Post by Un Autre Monde on Jun 21, 2009 4:04:32 GMT -5
PROJECT: JIGSAW
(codename: Operation Two Weeks To The Event What The Fuck Have I Let Myself In For)
Firstly, an apology to the people of the fanfic community for how slow CC2 has been progressing lately - with people being on holiday I've felt less pressure to keep it going and have had exams, packing and other things to occupy my time as of late. I have bugger all to do over the latter part of July and August, so things will hopefully pick up then.
Secondly, allow me to introduce what will hopefully be the first of many forays into the world of real robots...at the risk of sounding pretentious, the concept began life almost as soon as I started fanfic, I knew I wanted to do a robot but lacked the facilities and skills to do so. There hasn't been any change in that situation since, admittedly, but what the hell.
I started seriously thinking in July last year, when my initial mental sketches were for a Mjolnir-esque overhead thwackbot. For various reasons that metamorphosed first into a horizontal thwackbot, and then following a fateful conversation with Aaron into a front hinged pneumatic flipper design. That was refined over and over in my head - well you have to do something when you should be revising and have no access to the required tools or materials - and initially I was going to try and get it ready for the RIAT Fairford event in mid July. Due to circumstances (I wasn't even in the country when information concerning passes and parking permits was sent out) I elected to try and get down there as a spectator rather than as a competitor, which freed me from having to work my arse off the first two weeks of July I still aim to get Stiltskin - the featherweight - constructed and fighting for the Robots Live! Reading event in October, which gives me something to do in the evenings over the summer, and have got roughly half of the bits I need for that so far (still need a load of plastic and some pneumatics gear)
Then Dave Weston (of Baby Hell and Satanix fame and highly recommended for good robot advice) told me that he would be hosting Antweight World Series 29 in Carterton, and since I had bought a pair of ant sized 50:1 gearmotors and a 2 cell LiPoly from him in December at the same time as I'd got a large sheet of 3mm ali off of him for the featherweight, uh...um...well...
To cut a long and overly wanky story short, I have now ordered the rest of the parts to set in motion the construction of an antweight to take part in AWS29. In two weeks. During which I have interviews for college and lots of sorting out to do, as well as tools to acquire and skills to learn...
I must be a masochist. Either that, or just really really eager.
Anyway, the finished product will hopefully read something like this*:
Shape: A box wedge type thing, but reversed. The front has a seperately mounted scoop for hopefully shoving other ants and attempting to deflect spinners with.
Drive: 2 50:1 Inertia Labs Sanyo clone gearmotors, run at 7.4v from a 350mah ThunderPower 2 cell lithium polymer battery and controlled using a Sabertooth 2x5A dual channel controller and some rather second hand Futaba 40mhz gear.
Armour: 1.5mm polypropylene bodyshell, 2mm MDF base, metallic front scoop of unknown origin, composition, thickness or indeed shape
Srimech: Runs inverted, although the driver doesn't
No active weapons, partially to keep things simple and partially due to lack of weight and time to develop ideas.
Wish me luck I might not have internet access for a bit as stuff needs to be connected up again in Britain, but I'll keep you posted with progress reports as and when I can. Hopefully there'll be pics as well, and a report from the event once it's all done and dusted
*before VariANT and Kwijebo and CombatANT get their whirling titanium hands on it
(codename: Operation Two Weeks To The Event What The Fuck Have I Let Myself In For)
Firstly, an apology to the people of the fanfic community for how slow CC2 has been progressing lately - with people being on holiday I've felt less pressure to keep it going and have had exams, packing and other things to occupy my time as of late. I have bugger all to do over the latter part of July and August, so things will hopefully pick up then.
Secondly, allow me to introduce what will hopefully be the first of many forays into the world of real robots...at the risk of sounding pretentious, the concept began life almost as soon as I started fanfic, I knew I wanted to do a robot but lacked the facilities and skills to do so. There hasn't been any change in that situation since, admittedly, but what the hell.
I started seriously thinking in July last year, when my initial mental sketches were for a Mjolnir-esque overhead thwackbot. For various reasons that metamorphosed first into a horizontal thwackbot, and then following a fateful conversation with Aaron into a front hinged pneumatic flipper design. That was refined over and over in my head - well you have to do something when you should be revising and have no access to the required tools or materials - and initially I was going to try and get it ready for the RIAT Fairford event in mid July. Due to circumstances (I wasn't even in the country when information concerning passes and parking permits was sent out) I elected to try and get down there as a spectator rather than as a competitor, which freed me from having to work my arse off the first two weeks of July I still aim to get Stiltskin - the featherweight - constructed and fighting for the Robots Live! Reading event in October, which gives me something to do in the evenings over the summer, and have got roughly half of the bits I need for that so far (still need a load of plastic and some pneumatics gear)
Then Dave Weston (of Baby Hell and Satanix fame and highly recommended for good robot advice) told me that he would be hosting Antweight World Series 29 in Carterton, and since I had bought a pair of ant sized 50:1 gearmotors and a 2 cell LiPoly from him in December at the same time as I'd got a large sheet of 3mm ali off of him for the featherweight, uh...um...well...
To cut a long and overly wanky story short, I have now ordered the rest of the parts to set in motion the construction of an antweight to take part in AWS29. In two weeks. During which I have interviews for college and lots of sorting out to do, as well as tools to acquire and skills to learn...
I must be a masochist. Either that, or just really really eager.
Anyway, the finished product will hopefully read something like this*:
Shape: A box wedge type thing, but reversed. The front has a seperately mounted scoop for hopefully shoving other ants and attempting to deflect spinners with.
Drive: 2 50:1 Inertia Labs Sanyo clone gearmotors, run at 7.4v from a 350mah ThunderPower 2 cell lithium polymer battery and controlled using a Sabertooth 2x5A dual channel controller and some rather second hand Futaba 40mhz gear.
Armour: 1.5mm polypropylene bodyshell, 2mm MDF base, metallic front scoop of unknown origin, composition, thickness or indeed shape
Srimech: Runs inverted, although the driver doesn't
No active weapons, partially to keep things simple and partially due to lack of weight and time to develop ideas.
Wish me luck I might not have internet access for a bit as stuff needs to be connected up again in Britain, but I'll keep you posted with progress reports as and when I can. Hopefully there'll be pics as well, and a report from the event once it's all done and dusted
*before VariANT and Kwijebo and CombatANT get their whirling titanium hands on it