I built a killer combat robot

[@Inventorsquare]

That spline shaft looked like certified hard work. Props.

[@MushookieMan]

jerry rigged. That's my favorite way of doing things

[@keithyinger3326]

@@MushookieMan I call it farmer engineering. Doing what ya need to do, with what ya have on hand. Sometimes that involves making your own tool because it's a heck of a lot cheaper than going and buying some Custom Tool that you're going to use once.

[@MushookieMan]

@@keithyinger3326 I call it 'doing it wrong the first time'.

[@TommiHonkonen]

it probably beter quality than what i do at work on a real cnc

[@Sharpless2]

@@MushookieMan If it works correctly, its not been done wrong. Maybe its been done *inefficiently,* not wrong.

[@iteerrex8166]

Oh man I felt bad for the spider, but seems like he was going for a win in building rather than fighting. Great fun, congrats Angus 👍

[@moremakersmuse]

Redback is definitely a work of art! I didn't want to destroy it.

[@69uremum]

KISS is probably the best philosophy to use when it comes to a remote controlled "battle-robot".

[@Nevir202]

Ya, I don't think he had any intention to win, as he doesn't even seem to have any WAY to win a fight, if the enemy doesn't break itself.

[@conorstewart2214]

@@Nevir202 It has that saw blade right on the front, but it wont do much.

[@233Deadman]

some people do build combat bots with fun being more on the menu than being competitive, and the "want to make something cool" crowd are more attracted to the Sportsman comps for obvious reasons.

[@bale7297]

Finally, I have missed your combat robotics videos so much. Glad to see them again. Would love to see you go to something like Norwalk Havoc!

[@moremakersmuse]

Would be cool to make some international events!

[@connorbingel7134]

@MORE Maker's Muse, the US would love to have you!

[@slightlyevilrobotics4271]

Awesome bot Angus - it's just a pity we didn't fight (except in the rumble)! Even seeing it in person I didn't appreciate how you did the lifting mechanism - that's a nifty design, and a great video as always

[@MakersMuse]

I can barely remember the rumble but looks like we had a few good engagements! Great to catch up and I definitely need to try those brushless drill conversions some time, I have so many old gearmotors...

[@mathieusicardi9178]

@@MakersMuse I have a question. I'm trying to build my own robot and I have fairly powerful 12V 0.5A motors. I'm trying to find corresponding esc to remote control it, but I can't find any that fit the 12V 0.5A parameters? Do you have a god website to recommend for ESCs?

[@GoodTato]

"keeping you in place while i lower a saw into you" is such a classic Robot Wars design, glad to see stuff like that's still being built.

[@Cheeky_Chelsea]

I'm very impressed by the lifting mechanism, when i saw it working in the arena I thought you had a separate servo for the lifter

[@hazonku]

Can't believe you ground that spline shaft by hand & it not only worked, it held up the whole way through too! Really impressive! Excellent work & congrats on 3rd place!

[@Sir_Uncle_Ned]

3rd place is nothing to sneeze at. Building robots to fight each other is a whole new level of engineering difficulty and you tackled that challenge wonderfully! Also mad props for HAND grinding those splines!

[@Nvenom8.]

As much robot combat content as you want to make, I'll always watch it!

[@FasutonemuMyoji]

ditto!

[@FilamentStories]

This was *such* a fun video to watch! I loved hearing about all the details of your build and the competition. PCBWAY has so many things to offer to help makers these days. Just a fantastic video to watch. I can’t wait for the next installment!

[@connecticutaggie]

Looks like lots of fun. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us. It was fun to see the Band Saw too, that is the same one we have in our High School Robotics Lab. One recommendation concerning the bent arm and bolt holes. Fusion 360 has an amazing stress analysis tool. I had to design a robotic gripper at work and weight was a major concern and using a the tool, I could determine exactly where I needed material and where I didn't.

[@taxatogaming]

Yeeees, been waiting for more battlebot content!! Excited to watch

[@auxchar]

This was really cool! Had no idea that Sportsman category exists, that's really cool. The KE weapon meta was getting pretty sweaty, so seeing some alternatives opening up is great to see.

