Team Fission Combat Robotics

 All metal has arrived and parts printed, and we just about got in weight (more on that later)! The first important parts to do were: printing the chassis, weapon uprights and front armour. Then, after quite a steep learning curve, we assembled our 1806 conversion drive without much difficulty. We had our first go at casting polyurethane wheels, and they came out really well and feel really grippy. We then had to wait a little for our new metal parts to arrive, and I decided to re-print the wedge with more walls. However, we finally ran out of green TPU! This meant we had to use the black TPU that we had difficulty printing, but after a few setting changes it went perfectly. Once the metal had arrived, it was time for a test weigh in. This unfortunately weighed in as 1.595kg with the heaviest setup (4 forks). Even with just two forks, it was around 55g overweight. This led to us completely redoing the wiring, trying to cut out as much unnecessary wire as possible. I reprinted the w...

This post will document our progress on the second major version of Exposure. Main Upgrades: Custom 1806 conversion drive 3D printed chassis 4s battery Cast polyurethane wheels Double supported weapon motor Invertibility 'horns' Threaded inserts and bolts Less range of motion on the forks  The first thing to do was design the new parts. After a lot of CAD work, this is what it looks like: The anti-horizontal setup has changed to be a single piece TPU wedge with much thicker walls and a shallower angle. The old 22mm brushed motors have been swapped out for 2500kv 1806 brushless motors connected to 19:1 planetary gearboxes. These are powered by BBB AM32 drive ESCs. The new, longer forks have a slotted hole in front of the pivot hole to limit how far they can move up and down. All fasteners on the robot have changed from woodscrews to M4 bolts with threaded inserts, and the wheelguards are held on by M5 bolts and T-nuts reverse mounted in the chassis. The weapon system is very sim...