Moved 2001 News Section

12/31/01- YES! I have Video! It works this time too. Its in .zip format, so you'll need like winzip or pkzip or something, but it works. Also, I have trouble getting realplayer to play videos from my digital camera for some reason, so just open it with widows media or whatever. Also, YES! It works! The Video is of us test driving the bot on a plywood frame I made. The Drive works! Yes! It is a little twitchy at the moment, but we will put some capacitors on the motors and mount the antenna further away, and it will be all good. P.S., that space heater in the video weighs a good 15 lbs, and we stopped it before pushing it so as not to damage it. It did not slow it down like it may look.

12/30/01- Well, we got the drive assemblies back from the guy who was doing the machining for us. Yay. They look great. I got a chance to use my digital camera and posted some pics, so you can take a look under the pics of PFH. I am going to take them over to mikes, and we will mount them to some plywood and do some drive testing. Yay!

No, in all honesty that was just subtefuge. The 12 has a design but I am not going to reveal it untill we get started. The LW has now officialy become a 30 lber, but it is going to be close. We get the drives and weapon mount all done back this weekend, so we can actually practice driving something now! Yay! I will make changes to the LW page soon to show how it has been altered to accomodate 30 lbs. We now have plans for a different LW, but that could be a while in comming, so, untill then, no LW at all. I geuss thats it for now.

11/24/01- Well, something cool has happened! A friend of my mom's husband is a Machinist with a garage machine shop. He said he'd be glad to do some machining for us! Right now he is completing our lightweight's drive system, and we will also have him work on the "frame", and cut up the armor panels. Yeeha! The LW will finaly be finished! Also, Poll Time! We simply cannot agree on our 12 lb. design. We have 2 different ones we'd really like to do. Please visit the above poll, and tell us what you think. Maybe with your help we can agree on a design. Thridly, we have finished the design and partial construction of the ant weight, now we just need to buy more servos, probobly just cheap ones, cause it won't really matter. Thats all for now.

11/14/01- I haven't updated in almost a month! Geeze I must be getting lazy. Well, I have got a couple of fairly major changes instituted here now. I changed up the Quizenbot page to reflect that we never went to the IHXRC, and that we are planning to make some changes. I also added an Archetoothus page for our ant weight. I don't want to tell to much about it right now, so it just has a descriptive paragraph and a pic that I drew all quick like. Also, I added our last comp to the MOTU comp page. Take a look.

10/11/01- We had the next comp. It was a major bust for both sides. Pics of the first are still coming, so keep checking. Pics of the second will be up eventualy. On the plus side, we have decided on a 30 lbs design we are going to build, and put off the LW for a while. Its gonna be cool, i can tell you that. So check out what happend during this weeks MOTU comp.

10/2/01- Well, the stupid scanner won't work with my stupid computer for some stupid reason. So I am gonna take the stupid thing out of my stupid house over to Mike's stupid house and try it on his stupid computer. Anyway, thats why the stupid pics aren't up, but they are still coming. It won't matter come stupid Christmas time cause I am gonna get a stupid digital cammera, and upload all the stupid pictures I want. Also, I have my stupid lego bot ready for the next "MOTU" comp, but Mike has to make a different stupid thing cause his origional design, which used one of our stupid colson wheels just wasn't working out. In case you couldn't tell, things have been sort of stupid over here this week. Oh well, as soon as it goes through, I will have my NERC membership (I wish they'd hurrry up processing it and get me my password.) and I will at that time devote more effort to finishing quizenbot. I have worked up plans for some nice thick hardwood motor mounts that will be plenty strong, plus really hold the armor down well using wood screws. With that, I can finish the thing, since Mike is really busy getting into his new job at Toledo Gear Motor (no, we don't get free motors, or any kind of discount.) I also have plans to draw up a final "TEAM HIGH ROLLER" insignia, and I am gonna have t-shirts made and a banner to put over our pit area at future events. This could be a great way for the teams to get to know eachother at events and I reccomend it to everyone. I can't imagine it costs to much to have a couple a t-shirts screen printed an a plastic 5' banner made up. I'll post the final insignia when I get it done. Keep a lookout for those "MOTU" pics.

