Can 3D Printed TOOL STEEL survive robot combat? Rebuilding Obliterator.

Thanks to PCBWay for sponsoring this video! Get $5 of New User Free Credit by following this link - pcbway.com/g/00BiCQ
James' 3 part series on Derive - • Derive Featherweight
Australian Robowars Nationals 2024 | All Fights - • Australian Robowars Na...
The Ultimate Book of 3D Printing Tips and Tricks (FDM/FFF) - www.makersmuse.com/3dprinting...
Join the Maker's Muse Community - www.makersmuse.com/maker-s-mu...
3D Printing Quick Start Guide - www.makersmuse.com/fdm-fff-3d...
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 This is obliterator.
0:58 What are featherweight combat robots?
2:00 Tip speed changes
4:00 Modifying the weapon system
6:01 First spin-up
6:58 Second spin-up
7:42 Electrical issues :(
8:46 Obliterator vs Bender
9:26 Carnage
10:20 Semi final fight
11:44 Did the 3D Printed gear survive?!
13:36 Conclusion and thanks

[@BlueGreenRobotics]

I didnt realise at the event you had the 3d printed gear, held up great by the looks of it. Very happy that i got that slowmo shot of the motor ejecting itself from the bot and the fire, makes for a fantastic highlight

[@MakersMuse]

So thankful for all the footage dude! That slow mo was so funny, I had NO clue it had happened until after the fight lol

[@DarrylAdams]

I love how Angus found a way to make his robot wars hobby taxt deductable *and* sponsored!

[@MakersMuse]

Hehe KZbin does have its perks sometimes!

[@zyeborm]

Obliterator hits *hard*. Against NC a few years ago he hit the back corner so hard that in one hit he punched though 2 pieces of 6mm bis400 angled at about 45 degrees. He pushed the corner in about 15mm and cut out about a 1/2 inch cubed chunk of steel in one hit. It's the only robot to make a hole in NC in a decade of competing. For those outside the scene NC has won 3 championships from memory and placed in a few more. Great to see Obliterator in good hands. Hope to face it again in the future ;-)

[@MakersMuse]

The rematch needs to happen! :P

[@Loebane]

Nc?

[@zyeborm]

@@Loebane My robot, called NC for Not Cobra. Cobra was another of glens robots that I was inspired by for the build. It is probably one of the oldest bots in the competition these days. On par with bender and some of the other artful robots Garry from victoria made. Well, except in the "artful" department. NC is just a wedge made of one piece of welded steel for the shell and some high powered drive motors. It wins competitions by not dying and bouncing other robot off the arena walls. It ran for a decade with nothing much more than cosmetic damage. Obliterator very nearly obliterated it ;-)

[@Unmannedair]

Or, you could nerf it in the software... Motor controllers can regulate RPM... So buy having the weapon be overpowered, it can reach Max operating RPM quickly without going over.

[@Loebane]

@@zyeborm awesome thanks for sharing

[@chuckthetekkie]

I love how you don't just cover 3D Printing stuff but you do other stuff like robotics and use 3D printer stuff in them.

[@Wizarth]

I'm really impressed with the quality of the part. That level of metal printing being available so readily is going to be really useful for a lot of small/hobbyist projects.

[@PCBWay]

Great work, absolutely insane!!!

[@uzidore]

No likes and no comments, let me fix that

[@MakersMuse]

Metal 3D Printing made it happen :D

[@andybrice2711]

I like Angus' sporting attitude when his creation gets brutally damaged and he's just like _"Haha! Good show."_

[@The_1ntern3t]

I do this with racing/FPV drones - they're meant to be flown, crashed and then rebuilt! The absolute carnage that sometimes happens is part of the hobby 😂

[@thenextlayer]

PHENOMENAL video Angus. This is why you have 1 million well-deserved followers. Just phenomenally entertaining and educational. Bravo.

[@highenergyfailures]

Those receivers the MT12 came with are FrSky D8/D16. Something I had to dig for because it nearly screwed me over at an event was FrSky D8 does not failsafe but D16 mode does. That's why it didn't failsafe.

[@MakersMuse]

That's maddening, thanks for the info! I'll have a play with it, safely removed from the bot...

[@cavinrauch]

So great seeing you release more videos on combat robots! Sure the reason I first came to your channel was for printing but it's so inspiring to see the robotics side of your knowledge as well! At the end of the day your channel has always been about the processes of creating things, using various tools and I love that you could cover the 3D printed tool steel the way you did!

