Will My Robot Survive the Ultimate Test? SSP at NHRL January 2023

With the release of my new SSP 3lb Combat Robot Kit, I decided to test how it would perform at one of the most difficult competitions in the world. See how it performed and if it deserves a place in your own arsenal!
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Chapters:
00:00 - Start
00:32 - ACTION!
01:16 - Video Intro
02:21 - Who Am I?
03:36 - Event Format
05:43 - Opponent 1
06:22 - Fight 1
09:56 - Fight 1 Commentary
13:07 - Fight 1 Interview
15:21 - Opponent 2
16:48 - Fight 2
21:24 - Commentary Fight 2
24:30 - Fight 2 Interview
25:08 - Damage/Repairs Fight 2
26:44 - Opponent 3
27:49 - Fight 3
31:13 - Fight 3 Commentary
34:26 - Fight 3 Damage
35:28 - Fight 3 Interview
36:28 - So who won?
38:56 - Opponent 4
40:22 - Fight 4
43:09 - Interview/Damage Fight 4
45:03 - SSP Kit Upgrades
45:38 - Outro
46:16 - SPONSOR: PCBWay

[@ichaelm]

I always tell people to stop focusing on their weapon and instead focus on not dying. This is such a good demonstration of that working amazingly. 3-1 at Norwalk! Bravo!

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Thank you! Your kids should be proud as well, they built a couple of scary spinner bots!

[@XXX-XX-X-X]

I’m disappointed NHRL randomly doesn’t count out matches, tells drivers to “make sure the judges know” how the match should play out, etc. Hard to see a sport where high level competition is handled this way.

[@teamgetwreckedcombatrobots776]

Gotta say, I was really impressed with SSP’s performance and I definitely would’ve bought an SSP kit a few years ago when I was first getting into the sport (I really do think it’s a good idea to have a non-spinner kit that isn’t just a plain wedge). Once again it was really great meeting you at the event and I look forward to seeing more of your bots. (Also SSP definitely should’ve won against OffBeat).

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Thank you!

[@Drawliphant]

Seth Shaffer's Shamless Self Promotion is a pretty good tongue twister

[@CircsC]

I don't want to be overly hard on the NHRL referees, but for the sport to flourish they absolutely **NEED** to be better and more consistent than they have been. I know they're not professionals with a union or anything, but you can't have a sport taken seriously without the refs knowing and enforcing the rules. No one will take NHRL seriously unless the NHRL takes their own rules and rulings seriously.

[@danielwdunn]

I've been trying to get a robot built and get over to NHRL for months, but just haven't had the time. I think this kit with a few modifications is the perfect entry point for me. No more excuses to not have fun!

[@JustCuzRobotics]

That's awesome to hear!

[@Dangineering]

I know my robotics club at school was trying to create a couple and they wanted an off the shelf version to fight and benchmark their own designs on. This could be a great option for that! I would have bought this instantly a couple years ago when I was just starting out. Amazing work

[@JustCuzRobotics]

I would love to get these in the hands of schools if there is interest. That would be great!

[@DeionBonner]

@@JustCuzRobotics Have you reached out to tha Witch Doctor crew?

[@penelo9114]

I just bought you 2 Dragon motors and reserved the Talakan ESC and I'm really excited to complete my bot with these. I tested the weapon system with what I bought previously and only thing missing really is fixing known issues before I assemble the drive. Really looking forward to fighting you at NHRL and meet you IRL. Thank you very much for all the ressources you made for us :)

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Thank you. Hope those parts work well for you!

[@alexpick518]

Kyle is getting paid to promote SSP and Seth under the table.

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Hah I wish, Kyle didnt even know SSP was a kit at the time! I told Luke and Chris but they weren't commentating this event, whoops. Kyle is just a fantastic human who likes what I do

[@nightrider5420]

It was great to see SSP kick some Bot last night! Great work Seth and keep the hits coming.

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Thank you! Definitely far exceeded my expectations last night.

[@TheShrizo]

I was team Big-Ish in Dec. 2022, and this is great! Will have to try with my original bot next year.

[@vincentbriamonte7884]

Got mine on order!!! Can’t wait to finally get into a sport that I have loved for so long!!!

[@JustCuzRobotics]

I'm happy to help!

[@thiagopessanha448]

Awesome work

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Thanks!

[@SonOfHomer]

Can't get any better.. love the design. On my way to the shop.

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Thank you!

[@ResettisReplicas]

I'm recommending this kit to friends, for sure.

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Thank you!

[@cornmaized]

Welcome to the painful world of control bot driving, thanks for making it more accessible for new builders hahahaha

[@JustCuzRobotics]

My pleasure! It was actually a lot of fun.

[@forceofwillgaming8475]

Why were the refs not counting knock outs. That honestly makes no sense. No shade because refs have a hard job(and because I’ve judged/refed an event) but I’m curious about it.