9/24/01- Well, The Masters of the Universe comp. is a wrap. We each entered a bot, and you can check out stats (pics coming Friday or Saturday) under The Masters Comp. link. I have also updated the links at the botom of each page so they go to the right spot and added the rest. On the day that I add the Comp pics I will also add a couple of picks of parts of Quizenbot. The comp, as I said, will be weekly or Bi-weekly, so come back often to look at the most recent event. These lego bots do not mean that we have stopped working on the other bots, just that we don't have the ability to at the moment. Next design, something that requires basicly zero machining. Anyhoos, the little comp was cool, and both bots were very functional. Take a look at the page.

9/23/01- Wahoo! Broke a hundred visits! I know most sites celebrate their thousanth or whatever, but since my site draws from a very specific crowd, there are lots more well known sites, and, dispite my fairly often upgrades, can not inform viewers of when the site was last upgraded (Derned Tripod!), I think that is purty good in just about 2 months. Also, for tomorow, Mike and I have built a couple of lego bots we will compete against each other. I will make a new section for the events, including pictures and stats for each of our bots. We will do this biweekly untill we can actully find enough machining time to create a finished bot to go to an event with. You should watch for the new section by the weeks end.

9/11/01- This being my web page, although primarily about battlebots, I thought I would express my ideas about todays events. This ultimatly cowardly act is exactly that. Those responsable should throw themselves off a cliff. Those forigners who seem to be dancing and happy over this should take a step back. The attacks on the world trade center had nothing to do with the U.S. It is just as the name says, World Trade Center. Free trade means you've affected the American Gov't policies and workings very little. All you did was kill complete innocents. Congratulations. I hope Allah has a different view than me, for your sakes. For everybody else, please help in whatever way you can. I reccommend giving to the red cross. It is a good organization. They can be reached at 1-800-GIVE-LIFE (1-800-448-3543) or at www.redcross.org

9/05/01- Well, after a week of me building during my only free time after work for 3 hours a night, and Mike attempting to complete the machining at work, we unfortunatly will be unable to complete the 12 lb'er for IHXRC. I would have completed the frame and armor, (for which I used a hack saw and an electric drill), but the more advanced machining, which was to be done by Mike at work, could not be completed in time. So we canceled our hotel reservations and will not be going. Thats alright though. It'll give us more time to complete it better and we can show up at another event, whenever the next one is. So anyway, don't expect to see us at IHXRC, but Quizenbot is very much still an active project, even if I have to take it over and complete it all myself.

8/23/01 - Well, I just redownloaded Trellix, and moved my website to my computer, so expect more frequent updates again. Project Fish Hucker is just waiting to be machined. We did some tests with the saw and put a quarter through a wall! Yah! Anyway, about 4 days now and we can hopefully get some machining time. We have decided on our next bot, which will be a middleweight, but thats all I will tell you about that one. Its top secret. Anyways, thats about all. Remember, I always appreciate feedback on the site. Let me know how you think I could earn a noteworthy site ranking from Jim Smetkowski, since I can't figure out why I don't have one already.

8/09/01 - Nothing much to report right now. All I am doing mostly is testing my coding skills. Seems that that computer I fixed before is still acting like a goof, so for now I am stuck with coding for doing my updates. Anyhoo, one thing to report is the material that we plan to use to shock mount our electronics has been collected. We are using the bouancy pads from a Type 3 personal flotation device, also known as a ski-vest. I taped an egg to one of the pads and dropped it from a good 8 feet up onto cement, not one crack. Try doin' that with a cut up mouse pad and see what happens. So thats all good. In about 18 days we should be able to start work again, and the bot should be complete about a month after that. Thats about it for now.

7/14/01 - Well, the bot seems to be holding at a standstill at the moment, although we have devised a true frame after witnessing the awsome power of the pulverizers on Teusday. That was undoubtedly the best show ever. Nightmare ils god of the all destructive robots, with Toro in a close second. In sight news, I have added a counter to the front page, and a video to the pics and video section. (Yahoo! Movin' pictures!)

