Author Topic: Twilight Foundry Robotics II  (Read 15171 times)

Offline R1885

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #20 on: July 05, 2015, 10:34:21 PM »
If it doesn't have a "D" shaft, you take a metal file to it, and grind it until its flat. The optimum way however, is to key the shaft, but that's not often not an option on smaller motors.

As for a spinner hub, they don't come simpler than the Fingertech blade hub. I own one of these, and they're pretty much idiot proof, but they have a bit of a downside in that you can not reverse the spinner with this hub, or else the locking nut will loosen. Though, this hub can't can't be used on anything higher than 12 pounds(And that's probably pushing it). On larger robots, bolting the weapon to the pulley/sprocket with a custom hub is the most popular, but be careful, because its very easy for something to go wrong in this way. I don't have much experience in spinners though, you may want to ask Nate, Mike, SKBT, and Badnik for more detailed information as they have spinners in active duty.

Turnigy Lipo batteries are both lighter and cheaper than Power Wheel batteries. Don't worry too much about charging them, as long as you have a decent charger, keep a good eye on them, and have some common sense they'll be fine.

The pulleys you found in the washer were either plastic or iron, neither of which will hold up to the stress of spinners. You want to find either aluminum or steel pulleys. You may also want to consider sprockets and chains, as they can be found pretty much anywhere.

Offline MikeNCR

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #21 on: July 05, 2015, 10:52:36 PM »
So, I have a general construction question. I understand most of the parts of assembling various kinds of weapons (except for pneumatics/hydraulics) but one thing that eludes me is how you put hubs and wheels and stuff onto driveshafts. I would imagine a press-fit would easily come apart, which makes set screws an obvious choice. But not every motor has a "D" head.

That leads me into my next question, how are the actual blades getting mounted on their weapon shafts? $50 follow-up, how are free-spinning axles built?

The "lower" tech the solution is, the better. I'd like to actually build a lightweight if the sport makes a comeback, but I'm not really keen on spending tons of cash on motors and batteries and all that. I take the Team K.I.S.S. approach to things and just pick parts from junk/scrap. That said, are Power Wheels batteries allowed? They are SLA's. (I'm terrified of batteries and working with electrical components, so having a robot that charges by literally plugging it into the wall is nice.)

edit: Let me clarify "low tech". The other day I was trying to take a motor and its belt/pulley assembly off of a clothes dryer that was being thrown out. (I stopped because I ended up slicing a finger open on part of the metal frame.) Being realistic here, what's the feasibility that the pulley assembly would have been of any use to me in making a spinner? I would assume the motor is a bust because it needs 110V or something, it was the pulleys I wanted.

Give this a read-
http://www.instructables.com/id/Nyx-30lb-Fighting-Robot-Re-Made/

It doesn't answer everything, but it covers a lot of the stuff you were asking about and covers a range of techniques.

Offline helloface

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #22 on: July 06, 2015, 07:51:07 PM »
PussyTron 4000 looks like an absolute champion. Y'all better watch out.
Oh I'll be doing some banging.......

Offline RFS

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #23 on: July 10, 2015, 10:06:50 AM »
Thanks guys :D I've been reading at work, but since this website is blocked at work I haven't been able to post a proper thank you. XD
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Offline RFS

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #24 on: June 26, 2016, 11:01:17 PM »
Thread necro with some new content and some old content that I've never posted before. This content is cross-posted from the Facebook page for my team, Twilight Foundry Robotics. There are some extra pics and stuff in the albums there, in most cases.

Up first is Metalhead, the first robot I ever built (in 2000). Its innards have long since been repurposed and/or destroyed so only its shell remains. It's photographed here with a stand-in "weapon" to show roughly what it used to look like. (Ironically, a couple of weeks after we took these pictures we actually found Metalhead's original blade under a bunch of crap.)