[@moremakersmuse]

It's why we started it here, the barrier to entry for the unrestricted class was becoming way too high sadly. You either made a boring brick / wedge or invested thousands into a robot that would be potentially obliterated in its first fight. Sportsman fights last longer and still have plenty of entertainment value!

[@the_donz]

@@moremakersmuse as an australian i'm seriously interested in joining something like this, but i cant seem to find any info online about battle bots here. do you know where i can find more info?

[@MakersMuse]

@@the_donz You can try joining the RobowarsAustralia facebook group !

[@slightlyevilrobotics4271]

@@the_donz What state are you in? SA, Qld and Victoria have groups with regular events for smaller (150g and 1.3kg) bots, all have groups on F-book. Bigger events with combatants Australia-wide like this used to happen 1-2 times a year but it's been 3 years till this recent one - my bots were getting restless! (sorry if duplicate replies, my first one seemed to get eaten by the algorithms)

[@the_donz]

@@slightlyevilrobotics4271 i'm in NSW sydney, do you know of any over here? i've always wanted to try and make a battle bot

[@razer259]

I was there when you fought this thing and I really enjoyed watching it! (So honoured to have my ant make a cameo appearance! Big vert, pink wheels, purple eyes. Can't miss it!)

[@gumbly4174]

THE HASH SLINGING SLASHER 😱

[@unicycleboi5874]

THE HASH RINGING

[@myths_and_Legend]

@@unicycleboi5874 The Bash binging

[@giving6]

The smash stinging

[@gumbly4174]

@@unicycleboi5874 THE RASH RINGING RASHER 😱 🤨 📸☠️

[@tantamounted]

Custom made to settle your hash!

[@BeaverBotics2]

I like the lifter Saw Combo, pretty unique take on the saw bot concept. Fun idea (though probably not as practical as the spike), what if added a spatula as the lifter to further add to the Hash Slinging Slasher theme

[@EvanCops]

KZbin's makin me happy with recommendations. Awesome job dude

[@Mattay20]

Loved robot wars growing up. Never made it to the live shows but years later managed to go to a touring event and it was amazing. Really enjoyed watching your journey and hope to see more

[@duconlajoie9680]

So much enthusiasm about conception, construction and destruction is very motivating.

[@marcfruchtman9473]

Thank you for making this video! The idea of hand grinding splines... wow. I agree with you that the belt has no defense. So, yea, that needs something to prevent it from being rendered useless after 1 hit. If you must stick with the saw blade design with a "lifter", you should consider a lifter that has at least 2 parallel lifters, perhaps like a fork lift, or maybe upside U shaped (joined at the ends) for more rigidity. I suspect, that 1 lifter, tilts the enemy bots more than it "pulls it up" into the blade., whereas a parallel lifter might give you better leverage. The Locked Rotor Amps / Stalled Amps of a motor tend to be 6 to 10 times more than full load (100% RPM). So, one reason why the controller may be dying might be related to the Amperes being drawn with rapid "on" / "off" cycling. Because that's basically like several 6 to 10 time Max Current hits in a row.

[@moremakersmuse]

Definitely agree on more of a "fork" design for stability. I was originally going to have a spatula kind of scoop, hence the name, but went with the spike due to time restrictions.

[@marcfruchtman9473]

I forgot to mention... that DC motors with big armatures tend to have pretty big spike voltages due to the commutation. Consider adding flyback protection.

[@MakersMuse]

@@marcfruchtman9473 Yeah, we suspect that's what killed the esc but it wasn't doing any heavy lifting at the time. I'll most certainly swap to a smaller brushless outrunner for next time if only to save several KG of weight.

[@tigerzero5216]

@@marcfruchtman9473 . "Flyback protection"? A term I've never heard before. Granted my electronics schooling is 40 years old. I think I understand what you are talking about. When you power any wire coil it builds a magnetic field of energy. (Solenoid or motor winding). Take away that feed to it, the collapsing magnetic field around the coil wants to dump current/voltage to somewhere. You don't want it to go back into the driving circuitry. So you add components to direct it away from there. In the case of solenoids, it's simple, a diode/rectifier to ground. DC motors I can see being tricky because it's not a one way deal like solenoids. Did I get it right?