7/07/01 - Sorry for the huge delay. The computer that I had Trellix Web Builder on went on the fritz, and I just fixed it myself. Anyways, there wasn't that much to report anyhow. We have thought of quite a few new designs, and purchased the bolts that we will machine into our drive shafts, but thats about it. The bolts are grade 8 steel. So now we have 6160 Aircraft aluminum and Grade 8 steel. Boy, we only get the best when it comes to metals huh? Well, we ain't gonna be broken by nobody.We had a great forth and lit off 130 and some odd mortar shells. Boy, I go all out don't I. Plus, my uncle got a couple of actual quarter sticks. Not those fake silver kind that aren't actualy even dinamite, But real, unmarked big old cardboard tubes, that blow sand in your face when they are planted in a beach a good 45 feet away. Dang it, they were freaking loud. Also, we have to get 1 other gear to make out chain fit just right. We need a 20 tooth. Which, when put with our 12 tooth will give us a 1 and 2/3 to 1 gear ratio, or 80.215 MPH. (P.S. if anybody knows how to work out the force transfer for a certian weight at a certian speed coming to a dead stop, let me know.)

6/18/01 - Our gears and chain for the saw have arrived, in addition to another set of batteries. Thats 3 sets now. We are going down to Murray's auto parts soon to look at solenoids and find out exactly what we need. Mike has an uncle that works at a place that refurbishes and tunes old medical scales, which are exact, as opposed to bathroom scales. So we may be able to get one of those real cheap. That would be good for weighing up to a Heavy weight, and some of them could even be used for a super heavy weight. But that is sort of a long shot. Anyways, I am very depressed because our bot has taken up so much of my money, that my funds for fourth of July fireworks are lacking this year. I ussualy spend abou $250, but this year can only spend $150. Thats all.

6/14/01 - Worked a littlebit on my antweight bot THR Mangulator 3.0, which I would just name, The Mangulator, except that Team Delta already has a bot by that name trademarked, besides the fact that it is the third form of the design. I gashed my had open on the saw blade it sports pretty bad, you can take a look at it in the pics section.

6/12/01 - Well, Mike was a goof and played around with the saw yesterday. He didn't have it locked down tightly and one of the bearings came loose, the saw tilted sideways and smacked the aluminum support arms. He was running it by a rubber band on the shafts which put it at about a 1.15 / 1 gear ratio, or 115 MPH. It put some pretty good sized gouges in the aluminum arms before the power slipped off. If not, we may have had to make Mike some new arms. At any rate, it shows what goofs we are. We kinda forgot what force about 4 lbs of blade, gears, and chains spinning at 115 MPH puts out when it comes to a dead stop suddenly. Rather than a dead lift of 40 lbs, we can do a force transfer lift of about 400 lbs and our motor will spin back up very quickly. So we have now decided to go with about a 2 / 1 gear ratio, which puts us at 3100 RPM or 67 MPH, although we may change that up a little bit too, for faster. But that proves the cutting power of the saw, plus the throwing power, as we launched some stuff (such as a quarter that we still cannot find). We are also making the secondary weapon adaptable to carry either a cutoff wheel or the cam-spike, depending on whom we are facing. We've pretty much proven our power to be ample since we have been testing things on the same batteries since we got them and only given them each about a 1/2 hour charging period, and they are still going strong. Of course, we have 3 sets, so it wouldn't matter if they did run out a little faster, but no reason not to have 10 Ampers.

6/11/01 - I've added links to the bottom of each page to aid navigation. We've scrapped the idea of a conventional frame, as it it just to much trouble to add at this point, and we are pretty sure it wouldn't be anything to worry about anyway. However, we will be doubling up on our side armor, and possibly top too, depending. We don't have an actual good scale to weight with, but we've added up all the component weights we could find and geussed on the rest, to put us at about 45 lbs. The drive shaft lengths are cut and Mike is going to mill them at work probobly sometime this week. We will then assemble the drives and make a test frame to see how it runs. Work still to be done - Drive shafts, Caster Mounts, Weapon gears, cam, tool steel spike, Floating Vantec supports, Electronics box, Cut and weld armor, Top Battery mount. Still to be purchased - Solenoid (actual will come free), Hinge. Were really a lot closer than it sounds. I am expecting to be finished by late June.