Metalhead was built to compete at an event sponsored by and held at a local school. Most of the bots there were built from toys or model kits. Metalhead was the only one with a spinning active weapon and it almost didn't get to compete because people were worried about it breaking off and hitting someone or something, but we were able to fight with it anyways. After passing safety, its weapon motor died literally a few seconds into its first ever match meaning we had to fight as a wedge the rest of the tournament. Still managed to win though. Yay?

Metalhead was rebuilt two more times, but never managed to make it beyond the Round of 16 (a.k.a. literally round one) at the events it was brought to. Metalhead 1 was far too slow, so the second version used a lighter chassis made mostly of compact foam and layered cardboard; its Hazard-style blade was also swapped out for two tilted horizontal blades at its front spinning in opposite directions. In Metalhead 2's first fight it got put up against a quick rammer, the eventual runner-up, and its frame ended up getting destroyed which knocked it out. Metalhead 3 was just a wedge made mostly of cardboard and lost in a close judges' decision to another wedge.

Metalhead is currently being rebuilt as a 3 or 6 pound robot to compete at the upcoming "DARC" event in Dallas, TX.

-----------

Next is Terminal Impact, built in 2001. When we built Terminal Impact we basically took everything we had learned from putting Metalhead together and ramped it up to 11. Terminal Impact was an immediate favorite at the second event held at the same school and ended up becoming the champion.


After winning one event we made some changes to Terminal Impact's weaponry, namely replacing its disc and flails with another helicopter blade that was ridiculously long (like three feet long). Terminal Impact managed to beat one opponent in this configuration, but lost to the same rammer it beat an event prior; they stayed in too close and the robot's blade never really got spinning up to full speed. We swapped the blade out for a disc at Terminal Impact's final event, however we had an electrical issue with the robot and were forced to forfeit.

Terminal Impact is officially retired, however a design for Terminal Impact 2 has been drawn up. It's not very high on the list of priorities however, but I'll keep you posted.

----------

Now onto the new stuff.

This is a WIP shot of the frame of The Demolition Machine, the newest robot I've been working on.


Demolition Machine is being built with some of the parts that went into the original Metalhead. Since not much is left from that robot, and because this is my first robot in quite some time, I've elected to make a simple pusher out of it. Eventually, Demolition Machine is going to have a chassis not unlike Punjar from BattleBots.

----------

This is a toy trick ramp I tracked down specifically for a rebuild of one of my old robots, now named The Real Crash Override.


Crash Override, originally designed and built in 2001, was scrapped before it ever competed. I wasn't happy with how the build came out and instead went with rebuilding Metalhead out of those parts at the time. Its original design and iteration was a boxy wedge with a saw set inside the ramp, kind of like Ankle Biter just with a longer chassis.

In the robot's new iteration I'd like for its design to be a "spiritual successor" of sorts, that's where this goofy ramp comes into play. They were manufactured about a decade ago for the "Fly Wheels" rip cord toys, but they're made of soft plastic that deforms without cracking. Ever since I first saw one in a store I'd had my eye on it for a potential robot design. Now I have to get them on eBay. :P All of the robot's parts fit inside the "shell" nicely, it just needs to be mounted and all of that. I intend to cut a slot in the deeper curve (that's the front) and set up this rad dado blade I have.

Since this photo was taken I've since peeled off the original stickers and laquered it down to remove all the sticky residue and such. I haven't yet settled on a proper design for the robot's paint job.

The Real Crash Override will eventually be a 3 or 6 pound robot for the DARC competition in Dallas, like Metalhead 2016.

(PS: The robot is called "The Real Crash Override" now thanks to some unsavory net-dwellers commandeering the name for some stupid front of theirs. I came up with the name first and I intend to keep using it.)
The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

Offline kill343gs

Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #25 on: June 27, 2016, 10:12:08 AM »
Would kickflip/10

I love stuff made out of found objects. Robot combat is way too engineered for someone like me to be able to compete nowadays. Props to you for keeping the dream alive.


For once the mods did something right
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Offline RFS

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #26 on: June 27, 2016, 04:25:19 PM »
Would kickflip/10

I love stuff made out of found objects. Robot combat is way too engineered for someone like me to be able to compete nowadays. Props to you for keeping the dream alive.