[@marcfruchtman9473]

@@tigerzero5216 Right, not only that but the collapsing field can dump many times the voltage of the power source.

[@frcbe]

Angus this rules. Dunno if you remember, but you helped me make a sawblade wedge using a direct drive car fan motor that got obliterated by a vert spinner way back in the day. So glad to see you still kicking arse and scaring off mormon doornockers!

[@MakersMuse]

omg Nick! Good times that was so long ago haha. yeah we did some pretty sketchy things back then. Hope you're good?

[@frcbe]

@@MakersMuse yeah mate! Stoked you spotted this! I’m doing great, working in web development, still in Sydney, although the most I’m building these days is a mechanical keyboard haha! Always stoked to see you drop a video :)

[@alkalinekats8300]

It was honestly great to hear your legit thoughts about PCBway in the video instead of just being sponsored and giving an ad read, it might actually be something I will use in the future, thankyou!

[@teamstorm5578]

good meeting ya at the event man. Those where some good fight 🔥

[@jimlynch9390]

That has to be the best video I've seen this year. Maybe the best in the last 10 years. Thank you for the insight.

[@versag3776]

That spline shaft! Tedious work, I know from experience, you must be an artist!! I enjoy art and craft projects that take patience and problem solving like that.

[@spikekent]

What an awesome video Angus, always love these. Massive congrats on 3rd place too.

[@Druidus98]

Thanks for 22 minutes with a smile in my face and get well soon 💐👍🏻

[@JonathonBarton]

6:13 Good ol' Cut'N'Try Engineering wins the day once again! ❤🥇

[@Roboseal2]

Thanks for doing something with BATTLEBOTS in it because those are the coolest things

[@michaelschecker2716]

Thanx a lot showing so much fun stuff. 😂 I mill ~ 8 ton/year of 7075, also called AlZnMgCu1,5 a good choice for max stable parts. 7075 is 550N/squareMM and you never need threaded inserts. I also like in this alloy there in no silicium, so milling cutters last 10 times longer.

[@vlfreak]

Great to see some robot videos again, have missed them a lot.. WOW you created a beast there, thanks for the extensive breakdown on the build and techniques used, that was really interesting stuff.. Those battles looked epic and congrats on the 3rd place 👌

[@N4CR]

Just a tip from someone who spent some time in a machining hall ;) Use steel wires to jam if able, or consider a copper layer on your armour, it will gall and break teeth on saws at high speed and cause them to fail.

[@rmdcade1717]

Combat robots are so cool, but the coolest thing about this video is that '90s-looking hoodie 😍

[@TroyMackay]

Aaah! He's got a board with a nail in it!

[@Bibibosh]

.....YES A video by muse... Keep up the interesting content maker's muse! This video best of all year in my opinion!

[@Donorcyclist]

Great work and thank you for sharing! For the anti tip feet, if you were to put a bearing under each, you wouldn’t end up stuck in place and you could use that mobility to move your opponent to a place they don’t want to be. Cheers!

[@3DMusketeers]

LOVE the self made splines as well as the saw blade recommendation! Very cool!

[@OneIdeaTooMany]

He threw YOUR battle bot directly at YOUR camera. That's beast mode control.

[@WildmanTech]

Angle grinder splines for the win!

[@edwardfletcher7790]

Was that Paramount Browns ? EDIT : Nope, you're in Sydney. I bought some Ex-Govt PC's from there years ago for $5/kg 😆 Can we have a LOT more Aussie Combat robot content please ? This video was FANTASTIC 👍

[@jacobpage3865]

Legend !!! Cheers for coming to Adelaide!!!

[@plasmaman9592]

No one uses 3,000 lb winches on cars or trucks. Those are used on ATVs. I know this because I bought one for a light truck and the cable snapped the first time I used it because even a light truck when stuck in the snow has too much resistance when trying to pull that far exceeds that 3,000 lb line strength which causes it to snap

[@eriklagergren7124]

Those sparks at 6:33 would make electroboom proud

[@MentallyLatent]

Having done Vex robotics for a good like 5 years now, this build made a lot of sense to me and I liked how you made it. When you showed how the arm works I was like "yup that's how I'd do it"

[@Firebird356]

Oh wow !! Nicely done dude !