6/07/01 - I am back from my surgery, thank god. We got some odd gears off of our motors, so the drive system will be easier. An order screw up got fixed, so we can now get the last of our parts. And I bought some film and fresh batteries for my camera, so expect to see some photos up soon. The event has taken place. I couldn't be there, but my predictions were right. About 200 no shows. Everybody waiting on parts they were sure they would get, or couldn't scrounge up the funds to go I guess. Anyways, I see way to many lame, uninventive bots anyways. To many wedges and spinners. At least do something semi new. Oh well, if you look at the pictures on Jim Smetkowski's site, I'm sure you'll agree. My money is sitll on the old boys.

5/21/01 - Project Fish Hucker is coming along nicely, the drive axles are almost done. The main and secondary weapon assemblies are done. All we really need to finish here are the electronics holders and cut up the body panels. Also, this page won't be updated for a few weeks as I am going to California for surgery. I'll update as soon as I get back though.


	2001 News! 12/31/01- YES! I have Video! It works this time too. Its in .zip format, so you'll need like winzip or pkzip or something, but it works. Also, I have trouble getting realplayer to play videos from my digital camera for some reason, so just open it with widows media or whatever. Also, YES! It works! The Video is of us test driving the bot on a plywood frame I made. The Drive works! Yes! It is a little twitchy at the moment, but we will put some capacitors on the motors and mount the antenna further away, and it will be all good. P.S., that space heater in the video weighs a good 15 lbs, and we stopped it before pushing it so as not to damage it. It did not slow it down like it may look. 12/30/01- Well, we got the drive assemblies back from the guy who was doing the machining for us. Yay. They look great. I got a chance to use my digital camera and posted some pics, so you can take a look under the pics of PFH. I am going to take them over to mikes, and we will mount them to some plywood and do some drive testing. Yay! 12/25/01- Merry Christmas! This Christmas we should remember the true meaning. Giving. I give to you a promise of destruction in the year to come. Also, I got a digital camera, so I promise pictures too. Yay! 12/20/01- Ha Ha! The poll was moot. We know what we are doing for a 12 lber, and it isn't either of those! HA! Fooled you! No, in all honesty that was just subtefuge. The 12 has a design but I am not going to reveal it untill we get started. The LW has now officialy become a 30 lber, but it is going to be close. We get the drives and weapon mount all done back this weekend, so we can actually practice driving something now! Yay! I will make changes to the LW page soon to show how it has been altered to accomodate 30 lbs. We now have plans for a different LW, but that could be a while in comming, so, untill then, no LW at all. I geuss thats it for now. 11/24/01- Well, something cool has happened! A friend of my mom's husband is a Machinist with a garage machine shop. He said he'd be glad to do some machining for us! Right now he is completing our lightweight's drive system, and we will also have him work on the "frame", and cut up the armor panels. Yeeha! The LW will finaly be finished! Also, Poll Time! We simply cannot agree on our 12 lb. design. We have 2 different ones we'd really like to do. Please visit the above poll, and tell us what you think. Maybe with your help we can agree on a design. Thridly, we have finished the design and partial construction of the ant weight, now we just need to buy more servos, probobly just cheap ones, cause it won't really matter. Thats all for now. 11/14/01- I haven't updated in almost a month! Geeze I must be getting lazy. Well, I have got a couple of fairly major changes instituted here now. I changed up the Quizenbot page to reflect that we never went to the IHXRC, and that we are planning to make some changes. I also added an Archetoothus page for our ant weight. I don't want to tell to much about it right now, so it just has a descriptive paragraph and a pic that I drew all quick like. Also, I added our last comp to the MOTU comp page. Take a look. 10/18/01- There, I finally added pics of our first fight, as well as a pick of Quizenbot. Are ya happy? 