We got:
-the charger that they forgot to give us in our last order
-a 13.5 volt power supply to run the chargers
-10 speed 400 motors
-10 2 inch wheels (which are AWESOME!)
-another speedmax40 speed controller (we already had one from D.O.)
-a sabertooth dual speed controller
-a spektrum dx5e controller with BR6000 battlebot receiver chip
aanndd that's pretty much it.
My dad and I made a nice little charging station with the power supply and the two chargers and a spare e-stop switch he had. To use it, you twist the red knob to turn the power on, then connect the alligator clips to the corresponding terminals of a battery - make sure you use the wire pairs and don't cross leads! To discharge the batteries, connect the batteries first, then give the system power. To turn it off, just hit the red button.
Eddie and I determined that we need to run all three batteries in one circuit to supply all the motors in copperhead, instead of having 2 for the drive system and 1 for the weapon. So, to do that, I used a terminal strip thingy.
Today, Andrew Lum came out to help. I finished my design for the mounting system for the ten little motors in the fifteen pound bot, and we went to Alro and got a big 6 lb hunk of delrin. If you don't know what delrin is, go use the internet. We got the delrin, and it was 2.5" x 3" x 18" which is waaayyyy more than we need. We need ten parts that are 1" x 1.5" x 1.75" so we had to cut.
And mill. And mill. And mill...I spent two hours making the huge rough blocks that we cut from the barstock into little 1" x 1.5" x 1.75" blocks that were all the same. I had produced a huge mountain of white plastic chips all over - it looked like it snowed! The final step (which I haven't done yet) is to take a big 1.25" countersink mill and mill a V-groove across the center of each block to cradle the motor. Then we need to drill and tap two holes for a 1/4-20 threaded rod, and get 20 bronze standoffs an inch and a quarter tall. Finally, we bolt up through the floor of the bot to secure the mounts to the inside of the bot. The motor itself is secured by a tie-wrap type thing - it's aluminum and tightens with an allen key. We may have to file down the bottom corners so that it can really tighten flat.
I also bound the new receiver chip to the new transmitter, and took apart D.O. to salvage what we can from it. The drive motors are scrap - when i went to pull the wheel off, it pulled the entire output shaft out of the gearbox!
And, back to Copperhead, I lightened the front blocks from the shaft clamp. They are made out of 7075 aluminum, so they're pretty light to begin with, but every little bit helps. I took maybe 2 ounces out of them, total? but still, it's something. And it was easy. Cutting out the edges of the back corners saved us a fair amount of weight - it's 3/16" steel plate!Now that we have the battery charger set up and an r/c system that works with a charger and everything, I have epoxied the tire back on to copperhead's wheel, so it is now driveable, and I want to bring a bunch of you out on a saturday or something to drive copperhead. I need to figure out who our driver is going to be.
MARCH 29TH 2009.
DADE COUNTY YOUTH FAIR, MIAMI
15lb BOTSIQ COMPETITION!
We need to finish this 15 pounder in time to compete!
APRIL 20-26 2009.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
120 lb NAT'L BATTLEBOTS COMPETITION
IT WILL BE TELEVISED!
let's get these bots ready!
On a different - but related - note, going to california will be expensive. I don't know how much, but it will be significant. If you have not contirbuted financially to the club, you WILL NOT GET HELP financing your trip. Like I said, I wish the money didn't have to come from your parents, but it looks like we have no other options...
I don't think we need to meet this coming tuesday - it's the second day back from break, so I'll let everyone get settled in again. But the next week, count on a meeting.
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