[@u9Nails]

That was awesome! Will this be something that you might share more frequently?

[@MakersMuse]

We only do the competitions a few times a year, but I'll definitely be covering my builds when I do them yes :)

[@TeamPanicRobotics]

Wow! that held up surprisingly well for a printed part, even with it being tool steel I would have expected at least one cracked tooth Looks like the event was a lot of fun, shame I couldn't make it, hopefully next year

[@gtdgabriste1]

We are looking forward to seeing that duel undercutter meltybrain with squeaky hammers you made from an ssp kit 😂 . In all seriousness I would love to see Annie fight Derive. Dunno if those forks would last long against her... do you have an 30lb Annie?

[@MakersMuse]

It was a blast, if a bit stressful haha. Hopefully see you at March sportsmans?

[@punishedprops]

Obliterator is so cool! Those were some exciting fights, for sure! =D

[@zero_gravity5861]

saw this on broken link’s channel before, very entertaining, much edu-tainment

[@clonkex]

11:45 ooooo that gyro stabilisation from the weapon looks awesome!

[@quinnobi42]

With the tip speed limitation, the obvious course of action (at least to me) is to optimize for spin up time.

[@MakersMuse]

Absolutely, it's why I wanted to use the original motor initially - but the geared outrunner still spun up fairly quickly (I left a 2second ramp in the controller to prevent some shock loading).

[@pancakelegend]

I watched the Derive event video yesterday. He's both a great driver and engineer. An earned victory and a worthy champ.

[@kaz49]

I love how things that spin fast just naturally end up sounding like a plane taking off

[@MakeItWithCalvin]

That's incredible how well the geartrain handled the impacts, including the 3D-printed gear assembly! If it broke after the second fight, that would have been impressive but the fact that it handled all that and was ready for more is absolutely amazing. It is nice seeing commercial services offering more "engineering grade" materials that may not be cheap, but it is still way cheaper than having a machine shop produce them!

[@clonkex]

Always feels kind of surreal when a big KZbinr shows a place I've been to (that road from Sydney to Newcastle). I live at the very top of NSW so I don't go to Sydney often but I've been there enough that the road is quite familiar. Maybe also because I was there in the few days before Christmas.

[@collincutler4992]

It's absolutely amazing to me that something SO small can produce so much destructive force.

[@Murgoh]

The blade is very heavy and spins fast so there's a lot of stored kinetic energy which will all be released on the target upon contact so yes, the momentary force is huge. Of course it will lose a lot of that energy when hitting something and needs the motor to "recharge" the weapon for several seconds before the next strike, it's not like it can do a continuous "cut", that would require a lot more power than can be fitted into the weight limit.

[@Splarkszter]

Yeah. The concept is like a flywheel.

[@sierraecho884]

Oh boy you should see my ex Gf then xD

[@kz.irudimen]

Wait til you hear about guns or hand grenades

[@sierraecho884]

@@kz.irudimen Guns and nades ? That´s nothing, chemical energy, wait til you hear about electromagnetic weapons like rail guns and gauss rifles.

[@hazonku]

What an absolutely great showing! Glad to see Obliterator found a wonderful new home and did really well!

[@ezruarn]

Use a double sided weapon and that way you will double the amount of hits and you will also get a balance like Gyrox. The more symmetry there is, the more stable a robot will be

[@stephenthompson9722]

Great choice of narrative pivoting around the 3d printed gear!

[@RexusKing]

I didn't watch much combat robots before, but for the first time, when I saw James controlling the robot I can tell he's very good at controlling it!! He almost never let your spinner face his robot.

[@MakersMuse]

Yeah he's a master at the controls, it's really annoying! haha

[@ameliabuns4058]

always lube your gears! sorry I'm obsessed with lubrication :P this is really cool! I'm looking for an excuse to order printed metal, but I doubt I can afford it either way tbh!

[@Murgoh]

Nice to see metal printing is starting to achieve really useful accuracy and surface quality. What is the cost of something like that, is it cheaper to print it than CNC-machine it?

[@artursmihelsons415]

Amazing, that 3D printed part withstand robot battle! 👍 Obliterator lost battle, but in spectacular way, spitting out his drive motor and catching fire..

[@Jawst]

I like the idea of using a the weapons as gyroscopes

[@slightlyevilrobotics4271]

Aww man, was hoping you'd show more of our fight - I know you were having drive issues, but you still did some major damage!

