Spockie-Tech
Site Admin
Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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And to keep the event-report hungry folk happy, heres yet another perspective on Round 3 as I remember it..
a very hectic week's work for me left me with nowhere near as much time to prepare (either the event or the bots) as I had hoped (which I guess is normal for everyone), and I was quite stressed out for a few days prior to the event,
But thanks to Mel's help and quite a few other people (Gary for some metal work, David for his lights, and the usual crew of helpers) it all came together on the day and went much better than I was worried it was going to..
a few un-named people showed up 10 minutes before the fighting was due to kick-off and started finishing their bots in the pits, which earned them a growl or two from me.. C'mon guys, I know time is short, but if Gary can run *3* bots - plus demo bots, and Mel and I can run 2 *and* organise the event, then surely getting *1* bot together isnt that hard ?
It was also nice nice to see *most* of the competitors being ready to fight when it was their turn as well.. Batteries charged, bots sealed up and ready to roll.. thank you to those who understand that we have a show to run here and performers are expected to be ready when the lights go on. You dont know what real competition pressure is until you've competed at a public-event and are moments away from a forfeit.
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From the competitor (as opposed to EO) P.O.V., I wasn't too confident in I.G's chances, since I hadnt had time to do much testing, didnt have a spare angle grinder gearbox prepped and various other bits, but thought Scoopy-Doo was looking to be in with a good chance..
At least (thanks to Lou, my brothers wife who's an airbrush artist) I.G. had some spiffy new flame paint, (rather than my 1am the night before black and silver pressure-can job like round 1) and a funky new patterned plasma-cut saw blade. Might have helped win a few style points here and there..
Mel had been practicing her driving a lot, We had spent a fair bit of time disassembling and going over every part of Scoopy, fitting some new drive-wheel adapters (thanks again Gary) to stop the red-wheels slipping, adding a cross-bar to the arm to help with self-righting (which worked beautifully), improving the battery hold-down clamps (which didnt) and lots of other little bits of attention.
After winning the last round with just Inspector General attending (Mel and Scoopy stayed home at round 2) - I realised that two Tritons is just barely enough to keep up with *one* robot, nowhere near enough to keep *2* charged up with fast fight turnovers -
especially when both 'bots carry 36v worth of batteries - 1x12v drive pack, and 2x12v weapon packs
,
Even with two complete sets of batteries for each bot - one on charge and one in the bot it was a struggle, so when i was feeling rich (after some big jobs were completed) I invested in another 3 Tritons, bringing the complement up to 5, which makes an impressive looking rack, but sure made it easier keep everything ready to go.
Except that even my big 20amp "super charger" cant cope with feeding 5 Triton's at once - when 3 of them are charging 24v packs at 2 amps, thats close to 20 amps being sucked out of the supply leaving no power reserve for the other 2.. At low charge rates its ok, but at one point when I tried to crank all 5 of them up to a few amps each to hurry the charging up, the supplies meter went to 25 amps, the output voltage dropped below 11v, and all the Tritons reset, meaning I lost track of which packs were nearly done and which werent. That threw me out for a while.. I think next time I might try a 12v SLA in parallel with the supply to fill in the peak-current-demands and it can top up when things are quiet.
Everyone spends their time thinking about how to design their next bot, but let me tell you, if you want to win a whole competition, and not just a fight or two, its your *support systems* - spare batteries, spare parts, tools, charging systems and your bots service-ability that will make the difference.
Thinking about how to turn your bot around and get it back to the ring with minimal time will keep you coming back for more and still be running in the last fight.
Anyway, enough general waffle, onto the fights.
I.G. Vs Scoopy-Doo.
Yes, after all this time, Mel and I were finally drawn against each other, and I discovered personally how bloody annoying scoop-bots are to fight.. 
I put a few scratches in her armour, but didnt manage to chop her tootsies enough to immobilise her (Which was just as well, given how long it takes to change drive motors or wheels in Scoopy)
Even with I.G.s speed and manueverability, Mel did a great job of catching me every time I reached for her wheels and keeping me well pinned against the walls she sawed some deep gashes in *my* wheels (IG gets a taste of his own medicine), and almost made it through the top poly-carb armour to the tender bits inside.
Had she bought the saw down a little bit slower and kept it from stalling, I.G. would have been dead, as she was millimeters away from a main power cable when I finally wiggled free. I'm glad it was on that side and not the side with the PCM radio receiver just under the lid, that would have hurt ($).
As it was, she was looking pretty good throughout the fight, controlling it well and doing obvious damage, when a hard belt from IG in thwack-bot spin mode knocked her battery cover open and left the drive pack dangling loose by its power cord. Scoopy kept running though and Mel drove carefully trying not to send the pack flying, but careful driving and combat dont go, and after a couple more hits the pack was hanging off the back and Scoopy died. *whew* - I lucked that one in, and it was off to the losers-side of the tree for Scoopy.
I'm glad that happened, since not only did I win the fight, but I could now rib Mel about the batteries falling out  , which I got paid out on for after the same thing happened after I insufficiently gaffa-taped Scoopys cover shut once and cost her a fight. Phew
I couldnt find any band-aids for the Scoopy-cuts and there was no other serious damage, so I just charged the batteries and was ready for the next fight.
I.G. vs Ballistic
- That darn flipper thing.. 
Matts getting better and better at driving Ballistic and with his effective rear wedge that get under IG quite handily, I try to stay away from the back and slash from the sides, which makes nice visual gouges in his thin-skinned air-armour, but doesnt actually do much to stop him with all the tender bits well in from the shell. I think I.G. can reach his wheels, but didnt get much of a chance to so do before he'd spin on the spot, get the flipper under IG and over I went.