That's what I'm all about. I'm one of the few builders that doesn't really care all that much about winning, like legitimately doesn't care. We'd like to win a match or two, but by and large my team and I just do this because we get to hang out with each other and work on stuff that we think is cool. :)

I used to be super devoted to being the #1 builder back when I put together Metalhead and stuff, I think me winning the first ever tournament I competed in got me off on the wrong foot. I was legitimately pissed off and upset when Metalhead 2 not only failed to repeat, but lost in round 1. By KO. I realized that "caring too much" was starting to make me hate the sport so I managed to pull a 180 on that.
The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

Offline toAst

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #27 on: July 08, 2016, 11:08:06 PM »
the joy is in things getting destroyed in cool ways and if it is the thing you made that gets destroyed well thats cool too. something got destroyed and that rules!!  party on garth :beer:
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Offline PixelCrunchRA2

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #28 on: July 14, 2016, 06:21:04 AM »
Thread necro with some new content and some old content that I've never posted before. This content is cross-posted from the Facebook page for my team, Twilight Foundry Robotics. There are some extra pics and stuff in the albums there, in most cases.

Up first is Metalhead, the first robot I ever built (in 2000). Its innards have long since been repurposed and/or destroyed so only its shell remains. It's photographed here with a stand-in "weapon" to show roughly what it used to look like. (Ironically, a couple of weeks after we took these pictures we actually found Metalhead's original blade under a bunch of crap.)
(Image removed from quote.)

Metalhead was built to compete at an event sponsored by and held at a local school. Most of the bots there were built from toys or model kits. Metalhead was the only one with a spinning active weapon and it almost didn't get to compete because people were worried about it breaking off and hitting someone or something, but we were able to fight with it anyways. After passing safety, its weapon motor died literally a few seconds into its first ever match meaning we had to fight as a wedge the rest of the tournament. Still managed to win though. Yay?

Metalhead was rebuilt two more times, but never managed to make it beyond the Round of 16 (a.k.a. literally round one) at the events it was brought to. Metalhead 1 was far too slow, so the second version used a lighter chassis made mostly of compact foam and layered cardboard; its Hazard-style blade was also swapped out for two tilted horizontal blades at its front spinning in opposite directions. In Metalhead 2's first fight it got put up against a quick rammer, the eventual runner-up, and its frame ended up getting destroyed which knocked it out. Metalhead 3 was just a wedge made mostly of cardboard and lost in a close judges' decision to another wedge.

Metalhead is currently being rebuilt as a 3 or 6 pound robot to compete at the upcoming "DARC" event in Dallas, TX.

-----------

Next is Terminal Impact, built in 2001. When we built Terminal Impact we basically took everything we had learned from putting Metalhead together and ramped it up to 11. Terminal Impact was an immediate favorite at the second event held at the same school and ended up becoming the champion.
(Image removed from quote.)

After winning one event we made some changes to Terminal Impact's weaponry, namely replacing its disc and flails with another helicopter blade that was ridiculously long (like three feet long). Terminal Impact managed to beat one opponent in this configuration, but lost to the same rammer it beat an event prior; they stayed in too close and the robot's blade never really got spinning up to full speed. We swapped the blade out for a disc at Terminal Impact's final event, however we had an electrical issue with the robot and were forced to forfeit.

Terminal Impact is officially retired, however a design for Terminal Impact 2 has been drawn up. It's not very high on the list of priorities however, but I'll keep you posted.

----------

Now onto the new stuff.

This is a WIP shot of the frame of The Demolition Machine, the newest robot I've been working on.
(Image removed from quote.)

Demolition Machine is being built with some of the parts that went into the original Metalhead. Since not much is left from that robot, and because this is my first robot in quite some time, I've elected to make a simple pusher out of it. Eventually, Demolition Machine is going to have a chassis not unlike Punjar from BattleBots.