[@MechVince]

Awesome, awesome, awesome! More robot fighting and I love the behind the scenes breakdown of how and why!

[@karlnowakowski7866]

Amazing use of that great work bench. 😁

[@milkhbox]

Plus 1 for the bandsaw tip. Even a handheld portable bandsaw is a gamechanger for building things.

[@rsunghun]

Amzing stuff! Happy to see you challenging this area.

[@tryzeicon6392]

I love how you guys are keeping it clean this is what you call friends doing what they love gotta support y'all ❤️

[@osprey1645]

I did combat robotics in highschool it was amazing. We did 15 lbs robots and had a solid tool steel vertical spinner.

[@isaakcraig6121]

Dear Angus and if that's not your name I apologize I saw one of your older videos a while back about g10 as a build plate and I just wanted to thank you for turning me on to the material and it has saved me a lot of heartache in my 3D printing projects PS I love your channel keep up the good work

[@dmm8658]

That was hilarious, I enjoyed that so much. Thanks for sharing it.

[@richardgreen4611]

Well done Angus. I like your way of thinking about modifying the robot. When my wife heard the video playing she thought that you were making a "Wombat Robot" not "Combat Robot"! However as Wombats are tough animals it might not be such a bad idea.

[@markfryer9880]

Well given how cranky a wombat is when disturbed it might be a good name for a combat robot. Wombot!

[@jrsxcase]

Precision where needed and when required. Anything extra is just wasted time. I like your efficiency!

[@TCPUDPATM]

Great video. So much fun!

[@andrecook4268]

Beast almost got through the 3mm steel armour around Pot Heads wheels. I was trying to take the saw out by 'punching' it with the same armour :)

[@jonmayer]

This was a fantastic watch. Nice job on the 3rd place win.

[@Deltarr777]

Congrats on the 3rd place ! You created a mean robot ! Can't wait for version 2 !!

[@geekdomo]

Congrats Angus!

[@jameymueller2328]

The "Hash slinging slasher" LMAO...awesome nod to spongebob my friend!

[@TsiolkovskySportingLocks]

Great example of TLAR (That looks about right) assembly and design.... fantastic video and totally inspiring!

[@makerspace533]

If you would like to build a fighting robot but do not have the tools at hand, look around and see if there is a makerspace in your area. Our makerspace, The MakerBarn, has tons (literally) of equipment for building almost anything. There are hundreds of makerspaces around the world, there may be one near you.

[@jiaan100]

Driving practice is so crazy important for (non autonomous) robotics competitions

[@chemicalvamp]

This was very neat, I hope you continue in this (yearly?) competition.

[@mvadu]

The best ad for pcbway by actually using their services to the limits..

[@kohiko_art]

Oh man this looks so much fun

[@gwamhurt]

The spline lmao. Nothing really beats how satisfying a good kluge can be imo.

[@ObservationofLimits]

Polycarbonate with a spring steel backing would be way better than a HDPM cutting board. Will resist most attacks. Cutting might get through the polycarb given time, but hammering and pointy hammering wouldn't do shit.

[@buildersmark]

Awesome build! Fun battles! Great work & video.

[@crazybird199]

That thing looks INSANE

[@avejst]

Fantastic build. impressive work for all the combat boots. Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us 👍🙂

[@manny4148]

this is an i did a thing level bad idea, but done with actual safety. love it!

[@tdtrecordsmusic]

Absolutely F in EPIC ! Coolest sh8 ever ! I so wish I could join this madness !!

[@mrclown7469]

6:03 Absolute madman 👍

[@chase2496]

When you mentioned how hard it was to control, oh man did I relate to that! I did a lot of FIRST robotics (FTC and FRC) and they can get really complicated to figure out. Normally we set up for two drivers, but once or twice we had to drop to one for some reason or another. And man, did that suck to do!

