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May 2/2000 - Build Update 8 BATTLEBOTS IN T MINUS 5 WEEKS, 4 DAYS! I guess we had better start a countdown! I haven't made much progress, but I got some new parts and started a new job this week. I am taking the summer off school and working at the Milton Design Group making props for sci-fi television shows and movies. It looks like fun (and work at the same time), and employees are encouraged to work on their own stuff, so the robot building will be moved there for completion. Along with having pairs of mills and lathes, there is an electronics department, a TIG welder, a paint room, mold making equipment etc. All in all, a fully stocked SPFX shop, which should really help during the final finishing touches to be put on Pressure Drop. - Derek. Suggested Listening During Early May Robot Building: The Clash - Vol. 1: The Story of the Clash Yellowman - Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt R.L. Burnside - Ass Pocket O'whiskey |
| Yup. Chrome legs. I know this might have weakened them slightly, but they look coool! The robot did some more test walking too, for the first time in a while, and everything looks to be in order, and the pneumatics system seems to work well. |
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The 20 oz CO2 tank, bottom line and regulator, from my gracious new sponsor The Sports Alternative. Check them out for paintball and skateboard gear online. Also in the picture is a spare leg, the holes on the bottom were drilled to let some of the choming solution out after it became trapped in the tubing. |
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My new Superwinch X1 winch to run Pressure Drop's Smashy Stick(tm). The box next to it hold all the other parts for the weapon. That is the next major part of the robot to be built. |
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I figured the robot would be too hard to pilot and control the weapon all at once, so I devised a separate turret/Smashy Stick controller based on an Atari Paddle controller I dug out of the "to be thrown out" box when I was at home last week. I used the 9 pin socket ripped out of an old C64 (also in the box) to plug the paddle into (with a modified cord of course... those of you up on Atari 2600 hardware - Jason of Infernolab, for example - know that originally, Atari Paddles came in pairs, connected to a single plug). The paddle works perfectly, as well as giving the whole thing a retro PONG/Space Invaders kinda feel. |
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Our road trip van. It's the delivery van for my dad's pharmacy. We got hasseled at the border for having tinted windows, but not for having a vehicle with "drugs" written all over it. Figures. |
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Crazy North Carolinans! Someone had brought their goat to the motel. It proceded to strip the decorative hedges of their leaves. Here, my brother attempts to catch the wily beast in the act. |
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