Of course I.G. can be driven upside down now, but its a lot harder since it pops wheelies as it rocks back and forth on its round shell lifting the drive wheels off the ground and giving very intermittent traction, not to mention lifting the saw up and leaving it beating against the side armour instead of under it.
Matt then wedged me around quite convincingly, although I usually managed to escape off the side of the wedge before getting wall slammed, so it wasnt too bad, but I wasnt doing much except dinting him, when he got his antenna stuck under the flipper (I think) and lost control for a while, allowing me to beat up on him and score some points before he came back to life and going the full 3 minutes. Another close Ballistic/IG fight, and again IG scraped through on points, probably damage-points, although I havent checked the judging sheets to see what won it for me. Being a non-damaging (no damage points) flipper against an invertible bot makes it hard to win points decisions I guess.
I.G. vs Reboot
- argh, not that drum again. !
I.G. doesnt like Reboot at all, having suffered lots of damage in the past with his high speed drum having smashed open angle-grinder gearboxes, destroyed my cheese-grater saw blades, and got my pretty paintwork all scratched up..
Not to mention that Rob and I both think each other are probably the driver we each fear the most. How he keeps those that slippery scooter-motor thing on target is beyond me.. when I drove it once I was lucky to keep it even vaguely straight.
We both went full at, with me charging Reboot (box-rush !) with I.G.s steel rear-end and getting it nicely caved in and now concave (instead of convex) for my trouble, but was better than leading with my chin and exposing the fragile angle grinder to his drum.
Of course I cant do much other than push with the back, so after slowing down the drum with the bum, I tried to spin around and do the wheel slash thing, but either wasnt watching properly, or reboot spins up again quicker than i thought, because there was a crash, and suddenly my saw blade was showing a few more gaps than it was supposed to have, making the usual horrible noises when things arent quite in line. Saws and Drums dont mix well.
A couple more hits like that, and the saw shattered completely, leaving I.G. equipped with a little stub that was about as damaging as a dremel-wheel. Another belt, and one of the internal support brackets for the outer wheel bearings cracked at the welds, leaving more parts lying on the floor for the judges to gleefully note..
Despite one wheel taking a leaf from Neweyns book and now sporting some significant "negative camber" and hanging in by a single hose-clamp, he kept driving with some reduced manueverability as the wheel rubbed on the wheel arch.
Reboot scored a few more nasty hits, popping my front into the air and shoving the limping IG around a bit, and it was all over, I.G. survived, but was well and truly owned damage wise, so Reboot got the win, and IG went off the sulk in the loosers side as well.
Next time I think I'll have to try and find the weight for I.G. to wear a rubber chin guard. That "glass jaw" lets him down every time..
I handed my ex-funky saw blade to Rob as a trophy and popped on a not-so-funky spare, and run off to the SideTracked workshop to weld the support brack back in place. Thanks to Barry for that (Sidetrackeds owner).. how many venues have full metal-workshop-facilities available for the competitors to use if required ?
The angle-grinder gearbox was looking decidedly second hand after Reboots attentions, but although I did have a spare shell, it wasnt modified to suit IG yet (they have a custom drive shaft fitted), and take a while to change the drive shaft over, so as time was getting short, I left the existing one on and hoped it held.
I.G. vs Ballistic
- Again ?! Didnt I just beat him ?
Yes, but Ballistic had since munched his way through the losers round, dispatching both the Stainless Steel Rat (a flipper is his worst nightmare), and Hell-Raiser (I missed that fight, so I dont know what happened there),
and
Scoopy Doo - despite her new self-righting ability. now that was a fight to see (I think Mel is going to upload some video of that soon).
So after climbing back from defeat, Ballistic was back to make me pay for his earlier loss and see who got the chance to fight Reboot again in the final - I'm not sure if this was a fight I wanted to win or not !
Not changing the grinder-box cost me here, as it wasnt long before the pre-tenderised box broke off, leaving I.G. toothless and looking like a flame-painted speed hump. Ballistic promptly flipped me over leaving me as an even more-wobbly bump, since without the weight of the saw on the arm, IG rocked back and forward under power even more, making it feel like trying to drive a 44gallon drum from the inside..
Being upsite down just made it even easier to be wedged about, and IG spent a lot of time trying to wiggle off the wedge, and ineffectively bumping slowly into Ballistic (I couldnt get any speed up since it just rocked back off its wheels under full power).
Seeing as how I was toothless and his reachable red-wheels werent in any danger now, Matt was happy to flip me over again after a while (something he wouldnt normally do, since flipping IG puts his saw too high to get underneath, so why make it easy for me again by putting me right way up ?). At least I could drive better that way, and I could always hope for a KO.
It wasnt to be though, and Ballistic kept ticking despite a thump or two from my amputated saw-arm, and flipped me upside down once again after a while, once again the judges conferred, but not for long.. I suspected that leaving a large part of your bot lying on the floor wasnt going to impress anyoneand sure enough, Ballistic romped it in, leaving me free to watch the last-fight of the day without having to repair or recharge a bot for a change.
I could write about some of the other fights that I did get to see, but this is probably long enough as it is, and some video should tell a better story than my perspective I fights I wasnt driving in, so that will do for now..
OK, I may not post build-reports too often, but when I do get inspired to type something, you cant say I dont give enough detail
Any questions after that lot ?
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