[@JustCuzRobotics]

I'll have to ask during the NHRL AMA on Feb 16th.

[@DeionBonner]

For a control bot to win in the damage category, they have to dominate in both control and aggression sooooo...? At least I believe

[@JustCuzRobotics]

The way that the judging works the control and aggression and damage categories are all completely separate and judged separately from each other. The control bot can win on damage if they break their opponent's weapon or drive. They have to cause damage, and specifically they need to cause more damage than they themselves suffered in order to win that category

[@DeionBonner]

@@JustCuzRobotics You also happened to outdrive 2 robots at once and decided where your opponent went

[@fredhamlin1295]

Nice work, what are your thoughts on the aluminum servo arm 'saving' the servo, with the steel arm will it wreck the servo every time?

[@JustCuzRobotics]

I can't be sure about that without testing the steel in combat but my feeling is the TPU lifter arm is compliant enough to save the servo gears. I hit the steel arm directly with a hammer several times and the servo kept working.

[@aria8928]

losing fight 3 is silly, pinning main and minibot a couple of times was nuts.

[@mwoodski]

I'm 100% buying one of these kits in the future. Too stupid to know how to CAD my own stuff right now but want to fight at NHRL so one will be coming my way.

[@JustCuzRobotics]

That's great to hear. Just keep in mind the price will go up a bit after this preorder round. Needed to incentivise preorders somehow. It won't be too much but final pricing is TBD.

[@fromfin90]

i like fight 4, lots of people having lots of fun. And your opponents bot has a fun design to it, might have issues if the rear wedge gets stuck up ona wall

[@alexpick518]

The minibot beat SSP I guess.

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Who knows what the judges thought exactly, it is necessary to cut the time between fights down that judges no longer explain themselves on stream but it sucked to just find out from a spreadsheet that I lost.

[@smallscalemotoring]

Yeah that style of clamping servo horn is no bueno. You may want to find ones made from harder aluminum. Vanquish makes really good ones but they're $15 a piece. Then again, the softer servo horn is saving your servo!

[@JustCuzRobotics]

I found some Traxxas servo horns which are steel and after putting one on and wailing on it with a hammer it seemed both the servo and arm survived. I'll be integrating those or something very similar into the finished kits

[@smallscalemotoring]

@@JustCuzRobotics good to know! Nothing like a good ol wailing to test out the durability 😁

[@kingofl337]

The kit looks good, you should offer a pro kit with a brushless motor kit. If the weight came down The servo swapped out it could probably be converted to a beater bar robot. The mounts on the chassis look like a great starting point to accessorize it.

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Why brushless? The brushed drive was perfect. And I do plan on having first party weapon attachments eventually but I also want to see what others manage to add to it first.

[@kingofl337]

The idea was to improve the power-to-weight ratio. If you had a lighter gearbox combo it might enable bigger weapons. Adding more power and a wedge would be more weapon-like.

[@JustCuzRobotics]

DartBox gearmotors are the lightest Beetleweight drive solution you can buy off the shelf already. All the brushless options come with larger cylindrical steel gearboxes but my squared off ring gear saves a lot more weight than a brushless motor does. My motors are only about 4 grams heavier than an 1806 motor anyway.

[@lawlwut22]

I really don't see how Off Beat won that fight at all, tbh. Bogus call. Decent kit, though. Some sort of fix for the seemingly fragile lifter and it's upper-tier for sure! I'm sure you've already got it figured out!

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Thank you! And yes a fix is in the works!

[@Julie52786]

My daughter (8) wants to get into competing for fun. Would you recommend SSP or one of the 1lb kits for her? I'm torn since I'm in PA and I seem to have more 1lb friendly events within 1-2 our ish of me in DE, NJ, MD and PA. Do you find one bracket is more competitive as well?

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Location is definitely huge as to what competitions you can go to. Around the USA as a whole there are a lot of 3lb and 1lb competitions. Personally I am near Boston and the closest 1lb event is almost 300 miles away but Norwalk is half that. Which is more competitive I can't say, it really depends on the exact competition. I think at NHRL beetles are by far the most competitive class but NHRL draws the highest level of competition in the world. Most antweight events I have been to (Motorama, Sword and Labor Day Disarray all in PA or NJ) also ran beetles, and only Motorama of those is strongly competitive. I think if your Daughter wants to start with a kit with a basic/no weapon like a Viper and just slap other modules onto it later the Viper is decent. The motors and wheels are fragile and break often and the chassis needs to be replaced more frequently than needed for SSP but it's cheaper upfront. On the other hand SSP kits are built to last and despite the higher upfront cost my hope is that especially in less spinner heavy local competitions they will allow you to run for many fights with only cheap repairs for years to come. The motors and wheels are protected inside the chassis so they shouldn't break often if ever, and a chassis while expensive (final price TBD but ballpark is around $90-100) should last though multiple competitions. How you weigh these options is up to you!