[@TheBlackEventorizon]

I remember when it was Decimator (Unless this is a rebuild/upgrade/new version) - Came to the UK and ended one of our robots for the entire event in one hit... Shame it was also 10 seconds into our first fight.

[@drpipe]

Brilliant video, great sportsmanship 👌🏻

[@woollvin]

I really enjoyed your video and love Obliterator! We used to use the Aria 70A ESCs on our bot. They initially looked good in the test box, but they cut out in every fight we used them. We did some exhaustive testing on them in the test box and decided they just couldn't be trusted. Telemetry showed they didn't cutout due to over current or over temp - it was a mystery. We were using blheli, and I know you are using AM32, so your experience may be different.

[@MakersMuse]

Someone else at the event was using the aria 70a's on 8 cells and had no problems (!) so I wonder if it was just a bad batch?? For me, the little voltage reg and diode blew. Maybe from the braking setting, but as yet it's also a mystery. Annoying.

[@woollvin]

We also used braking. A bad regulator could be our problem too.

[@cadbuildflyrc3784]

A few years ago, I had never heard of 3D printing, now I can not live without it.

[@tonycosta3302]

Has anyone tried defeating that kind of bot with the garments used to protect you from chain saw injuries? It shreds and strings bind up rotating mechanisms.

[@deltaangelfire]

ropes, nets, entanglement weapons etc are typically forbidden in all forms of robot combat for precisely that reason.

[@MakersMuse]

yeah anything that intentionally entangles isn't allowed, but bots often get hung up on shrapnel... Happened to me several times, need more ground clearance!

[@clonkex]

@@MakersMuse Hmm, but ground clearance makes it easier for the flip-you-over type bots to get you, so I guess there's a tradeoff

[@RathOX]

This was awesome!

[@SidneyCritic]

I don't think vacating the room is going to help if you don't have brick walls - lol -. I would weld up a 6-8mm steel box to spin that up in. Vertical spinners have the advantage because they are pressed to the floor in an impact, while horizontal spinners take a lot of shock load in an impact.

[@MakersMuse]

Heh yeah definitely behind brick! Drywall won't save you

[@benclimo461]

Even if it did let lose there looked to be so much equipment around that would have been destroyed.

[@AdmiralTymothysLootChest]

I've been a fan of BattleBots ever since the 2000's, and when they brought it back in 2016 I was stoked. I've always wanted to build my own combat robot and compete. It takes a lot of skills that I don't currently possess but would love to learn. PLEASE keep making combat robot videos 🙏

[@101rotarypower]

Would like to see Angus do interviews and commentate on Battle Bots, think he has the perfect personality, enthusiasm, and charisma to bridge the gap between technical aspects/people and the entertainment side!

[@1brandonson]

I’m happy to see you showing off your still relevant battle bot skills !

[@kennethbeal]

That was fun, thank you!

[@EthanEves]

Keeping the mass, or even increasing it (since with a larger pulley, you should get more torque) on the weapon/blade, while reducing the length of it should buy you some reduced tip speed.

[@GreenAppelPie]

It sounds like an awesome community!

[@jonmayer]

That self ejecting motor is hilarious and awesome.

[@DavidGetchel]

So cool! Makes me want to get into the hobby

[@gtdgabriste1]

Thank you for bringing back combat robots to the channel. I'll second your recommendation to check out the broken link channel. His design videos are [chef's kiss], and most of his designs are downloadable so you can see how he thinks and play with his designs. Ive already 3d printed and assembled working 150g versions of derive and subdivide. Amazing channel and it deserves way more subs than it has.

[@MakersMuse]

Yeah James has made some amazing bots !

[@arghjayem]

Obliterator seems basically like an upscaled featherweight version of an ant weight robot called Cheesecake! Both are great designs!

[@DevinSloan]

Now THIS is what I'm here to see. Great video.

[@narfynerfy]

I had a really smart idea for Pancake. Maybe build a second version or entire new robot with the same concept but with no wheels. Only using bristle drive cause its weapon is so powerful. Kinda like Depth Charge from NHRL. Anyways have an amazing day and stay battling folks From A Fan NerfFan007 (Team Nerfybotics)

[@Dangineering]

I live for your combat robot videos. I had no idea 3D printed metal components were actually somewhat affordable.

[@noanyobiseniss7462]

Whats the hardness of that s7 drawn back too?

