Where'd ya go Jamo?

I've been busy. That is no secret. Many of you have no idea, because I seem just as (un)responsive as usual, but truth is, I have been quite busy.

Last post, I detailed some of the tasks I had to hit for the upcoming Gulf Coast Robot Sports competition at the Hobby Marketplace. Between then and now, I got all three robots completed! Woohoo! Okay, technically Pacman is charging, but who gives...

So to knock off the easy ones first, P150 and DDT are complete. Last post I outlined the new motor mounting scheme for DDT. The motors dried in, and I slapped some tape over the back. Looks brand new and ready for combat! P150 required a little more work, but nothing strenuous. I took apart my last spare GWS PicoBB servo, and replaced the topmost portion of the casing. Then I glued the motors in to complete the robots. Some quick test drives, and charges, they appear to be ready to kick some butt!












Pacman was not as easy. After a trek to Skycraft surplus store, I bought some replacement o-rings to use as drive belts. However they were too tight! How terrible! I tried to remelt some old belts but it turned out like junk. Apparently the material doesn't take too kind to fire, and instead of melting, just bursts into flames (sorry, no pictures).

I went to Home Depot to try and get the rings I needed: no dice, they were just too small. The largest they had was about 1.25" dia, when i needed 1.5" or something around that. I was about to leave, when my mom had the brilliant idea of using bathtub washers. Sure they start out very wide, but some quick work of the sheers, and suddenly they are custom made rings!










Some additional upgrades include a nicely polished output shaft, some added flats to help aid torque, upping the size of the weapon hub set screw, and maximizing the output pulley diameter for quicker spinup times. Check it out!