10/11/01- We had the next comp. It was a major bust for both sides. Pics of the first are still coming, so keep checking. Pics of the second will be up eventualy. On the plus side, we have decided on a 30 lbs design we are going to build, and put off the LW for a while. Its gonna be cool, i can tell you that. So check out what happend during this weeks MOTU comp. 10/2/01- Well, the stupid scanner won't work with my stupid computer for some stupid reason. So I am gonna take the stupid thing out of my stupid house over to Mike's stupid house and try it on his stupid computer. Anyway, thats why the stupid pics aren't up, but they are still coming. It won't matter come stupid Christmas time cause I am gonna get a stupid digital cammera, and upload all the stupid pictures I want. Also, I have my stupid lego bot ready for the next "MOTU" comp, but Mike has to make a different stupid thing cause his origional design, which used one of our stupid colson wheels just wasn't working out. In case you couldn't tell, things have been sort of stupid over here this week. Oh well, as soon as it goes through, I will have my NERC membership (I wish they'd hurrry up processing it and get me my password.) and I will at that time devote more effort to finishing quizenbot. I have worked up plans for some nice thick hardwood motor mounts that will be plenty strong, plus really hold the armor down well using wood screws. With that, I can finish the thing, since Mike is really busy getting into his new job at Toledo Gear Motor (no, we don't get free motors, or any kind of discount.) I also have plans to draw up a final "TEAM HIGH ROLLER" insignia, and I am gonna have t-shirts made and a banner to put over our pit area at future events. This could be a great way for the teams to get to know eachother at events and I reccomend it to everyone. I can't imagine it costs to much to have a couple a t-shirts screen printed an a plastic 5' banner made up. I'll post the final insignia when I get it done. Keep a lookout for those "MOTU" pics. 9/26/01- Just a little change on the format of the Masters page, and I added the link of the NERC to the links page. Oh yeah, I am now a member of the NERC, so all you current Robot Conflict competitiors, watch out. There's a rabid monkey behind you. (Inside joke from an old Starcraft game) 9/24/01- Well, The Masters of the Universe comp. is a wrap. We each entered a bot, and you can check out stats (pics coming Friday or Saturday) under The Masters Comp. link. I have also updated the links at the botom of each page so they go to the right spot and added the rest. On the day that I add the Comp pics I will also add a couple of picks of parts of Quizenbot. The comp, as I said, will be weekly or Bi-weekly, so come back often to look at the most recent event. These lego bots do not mean that we have stopped working on the other bots, just that we don't have the ability to at the moment. Next design, something that requires basicly zero machining. Anyhoos, the little comp was cool, and both bots were very functional. Take a look at the page. 9/23/01- Wahoo! Broke a hundred visits! I know most sites celebrate their thousanth or whatever, but since my site draws from a very specific crowd, there are lots more well known sites, and, dispite my fairly often upgrades, can not inform viewers of when the site was last upgraded (Derned Tripod!), I think that is purty good in just about 2 months. Also, for tomorow, Mike and I have built a couple of lego bots we will compete against each other. I will make a new section for the events, including pictures and stats for each of our bots. We will do this biweekly untill we can actully find enough machining time to create a finished bot to go to an event with. You should watch for the new section by the weeks end. 9/11/01- This being my web page, although primarily about battlebots, I thought I would express my ideas about todays events. This ultimatly cowardly act is exactly that. Those responsable should throw themselves off a cliff. Those forigners who seem to be dancing and happy over this should take a step back. The attacks on the world trade center had nothing to do with the U.S. It is just as the name says, World Trade Center. Free trade means you've affected the American Gov't policies and workings very little. All you did was kill complete innocents. Congratulations. I hope Allah has a different view than me, for your sakes. For everybody else, please help in whatever way you can. I reccommend giving to the red cross. It is a good organization. They can be reached at 1-800-GIVE-LIFE (1-800-448-3543) or at www.redcross.org 9/05/01- Well, after a week of me building during my only free time after work for 3 hours a night, and Mike attempting to complete the machining at work, we unfortunatly will be unable to complete the 12 lb'er for IHXRC. I would have completed the frame and armor, (for which I used a hack saw and an electric drill), but the more advanced machining, which was to be done by Mike at work, could not be completed in time. So we canceled our hotel reservations and will not be going. Thats alright though. It'll give us more time to complete it better and we can show up at another event, whenever the next one is. So anyway, don't expect to see us at IHXRC, but Quizenbot is very much still an active project, even if I have to take it over and complete it all myself. 