Just got an email from sarah (usyd person)
She is wondering if we can come into the uni to talk to the students on the evening of march the 5th at 5:00 PM. (That's a Thursday in a month)

She is also interested in any parts we want to sell them or recommend.
IE nicks motor mounts perhaps.
banebots drive setups perhaps?
our wheels.

they want
- Part type
- Part specs
- Cost per unit
- Supplier Details
- Supply time frame


in addition
"Other then that I was wondering what you all had planned for the 12th of
February? As There is a Launch party for my cycle from sydney to
melbourne, starts at 3pm at manning (in the University). Just thought i'd
put it out there."
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

hmm, i need to get busy and try and have some form of a robot completed for show and shine then
_________________
Andrew Welch, Team Unconventional Robotics

Perhaps we can draw up a few buying lists for drive trains at varying levels of cost & performance, where all the parts are matched and work well together?

IE Drill motors / Bunnings wheels / microswitches

Banebots P60 (with lower power motor) / BB wheels / Scorpion XXL

Team Delta DeWalt kit / Jake wheels / Sidewinder or Victors

We can explain what's involved with assembling each one and what they are good for so there is an informed choice.

I don't think we need to go down to servo switching, The uni has a stack of XXL's already I believe.

I say
drill motor + xxl + Anderson Combat Wheel ;-> + Nicks motor mounts as the base model
P60 train with something like an IBC as mid range perhaps.
Dewalt + sidewinder + colson etc as the high range.

We would look at doing some wheels for dewalts and P60's if there's enough demand.

What about batteries, Nicks LiPo pack is a nice off the shelf item but they are a little spendy and fragile.
Dewalts/A123 are "sparsely available" however and may require some heavy duty modifications. Our packs seem to be working well enough and there's only one cut and join in that to get 18 volts out.

Think we need to push them to have 2 packs or will they be doing well to manage more than one round in their first event?
_________________
Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

if the uni can get an account with master instruments maybe they're better off getting some 2400 and 3600 cells and putting them together, they seem to be alot more idiot proof then lipoly and a123 without the balancers and the like..

probably unlikely for them to go for dewalts though if theyve already been given XXLs and an off the shelf solution would be something like $500 in this economy now. and im guessing its the uni thats paying for it all?

would have also suggested 100w scooter setup but the melbournites reckon they cant be had anymore

They probably wouldn't be allowed to use nicads but the nimh might be the way to go. I reckon that's probably the way to present it.

Base option use the drill cells crap but dirt cheap
step 1, 2400's
step 2 3600's
step 3, Lipoly
step 4, A123

They can pick and choose what they want then.

Should list a supply of "I void warranties T-shirts from thinkgeek?"
_________________
Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

Sounds good - the P60 and Dewalt shafts are the same size, so you only need one hub in your wheels. You would need to invest in a broach though.

Would they make the drill motor mounts? It would be very easy to make the front mount on CNC compared to the way I do it in a jig. I'm happy to pass over the drawings.

If they have CNC, perhaps we can take the best features of the packs Jake and I made and come up with something that is machine cut and easy to assemble and repair? I don't think A123 cells are such a good idea as they are higher maintenance than either NiMh or commercial Lipo packs.

The Uni can probably bulk buy direct from Master Instruments - did we ask about that? a bulk buy would make NiMh packs very attractive. If they mostly had the same packs, swapping would be easy.

http://secure.oatleyelectronics.com//product_info.php?cPath=53&products_id=190&osCsid=2eed55400b951e3551186ac425c244b6

Sold out but as there still on his list they will probably come in again.

The wheels and complete drive assemblies probably wont after the cracked wheel problems but a phone call could confirm that.

The motors can work as chain drive to other wheels; I had a bot running with them and intend to build a couple more as rentals for Sidetracked to run on SLA’s and XXL’s.

At one stage I had a project on the go to do a run of laser cut fold up and tack weld drive assemblies based on the 100-watt scooter for a secondary college down this way.
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Satisfaction is proportional to effort and results.

any closer to some dates yet? builders day would be good a week or two before brisbane would be good to get things weighed up and tested

Hmmm, We seem to have left things a bit late to have the 6 events evenly spaced over the year AND avoid conflicts with other events. This year has a busy beginning with Robowars in January and Ideas Festival in March, making an event per month hard to avoid.

Before I put some dates forward, how do people feel about an event at the end of February or early March?If we don't do Feb, then we either need to hold events closer together or we have only 5 events.

I noticed that there are only three NSW bots registered for Ideas Festival. We could ignore the clash of dates and hold an event mid march OR we could all register for IF and make it our kick-off event of the year Your thoughts?

While we are talking IF, one of the bots registered is "Starfish Prime" from team Prime - who the hell is that and why haven't we seen them before?

Battleshed on October 10th or 17th, which puts it in the spring school break.

Haha I noticed that bot too, it's named after some nuclear test or something, maybe one of the uni teams?
I'm all for an event in march, but would also like to propose an event during the Easter holidays, April weekends 11/12 or 18/19. It's a good time, but mainly I want to have two bots running and my girlfriend is down then.
It'll be interesting starting at uni, maybe I can rustle up some keen students.
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( •_•)

( •_•)>⌐■-■

(⌐■_■)

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

The dates in April would be a definite, probably 18/19th to give more of a break after the Ideas Festival.

The other thing we might do is have big finish to the year with Battleshed in October, then an event in November and December as well.

Can we have a list of bots that are definitely going up to Queensland? So far I think its only:

Scissorhands
Orbit
Demon
Starfish Prime[/b]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Bort:
So 6 events in a year means an average of one every two months. Now since we are already one month down it unfortunately means we need to have an event soon to keep up that kind of spacing.

Which is kind of a bummer since I'm not really ready for the season start, as I wanted a new design done. But we should have an event in Feb if there a few people going to Briz, to allow enough time between events. Especially if Nick needs to buy a new weapon bar or something (it's been too long since I joked about that).

And we need to decide if we run the lightweights on the same day as the feathers, or at their own separate event.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Valen:
The current plan was to have a build day towards the end of feb, then ideas in march, then our first "event" in april.
leaving battleshed towards the end of the year

It also might give some of the uni teams a chance to get something togther and compete in the main comp.

---

no rush for an event from i, any time will do as long as its a month or so spacing from the last one. keep things regular and all.

definitely have a dedicated lightweight event sometime in there too. we need to get serious about that class

havent heard of starfish prime either, maybe its that young fella that bought that huge mdf robot a year or two ago. he did mention he was coming back shortly (cant remember the name tho!)

If battleshed is the 10th of october I can Not make it, Kirten who was talking about trying to go if she does not make ideas festival would also be unable to make it (it is in the middle of exam period)
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Remember to trust me, I am an Engineer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp8hvyjZWHs

Last edited by seanet1310 on Sat Feb 07, 2009 5:38 pm; edited 1 time in total