October 25, 2001

Re-design (again)

Ah well all's quiet on the western front :) and Im bored :(

We are in re-design (again) while we have some exciting things on the table to make your favourite bot and ours even better, we are suffering from laziness and as yet have only produced drawings! Still I outlined above what we have planned and we are still going with it even after some more thought. The only thing planned is the next Peterborough Meet which is in early December. This promises to be even better than the last one with lost of toys, fireworks, cars, go-peds etc etc and of course lost of robots to drive around in the carpark (which will be fenced off) for safety! We don't anyone getting upset just because they have lost a limb or two now do we.

So here I sit with not much to report. I dread the release of Wildcard warrior on TV (wait and see) GOD help me Im going to get slayed. In saying that I look forward to series 5 being shown as without saying to much its shows our potential :) Oh well not much more to report I suppose. Yes I am going to update the galleries I know they are old and boring :)

Mark...

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September 4, 2001

We are in :)

WOOOHOOOOOOOOOO We qualified for Series 5 Robot Wars this year! To say I am well chuffed would be an understatement.

As I write this we have actually been and competed in both series 5 and also wildcard warrior. I cannot say here how we did in either show suffice to say in one we did ok and in the other we had an embarrassing moment caused by me ooppsss. You will have to wait to see the show on TV to find out :)

As for us now that RW is out of the way we shall yet again take what we learned and improve the machine drastically.

On the cards are the forks going completely (20kg) the front body to be wedged the ram to be moved inside (protecting it) the blade moving to the back, the body to be made from one piece 3mm TA10 with 10% vanadium with Dyneema and Polycarb panels to deflect the nasty spinners we saw this year! Wait and see :)

So we have lots of work to do to make the machine even better and this is what I enjoy more than anything. We met some great teams at RW and I feel very strongly that Mentorn are listening to the teams and improving everything. The teams are full of spirit and helped us out lots when needed and this also will keep me and our team in RW for the foreseeable future. We shall be entering series 6 next year suffice it to say with a better machine than this years offering!

Mark...

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August 25, 2001

The Auditions

We fought and I thought we fought well :) Yet again we learnt that there are many things to still change in the design to make it catch up with 4 years of RW!!!! Although we just about have it there :)

So what am I talking about? Well on Sunday we went to London to attend our series 5 audition. All I can say is that we turned up everything worked and the machine is even starting to look like I want it to look to. So up for the fight then or not as the case may be as they decided to put us into a melee with 3 other bots oooerrr missus.

Into the arena we go 3 2 1 carnage there were bits flying everywhere and mostly from us to! The guys standing next to us had a flipper and all I could here was the dad saying to the son "go on son flip him" and it was always me at the front of his machine :) and all I was saying was go on Ian cut him cut him cut him :) oh its makes you so aggresive this robot thing! Sadly for us the weapon packed in after we had a head on with shunt. The reason for this is that the pressure transducer on the hydraulic pump is mounted on an angled pipe connector and although I had nipped it up tight it does weigh a kilo and the inertia of a head on made it unscrew, suffice to say all Ians pumping was doing was filling the inside of the bot with hydraulic oil yuk :( hmmm think we need a bracket to hold that in place then, ahh all this learning is doing my head in. Still the bot is very tuff and we took no major damage at all apart from the burning tyre after being left on the flame pit for an age (cheers dead metal) Everything worked reliably and the control was excellent although I was unhappy about my lack of grip due to all the oil on the wooden floor, so I think some spiked tyres will be in order there at least for UK battles anyway.

So that's it we don't know if we are in series 5 or not although we are in Wildcard Warrior as a Newcomer v Veteran so at least we get a TV appearance which suits me fine. We also have some major mods to do for winter again although that will be secret untill we role out the beast again.

Mark...

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August 10, 2001

Let cut it in half!

So we get back from BattleBots and what do we do with 6 weeks to go for RW auditions? oh yes we cut the chassis in half.