[@kykyryky5013]

The different motor size can be solved by using hypoid gear with offset and you don't have to use additional gear (so higher efficiency, less weight, less components)

[@lgfrbcsgo]

@JoshuaBardwell has a video on how to set up ELRS PWM receivers for ground vehicles. He also explains how to set up the failsafe properly.

[@evolutionxone]

What did the printed gear price out at? Not

[@armandoa2484]

I don’t care that Obliterator didn’t win. It was putting up a great fight till the end! Great job Mr Angus! I really love your videos, always something to learn from and very inspiring as well as entertaining 😊

[@derinteriors]

17-4PH might be a better choice for the gear train. 3D printed 17-4PH is available. The benefit is that you can heat treat it to 1300Mpa

[@Brute4rce1111]

Damn James is one hell of a driver!

[@theend7449]

What heat treatment options exisist for that tool steel? Or is that somthing done in post processing before the part is shipped?

[@rcmaniac25]

In one word: Metal!

[@imthedentist]

Onather thing to add to the ever growing bucket list

[@GeeShocker]

Interesting to see, the MT12 seems to shows up everywhere.

[@MakersMuse]

It's the first pistol radio with edgetx so it's pretty exciting, but definitely not perfect!

[@GeeShocker]

@@MakersMuse yes, i have to dig into the EdgeTX thing. I got the MT12 because of ELRS, 16(32) channels and the hope i can re-use as many of my old recievers as possible, with the 4in1 module.

[@JessWLStuart]

Fun video!

[@rjmunt]

11:29 Looks strikingly similar to the Terminator's salvaged CPU.

[@arronfitzsimmons2303]

Hey Angus. I'm in Sydney. Any places you recommend to check out for combat robot events?

[@MakersMuse]

Absolutely! The facebook group has the upcoming events posted to it regularly facebook.com/groups/573875698219836

[@LukeQuin]

Oblitorator vs Dreamcrusher . Epic match. Very Scary.

[@crunchysteve]

LOL, you've got the same laser RPM meter as me. Good plus or minus a bit, depending on how you hold your face on a given day, but good for a guide.

[@andytroo]

could you have a rpm limiter? - a simple rpm counter connected to a motor cutout - then you could prove compliance by a hard safety cutoff process, not a soft-limit on power?

[@SUPERMAR10312]

For the spin up issue could a super capacitor be used to deal with the inrush current. You would need you more than just the capacitor I imagine

[@LukeQuin]

Super caps have significantly lower energy density than lipo batteries. They would be prohibitively large and heavy in this application. Capacitors are used in the ESCs to smooth out voltage ripple, but they are small.

[@stewartstewartstewart]

How about using some kind of Cush drive setup to reduce the stress on the gears and motors.

[@lukaverigikj4358]

Maybe you could try and get a helical gear pulley for the blade motor, and 3d print a helical shaft in tool steel if you want to keep the noise down, those spur gears can get loud:)

[@lukaverigikj4358]

sorry, i meant herringbone not helical

[@camoogoo]

Could the max rpm not just be limited in software?

[@MakersMuse]

Yes absolutely, but it can lead to other issues and needs quite fancy controllers or guess work on the transmitter end. Also easy to "cheat" the test, though I don't think anyone in the comp is that dodgy.

[@danieldc8841]

4: leave it and use close loop control to limit the speed?

[@tiagobelo4965]

I wonder if a CO2 powered cylinder for getting a bit more spin into the blade early on would be within the rules, though ig its always possible to overcomplicate it and temporarily make the blade itself into a gigantic rotor

[@MakersMuse]

It'd be allowed but would chew up a lot of weight. Still, crazier things have been tried !

[@beastbro9823]

Funnily enough i just watched derive's maker's perspective on this event earlier today

[@AJB2K3]

I've seen his videos and didn't realise it was you!

[@IOUaUsername]

I'd love to see something like creator clash for robot fighting. Maybe 120g class to keep costs and time commitment down. You, William Osman, Peter Sripol etc.

[@Soulkeeper.]

i would line out the blade like a car wheel is lined out to drive straight, less vibration

[@4707mick]

Did you lubricate the gear with grease?

[@MM-24]

Great video, but why are we not discussing cost for the gear?

[@edrozenrozen9600]

Which tool steel did you use? It's incredibly tough when properly heat treated.

