10/11/01 Comp
Bot Name
|
Shminion
|
Arachnatron
|
Outcome
|
Miserable
|
Miserable
|
Weight
|
2lb. 11oz.
|
3lb.
|
Power
|
9.6V Hobby battery & 9V
Alkaline for weapon
|
7.2V hobby battery
|
Drive
|
1 large lego motor in 1/1 Gearing
|
2 small lego motors reduced majorly
|
Drive Power
|
Less
|
More
|
Speed
|
More
|
Less
|
Design
|
Hinged & Body wedge with rear mounted spinning weapon
|
8 wheeled power beast with spring loaded gaff hook.
|
We held this comp despite it being a month after the fact, ( I belive we all know 'the fact'), and I think it was a good way to get back to normal. Originaly Mike had designed King Koopa, to folow Super Mario-Tron. It was merely a larger version of it. But for some reason, it had no traction at all. So, after a brief stint trying to implement one of our 6" colson wheels into a lego bot, he settled on this beastly design. It employed 6 rear wheels, 3 to a side, that could piviot with an uneven landscape, and a rack and pinion steering system. The gaff hook was mounted on springs and a pnumatic cylander which allowed it to move up, then come back down and grab hold of a corner or edge. It looked awsome.
My bot all spawned from the motor out of a hairdryer. Despite the fact that I knew it was A/C when I tore it appart, at one time or another, something possed me to touch the leads to a 9V battery. Low and behold, it worked. It is obviously the right type of series wound motor to run A/C or D/C. I at first attempted to turn this into an actual lego spinner, but, because of the weirdness of the fan, which will not come off, this came to no avail. So then I looked at ways to use as is, and ended up building a Minion replica. I wonder what Christian Carlberg would think. The wedge won't get under a piece of paper, but it'll come darned close. The dryer motor is non reversible, otherwise I would have it spin the other way. The switch that I used, by the way, is off the hairdryer as well.
The fight was a great experiment in failure. Under perfect circumstances, when the batteries were 100% fully charged, and we were running on our own optimum surfaces, they worked alright, but the event was a comedy of drive shortcomings. My drive could move it in forward ok, but in reverse, the speed control won't let it get full power and it almost didn't move at all, not to mention that my steering broke off part way through. Mikes had enough power, but was so slow, in reverse, I couldn't actually tell it was moving at all. Plus, he didn't have enough weight over his steering wheels, so he could barely turn. The weapons did each manage to make contact. Mine sounded all cool, but did basicly nothing. Mike's couldn't get a grip anywhere on my bot. Anyways, we learned an important fact. When it comes to lego bots weight, less is more.
Pics coming eventualy.
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