Do I think we are mad yes I suppose I do. So anyway we set about making a complete new back end to accommodate some nice new NPC motors we had picked up in the states. To say these motors take the piss out of the Bosch would be about the biggest understatement I Could make!! Bosch are crap as far as im concerned great for powering HGV wipers blades for ever, crap for robots nuff said. Now the NPC motors on the other hand have a built in 20 to 1 gearbox stuck on the end and are about half again as powerful as the Bosch mm nice. They are also smaller to! and not that much heavier either.

So new chassis, new motors, and then new wheels to accommodate the new chassis and the fact we want to be able to run inverted, nice! Also yet another new body shell made from 1mm steel base with 7mm Dyneema panels and finished off with 2.55 T1 Ti on the top for hardness. Very tuff and more importantly impregnable. Couple all this with yet another ram made from ally some lighter blades (our 4th set)

So 6 weeks to go and we decide to rebuild the whole thing mad I guess! We managed to get all this done believe it or not. I had Rob knight over last weekend to help us with wiring it up and on the Sunday we were ready for launch. Out in the street we go 3 2 1 go PERFECT :) It is bloody PERFECT at last. Rob had a go at driving and I quote "That is the nicest and most well balanced robot I have ever driven next to Mortis" Well I take it you think its good then Rob? Oh yes grinning! But we definitely do not want to fight you as you now have to much control.

We ended up being able to do handbrake turn's with the damned thing :) Oh I am at last happy with the design :) roll on Sunday's auditions although I am very nervous as to how many things can go wrong :( I shall post all pictures we have of the new design next week.

Mark...

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August 7, 2001

Blew my new Vaio! went to SF

Well this update has been a long time coming to say the least! Basically I spilt a hot cup of tea all over my Vaio :( and sent it off for repair to Sony. After 3 months I have it and my Dreamweaver software back in my hands mmm Sony are not that speedy then!

Anyway what has happened to us in the interim. A lot! We went to battlebots in San Francisco for a start back at the end of May. This was as usual for us a big rush job although we managed to get it all organised and got over there OK having taken the bot with us on the plane :) Then the fun started.

Oh we got to the arena OK and we got the bot assembled OK but would it drive would it hell! Anyway after some frantic research we traced the fault to both the receivers we were using. They both seemed to be fried god knows how but they were dead. No probs lets just ring John Read and get him to bring some over with him when he comes on the Wednesday. Hurrah john is in and he is going to bring some with him phewwwww. Now we were scheduled to fight on the Friday so john arrives and I set about wiring in the new receivers on the Thursday morning.

At this point with soldering iron in hand one of the organisers comes over and says Executioner on in 20 mins OK! No its not OK like really not bloody OK. 20 mins or your out, OK we will make it! sweat. Then we are in the arena with a bodged in receiver and gaffa tape everywhere. 3 2 1 dead were out great. 11000 miles and that's it. So off back to pits to commit hari kari take the bodyshell off and there it is battery lead swinging in the wind. In our haste Ian had forgotten to connect the battery lead :( oh well wont make that mistake again. So we spent the rest of the week testing and thinking about all the changes to make to make it better (there were a lot) to say the least.

I hate Robots!

Mark...

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April 10, 2001

Motors Blow up :(

OK first thing I have changed is the date and time format on this page :) So from now on you will now how late I stay up doing this page ha ha. So what's in the news for us, well we have good news and bad so I think I will start with the bad.

Last Saturday I spent all day working out why the Carbon motor nearly fried only to find out I had one of the magnets in the wrong way around dohhh! Did you know I hate electronics with a passion? Anyway got that sorted and it fired up a treat. I can now join the SAS because I can strip and assemble a Bosch blindfolded in 30 secs.

Anyway I was a bit concerned as you can stick metal things to the outside of the Carbon casing (you cant on a steel casing) A quick call to Martin aka Anthrax and we decided the Carbon must be leaking Magnetic field and therefore be low on torque, bummer. This needs to be tested but I just know its true. So I think its a certainty that we will be using the steel Bosch after all. All that work for nothing! We are unsure if the same effect will be seen on the field wound hydraulic pump motor, we shall have to see but it still looks and sounds ok.