----------

This is a toy trick ramp I tracked down specifically for a rebuild of one of my old robots, now named The Real Crash Override.
(Image removed from quote.)

Crash Override, originally designed and built in 2001, was scrapped before it ever competed. I wasn't happy with how the build came out and instead went with rebuilding Metalhead out of those parts at the time. Its original design and iteration was a boxy wedge with a saw set inside the ramp, kind of like Ankle Biter just with a longer chassis.

In the robot's new iteration I'd like for its design to be a "spiritual successor" of sorts, that's where this goofy ramp comes into play. They were manufactured about a decade ago for the "Fly Wheels" rip cord toys, but they're made of soft plastic that deforms without cracking. Ever since I first saw one in a store I'd had my eye on it for a potential robot design. Now I have to get them on eBay. :P All of the robot's parts fit inside the "shell" nicely, it just needs to be mounted and all of that. I intend to cut a slot in the deeper curve (that's the front) and set up this rad dado blade I have.

Since this photo was taken I've since peeled off the original stickers and laquered it down to remove all the sticky residue and such. I haven't yet settled on a proper design for the robot's paint job.

The Real Crash Override will eventually be a 3 or 6 pound robot for the DARC competition in Dallas, like Metalhead 2016.

(PS: The robot is called "The Real Crash Override" now thanks to some unsavory net-dwellers commandeering the name for some stupid front of theirs. I came up with the name first and I intend to keep using it.)
What was Metalhead 1's original weight?
*opera* HURDE-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Offline RFS

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #29 on: April 11, 2017, 06:12:42 PM »
In my absence I've (re)built a beetleweight robot, Kill Switch. Originally codenamed "Gold Split", this robot was built loosely in secret before debuting at DARC Robot Rebellion 1.1 on March 12, 2017 as the latest official installment in the Kill Switch lineage. (The lettering on the armor reads "05GS", "05" denoting the fifth iteration and "GS" being shorthand for its original code name Gold Split.) The working name "Gold Split" was chosen because as a speedrunning term a "gold split" is defined as a substantial and significant improvement in speed or style.

Here is the entire build report for the robot, up to and including the event report.

BUILD REPORT:
Jan 9, 2017

Initial testing of tread pods.

Feb 4, 2017

Tread pods mounted to inner plastic "skeleton", mounting points for armor added.


Outer wedge shell started, testing positioning and placement.

Feb 22, 2017

Reinforcement beams added to mounting points.

Mar 2, 2017

Glue applied to outer metal armor and affixed to frame. Clamped to hold in place while drying.


Rear spike plates built and attached to robot chassis.

Mar 6, 2017

Top armor plate made, attached to robot. 6-LED power indicator built and attached to robot.

Mar 8, 2017


Gold paint applied, custom stencils printed, cut, & painted. (Far stencil is morse code for "TFR" - Twilight Foundry Robotics.)

Mar 10, 2017

Stencils didn't work as intended, so we had a graphic made out of vinyl to replace the screw up. Robot completed.

Mar 12, 2017

Kill Switch in the pits at DARC on event day.


EVENT REPORT:
Round 1 vs. Speed Wedge 3 (Quarterfinals) - https://youtu.be/N5UCLdOxyhQ?list=PL9EWQ7hhmWViZFl62MKTUM14GKpgFlSRp
The plan here was obviously to catch Speed Wedge 3 from its side or back and then slam it into the wall. We came close, but then his wedge beat mine and as Kill Switch was backed into the wall Speed Wedge bent the front wedge plate and bounced Kill Switch up in the air. On the way down Speed Wedge took a huge bite out of the rear end of the robot. We got stuck together until Speed Wedge dropped Kill Switch off on the arena guardrail for a KO.

Round 2 vs. RAID-0 (Loser's Bracket)
RAID-0 destroyed its only speed controller in its previous match and was forced to forfeit to Kill Switch.