[@Edy195_]

I used PCB Way to cnc machine part for my custom motorcycle rear spring compressor.. Did 3D printed prototype first.. Superb quality.. Little slow delivery because some holidays at that time. But can reccomend! :)

[@AFistfulOf4K]

It's a happy coincidence that the background music you always use is the same music as in Robocraft, a PC game about building battle robots.

[@Shish-Kabob]

The name brought back so many memories

[@hanslain9729]

Angus getting back to his roots! Lets go!!!!

[@RomanoPRODUCTION]

Thank you Angus, the robot is funny and sharp.

[@stephenkitto5782]

I love that you just picked W.A.C.A. up and put it in timeout.😂 Congrats Angus!

[@cptcarot]

Used to watch Robot Wars here in the 🇬🇧. This is great stuff, was even involved in providing parts for some robots that where on the BBC TV program. Planned a bot to take out a house robot, but due to weight limits was unable to build our design, we wanted to destroy the badly positioned hydrolic controller, so it bled all over the arena.

[@NeoIsrafil]

I had NO idea pcbway does cnc work... thats amazing. I almost regret buying a 10 foot CNC now.....almost.... except its fekking cool. What might be nice is for you to have a way for your saw to lock and push with the lifting arm instead of just having it lift and stay in position, because thats now how saws are designed to work. They need some force to move them into material. Another addition would be some thin armor for the belt/motor, just something to give it protection against glancing hits from other saws or things. Nothing amazing, even just a chunk of throwaway 3d printed plastic would work, just something to keep an instant cut to it from destroying it.

[@yanito1979]

Amazing video like always! Congrats on the win 👊🏼

[@invaderdrumguy7590]

Thank you for posting this. Been trying to find a good video on Combat Robotics ❤️❤️

[@mozkitolife5437]

BLOODY AWESOME, Angus! Over the moon to see you getting back into the bots. This video easily competes with a BB ep 😃

[@StormBurnX]

I assumed the hoarse voice was from the screaming and shouting that tends to happen at robo battle matches, hah! Also was slightly surprised to see you using the dual-screen laptop out on the go -- your sponsored video for it felt like a really forced ad so I just expected you would use it for the required period and then ditch it, it's nice to see it's still getting some use!

[@MakersMuse]

Lol yeah, it's actually a great laptop 😂 second screen has it's occasional uses

[@jimmysgameclips]

This was a great watch

[@Angelo_Aus]

Totally love your build the car-nage 😉

[@thomasmaughan4798]

"I made a dangerous combat robot and this happened..." THE SUN ROSE IN THE MORNING!

[@Archamfer]

hey Angus, quick tip for showing packages on screen. you can wipe acetone on labels to clear them 👍

[@TommyBrisbane]

that Kid at the end "Oh c'mon!" LOL :D

[@superdupergrover9857]

Be careful with stronger grades of aluminum. They are less corrosion resistant but more importantly, they tend to be far more brittle than weaker, tougher alloys such as 6061. I would look into getting a different temper of aluminum. "Temper" in aluminum refers to a specific heating and aging treatment that strengthens it.

[@MixedGears]

Mr. your robot looks and performs very badass, great machine :D

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Really fun bot and a cool design! My own Beetleweight bot Shrapnel Mine has a similar concept but rather than a rear hinged lifting arm it uses front hinged forks to try and expose the underside of opponents to my saw weapon. I have the same control issues as you though. I just bought a Radiomaster Zorro TX which has potentiometer dials to set the speed of the saw and I can then use a switch to turn it off and on and the 'throttle' to control the arm position (since mine is a servo it's way easier to handle the arm though). For your needs the Zorro has four momentary buttons that may make controlling your arm easier even if it's bang-bang style and you could use a dial for the arm speed as well.

[@paul-thys]

Well done man!

[@ameliabuns4058]

Man the kinda people at that event sound absolutely awesome I wish I knew spaces like this in Vancouver. Not for robot fighting but with people who are cool and make things!

[@vinipx01]

That redback robot is a good example of “size doesn’t matter”

[@2testtest2]

Have you looked at slitting saws? It seems they would be a good candidate for saw blades. They can be had in solid HSS, and they are made for cutting metal.