8/31/01 - We, being we, have decided at the last moment to enter a bot in the IHXRC 01' Robot Conflict event in the 12 lb class. So, I put basic stats for it, although it is barely started, in a bots page and revamped the setup of "The Bots" and "The Pics" to reflect having more than 1 bot. Thats about it for now. 8/23/01 - Well, I just redownloaded Trellix, and moved my website to my computer, so expect more frequent updates again. Project Fish Hucker is just waiting to be machined. We did some tests with the saw and put a quarter through a wall! Yah! Anyway, about 4 days now and we can hopefully get some machining time. We have decided on our next bot, which will be a middleweight, but thats all I will tell you about that one. Its top secret. Anyways, thats about all. Remember, I always appreciate feedback on the site. Let me know how you think I could earn a noteworthy site ranking from Jim Smetkowski, since I can't figure out why I don't have one already. 8/09/01 - Nothing much to report right now. All I am doing mostly is testing my coding skills. Seems that that computer I fixed before is still acting like a goof, so for now I am stuck with coding for doing my updates. Anyhoo, one thing to report is the material that we plan to use to shock mount our electronics has been collected. We are using the bouancy pads from a Type 3 personal flotation device, also known as a ski-vest. I taped an egg to one of the pads and dropped it from a good 8 feet up onto cement, not one crack. Try doin' that with a cut up mouse pad and see what happens. So thats all good. In about 18 days we should be able to start work again, and the bot should be complete about a month after that. Thats about it for now. 7/14/01 - Well, the bot seems to be holding at a standstill at the moment, although we have devised a true frame after witnessing the awsome power of the pulverizers on Teusday. That was undoubtedly the best show ever. Nightmare ils god of the all destructive robots, with Toro in a close second. In sight news, I have added a counter to the front page, and a video to the pics and video section. (Yahoo! Movin' pictures!) 7/07/01 - Sorry for the huge delay. The computer that I had Trellix Web Builder on went on the fritz, and I just fixed it myself. Anyways, there wasn't that much to report anyhow. We have thought of quite a few new designs, and purchased the bolts that we will machine into our drive shafts, but thats about it. The bolts are grade 8 steel. So now we have 6160 Aircraft aluminum and Grade 8 steel. Boy, we only get the best when it comes to metals huh? Well, we ain't gonna be broken by nobody.We had a great forth and lit off 130 and some odd mortar shells. Boy, I go all out don't I. Plus, my uncle got a couple of actual quarter sticks. Not those fake silver kind that aren't actualy even dinamite, But real, unmarked big old cardboard tubes, that blow sand in your face when they are planted in a beach a good 45 feet away. Dang it, they were freaking loud. Also, we have to get 1 other gear to make out chain fit just right. We need a 20 tooth. Which, when put with our 12 tooth will give us a 1 and 2/3 to 1 gear ratio, or 80.215 MPH. (P.S. if anybody knows how to work out the force transfer for a certian weight at a certian speed coming to a dead stop, let me know.) 6/18/01 - Our gears and chain for the saw have arrived, in addition to another set of batteries. Thats 3 sets now. We are going down to Murray's auto parts soon to look at solenoids and find out exactly what we need. Mike has an uncle that works at a place that refurbishes and tunes old medical scales, which are exact, as opposed to bathroom scales. So we may be able to get one of those real cheap. That would be good for weighing up to a Heavy weight, and some of them could even be used for a super heavy weight. But that is sort of a long shot. Anyways, I am very depressed because our bot has taken up so much of my money, that my funds for fourth of July fireworks are lacking this year. I ussualy spend abou $250, but this year can only spend $150. Thats all. 6/14/01 - Worked a littlebit on my antweight bot THR Mangulator 3.0, which I would just name, The Mangulator, except that Team Delta already has a bot by that name trademarked, besides the fact that it is the third form of the design. I gashed my had open on the saw blade it sports pretty bad, you can take a look at it in the pics section. 