[@connorbingel7134]

Hey Seth! I have a question for you. I have a beetle that I’m working on and am looking for a recommendation for a motor that can turn a 5in weapon(like 1:1.5 belt gearing) to self right in a similar fashion to how division self rights. I’m using 3s but could theoretically go up to 4s with some ESC changes. I looked on your store to see if you sold anything like that but all you had that looked like it could at all work was the brushless drive motor that was sold out. I’ll for sure be using some of your drive solutions in my next iteration. That’s all I had. Thanks!

[@connorbingel7134]

Also sell some weapon pulleys in common sizes! I feel like there’s a market there.

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Dartbox (brushed) motors with gearboxes I sell would be totally unsuitable for a weapon. Small planetary gearboxes cannot handle that sort of impact load. The brushless 1000kv motors I have aren't sold out, I have more than 25 in stock as of now (2/11/23)... Not sure where it says that. Still there are plenty of larger brushless motors that should product the torque you need from other sellers, I can't afford to stock everything unfortunately. I should have DartBox motors back in stock in mid March

[@connorbingel7134]

@Team Just 'Cuz Robotics, I meant the brushless 1000KV motor for the weapon(I’d never ever consider using the dart box motors as weapon motors). You are right I just checked and the 1000Kv motors are in stock I just had a brain fart(I was shopping for multiple things). I was hoping you could point to a brand or vendor for motors that you’ve used in the past but it’s whatever. Thanks for responding so fast.

[@JustCuzRobotics]

I don't have strong brand loyalties when it comes to brushless motors. If you are willing to spend a bit more money to get a higher quality motor though, Cobra Motors and even more expensive badass Motors have pretty good reputation. I find myself just hunting on every website I can think of when I'm looking for a specific motor though

[@typhoon7914]

Would you recommend this as a first combat robot kit, after looking at this, I’m going back and fourth between getting SSP or a fingertech viper

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Yes, I am not biased at all and strongly recommend SSP. Jokes aside, SSP was engineered to be perfect for a first time builder. Not only is it structurally very simple but it's a lot easier to make upgrades or changes to SSP's UHMW chassis or 3D print replacement parts Vs the Viper Kit which uses a bent aluminum chassis that's a lot harder to modify substantially. I also have released all CAD files for the entire bot!

[@typhoon7914]

Thank you for the input, I’ve wanted to get into robot combat for a while, and to the looks of things, the kit you made here may get me, and many other people into it

[@Cheeky_Chelsea]

Are your kits a viable option in Australia? I know shipping would be super expensive

[@JustCuzRobotics]

I can try to figure that out! If you send me your address to my website contact us form and let me know who you are I can price check on shipping for you.

[@MrFinsdad]

SSP was very impressive - of course it had a pretty good driver… If I was able to get to a competition, I’d definitely buy an SSP . Wouldn’t you need to have a bunch of spare parts , though … just in case you had more than one match? Btw i’ve watched hundreds of NHRL, BB, Robot Wars, etc, and I would have given you the win with OffBeat. While l’m complaining, the NHRL referee was a bit off his game as well. Just sayin’ Thanks again for all your work

[@JustCuzRobotics]

You will need some spare parts and I will be selling spare parts once I get to stock up from buying everything for the first batches of kits. After my 4 fights the only unusable parts were a few nuts and screws, the servo (still worked but was kinda sketchy looking) and 3 servo arms, and the lid. It is maybe $40 worth of parts which is not bad for 4 fights. Division V3 during its second fight alone took over $200 worth of damage, pretty much needed a new chassis to compete with it again.

[@Frosty_tha_Snowman]

I love that bot with the beater bar and the door wedge shape on the back - it just screams "classic robot wars" Oh, the bot kit is cool too 😉 lol but really, this might be the new annoying wedge botkit in every tournament. It's so loww

[@Frosty_tha_Snowman]

Except it's also a lifter! So it's much more technical, and less "slam"

[@JustCuzRobotics]

If there are as many SSP kits in the world as there used to be D2s then I will call that a big win.

[@Frosty_tha_Snowman]

@@JustCuzRobotics I would as well - I hope you have a lot of success, it seems like you built a really good little bot.

[@DeionBonner]

Beetleweight Claw Viper?

[@cornmaized]

Did the dovetails fail in the Sadiq fight like I thought they would? Or was it something else?

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Sorta. When the forks were hit from the front they were perfectly fine (Basado). However I made a few driving errors against Sadiq where I basically pivoted into their weapon so they it the forks parallel to the front of my bot. This created a lever where they would pivot around one dovetail and pop out the other, so only one was loaded at a time rather than both as I had intended. So the dovetails squeezed out but remained intact. I have altered the design of those mounts and the chassis to make them wider which hopefully decreases that change in the future/for all kits sold. They still work perfectly for all head on engagements with a beater tho.

