Oh Crap!!!

I was just thinking about how to save weight and realised I haven't allowed for the weight of the CO2 . Classic rookie mistake there! Now I have to fit in an extra 567 grams into the weight limit.

The plan so far is to use 5mm HDPE like Citizen flips. To save a little weight, I am going to heat form and weld it from just two pieces rather than join individual panels with aluminium angle and screws.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Get out your grinder/hole saw and go nuts
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https://www.halfdonethings.com/

I already cut out quite a bit of the frame - I can probably cut some more off the flipper arm but not the 150 grams I need. Perhaps the Vivid organisers can postpone the entire event a month while I get the frame cut out of titanium?

The HDPE armour is under 1Kg already; I can gut some holes in it but its so light that the holes won't make much difference. I can maybe use a smaller Lipo pack; the current one is a 14.4V, 2.2AH unit weighing 254 grams. Going down to a 1.8AH cell would save around 50 grams.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

On the bright side, The low pressure ram testing is going fantastic. There is a really slow leak somewhere but its may not be worth fixing. I might rig up something to see how far the ram can toss a house brick on 100 PSI
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Just get the frame waterjet out of 5mm aluminium. Should be fine for your purposes and you can just double it up in the stress areas and weld it.
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https://www.halfdonethings.com/

I know a guy with a plasma in Sydney who could cut your Ali.

Steve
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

I might try that for the next Sportsman event but there isn't time to do it now. Rhino estimates that a 5mm aluminium frame will save a massive 2 Kg, so its a very attractive option. Even with extra gussets and bracing, aluminium would probably save 1.5Kg.

Glen & Jake came up with some other ideas that I can get done quickly and might be enough to scrape under the weight limit.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Use a 12 oz main bottle.

And make the connecting parts better fitting.
I normaly turn and tap the 1/2bsp connection between Burkert and rambottom for 7075T6 ali and don't have any hex in between.
Just screw it in the Burkert body with a dollop of 2K glue, and that combo goes into the bottom. Saves a bit of weight ans dimensions.

I don't think I can get a smaller tank in time - was thinking of a 16 oz size or Glen suggested just partly filling the 20oz tanks for a bit of weight saving. Local paintball sales that I can get in the next few days are pretty limited. I will definitely change those NPT fittings over to aluminium ASAP, just for the space saving - if I can get an NPT die in time.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

lighten the F up!

It sure is hard to cut weight off bot parts; so far I have saved 50 grams by changing to a smaller battery and 86 grams by thinning the wall on the buffer tank:



The tank wall is now 5mm, which is still fairly conservative. I also fluted the end of the tank for extra weight savings. The other end would have been fluted as well, except the buffer was impossible to hold with a 3 jaw chuck; one jaw was always in a flute and put the tank off centre I can do the same things to the ram; the walls and end can be thinned another 2mm.

Speaking of lightening up, I received this microscopic Sparkfun Arduino board to control the Burkert:



Not having much joy with it though; even though the driver installed and Windows 7 recognizes it, the latest Arduino IDE can't see the board. I can see hours of forum searches in my near future.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Would say counterfeit ftdi chip that's been bricked but looks like a genuine board. Dud cable maybe?
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www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz

Nah, it was me . The IDE was trying to use the wrong serial port and once I noticed that, it was easy to upload some test code.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

More weight loss:

The ram had major weight loss surgery today and lost 107 grams; that's over 15% of it's original weight. While I was weighing the parts, I realised that are more areas that can be milled off and still leave a 5mm wall thickness.



The two silencers are also gone for another 34 grams; Mister T is now theoretically 200 grams under weight but that doesn't include things like the wiring or the bungee, which haven't been fitted yet.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

And as a result you now have one of the coolest looking rams around
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Jamie
RogueTwo Robots
www.rogue-two-robots.vze.com

With great power, comes great reliability

Really? I thought it looked like a giant mutated chess piece It has definitely given me some ideas for the next ram design - doing it with CNC is top of the list.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion