ik it sounds simple but thanks for putting time stamps on every part of the video, makes it really easy to navigate to the parts that interest me, thank you maker's muse !
I have personally used TPU forks in my beetleweight and it has worked well for me. I would recommend changing the print orientation of the forks to print in its vertical orientation rather than on its side. It allows the tip of the fork to be paper thin. You can also angle the fork downward by 1 degree to add some preloading. I also notice that your robot tends to tip back a little whenever you accelerate which prevented you in getting good bite in certain exchanges. Moving the wheels back or adding a wheelie nub on the underside could reduce the tipping.
What a time to be alive. In-home manufacturing/prototyping is becoming so much easier. I've been so happy with my 3D printer and often end up in a situation where I need a part that would take too much money to purchase or too long to find -- printing solved that.
It's such a surreal feeling to go from having an idea for something that doesn't exist to having it in your hand in 6 hours (obviously depending on size and design process).
Some people have already mentioned this, but I’d go with swapping out the infill for walls of the same weight. These walls could be designed to spread out impacts across the whole structure. I was thinking of a two-layer wall design where the outer wall has fewer, larger triangular sections, and the inner wall is denser. This way, the impact dispersion happens in two stages, using more surface area to spread the force.
PA6/PA66 GF30 is used in automotive parts including structural parts, it's very very tough stuff and per weight stronger than steel when molded, it's also reasonably chemical and abrasion resistant. For wire fatigue potting the connections in silicone or hot glue can really help with strain at or near solder joints.
@@Jehty_ The front core support on some vehicles, some Ford, Mazda, and Nissan/Infinti for example. Probably many other vehicles outside the US as well. Stabilizer bar links on some vehicles. Bumper reinforcements.
@@Jehty_also used for air intake manifolds, underbody shields, radiator housing, and engine covers. Not structural per se but it’s got great impact resistance.
If your controller lets you you might try throttling the spinner both manually and dynamically off your inputs. IE high speed when driving strait forward/backwards, and at low speed when turning and resetting to a mid range between the two values for faster response. Should give you a good balance between having control and ability to be aggressive.
It appeared like you were already thinking of it, but it may be prudent to embed a solid core part into the softer TPU wheels to give them a better chance of keeping the motor shaft secure. at 150g, you likely don't have the weight for a grubscrew for pressure on the motor shaft, but that could be a V3, potentially.
@@MakersMuse I wonder if it would help to put a layer of really thin fibreglass with some lightweight epoxy on the high impact parts. Probably wouldn't add much weight and could add some real delamination protection for the printed layers, which seemed to be a fail zone. You could even, with less epoxy in the fibreglass, have that extend to the ground as a skirt against forks. Although I'm not sure if the rules allow these materials.
@MakersMuse you should angle the spinner slightly which will cause the gyro force to favor 1 side,& then make the axle for the wheels have a groove that guides it up & down when gyro causes it to lift on 1 side,& a single spring for the side that moves due to gyro force. (I'm sure I'm getting something wrong a bit,but I'm also sure if you use that somehow you can still make it better) Cheers
22:10 instead of having a round (o-ring style) tire, change the shape to a square on the half that contacts the rim, and in the rim itself, print ridges. If you can, glue the tire on over those ridges by pressing down with your fingers using the rubber glue from the thread locking compound guys (you know who). That tire, even if it's coming apart, with those mods, should still hold to the rim where it counts. And if you keep spares, you can cut up chunks and glue them over with the rubber glue (it will hold).
The ending of the video got me so bad, I never thought I'd see a combat robot backwards-long-jump like speedrunners in Super Mario 64 do. Haha This is an incredible little rig, good stuff!
It's so cute 😍 One suggestion about soldering something so small. You might consider using solid core wire instead of stranded since it should be easier to handle and pre-shape in such a small volume.
I expect solid core wire may make the issue of wire fatigue much worse. It's definitely nicer to work with when you want the wire to stay in one place, but breaks quickly with continuous movement.
Stranded is the way to go. You can make stranded wire a bit more manageable by dipping the ends in flux then tinning them before attempting to solder them down. Just the very ends, though. Soldering the strands together will make the wire behave more like solid core, i.e. more susceptible to fatigue. If there's space on the PCB, taping down the wire can make alignment easier. It's fiddly to get wires taped into the right spot, but it makes soldering easier. Using more flexible wires also helps. Just makes it easier to get the wire to stay where you want it while soldering.
Noctuo (Polish filament manufacturer) carries many nice elastomers. They go as low as 40ShA (Extreme Flex) and they also have some semi- flexi ble ones - Pureflex 95A, Mediflex 96A and Grip Hard (98ShA if I remember correctly).
My cars intake manifold is made from PA6-GF30. The community around the car (BMW E46) have tested these manifolds up to 30PSI of boost with no measurable failures. I even made a manifold adapter out of the material with my Bambu P1P. Glass filled nylon is extremely cool and works great for car parts!
New video woo! Ive said it before and I'll say it again, Dead cat bounce is an incredibly scary vert! I didnt realise they filed for insolvency lol... Id better use my spool sparingly just in case I understand the montage of hits but all the same surprised you didnt show our full fight. That was a nailbiter to the end! Gives me something to cover for my video i guess 😅 keen to see you again on the 8th!
I think you should remove the wheel deflectors, move the wheels inside and make the enclosure go around them. Cant rip them off if theyre fully enclosed.
Wow bro where have you been haven’t even seen a video made by ya recommended for over a year maybe two! Dunno why but it’s damn good to see ya my dude!!!
You're 3d printing. Why not a composite? Print 2-3 layers of TPU on outside edges, and then print centre with a more ridged filament. Get the benefits of _both_ materials.
I think there would be a little problem between 2 different materials to bond together. I had one print with pla and petg (because i didnt have right color) and these two didn't stick together
@@MakersMuse Could also do it the old school way, pausing the print, swapping filaments manually. It's not as _nice_ as printing from the AMS, but if you're changing material only twice it shouldn't be too much of an issue.
I'm not much of a battle bot fan, but this vid right here kept me both engaged and got me more interested in battle bots. Great video and I hope more people stumble onto it!
Very nice video with all elements presented perfectly. Really enjoyed it and I’m sad that we don’t have such a club here. Thanks for all the design and test details!
What are the rules to these things? Is the whole outside shape of the robot allowed to be a weapon? Does it have to ‘ride’ with wheels or are they allowed to move in a different manner? I can see myself totally get into this lol :-)
On my 1LB ant and horizontal fairy, I use a TPU hub on foam wheel. There is a hexagonal hole across the entire length perpendicular to the shaft. Inside, there is an M4 aluminum standoff with a 3mm hole drilled in it. This has the upsides of metal threads for set screws, but also only weighs 1-2g more than a solid TPU hub. Never had a hub fall off again, only had foam fall off the hub.
Haha indeed. there was another new bot there which is also mine (: got exams for the next few weeks but video on that afterwards (I'll also show the full fights so you can see all of what went down)
"My advice: Get yourself a soldering iron with a _really_ fine tip" (holds up a soldering iron that looks more at home soldering rain gutters than PCBs)
Hey Angus! have you considered using some sort of custom daughterboard instead of wires for connecting components? Not sure of the weight impact, but maybe it would help with wire fatigue?
The wheels don’t really need to be external, correct? It can self right itself, and has a very limited range when operating where the wheels are in contact with the floor. 😉
Awesome video as always!! I believe Bambu Lab's new TPU for AMS will be quite the game changer to embed impact dampeners into or out of rigid structures
@MakersMuse No way! The legend himself answered! Been watching you for years!! Yeah, from what I've heard it might be even harder than 68D, but I think a hybrid structure would be really cool, was thinking about a thick outer shell coupled to the main body via compliant thin walls/springs of sorts , maybe ?
Cool! Despite not being into these combat robots, I found your methodology of testing etc very interesting and commendable. From the perspective of a retired computer developer. 👍🇦🇺
@Maker's Muse Have you tested TPE rather then TPU for the wheels? The amount of extra grippiness you get with stuff like Fiberflex 30D/40D compared to a similar stiffness TPU is really noticeable with handles and other grips. Holds up extremely well as Electric Unicycle bumpers in the crashes I've put mine through.
I subbed when I noticed your electronic music rig in the BG. The thought behind this tiny bot tho, is really impressive, and inspiring! 👍👍 Us thinking people, need to take back the spotlight on social media, from all the awful fascists that are trying to take over the world. Btw, if the music in this is yours, I dig the music you are making, too. 👍
If you are looking into alternative materials, I highly recommend Ninjaflex TPU. IT prints very clean (if dried properly) has great layer adhesion and springs back super quickly (not like other TPUs that are somewhat sluggish to return to the original position). I use it quite a bit at work, primarily the 85a hardness which is very tough and the 75a hardness one as well. 75a is so soft, that it can be hard to get good print results, as the print deforms so easily under the pressure of the nozzle. The 85a is great though an properly dried prints so nice, with great mechanical properties.
The axle could have a little threaded section on either side, so you could have a little nylon lock nut holding the wheels on, so you could keep using very soft tpu
That thing is insane, love the engineering creativity, so many really interesting solutions. Would love to see some kind of Mighty Car Mods crossover with you. Next Mod Max could be the real thing.
I use a tool for holding pcbs, it’s called a stick vise. In conjunction with helping hands which you already have it is very convenient for soldering small wire to pcbs like you do. I think it would be cool to see you test your robot materials on your own spinner. You might be able to use a rigid rubber axle to connect up your wheels to the motors to help shock insulate them more.
I remember watching this sport as a kid here in America and I absolutely loved. I wonder if it’s still popular here. Anywho this video got my sub. Looking forward to more videos.