Round 3 vs. Project Darkness (Loser's Bracket) - https://youtu.be/q9zxmzuYsro?list=PL9EWQ7hhmWViZFl62MKTUM14GKpgFlSRp
Same plan as Speed Wedge 3, really. Same builder too. The goal here was to drift around to the side and slip under Project Darkness as it turned because the robot was even less stable than Speed Wedge 3. Project Darkness really wasn't able to get a good "bite" on Kill Switch except for the hits where Kill Switch's inertia was used against it, such as the hit that knocked Kill Switch's front wedge piece off and the hit that ultimately flipped it over. Project Darkness caught us on the rear corner on that particular hit.

Rumble - https://youtu.be/yzg0tMm7PIQ?list=PL9EWQ7hhmWViZFl62MKTUM14GKpgFlSRp
Kill Switch also participated in the rumble at the end of the event alongside Mom-Bot, Project Darkness, and Wedgeamacallit. Literally in the first few seconds we rode up on top of Mom-Bot and Mom-Bot's bent up wedge hooked right into our tank tread and pulled the left one off of its track. The motor for that side of drive was also damaged and ended up burning out. We were kind of upset by this because it meant that we were pretty much KO'd and couldn't rock & roll in the rumble, which is what Kill Switch was specifically redesigned for. :(


RESULT:
Kill Switch did not place and finished with 1 in and 2 losses, bringing its lifetime record to 6-10-0. Kill Switch was destroyed in combat and its new iteration is currently in the works. It has been given the code name "Promenade".

What was Metalhead 1's original weight?

Hello one year late. Metalhead 1 weighed approximately five pounds when you factored in the weight of its drive system, armored shell, and its spinning blade system. It competed while weighing about four pounds however because we removed the blade when it blew up in our first round.  :gawe:
The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

Offline kill343gs

Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #30 on: April 11, 2017, 08:46:57 PM »
 :heart_smiley:


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#MakeGTMGreatAgain

Offline Badnik96

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #31 on: April 11, 2017, 09:07:23 PM »
Ian's bots are tough, i do not envy you for having to fight both of his beetles. For a bot made out of wood it seems like Kill Switch held up well!

Offline RFS

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #32 on: April 11, 2017, 11:13:53 PM »
Ian's bots are tough, i do not envy you for having to fight both of his beetles. For a bot made out of wood it seems like Kill Switch held up well!

Yeah I was a little peeved at that, but it's no different from me repeatedly getting drawn to fight Russ Barrow's Dark Forces robots all the goddamned time 10 years ago. Wish it would've played out differently but oh well. Kill Switch was fully functional at the end of both matches, it was just KO'd because it was flipped over both times.

"Made of wood" is a pretty common misconception about the robot. Wood is a key player in the robot's makeup, but it's reinforced in such a way as to hold up better against attacks from kinetic weaponry. This is achieved through a process of applying industrial sealant to it and attaching metal with contact cement. No rivets, nails, screws, etc are used in assembling Kill Switch's armor, ergo the only way to really do damage to it is to eat right through it, something Project Darkness struggled with. Speed Wedge 3 got a good bite on Kill Switch's ass though.

Right now I am working on two beetles myself, with two others on the back burder that'll be driven by my brother(s) if they are interested in building them with me. My two are Full Auto (a rammer) and Hard Vore (full body spinner), and the two "reserve" robots are Telefrag (wedge) and Blood Dumpster (vertical saw). Just getting Kill Switch ready was an ordeal though, because we've lost so many team members over the years. We were down to 4 for this build, and then a few months before DARC one of them up and left over petty political reasons. 2 of the 3 remaining team members ended up battling with illness for the rest of the time until the event.
The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

Offline Badnik96

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #33 on: April 11, 2017, 11:15:43 PM »
that's actually really cool. if only you could make it invertible it could be pretty tough to beat.

Offline RFS

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #34 on: April 11, 2017, 11:18:37 PM »
that's actually really cool. if only you could make it invertible it could be pretty tough to beat.

