Backlash. The match many of us were waiting for, which ended up giving the win to Jim Smetowski's Backlash -- much to my surprise.
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Inside of Ziggo's shell.
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Herr Gerpounden's wheel met Ziggo and lost some material.
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Hey wow -- I won! Right on. It was a great way to have a weekend turn out -- even if it was 1st out of only 3 robots. Not only that, but I also won "Most Innovative", which I am really proud of. Big thanks to BOB for putting on such a cool event and for everyone who showed up and faught robots old-skool style. Also thanks to IFI for the Isaac 16 that I received for my 1st place finish.
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