I like your impact tester! You may get more useful results by making it more like the Charpy device: add a latch to release the arm from a consistent height. Do a single swing from a height guaranteed to break the sample. This avoids confounding your results with cumulative damage from multiple swings. Add a tattletale indicator to display how how high the hammer continued to swing after breaking the sample (initial potential energy minus energey taken to break the sample)
Wicked little chopper, certainly. Go around all the parts you have and increase fillets as much as possible, stress risers due to sharp intersections or print layers at intersections are surprisingly weak. You're already tight on weight but you could split your chopper in half with counter rotating motors and get control of your gyroscope effect, making scissors, "running with scissors" name? Increase the length of your flail(s) with a slightly higher tower.
I'm not really interested in combat robots but man, that was epic to watch! I love how you've essentially reinvented bar armour and schurtzen from first prinicples. :)
are there any rules for 'augmented steering', what i mean by that is in the event of a lost wheel your steering inputs have to change drastically. now can a PI calculate the correct augmentation from your desired steering input, to regulate both the remaning wheel motor speed and direction but more inportant modify the weapon motor speed to aid the travel in the desired direction?
Here is a weakness I spotted before I watched the full video: the fins in the wheels actually increase the leverage of certain impacts right where the shaft meets the wheels. I would use some form of circular shoulder around the shaft, protruding from the body. That shoulder would absorb some of the impact. The trick is to figure out the clearance. If you give too little clearance, if the shaft or the wheel deforms, you can't spin anymore. Too much clearance and it doesn't help at all. I would manually bend the wheel and shaft assembly to establish the beginning of plastic deformation (end of elastic deformation) and set the clearance such that it would stop the wheel-shaft assembly from reaching plastic deformation. between this shoulder and the wheel you could have 2 teflon washers of the same diameter as the shoulder, to help the wheels to still move if they are rubbing against the shoulder.
For the forks, probably the best of both worlds approach would be to print them in a rigid material, but with a flexible material bushing around the axle and flexible material where the fork comes in contact with the chassis to spread the area that can deflect to more than just the edge of the chassis.
I remember your last video on this and this one is just as good.. Hope you read all the comments because there are some good idea's here. The wheels look like crush gear wheels.
Given how fast the weapon can spin up and down I wonder if you could add a mix into your controller that automatically reduces the speed of the weapon when you give it a turn input and that increases it again when you straighten out. Even a modest weapon speed reduction during a turn input could really increase control ability.
For the wheels, if you happen to have dual extruder printer still around or just a lot of time and extra material, try material interlocking. Not just hard core that goes into the soft TPU wheel, but printing the core with the wheel and really mesh the materials together. Already like 1-2mm interlocking area and that TPU isn't going anywhere. Cura and Orca slicers have already settings for this but considering the size and requirements, just making like 3 loops of the core material to interlock into the TPU and 3 loops of TPU in the core and that wheel shouldn't be going anywhere. I would remember Lost In Tech mentioned this in his latest video about TPU.
this small bot give out such a fear inducing spinup sound ... it just never stops getting louder xD but im actualy amazed by the bolt holding the bearing. 😂
Mikado Logo 600 RC helicopter main blade grips is the plastic of choice if the recipe can be repicated. Countless inverted crashes since 2006 by every owner and only a couple of reported breakages. Big helis hit hard and break a lot of parts, but these blade grips are tough as nails.
20:38 - underrated defense mechanism of a vertical spinner imo. If you got a chunky blade like Dead Cat Bounce, it's your best defense against horizontal spinners.
I hear you with the TPU hubs; an earlier version of my robot had issues of wheels falling off for the same reason - you try tightening down the set screws and the whole hub just flexes instead. You might want to try printing them out of a stiffer material, then making the fins separate pieces that can screw onto the wheels.
Well... They're different weightclasses (UK/Aus antweight 150g vs US Antweight 1lb or 434g) fortunately for you, my robot started out as inspired by cheesecake (had some upgrades since then) and fought dead cat bounce at the event! I've got some videos on it and video of that event coming soonish if you're interested in a third Antweight series 😅
jayzes, every time i hear that chonker of a wheel spin up, i think "okay, That speed is probly Too Fast for me to touch with my finger", but it WASNT EVEN DONE YET and it spins even Faster, and i think "now, id hesitate to touch it, with a Stick", and then it KEEPS SPINNING FASTER and i think "this is what Death sounds like"
There's this idea ive always had to cancel out gyro effect by having an internal counter-rotating weight meshed well with the weapon (so its weight transfers too on hits) idk how feasible that is
Definitely! That would be a counter gyro flywheel and is somewhat common although takes up more of your weight for the weapon system. Team just cuz has a robot: Division whose latest version has one of these systems
if you are going with titanium for the spinner, then go ALL IN and get an injection molding set up. you can make your own custom PA6-GF wheels with ablative soft covers that rip off. people don't understand how insanely strong gf nylon really is. there is a reason ford used it for their valve covers lol. with injection molding though, you could model out a part in PLA and then use that to make a mold. or you could go old school with a die grinder and just grind a die by hand. also you could go with the double spinner that has no gyro effect. you get half the hitting power, but you can hit from the front and rear
Maker's muse, I just got a 3d printer and I have no clue how to use it. I have seen a video from you about 2 years ago explaining a bit of 3d printing for beginners, however I can't help but feel that a lot has changed in 2 years. I would love for an updated video describing what people new to 3d printing should do when they get a printer, assuming they have the following: Printer Mystery PLA (1/4 spool) Computer Way to transfer files from computer to printer no previous knowledge about printing, only a basic understanding on how to start a print. I think there's a lot of stuff idk about printing with still, but your video helped me a lot. I can now successfully print a benchy, rocktopus, and whistle albeit with probably laughable results compared to what you could get with your setups.