We finally have the Carbon/Dyneema bodyshell in our mits!!! The first thing I did with it was to throw it around and them jump up and down on it! All to no effect :) I think once we get the 2mm T10 plates on the outside (Thanks Martin) it will be indestructible! lets hope so. I think at the rate we are going now we should be finished by the end of April. God finished I am liking the sound of that word. This whole project has been one where you do endless jobs and NEVER get finished. That will teach me to even start eh but then I have had lot's of fun and the real fun I.E. completely trashing other robots is just about to start.

Talking about other robots Storm! hmmm now here is a robot that we will have to watch out for :) We are not worried mind we just have to watch out for them as they really know what they are doing :) Anyways I get to meet them this Saturday at Debenham so that should be good. The Gallery will be updated next week and lets face it you only want pictures and not me rambling on here!

Mark...

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April 5, 2001

Exspurts!

Well lots to report as usual :)

The body shell I am told is finished and will be picked up this weekend, hurrah. Last weekend Ian and I spent another all day Saturday working on the bot together. This resulted in me finally getting the new Carbon casing on the hydraulic pump. After about an hour of fettling it in just to make sure it fitted perfectly and didn't foul anything we were ready to fire it up.

You can well imagine how pleased I was when Upon applying the juice it whizzed up to full speed without so much as a by your leave :) Now considering some electronics Experts had told us in their infinite wisdom that because Carbon will not conduct magnetic field flux as well as steel they thought it wouldn't work! So I now conclude that an Ex is a has-been and a Spurt is a drip under pressure! and as such will be buying myself large quantity's of salt.

The rebuild is going very well although we are still missing the milled blades and still only have the mild steel pattern blade to play with. This Saturday will see us fitting in the Carbon Bosch motors and subsequently testing them. I cant see why they should not work but we will wait for Saturday to find out. If they are ok then they will go in the gearboxes and be fitted up to the drive this weekend. The machined Ally wheels resplendent with rally ice tires look awesome, and I am told that a certain Rex Garrod has opted for this on Cassius 3! Now as we thought of this independently, I would expect to be placed at Robot Design Godhead level alongside Rex! As of course Great Minds think alike don't they?

I am looking forward to some serious weapons testing this weekend, as we are all piped up ready to go thanks to Phoenix hydraulics. They have done a marvellous job on our hydraulic pipework and saved us a lot of space and weight with the clever use of some nice angles and fittings. Indeed we now have only three pipes. We will be attending the Debenham event although I do not think we will be fighting as we just have to much finishing off work to do and no time to do it in. However we should be able to show off a nearly finished Executioner there, and also the finished and working weapon ( At last ).

So next week I shall be updating the gallery with all the latest pictures and maybe even some video clips on the video page of weapons testing.

Mark...

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March 15, 2001

Peterborough Meet

Well the Peterborough meet went down a storm :)

I wont rave about it here as I will do that in the Peterborough Meet Page. So what's happening to us then here in Rainy Peterborough? It seems only five minutes when we were driving back from last years auditions and I said "Well guys it should only take us 2 months to do all the modifications for series 5" 7 months later we are still hard at it! God why does everything to do with our bloody robot take so long? I wounder if NASA has these problems! On a lighter note I think this time last year Ian was busy making the steel chassis that is now gathering rust somewhere in my garage! So we are still well ahead of schedule and hopefully will make the Debenham event at Easter.

The Carbon and Aluminium Bosch motors are finished after 52 hours of work, and look so nice I don't want to use them but mount them on wooden stands :) The Carbon gearboxes the motors will sit in are also finished and are a testament to Ian's hard work and perfectionism on cold nights in his garage ( At his wife's sufferance ) The chassis is finished at last and so are the new ally wheels complete with rally ice tires. We are still waiting for the blades to be made from EN36 on the mill and CNC lathe, but I am assured next week we will have them in our hands. The new large ram has been lightened down to 8.5 kilos and will have to do at that weight. The blades are being made from 12mm EN36 and not 15mm. We feel with the reinforcing 12mm will be enough. Another big change again is the body shell. This is now the new configuration for the body shell. 2 layers of Carbon Twill weave on the outside 5.5mm of Dyneema 1 sheet of Titanium 1mm then reinforcing on the sides and the top which can be anything we want to slot into the 10mm recesses.

We will be attending the Debenham event in Easter and will be running and fighting. So if you haven't seen our weapon in action then you better stand by for a shock!