[@ianross2352]

when can we expect the tarakan escs to be back in stock i have a whole big order ready when they are

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Hopefully in about 1-2 weeks

[@nightrider5420]

Another great Bott from a great designer but what next? A Horizontal spinner perhaps?

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Thank you! I already made a horizontal twice now with Draconid and Mini Mulcher, though neither are the traditional Tombclone style. I may try to add a horizontal to SSP somehow...

[@Lwimmermastermetalart]

I love the show Battle Bots however it’s become unreachable unless your filthy rich . Sure there are sponsors but you need to be a Witch Doctor type quality to get them . I mean seriously, over a hundred grand to play. I applaud you for promoting interest that is affordable. Very impressive bot there. I’m a retired tool maker and owned a CNC shop so I know what it takes to make . I contacted Discovery and said I’d like to see a show budget bots , their reply was that there are many lower weight classes. I get it but what I was thinking was capping a limit of maybe ten grand (in the heavyweight division ) and see how creative one could be. I am fully aware that pretty much no matter how much your bot costs you have to be an excellent driver. Good video and I wish you success in your future. And if you need parts machined I’ll self promote my services 😉

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Feel free to shoot me an email at [e-mail] regarding the CNC service, I'm comparing prices with a few different places right now for the SSP Kit chassis! It's UHMW billet and about 6x8x1.25 inches

[@tiesvdbiggelaar1411]

What does the SSP kit weight?

[@JustCuzRobotics]

The base kit configuration is about 2.3 lb with forks and lifting arm

[@kuromew3489]

Song at the beginning plesseee

[@JustCuzRobotics]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5yyfYZjZsd_ocUsi=TeHIODHDOl7AaClJ

[@kuromew3489]

@JustCuzRobotics your amazing , also love your videossss

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Thank you!

[@Fatty4president]

That was a real weird judging. Yeah two bots are more aggressive than one. But yours worked while 3 out of 4 pounds of them didn’t. And the ref needed to start counting. Not to be butt hurt in your place. But that made it so you could only win by judge’s decision instead of a KO or judge’s decision. I would buy the SSP kit was it not that me and a friend are building our own ant weight control bot

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Thank you

[@pauldoe3201]

Man NHRL could do with giving there referees a little training or something 😅

[@pauldoe3201]

Yeah I think you should of got the off best decision. I guess it’s a genuine question as to whether a mini-bots actions should be counted within the judges criteria. In my experience/opinion I think the larger the mini bot the more it’s actions are respected. Either way it was a close match, while I do think you should of got the decision, it’s not the biggest upset I’ve ever scene.

[@aaronthebatter]

SSP is undefeated! I can't believe your own teammate was the judge but wouldn't count the KO. The judges are losers. The extra bot rule is extremely unfair because there is no sacrifice on weight for the main bot. Why doesn't everyone just clutter the box with additional robots? Regardless, you were undefeated. I know you're an awesome, extremely busy man, but I hope to see more of SSP continue its undefeated reign. It would be extremely difficult for you to be outdriven given your exceptional driving and how extremely menuverable your bot is. In addition to your driving abilities, your engineering is extremely durable. I would like to see what it'll take for SSP to be knocked out.

[@JustCuzRobotics]

My teammate was the referree, the judges were 3 totally different people and I honestly have no idea who they are. But I appreciate all the compliments! Thank you very much.

[@haratofu]

In theory if the extra bot is destroyed or out of control, then it can count against you in the judging. Basically, you're trading off getting to field an extra antweight with the possibility that it could be actively detrimental points-wise.

[@IronOre33]

It would be perfect if it had a spinner

[@JustCuzRobotics]

And yet Subtraction still doesn't perform as well. Control bots can be very good.

[@IronOre33]

@@JustCuzRobotics subtraction is bad?!

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Subtraction isn't simply "good" or "bad", but SSP performed way better. NHRL has a ranking system. the official rankings track every robot that competed at NHRL in the last couple years. There are 642 robots currently ranked. Of those Subtraction is rank 157, which is decent. But Shameless Self Promotion is rank 32. It's in the top 5% most competitive robots at NHRL. wiki.nhrl.io/wiki/index.php?title=NHRL:Stats:Active-3lb

[@heartofdawnlight]

yeaa sucked they had to switch to single elim.... JDs got a lot scarier.... cause bad calls can happen and your just out now

[@CraigDanby]

No your kit doesn't suck

[@bobholsberger1121]

it looks good with you driving....it does not look that easy to build

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Why do you say that? What looks difficult?

[@bobholsberger1121]

@@JustCuzRobotics currently working on a version of mini mulcher.....not easy......I do not have an engineering backround, I wish you good luck with it and hope you and the kit are successful