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Turbulence Diary

Heavyweight Diary - Archive 1

  • 24/04/04 - Dave and Jon went over to team beast to pick up 2 fire extinguishers to use in the robot. Welding has also progressed.
  • 15/04/04 - Dave didn't get over until late so we didn't get as much welding done as we'd have liked, but we got more than half of the base of the chassis done. Dave and Jon are going to work more on it next week as I'm going back to uni tomorrow. Dave took the chassis and welder back to his house to contiune the work. We hope to have a rolling chassis by the end of June, which gives us July to get a weapon working and August for testing as we want to be ready for the FRA world champs at the end of August.
  • 14/04/04 - Finished cutting all the metal for the base of the chassis, will weld tomorrow. Also finalised all the component positioning. Bought a new welder from Screwfix and placeed a large technobots order for gears, aluminium and some other bits.
  • 13/04/04 - Started cutting some metal for the base of the chassis as Dave and Jon are coming over tomorrow to start welding it up. Also started on things for the next Technobots order which needs to be sent off soon so gearboxes etc can be started.
  • 12/04/04 - Did some more design work after making a decision about buffer tanks at the weekend.
  • 08/04/04 - Dave brought the ram over and it is huge, but should still fit the design
  • 06/04/04 - The 1000psi relief valve that I bought last week arrived today, many thanks to Andrew Gardner for swift delivery. Dave also phone to say that he has recieved the ram.
  • 05/04/04 - Very productive team meeting and we are all happy with the heavyweight design now and we started cutting metal for the chassis. This is the current design:
  • 04/04/04 - Organised a team meeting for tomorrow as Jon is home from uni.
  • 01/04/04 - Finalised the design and added some more parts in, Dave should hopefully recieve the ram in the next few days also. We are also getting a relief valve from Andrew Gardner.

  • 27/03/04 - More work on the CAD design, looks much better than it did this morning.
  • 26/03/04 - Dave came over and brought much of the heavyweight stuff with him, the speedos motor and interface. After discussion with Dave a list of things to buy has been made and the CAD design has been rethought. This is what we have come up with so far:
  • 25/03/04 - Worked on a CAD design of the heavyweight and got one that I like a lot just hope the rest of the team like it as well.
  • 23/03/04 - Dave phoned to say that he has got hold of a 100mm bore pneumatic ram which he is having delivered here.
  • 22/03/04 - Found the name of a company that auctions off old office equipment which might prove useful in the search for fire extinguishers
  • 20/03/04 - Dave phoned up tonight and we had a discussion about the heavyweight. He is bringing all his kit over next Friday to begin work on things for real but I have much designing to do before then.
  • 17/03/04 - Today something that I have been thinking about for a while has happened. For the sake of common sense, resource and money we have joined forces with Dave who is Team Turbine. As a result we will build a heavyweight as a combined team under the name of Turbine and our featherweights will remain our own. A new web site will be made for the team.
  • 07/03/04 - Nearly two months since I updated and no work has been done until now, easter break is now 2 weeks away and work on the chassis will hopefully start. I am just finalising the design, I will then check with Jon and work can then start.

  • 08/01/04 - Did some more work on the speed controller box.
  • 06/01/04 - Did a bit of work on the speed controller box and sorted out some more parts.
  • 02/01/04 - Rearranged some components in the CAD program to make more space and reduce the height of the robot.

  • 29/12/03 - Downloaded the pictures of the pnuematic rams that we will hopefully get at easter and put the correct dimensions into the CAD program.
  • 22/12/03 - Some bits for the Speed Controller that I ordered ages ago finally arrived today.
  • 17/12/03 - Bought a few more bits of hardware from the controller and might get started on the box construction tomorrow although the featherweight has to come first as there is an event on the 21st.
  • 05/12/03 - Started finishing the first board of the Speed Controller, got quite a lot done.
  • 04/12/03 - Not much work recently as Ive been very busy and Jon hasn't got anything to do. But we hope to get shifting over Christmas, with us hopefully getting the 2 50mm rams and some other pneumatic parts soon as we are swapping a hyrdaulic ram that we don't need for them.

  • 17/10/03 - The DCI-111 arrived from Technobots this morning, good service as usual from them. Almost finished the PWM and Control board this morning.
  • 14/10/03 - I have restarted lectures, but robot work has continued. I have started to solder up the first board of the speed controller as I am happy with the layout. Also design work has continued and is nearly finished. I have also so ordered a DCI-111 interface from Technobots today at a reduced price, I will send the cheque in the morning.
  • 05/10/03 - Did some more design work and have got the gear boxes sorted, I hope.

  • 29/09/03 - Started laying out and fully designing the robot using a cad program and drawing things out to scale, did some more work on the speedo.
  • 26/09/03 - Did some more work on the speed controller ironing out some layout problems with the PWM board.
  • 22/09/03 - Found some more components for the speed controller at home which will further reduce the cost of it.
  • 21/09/03 - News that we have been promised 2 50mm bore 150mm stroke pneumatic rams for the heavyweight. Getting them to us has yet to be full arranged, but its good news.
  • 16/09/03 - Next weeks meeting was moved forward to today as Jon is heading back to uni, we discussed what we are doing in view of what we know about series 7. We will continue on current course and will look to upgrade in the future.
  • 14/09/03 - We will be having a meeting next week to discuss heavyweight things and what has happenend in series 7 and the future. With advances in robots it may see our heavy confined to the live event circuit.
  • 07/09/03 - After a team meeting, well two actually, the heavyweight has begun to get in motion again, we already had motors, batteries, armour and chassis metal. So we have planned a pnuematic flipper, and we are planning to make it four wheel drive skid steer similar to Razer but not quite the same. As a result of these meetings we have already begun scrounging pnuematic parts and have two rams in the pipeline. Also the speed controller which I am makeing from scratch has begun with the layout of the control and PWM board finished and the iginition and failsafe circuit started, all in all things are going ok and we hope to be ready for series 8 (If there is one).