I have an idea for the wheels. You probably already thought of this, but making the core of the wheel out of a more solid material would help it stay on more, but it could shatter more easily. Either switch the plastics quickly while the part is still hot, or use joinery techniques and simply slip one over the other. Another option is to continue using that super bendable tpu, but drill a couple holes into the axel and make the wheel fill up those holes as well. Its a more technical design, but if you can somehow manage to create holes so small, you can melt some excess material from the wheel into the hole to create a bot that would rather be smashed to pieces than to lose its wheels! Edit: try to make the body of your bot conical in shape. Like in mediaeval armour, conical shapes are incredibly good at deflecting attacks. Choose either conical or triangular for the effect. Square is great at form fitting to parts but structurally it isnt the best pick and it prefers to take the most impact it can compared to deflection
I think a thicker base for the wheel fins (i.e. tapered) would significantly increase strength. Also why not cover the super tough forks in the soft, impact absorbing material. Lastly, why not have rounded sides instead of basically square? The edge is the weak point.
ik it sounds simple but thanks for putting time stamps on every part of the video, makes it really easy to navigate to the parts that interest me, thank you maker's muse !
all good! it's a longer one so thought it'd help.
agreed!
Oh I want to make a hub motor for my combat robot they sound like a great idea are they how expensive is it
@@MakersMuse just asking how expensive is it to make a hub motor and would it work for an egg beater drum
I came here expecting it was a new tool deployed by Ukraine against the Russian invaders.
2:15 The icon says "touching fish not allowed" which is a Chinese slang term that means slacking off not allowed.
Haha really? That's pretty funny
i guess that implies that the board is high performance or something?
@@ThylineTheGay Nah it's just sort of a meme term/slang in Chinese.
Ohhh I thought it was some kind of actual warning lmao. 请勿摸鱼 is so funny
Probably a sweatshop joke.
I have personally used TPU forks in my beetleweight and it has worked well for me. I would recommend changing the print orientation of the forks to print in its vertical orientation rather than on its side. It allows the tip of the fork to be paper thin. You can also angle the fork downward by 1 degree to add some preloading.
I also notice that your robot tends to tip back a little whenever you accelerate which prevented you in getting good bite in certain exchanges. Moving the wheels back or adding a wheelie nub on the underside could reduce the tipping.
Have you tried Tullomer from Z-polymerinc yet? If not you should look into it.
W advice
This!!
Hearing that spinner spooling up had me verbally saying "oh my GOD." Immediate flashbacks to Minotaur. Tear 'em up, Angus!
speaking out loud to your videos has to be a sign of low intelligence or smth
The original sponsor filing for insolvency bit caught me so off guard
Tell me about it 😂😵
That twist was unexpected,I think this is the first time i have heard of sponsor getting insolvency while sponsoring a youtuber video🤣🤣
What is insolvency?
@@kihgu business ran out of money and shut down :D
@@Nepoxification thanks (:
What a time to be alive. In-home manufacturing/prototyping is becoming so much easier. I've been so happy with my 3D printer and often end up in a situation where I need a part that would take too much money to purchase or too long to find -- printing solved that.
It's such a surreal feeling to go from having an idea for something that doesn't exist to having it in your hand in 6 hours (obviously depending on size and design process).
Some people have already mentioned this, but I’d go with swapping out the infill for walls of the same weight. These walls could be designed to spread out impacts across the whole structure. I was thinking of a two-layer wall design where the outer wall has fewer, larger triangular sections, and the inner wall is denser. This way, the impact dispersion happens in two stages, using more surface area to spread the force.
PA6/PA66 GF30 is used in automotive parts including structural parts, it's very very tough stuff and per weight stronger than steel when molded, it's also reasonably chemical and abrasion resistant.
For wire fatigue potting the connections in silicone or hot glue can really help with strain at or near solder joints.
Do you know of an example of such a structural part?
@@Jehty_ The front core support on some vehicles, some Ford, Mazda, and Nissan/Infinti for example. Probably many other vehicles outside the US as well. Stabilizer bar links on some vehicles. Bumper reinforcements.
@@Jehty_also used for air intake manifolds, underbody shields, radiator housing, and engine covers. Not structural per se but it’s got great impact resistance.