6/13/01 - Talked about different designs today. Tested the cutoff wheel a little bit, and it threw quite a few sparks. There is an update in the bots section, which tells the name of our new design phase SHW. 6/12/01 - Well, Mike was a goof and played around with the saw yesterday. He didn't have it locked down tightly and one of the bearings came loose, the saw tilted sideways and smacked the aluminum support arms. He was running it by a rubber band on the shafts which put it at about a 1.15 / 1 gear ratio, or 115 MPH. It put some pretty good sized gouges in the aluminum arms before the power slipped off. If not, we may have had to make Mike some new arms. At any rate, it shows what goofs we are. We kinda forgot what force about 4 lbs of blade, gears, and chains spinning at 115 MPH puts out when it comes to a dead stop suddenly. Rather than a dead lift of 40 lbs, we can do a force transfer lift of about 400 lbs and our motor will spin back up very quickly. So we have now decided to go with about a 2 / 1 gear ratio, which puts us at 3100 RPM or 67 MPH, although we may change that up a little bit too, for faster. But that proves the cutting power of the saw, plus the throwing power, as we launched some stuff (such as a quarter that we still cannot find). We are also making the secondary weapon adaptable to carry either a cutoff wheel or the cam-spike, depending on whom we are facing. We've pretty much proven our power to be ample since we have been testing things on the same batteries since we got them and only given them each about a 1/2 hour charging period, and they are still going strong. Of course, we have 3 sets, so it wouldn't matter if they did run out a little faster, but no reason not to have 10 Ampers. 6/11/01 - I've added links to the bottom of each page to aid navigation. We've scrapped the idea of a conventional frame, as it it just to much trouble to add at this point, and we are pretty sure it wouldn't be anything to worry about anyway. However, we will be doubling up on our side armor, and possibly top too, depending. We don't have an actual good scale to weight with, but we've added up all the component weights we could find and geussed on the rest, to put us at about 45 lbs. The drive shaft lengths are cut and Mike is going to mill them at work probobly sometime this week. We will then assemble the drives and make a test frame to see how it runs. Work still to be done - Drive shafts, Caster Mounts, Weapon gears, cam, tool steel spike, Floating Vantec supports, Electronics box, Cut and weld armor, Top Battery mount. Still to be purchased - Solenoid (actual will come free), Hinge. Were really a lot closer than it sounds. I am expecting to be finished by late June. 6/09/01 - The Pics Gallery is up as well as pics of our beutiful visages in the team section. Check out some of the parts of our bot. 6/07/01 - I am back from my surgery, thank god. We got some odd gears off of our motors, so the drive system will be easier. An order screw up got fixed, so we can now get the last of our parts. And I bought some film and fresh batteries for my camera, so expect to see some photos up soon. The event has taken place. I couldn't be there, but my predictions were right. About 200 no shows. Everybody waiting on parts they were sure they would get, or couldn't scrounge up the funds to go I guess. Anyways, I see way to many lame, uninventive bots anyways. To many wedges and spinners. At least do something semi new. Oh well, if you look at the pictures on Jim Smetkowski's site, I'm sure you'll agree. My money is sitll on the old boys. 5/21/01 - Project Fish Hucker is coming along nicely, the drive axles are almost done. The main and secondary weapon assemblies are done. All we really need to finish here are the electronics holders and cut up the body panels. Also, this page won't be updated for a few weeks as I am going to California for surgery. I'll update as soon as I get back though. Webcam Home \| The Bots \| The Team \| The Ideas \| The Links \| The News \| The How To \| The Legal I Events \| Our Sponsors \| Progress Reports \|