Stink Eye RoboGames 2024, Post Event Report

[@bami2]

I just love how you take this trashed tombstone chassis and make a reasonably competitive bot out of it. But most importantly have a lot of fun with it!

[@BellyLover06]

Stink Eye can have an eye patch as reference.

[@Convolutedtubules]

What caused the weapon motor to fail? I'm impressed by the amount of material missing from the commutator.

[@ray9368]

The robot got flipped over, and didn't turn the weapon off fast enough, so it was trying to spin while pinned against the floor. So basically it was drawing stall current, which for that motor (black max motor) is a LOT. It really isn't a good choice for the weapon motor for this honestly, just happened to be motors I had sitting around and I figured I would put them to use.

[@Convolutedtubules]

@@ray9368 What would you need to do for the robot to detect when any of the motors is seized? Hopefully that can be just programmed in.

[@ray9368]

@@Convolutedtubules Honestly, this would not be something I would ever consider. I'd much rather the motor just burned up trying, rather than giving up. This pretty much goes for every part of the robot. It is literally in a fight to the death here, and I want the maximum effort for all 3 minutes of the match :) There are fixes here however. I used these motors because I had them, and figured using them in a robot that was not meant to be competitive was the right spot. If I were to build a competitive robot around that weapon disk (a serious possibility down the road) I would use much higher end components that would be much more likely to survive in combat. One fact of competing for as long as I have, is that I have a lot of parts hanging around that are no longer all that competitive in a cutting edge sport like this. But the parts are still functional, so it's fun to make stuff like this!

[@Convolutedtubules]

@@ray9368 Power tools and electric vehicles, usually have a way of preventing the motor from burning out when it is overpowered or seized completely, this is for reliability and should not impact performance. It could save the motor from burning out early in the match.

[@ray9368]

@@Convolutedtubules And for a power tool that makes perfect sense. Where if you overheat the motor and it stops, you can just wait a bit and go back to work. Combat is totally different. To give you an example, one common older way to do this was self resetting fuses. You exceed a certain amp draw, the fuse opens and then resets after a time period. In that time period (even if less than second) you can get your bot destroyed by the opponent. Now there are amp limiting speed controllers. Many brushless controllers these days do this now. So if I had used a large brushless motor (like I would if I was building this to actually be competitive) then not only would the motor work better for this use, but the entire setup would be more reliable all the way around. But again, the primary build criteria for THIS robot was to use the old junk I had in the garage. This particular large brushed motor draws just over 1500 amps (at 33.6v) at stall. To my knowledge there just isn't a speed control on the market that can handle that kind of voltage, amperage, and PWM input from radio, and then also provide any sort of amp limiting to its programmability. There may well be larger industrial controllers that can handle the volts and amps, but they would most like be huge and heavy, and wouldn't interface with standard RC controllers. I know this is more of an answer than you were looking for, but there are just a lot of reasons why it's not simply a programming issue. A lot of design limitations revolve around parts availability. Both in what is actually available in the market, and in this case what was available on the shelves in my garage!

[@ruvimsemenyuk8224]

Stink eye with hinged forks would be quite effective I’d say

[@ray9368]

I *could make a serious robot with that weapon disk. And who knows, someday I might build a well thought out design around that weapon. I always have more ideas than I have time to build them all :)

[@PyroBear1776]

Love these event recaps, gotta say I’d love to see you build a beetle that’s not dread hades. Or a different middleweight.

[@Calwing999]

I guess Stink Eye isn't going to the dump YET :)

[@ray9368]

Not yet :) Although that does tend to be where they all end up eventually!

[@BelowNorth]

I filmed the Magnitude fight for Chad so if you do need footage of it he should be able to help. Not as neat as the on board camera but it's something. It was a pleasure sharing the driver deck with you for my first box side heavyweight experience! I was the awkward guy in the colorful jacket that was too nervous to actually talk to you pretty much the entire comp 😂

[@ray9368]

We've got some out of the box footage, although if you had another vantage point to look at I'd still check it out :) I hope you had a good time at the event!

[@BelowNorth]

@ray9368 it was an awesome experience. I went from faceplanting in the RCL Champs to somehow helping out with a heavy. I'll shoot you the video on the FB when I can.

[@MarkJacksonGaming]

-- Ray, what are your thoughts on 'crush zones' or using more pliable materials to absorb damage with the idea of keeping the frame true, reducing shock forces and protecting inner components. My thought process for the question is along the lines of accident science in automobiles. Best wishes to you and yours. 'Stink' sounds great, long as that eye is in the woodchipper :D

[@celeron55]

The rubber mounts for the drive wheel gearboxes are something to this direction already, and he's been using those for some time (a long time?) already.

[@ray9368]

Certainly some measure of crush zone is usable in a combat robot. But the forces involved are pretty intense, so my crush zone here was AR400 plate :) You just have to have an air gap between the armor and the stuff inside, because this stuff is going to bend!

[@steveyoutube1709]

What material do you use for isolators? Looks like large test tube stoppers

[@ray9368]

They are vibration isolation mounts. You can buy them from McMaster

[@steveyoutube1709]

@@ray9368 perfect looks like the neoprene ones

[@Nosjamesmenzer]

Hey Ray do you know when they are supposed to do a new season on battle bots for tv and when it will get released?

[@BotvacProductions469]

Hi ray, i know this is partially unrelated, but i have a question. is there a certain opponent that you would like to fight in battlebots that you havent fought yet?

[@ray9368]

Not really. At any event there is usually one or two that I know I match up really well against, and of course there are some routinely competing bots that I just haven't faced yet. But nobody specific really - they're all great bots and teams, and I'd be honored to battle against any of them

[@BotvacProductions469]

@@ray9368 i bet they would be honored to face you too.

[@SPIRITofSPRING]

What a sturdy bot! Will you rebuild the eye part? If the answer is yes, will it serve as srimech or new mount for a camera?

[@ray9368]

No plans right now to rebuild the eye, although I do have the parts needed if I decide to. For now, there are ...... other things the robot will be involved in :)

[@ctrlaltdel02]

I told you =D about that camera placement... To repeat what I said, drill a hole where the lens will be, mount camera inside of robot (looks there is space for it), can use existing screw holes and holder for camera, just mount camera other way and screw from inside. Easy mod, should take no more than half hour max. For camera buttons drill a hole on top cover, just poke it through with stick.

[@ray9368]

Oh yeah it could have been placed better, and any rebuilds down the road would plan for it in a more protected fashion. It was very last minute for this build, and honestly not something I put any great effort into - sort of like the rest of the bot actually :)

[@BotvacProductions469]

@@ray9368 lol

[@mattanfirouztala6822]

Will Last Rites come back?

[@ray9368]

Not in my plans at the moment, but you never know what the future will hold.

[@mattanfirouztala6822]

@@ray9368 End of an era

[@BotvacProductions469]

Hi ray, its me again. i just had the greatest idea! you dont have to do it, its just a HARDCORE suggestion! maybe you could change your profile picture to a picture of tombstone or the hardcore robotics reaper logo.

[@starry53]

Stink Eye is entertainable not as a pure competitor. Overall, Stink Eye is still good, in my opinion.