Mark...

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February 2, 2001

Sleeping again!

OK so what's happening here in Peterborough? We seem to be awaiting the delivery from the CNC man of just about all the modified bits! I am hoping that most will be finished in time for the Peterborough meet next week, as we want to show off as much as possible what we are doing. We have decided not to use EN24 for the blades but rather go for EN36 and then get it case hardened instead of Through hardened.

There was a possibility that the EN24 could have broken with the force we are going to be subjecting it to! As it can be brittle when through hardened. Anyway we are well on track as we hadn't even started building this time last year! The 20 kg weight increase is very nice for us as its easy for us to find places to add extra weight without having to redesign the whole thing. It also means that I am sleeping again ha ha.

Mark...

Posted by Mark at 8:50 AM | Comments (0) | Robot Wars Series 5 2001

January 25, 2001

Weight is up!

Well Well it appears that all my dreams have come true this year :) and its only the end of Jan to. I have just heard that the weight limit for series 5 RW has been increased to 100 kilos. This to us is a boon and a bane in one fell swoop! Its a boon because now we can make Executioner so much more powerful in every way, and its a bane because I have lost so much sleep thinking about how to lose weight that in the end we didn't have to lose.

So what are we going to do with 20 kilos extra on a design that is what we consider finished at 80 kilos? Firstly we are going to go yet again larger on the ram. In fact we are going to the maximum size we can fit in-between the cutter forks which is 110mm. This will give us nigh on 22 tons on the tip of our main blade, of course we have to allow for a slight drop due to the linkage but even so this is impressive tonnage. The blades have been made in mild steel now and will now be remade in EN24 Steel. This is so we can through harden them to Rockwell 60 (bloody hard)

We are going to add a complete armoured glove of 5mm EN24 to the whole cutter forks assembly at the front. This will when in place make the front end unbendable, as then we will have the 7075 forks underneath too and the whole thing pinned and bolted together. We then will have the ability to ram very hard without damaging the softer 7075 ally underneath. The Body shell has had recesses made in it for 5mm EN24 plates to be fitted. So the configuration now is this. Carbon twill weave outer, then 15mm of Bullet proof Kevlar followed by Carbon/Kevlar 2mm thick on the inside. We then put the EN24 plates in place in the moulded recesses and fix them with small screws. Once the plates are in the body shell we will layer over them using more Carbon/Kevlar to keep them in place, and an integral part of the whole shell. The whole thing then gets turned right way up so we can fit the Titanium capping we have made to the edges and corners. These are made from 1.2mm hardened TI and will prevent saws cutting the Carbon.

For the bottom we are going to use more Ti as side skirts at around a 45 degree angle. These will run on both sides and at the back to. This will prevent the flipper brigade getting a toe hold we hope! So the only way in is at the front :) and at the front is a very nasty 22inch blade with 22 tons of pressure behind it.

Mark...

Posted by Mark at 8:48 AM | Comments (0) | Robot Wars Series 5 2001

January 10, 2001

A new Year

Well lots happening again here in Peterborough. The date is set for the next Peterborough meet and I must say I think just about all the top UK teams are coming including Chaos11, Hypnodisk and Razer! So we must be reasonably popular :) Still I am hopeful this event will be the success it was last time.

I am trying to sort a Diablo out for the day, here's hoping eh!! The Pressure transducer has arrived from Huba. This will enable us to monitor Hydraulic pump pressure via the row of LED lights on the roof of the body shell. The Anthrax team have finished the link between the Pressure transducer and the LED lights so I think we will be given that at the Peterborough meet. I still have to scan the pictures of the latest batch of machining we have had done, also the body shell needs some pictures taking of it so I can put them on here.

Also in the news for us is that we have decided to go for a 100mm bore ram on the main weapon :) this will be awesome and give us 16.5 tons of force on a nearly 1:1 linkage. I cannot see any robot weighing 80 kilos standing up to that so it should be very effective as a weapon. The new blades are awesome and look very very nasty indeed again I will put the pictures on here ASAP.

Mark...

Posted by Mark at 8:39 AM | Comments (0) | Robot Wars Series 5 2001