PA6 GF30 is also the standard material used in cordless power tools.
If your controller lets you you might try throttling the spinner both manually and dynamically off your inputs. IE high speed when driving strait forward/backwards, and at low speed when turning and resetting to a mid range between the two values for faster response. Should give you a good balance between having control and ability to be aggressive.
Just be careful of trading off gyroscopic torque for just the standard torque of spinning up and down.
It appeared like you were already thinking of it, but it may be prudent to embed a solid core part into the softer TPU wheels to give them a better chance of keeping the motor shaft secure. at 150g, you likely don't have the weight for a grubscrew for pressure on the motor shaft, but that could be a V3, potentially.
Yeah that's definitely the plan. A firmer filament for the hub will press fit much better I think!
I wonder if just super glue might be more prudent given the constraints.
@@MakersMuse I wonder if it would help to put a layer of really thin fibreglass with some lightweight epoxy on the high impact parts. Probably wouldn't add much weight and could add some real delamination protection for the printed layers, which seemed to be a fail zone. You could even, with less epoxy in the fibreglass, have that extend to the ground as a skirt against forks.
Although I'm not sure if the rules allow these materials.
A Solid core was my thought as well. Would be interesting to see how well the material interlocking feature in orca slicer would work for it.
@MakersMuse you should angle the spinner slightly which will cause the gyro force to favor 1 side,& then make the axle for the wheels have a groove that guides it up & down when gyro causes it to lift on 1 side,& a single spring for the side that moves due to gyro force. (I'm sure I'm getting something wrong a bit,but I'm also sure if you use that somehow you can still make it better) Cheers
22:10 instead of having a round (o-ring style) tire, change the shape to a square on the half that contacts the rim, and in the rim itself, print ridges. If you can, glue the tire on over those ridges by pressing down with your fingers using the rubber glue from the thread locking compound guys (you know who). That tire, even if it's coming apart, with those mods, should still hold to the rim where it counts. And if you keep spares, you can cut up chunks and glue them over with the rubber glue (it will hold).
The ending of the video got me so bad, I never thought I'd see a combat robot backwards-long-jump like speedrunners in Super Mario 64 do. Haha
This is an incredible little rig, good stuff!
20:52 that reverse onewheel hit was awesome! 💥
I love this line of content, i do enjoy seeing the failures but even better than that is seeing the bot going flying after it taps a wall.
It's so cute 😍
One suggestion about soldering something so small. You might consider using solid core wire instead of stranded since it should be easier to handle and pre-shape in such a small volume.
I expect solid core wire may make the issue of wire fatigue much worse. It's definitely nicer to work with when you want the wire to stay in one place, but breaks quickly with continuous movement.
Stranded is the way to go. You can make stranded wire a bit more manageable by dipping the ends in flux then tinning them before attempting to solder them down. Just the very ends, though. Soldering the strands together will make the wire behave more like solid core, i.e. more susceptible to fatigue.
If there's space on the PCB, taping down the wire can make alignment easier. It's fiddly to get wires taped into the right spot, but it makes soldering easier.
Using more flexible wires also helps. Just makes it easier to get the wire to stay where you want it while soldering.
Noctuo (Polish filament manufacturer) carries many nice elastomers. They go as low as 40ShA (Extreme Flex) and they also have some semi- flexi ble ones - Pureflex 95A, Mediflex 96A and Grip Hard (98ShA if I remember correctly).
When you held that bugger up with your hand, I was so astounded and just shouted out "IT'S THAT SMALL!?!?!?"
i.. think... i'm about to enter this new world of robot fighting...
Never have I stumbled across such a great and obviously super fun hobby/competitive art form. 😅
My cars intake manifold is made from PA6-GF30. The community around the car (BMW E46) have tested these manifolds up to 30PSI of boost with no measurable failures.
I even made a manifold adapter out of the material with my Bambu P1P.
Glass filled nylon is extremely cool and works great for car parts!
That's incredible!!! What printer did you use for a part like that? I'd imagine the x1c print volume is pretty limiting.
13:20 "not more solid or denser. Same layer hight" ..but was nozzle 0.6mm for all samples or only that last one?
Great video 🤓
That spinner sounds absolutely terrifying.
New video woo! Ive said it before and I'll say it again, Dead cat bounce is an incredibly scary vert!
I didnt realise they filed for insolvency lol... Id better use my spool sparingly just in case
I understand the montage of hits but all the same surprised you didnt show our full fight. That was a nailbiter to the end! Gives me something to cover for my video i guess 😅 keen to see you again on the 8th!
Haha yeah I kept it tight but definitely keen to see your breakdown. Gotta do some mods for the 8th! cya there
I think you should remove the wheel deflectors, move the wheels inside and make the enclosure go around them.
Cant rip them off if theyre fully enclosed.
Wow bro where have you been haven’t even seen a video made by ya recommended for over a year maybe two! Dunno why but it’s damn good to see ya my dude!!!
