by jh | Feb 8, 2023 | BattleBots, Combat Robotics
In last season’s tournament, Hydra faced Tantrum, leading to a judges’ decision that was less than satisfactory as, under last season’s judging criteria, there was no clear and obvious winner. While I thought Tantrum won based off control and aggression for the back half of the fight, I also thought Hydra won for damage and control across the whole fight. This split in my own mind wasn’t due to different perspectives on the fight as it happened, but from the judging criteria. A big part of the spirit of BattleBots is to put on a good, active show, so Tantrum actively circling Hydra should bias things in favor of Tantrum, but this was not unambiguously stated in the judge’s guide. There was too much room for debate on what counted as control and aggression in how the fight played out. It should not be possible for there to be two winners under the rules as explicitly stated. The only wiggle room is how each judge observes the fight. Ambiguous judging criteria impacts not just the final decision, but how each driver operates during the fight. Fortunately, they improved all that for WCVII.
So, with both teams knowing how the match should be judged, we have a zippy and tanky punching spinner going against an almost-as-zippy and nearly-as-tanky hydraulic flipper. First off, Hydra will most certainly win the ground game. Second, Tantrum’s weapon reach just doesn’t mesh well with Hydra’s shape, and it certainly won’t connect with any of its guts. At best it does a bit of cosmetic damage. Third, as we have seen in the past, Tantrum’s self-righter will fail after the first half dozen flips. I see this as strongly favoring Hydra. The only question, is whether or not it will be a JD or KO. The only saving grace is that Tantrum is tanky. Unless it lands upside down after the srimech is toast, it’s going to keep running. With that in mind, it will probably go to the judges, with Hydra winning with a 7-4 score across the board. Outside of one lucky hit, I just don’t see any path to victory for Tantrum.
edit: One of the little run-up bits early in the broadcast hyping the main event noted that last season’s match was also a big reason they implemented the new appeals process.
by jh | Aug 5, 2022 | Combat Robotics
Surveying the damage on the bot after the event. At first, I thought the weapon was warped as it definitely wobbles when spun. It is not warped. It is perfectly flat. Seems that maybe I ruined some bearings or the pulley is even more ruined than initially thought. I left most of the tools in the truck, so I did no further disassembly.
No matter, time to swap out the drive ESCs. Unfortunately they replaced the pin header jumper with an impossible wire jumper on the scorpion mini. I desoldered it, but I fear I may have ruined something. The drive part shuts down if I go above 20 on the controller for one channel, and the other channel is dead. If I disconnect the motors, it actually notices and dimly lights the red LEDs on the drive channels. I will replace it with my other scorpion mini, keeping it in MIX mode, to see what’s up but I just couldn’t be bothered last night. If that doesn’t get it, then I need to try with the botkits motors.
As (maybe) mentioned before, I managed to attach the Fingertech hubs on the motor shafts a bit too well. Bought a flywheel/gear/hub puller for RC stuff. Hopefully that will do the trick.
by jh | Jul 27, 2022 | Combat Robotics
I know everyone gives @usps grief, and I certainly want to know the why when something takes a week and half to travel a couple of hours away, but rarely do we say anything when something goes right. I had a package that came Parcel Select. It was scheduled to be delivered Friday, assuming everything went right. Well, everything went exceptionally great and it was delivered this morning.
Seeing as how this was my backup plan kit bot that I needed to fill in for my “I should have actually measured those pulleys months ago” bot that would have fought with no active weapon had it not arrived, I’m definitely happy.
by jh | Jul 23, 2022 | Combat Robotics
The bad news is that I chose a timing pulley that is way too small for the shaft of my weapon motor. Basically, if I drill it out it will be just teeth. Oops!
The good news is that I have a lathe, plenty of bar stock, and a handful of other belts I can use.
by jh | Jul 14, 2022 | Combat Robotics, OpenQM, Projects, WordPress
I am tinkering around with OpenQM. It’s the only NoSQL database that is worth the effort. I seriously hope that Rocket Software won’t screw it up, but I think we all know what happens when an affordable product is purchased by some other company. Then again, the sell of OpenQM from Ladybridge to Zumasys didn’t end the world. The QM projects are all little toys, so I will be highly unlikely to post anything about those until they turn into something more interesting.
Also working on the the bot(s). Currently Waiting On Parts from SendCutSend. I also have a backup plan… a Jolt! kit on the way… but Absolute Chaos is waiting on parts…
Next thing… working on WordPress. I have a nice setup right now that is very fast for anybody that isn’t logged in. I want to make it scale horizontally. Not because I need to, but because… why not?