[@benjaminlemon1289]

so cool

[@mrglayden1690]

Your video's always make me wanna make stuff, but im feeling a little burned out on 3d printing at the moment after months of repeaded issues with my printers. Kind of want to get rid of all of them and get some actual decent ones to start back up again with less of the hassel that comes with them

[@gedr7664]

get a prusa - i was to rejoiced after replacing my ender 3 which now im converting to EDM haven't had a print fail in 3 years (apart from when the bed was dirty from my grubby fingers and print detached)

[@slightlyevilrobotics4271]

If you can afford it, get a Bambu - real plug and play 3D printing

[@snowe..]

I wish your videos were longer. I like all of them (especially the bird puzzles) and they always end _too soon_.

[@biscuit715]

Shame about the pulley trade off, that spin up was so much faster with it. Is there a rules acceptable electronic way to limit the rpm? Would be nice too if there were the funds for a more durable cage, to get the spinners at their full destructive potential!

[@greggv8]

I'd like to see someone put a viscous coupling into a combat robot weapon drivetrain. One way to make it would be a large diameter, hollow cylinder with a removable lid. Mount the base of the cylinder to the weapon. On the opposite side of the weapon is a shaft for a bearing. Inside the cylinder in the center of the base is a bearing and there's a bearing in the center of the removable lid. The drive shaft goes through those two bearings and has a flat plate mounted which fits inside the cylinder. On the two faces of the plate are a large number of concentric rings. Those rings fit between rings on the inside of the cylinder's base and the underside of the lid. For extra 'grip' of the thick silicone fluid, a lot of radial holes could be drilled through the rings of the plate, cylinder, and lid. Doing that, the cylinder would need to be three parts. A ring and two lids. Putting a coupling like that directly onto the weapon like the large pulley on Obliterator could leave it vulnerable to damage, though damage would most likely deforme parts to make it physically lock up. So I'd design one to fit internally. Several plates of smaller diameter could be stacked. With a large number of plates they could be laser or water jet cut from sheet metal or even modified flat washers with the ID and OD splined like miniature automatic transmission clutch plates. But what such a coupling could do is replace belts in a drive system. We've all seen a lot of belts get cut, snap, burnt, stretched, thrown off pulleys both toothed and V. But a weapon drive that's all tough shafts and gears, protected by a viscous coupling, would avoid all those downsides of belts.

[@stuartodell1709]

Put a blade at three points powered by a central motor. No one would be able to get neat to strike.

[@coltonholbert6906]

Nice

[@connorbingel7134]

Sometimes I forget how much more destructive American and Brazilian bots are simply because we have less laws and safer cages. Obliterator shows what one of these destructive bots built with good old Aussie reliability can do if they were less restricted

[@impuls60]

I feel the belt should be under the spinner to be more protected.

[@oem42]

So is shipping to Australia all the money?

[@thedesk954]

They should make 3D printed robot wars

[@JEGZ_FPV]

I noticed the signage are you Sydney based? I’d love to check out some robot fighting if that’s the case

[@benjaminfranklin5576]

12:49 Never seen a robot disemboweled 🤣🤣🤣

[@kmoecub]

I have never understood why any videos have a warning about loudness. It's been several decades since video cameras didn't auto-level the sound to prevent hearing damage.

[@gadgetrc94]

ESC software RPM limit?

[@k4x4map46]

noice!!!

[@bummer6]

You did a fantastic job. Although for me personally, my hatred for spinners in combat robots prevents me from leaving a like on this video.

[@st3althyone]

I have no doubt you could've taken the win if you had better piloting skills. You had serious problems controlling your robot, controller problems not withstanding. If you could match the level of control Derive had on his it would’ve been a much closer fight and you could've come out on top. Then again, it all comes down to luck when your robots are this well designed. Good luck next time, Angus.

[@benclimo461]

Exactly, if he was experianced at this weight and was more used to controlling it, getting out of the way, moving around the arena to allow the spin up to reach potentichal etc then it would have been closer. He just needs practice. I'd recommend to just go somewhere that is open and practice slarlms, large U turns etc, even have another small robot driven by a friend/family and practice getting behind it, anything that helps to be a better driver. I do this sometimes on my motorcycle and I'm a far better rider since I started that than I did of 10 years of commuting.

[@Galileocrafter]

3:52 Don't you have an ESC running the Motor? Why not limit the speed with the ESC?

[@rdizzy1]

Why not just use a heavier weapon that is slightly shorter, would have lower tip speed, could calculate how much slower based on the increase in mass, or length of the weapon (or a mixture of some of both which would be best for overall weight)