You're 3d printing. Why not a composite? Print 2-3 layers of TPU on outside edges, and then print centre with a more ridged filament. Get the benefits of _both_ materials.
Really want to try that! Unfortunately TPU isn't compatible with the AMS, though bambu just released a harder one that may work
I think there would be a little problem between 2 different materials to bond together. I had one print with pla and petg (because i didnt have right color) and these two didn't stick together
@@MakersMuse Could also do it the old school way, pausing the print, swapping filaments manually. It's not as _nice_ as printing from the AMS, but if you're changing material only twice it shouldn't be too much of an issue.
I was thinking you could leave a filament sized hole and just insert the unprinted stiffer filament into the tpu
Petg and tpu will stick together.
I'm not much of a battle bot fan, but this vid right here kept me both engaged and got me more interested in battle bots. Great video and I hope more people stumble onto it!
14:54 I thought you said “wife fatigue” 😆 - Great video, wishing you the best in Dec ‘24 - Central Florida here 🌴🇺🇸
Very nice video with all elements presented perfectly. Really enjoyed it and I’m sad that we don’t have such a club here.
Thanks for all the design and test details!
What are the rules to these things? Is the whole outside shape of the robot allowed to be a weapon? Does it have to ‘ride’ with wheels or are they allowed to move in a different manner? I can see myself totally get into this lol :-)
On my 1LB ant and horizontal fairy, I use a TPU hub on foam wheel. There is a hexagonal hole across the entire length perpendicular to the shaft. Inside, there is an M4 aluminum standoff with a 3mm hole drilled in it.
This has the upsides of metal threads for set screws, but also only weighs 1-2g more than a solid TPU hub. Never had a hub fall off again, only had foam fall off the hub.
Awesome video! You did a great job steering that little hellcat. This is my first exposure to these tiny fighting robots and it's super cool!
I like your improvised Izod/ Charpy impact tester! If you increase your fillet radii you can spread the stresses/improve the strength even more.
You should be very pleased with the result. Careful and thoughtful design and test. well done.
9:52 i love it flies in the sky. bounce just shreds & launches it's enemies
That motor, when spun up, sounds ominous.
Hey that's Yellow and Dangerous! crap I don't know which of you to cheer for!
He beat me! Definitely a great bot and builder 👌
Haha indeed. there was another new bot there which is also mine (: got exams for the next few weeks but video on that afterwards (I'll also show the full fights so you can see all of what went down)
TINY BATTLEBOTS EXIST!?!?! WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE
"My advice: Get yourself a soldering iron with a _really_ fine tip"
(holds up a soldering iron that looks more at home soldering rain gutters than PCBs)
don't torture yourself like that! haha
There's some really cheap T245 soldering irons on aliexpress which work incredibly well
@@MakersMuse It was directed at you 😩
Hey Angus! have you considered using some sort of custom daughterboard instead of wires for connecting components? Not sure of the weight impact, but maybe it would help with wire fatigue?
Thank you, love these series.
Excellent video and great project! Thanks for showing it in action, too!
The wheels don’t really need to be external, correct? It can self right itself, and has a very limited range when operating where the wheels are in contact with the floor. 😉
11:19 can you print a center out of the harder/brittle pla then an outside coating with the softer?
Or would it not bond properly
Firstly, it sounds amazing!
Second, IT SOUNDS AMAZING!!!❤❤
Awesome video as always!! I believe Bambu Lab's new TPU for AMS will be quite the game changer to embed impact dampeners into or out of rigid structures
I'm keen to try it! People are saying it's very stiff though. Probably good for the inner frame but less so for the armour
@MakersMuse No way! The legend himself answered! Been watching you for years!! Yeah, from what I've heard it might be even harder than 68D, but I think a hybrid structure would be really cool, was thinking about a thick outer shell coupled to the main body via compliant thin walls/springs of sorts , maybe ?
Cool! Despite not being into these combat robots, I found your methodology of testing etc very interesting and commendable. From the perspective of a retired computer developer. 👍🇦🇺
@Maker's Muse Have you tested TPE rather then TPU for the wheels? The amount of extra grippiness you get with stuff like Fiberflex 30D/40D compared to a similar stiffness TPU is really noticeable with handles and other grips. Holds up extremely well as Electric Unicycle bumpers in the crashes I've put mine through.
I subbed when I noticed your electronic music rig in the BG. The thought behind this tiny bot tho, is really impressive, and inspiring! 👍👍 Us thinking people, need to take back the spotlight on social media, from all the awful fascists that are trying to take over the world. Btw, if the music in this is yours, I dig the music you are making, too. 👍
I love the tiny battle bot content.
If you are looking into alternative materials, I highly recommend Ninjaflex TPU. IT prints very clean (if dried properly) has great layer adhesion and springs back super quickly (not like other TPUs that are somewhat sluggish to return to the original position).
I use it quite a bit at work, primarily the 85a hardness which is very tough and the 75a hardness one as well. 75a is so soft, that it can be hard to get good print results, as the print deforms so easily under the pressure of the nozzle. The 85a is great though an properly dried prints so nice, with great mechanical properties.
