The Dethinator

Well guys, I guess Rob, Andrew Lum, Andrew Foster, Alan and myself are the only ones going to Miami? NO ONE HAS TOLD ME WHEN THEY ARE GOING! I NEED TO KNOW OR YOU WILL NOT GO. NO EXCEPTIONS. These deadlines are rapidly approaching, and Nola needs to know our plans so that we can make arrangements. If I get no response from you by tuesday, no one except the people who have responded will go. I will not go out of my way to ask you what your plans are. I want all of you to experience the competition first-hand, but I also want you to grow up and start being responsible for yourself. This is not just another "I kinda said I was going... he'll know I'm going" situation. I need a definite answer. ASAP.

I also registered the 15 pounder as THE DETHINATOR for San Francisco.

And as far as the fifteen pounder goes, I owe a huge thank you to Alan and Ben for coming out and helping almost every day I've been working on this thing. It's proving to be a challenge. I think we're going to end up using one of the battlepacks from D.O. instead of the individual cells... it's SOOOO much lighter, and 12V and already assembled... it just makes things easier. And it fits. Lightening this beast is proving to be a disheartening task. It refuses to make weight. The baseplate, 4 motors, drive motors, wheels, hardware, shell, shaft w/ mount, electronics and new steel ring are 13.5 lbs. The battery pack weighs 1.35 lbs, giving us a grand total of 14.85 lbs. The only problem is there is NO CHANCE we can compete with 4 motors. We need six (at least!), and they weigh .55 lbs each, putting us at almost 16 lbs.

I spun (or tried to spin) the shell with the spring loaded runner bearings and four motors, and it would spin for about two seconds and stop. The speed controllers have a maximum current cutoff, and we reached it. Every time. I took the runners out (because they actually have a fair amount of drag), and the shell spun for about 5 seconds, then stopped. Then, I slowly, slowly brought up the throttle, and got the shell to start spinning pretty well, but I backed off because it was precariously screwed onto a 2x8 clamped in the small vice, and was vibrating quite a bit. I still don't know if I can spin the shell with all four runners in or not, so I'll do some more testing on Saturday. Eddie will be coming down Saturday to work on his bot, so if you want to see him, come on out - I just have to let you know that it isn't going to be a machining-fest where everyone is doing stuff all the time. There's not that much left to do, but at the same time, there's a LOT left to do. If you know what I mean... I need to wire the whole thing, and we need to test and lighten and stuff, but there isn't going to be a whole lot for everyone to DO. If you just want to come and watch the process and learn, then that's great. If you're going to be bored and cause trouble, don't bother coming.