Man, that is one little monster. Loved this and the last videos and I hope to see more of them.
The cat I can’t it’s just so cute and funny how it just starts patting the pen and then slows down as if saying “are we not playing right now?” 😂
Use TPU for ams (bambu lab)on the wheels and the PA in the center where the shaft goes.
The axle could have a little threaded section on either side, so you could have a little nylon lock nut holding the wheels on, so you could keep using very soft tpu
That thing is insane, love the engineering creativity, so many really interesting solutions.
Would love to see some kind of Mighty Car Mods crossover with you. Next Mod Max could be the real thing.
I use a tool for holding pcbs, it’s called a stick vise. In conjunction with helping hands which you already have it is very convenient for soldering small wire to pcbs like you do. I think it would be cool to see you test your robot materials on your own spinner. You might be able to use a rigid rubber axle to connect up your wheels to the motors to help shock insulate them more.
what a treat of a video
I remember watching this sport as a kid here in America and I absolutely loved. I wonder if it’s still popular here. Anywho this video got my sub. Looking forward to more videos.
Could you pit a pin or something in the shaft so the wheels don't come off?
I like your impact tester! You may get more useful results by making it more like the Charpy device: add a latch to release the arm from a consistent height. Do a single swing from a height guaranteed to break the sample. This avoids confounding your results with cumulative damage from multiple swings. Add a tattletale indicator to display how how high the hammer continued to swing after breaking the sample (initial potential energy minus energey taken to break the sample)
That was a great Cat Aided Design session. 🤣🤣
Wicked little chopper, certainly. Go around all the parts you have and increase fillets as much as possible, stress risers due to sharp intersections or print layers at intersections are surprisingly weak. You're already tight on weight but you could split your chopper in half with counter rotating motors and get control of your gyroscope effect, making scissors, "running with scissors" name? Increase the length of your flail(s) with a slightly higher tower.
I'm not really interested in combat robots but man, that was epic to watch! I love how you've essentially reinvented bar armour and schurtzen from first prinicples. :)
Absolutely loved this video. The design process got me very invested, all for a massive payoof of seeing it compete. I'd absolutely watch more
are there any rules for 'augmented steering', what i mean by that is in the event of a lost wheel your steering inputs have to change drastically. now can a PI calculate the correct augmentation from your desired steering input, to regulate both the remaning wheel motor speed and direction but more inportant modify the weapon motor speed to aid the travel in the desired direction?
Fantastic video, Angus! Thanks for letting us see inside your creative process.
That is one super awesome little robot 👍. Other than the wheel issue, it sure can take a beating. Good job and great video!
10:50 Can you print around a bicycle spoke? As like rebar?
Here is a weakness I spotted before I watched the full video: the fins in the wheels actually increase the leverage of certain impacts right where the shaft meets the wheels. I would use some form of circular shoulder around the shaft, protruding from the body. That shoulder would absorb some of the impact. The trick is to figure out the clearance. If you give too little clearance, if the shaft or the wheel deforms, you can't spin anymore. Too much clearance and it doesn't help at all. I would manually bend the wheel and shaft assembly to establish the beginning of plastic deformation (end of elastic deformation) and set the clearance such that it would stop the wheel-shaft assembly from reaching plastic deformation. between this shoulder and the wheel you could have 2 teflon washers of the same diameter as the shoulder, to help the wheels to still move if they are rubbing against the shoulder.
Your best bet for keeping the wheels on is adding a nut into the wheel and using a set screw to hold it in place.
For the forks, probably the best of both worlds approach would be to print them in a rigid material, but with a flexible material bushing around the axle and flexible material where the fork comes in contact with the chassis to spread the area that can deflect to more than just the edge of the chassis.
I remember your last video on this and this one is just as good.. Hope you read all the comments because there are some good idea's here. The wheels look like crush gear wheels.
What was really fascinating to me about the PA6 GF30 is how you can HEAR the difference in the impacts.
Finally realized you are a fellow lefty. Can't wait for part 3.
Awesome bot. I'm in the process of designing my first bot and this has been super informative!
That hub motor is brutal!
At 10:00, how do you know that the bar wasn't being damaged (hidden cracks) by the previous blows?
the gyro effect on this bad boy is amazing!!!!!
OMG the weapon starting up sounds so powerful! 17:20
Given how fast the weapon can spin up and down I wonder if you could add a mix into your controller that automatically reduces the speed of the weapon when you give it a turn input and that increases it again when you straighten out. Even a modest weapon speed reduction during a turn input could really increase control ability.
This is awesome! I can’t wait to see how the design progresses in the future.
For the wheels, if you happen to have dual extruder printer still around or just a lot of time and extra material, try material interlocking. Not just hard core that goes into the soft TPU wheel, but printing the core with the wheel and really mesh the materials together. Already like 1-2mm interlocking area and that TPU isn't going anywhere. Cura and Orca slicers have already settings for this but considering the size and requirements, just making like 3 loops of the core material to interlock into the TPU and 3 loops of TPU in the core and that wheel shouldn't be going anywhere.
I would remember Lost In Tech mentioned this in his latest video about TPU.
Those slo-mo cheers at the end had me laughing too hard.
this small bot give out such a fear inducing spinup sound ... it just never stops getting louder xD
but im actualy amazed by the bolt holding the bearing. 😂
Mikado Logo 600 RC helicopter main blade grips is the plastic of choice if the recipe can be repicated. Countless inverted crashes since 2006 by every owner and only a couple of reported breakages.
Big helis hit hard and break a lot of parts, but these blade grips are tough as nails.
Loved watching this unfold, can't wait for the revisions
fantastic work. what a great competition.
I'm not aware of any similar mini-bot competitions in the UK..........
150g antweights were born from the UK! I'm sure there are competitions around. Try the bristol bot builders and see what events are running.
20:38 - underrated defense mechanism of a vertical spinner imo. If you got a chunky blade like Dead Cat Bounce, it's your best defense against horizontal spinners.
I hear you with the TPU hubs; an earlier version of my robot had issues of wheels falling off for the same reason - you try tightening down the set screws and the whole hub just flexes instead. You might want to try printing them out of a stiffer material, then making the fins separate pieces that can screw onto the wheels.
LOL, Cat:"Excuse me?"
This is the second ant weight series that my algorithm has lured me down. Love to see dead cat go against Cheesecake.
Well... They're different weightclasses (UK/Aus antweight 150g vs US Antweight 1lb or 434g) fortunately for you, my robot started out as inspired by cheesecake (had some upgrades since then) and fought dead cat bounce at the event! I've got some videos on it and video of that event coming soonish if you're interested in a third Antweight series 😅
jayzes, every time i hear that chonker of a wheel spin up, i think "okay, That speed is probly Too Fast for me to touch with my finger", but it WASNT EVEN DONE YET and it spins even Faster, and i think "now, id hesitate to touch it, with a Stick", and then it KEEPS SPINNING FASTER and i think "this is what Death sounds like"
The laser etched logo through paint is a nice effect!
Design a pin that pushes through the wheel and shaft to keep it on but also allow for quick and fast removal when needed
There's this idea ive always had to cancel out gyro effect by having an internal counter-rotating weight meshed well with the weapon (so its weight transfers too on hits) idk how feasible that is
Definitely! That would be a counter gyro flywheel and is somewhat common although takes up more of your weight for the weapon system. Team just cuz has a robot: Division whose latest version has one of these systems
Hey Angus, nice work mate. That very tough material you used...it requires a heated chamber to print? Thanks and very cool!
The TPU doesn't but the PA6 needs an enclosure at the least yeah !
if you are going with titanium for the spinner, then go ALL IN and get an injection molding set up. you can make your own custom PA6-GF wheels with ablative soft covers that rip off. people don't understand how insanely strong gf nylon really is. there is a reason ford used it for their valve covers lol.
with injection molding though, you could model out a part in PLA and then use that to make a mold. or you could go old school with a die grinder and just grind a die by hand. also you could go with the double spinner that has no gyro effect. you get half the hitting power, but you can hit from the front and rear
Maker's muse, I just got a 3d printer and I have no clue how to use it. I have seen a video from you about 2 years ago explaining a bit of 3d printing for beginners, however I can't help but feel that a lot has changed in 2 years. I would love for an updated video describing what people new to 3d printing should do when they get a printer, assuming they have the following:
Printer
Mystery PLA (1/4 spool)
Computer
Way to transfer files from computer to printer
no previous knowledge about printing, only a basic understanding on how to start a print.
I think there's a lot of stuff idk about printing with still, but your video helped me a lot. I can now successfully print a benchy, rocktopus, and whistle albeit with probably laughable results compared to what you could get with your setups.
Glad the CAT helped you sketch up the CAD
I have an idea for the wheels. You probably already thought of this, but making the core of the wheel out of a more solid material would help it stay on more, but it could shatter more easily. Either switch the plastics quickly while the part is still hot, or use joinery techniques and simply slip one over the other.
Another option is to continue using that super bendable tpu, but drill a couple holes into the axel and make the wheel fill up those holes as well. Its a more technical design, but if you can somehow manage to create holes so small, you can melt some excess material from the wheel into the hole to create a bot that would rather be smashed to pieces than to lose its wheels!
Edit: try to make the body of your bot conical in shape. Like in mediaeval armour, conical shapes are incredibly good at deflecting attacks. Choose either conical or triangular for the effect. Square is great at form fitting to parts but structurally it isnt the best pick and it prefers to take the most impact it can compared to deflection
I think a thicker base for the wheel fins (i.e. tapered) would significantly increase strength. Also why not cover the super tough forks in the soft, impact absorbing material.
Lastly, why not have rounded sides instead of basically square? The edge is the weak point.