That's the dream, haha. There's two main issues with that though, and that's how heavy the treads would end up being if they were made invertible, and the fact that we'd lose a lot of the rigidity of the robot that its lid provides if we had to cut slots in it for treads on both sides.
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Offline Tweedy

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #35 on: April 12, 2017, 06:14:52 AM »
Where did you get the tread pods? I'd be interested to get some to disassemble and make a more robust/lighter version for a beetle design I'm working on.

Offline Badnik96

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #36 on: April 12, 2017, 12:06:46 PM »
knowing RFS and looking at his build pics it seems likely that they were cannibalized from some sort of RC tank

Offline RFS

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #37 on: April 12, 2017, 12:18:10 PM »
Where did you get the tread pods? I'd be interested to get some to disassemble and make a more robust/lighter version for a beetle design I'm working on.

They were taken from a New Bright branded RC toy called "Attak Trax" or something to that extent. They sell them at Walmart and Target and stuff for about $50. We found ours at a secondhand store and used it for parts.

The pods are pretty resilient, ours only slipped and burned out a motor because we had to remove part of the guiding track to cut down on weight at the last minute. Had we not removed part of the assembly we'd have been gold.
The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

Offline toAst

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #38 on: April 15, 2017, 10:59:49 PM »
i actually really love how the bot looked with the stencil on it and was disappointed to see after further scrolling that it wasn't the paint job itself! regardless, way cool my man
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Offline RFS

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Re: Twilight Foundry Robotics II
« Reply #39 on: September 23, 2017, 08:48:49 PM »
Hi, I've been neglecting this thread for reasons unknown. Since my last update I've built two robots and retired one of them. Here's an update post of sorts. I apologize in advance for how long it is.

NEW FAIRYWEIGHT -- Telefrag

Telefrag at DARC Robot Rebellion 1.2


Telefrag disassembled for repair in hotel room. (DARC Robot Rebellion 1.3)

Telefrag is a fairyweight robot that weighs 149.4 grams, building it was almost a nightmare. Before we feverishly started hacking it apart to save weight Telefrag weighed approximately 200 grams, 33% overweight. It's a wedge with tank tracks, similar to our beetleweight Kill Switch. We were originally going to name this robot something to the extent of "Micro Switch" or "Kill Switch Jr." but nothing really stuck. Due to the size and shape of its chassis we also felt the robot didn't look enough like a scaled-down Kill Switch to carry the name. We settled on Telefrag, a DOOM video game reference, and gave it an appropriate matching paint job (the teleport effect from DOOM).

The robot was built from a small RC hobby tank, stripped down to its bare bones. The robot is extremely powerful as it's running motors identical to what you'd see in a Tamiya gearbox or RC BattleBots toy from back in the day. It's quick, it's powerful, and you can easily beat it by rolling it onto its side (we're working on that but we only have .6 of a gram to work with).

NEW BEETLEWEIGHT -- Full Auto

Full Auto at DARC Robot Rebellion 1.2

With Kill Switch currently being rebuilt into it's 6.0 edition we wanted to put together something in the interim to compete with. I bought four motors of unknown make from AliExpress to make a 4-wheel drive pusher/rammer built around a metal desk organizer I found at a thrift store. That and a galvanized shutter brace that we'd sharpen to a point and use like a train plow. I had recently come across a Facebook page for "demo derbies" with scrap RC cars and this inspired me to make my own with a combat twist.

Unfortunately the motors we bought for Full Auto were garbage and were slow as hell, even though they were rated for 6V and we ran them at 12V, and put our transmitter on its "high" setting. Still, we'd come this far with the build and we wanted to see it through regardless. We gave Full Auto a great paint job and brought it to the event.

(PS: Those wheels on the outside of Full Auto are fake and are there for show.)

DARC ROBOT REBELLION 1.2

Here's a video of me gabbing about my robots with some fight footage and recapping in the middle of it.

Telefrag went 3-1 and finished in second place. We got a neat little trophy for it.

Full Auto went 1-2 and did not place in its division.


Damage done to Full Auto during Robot Rebellion 1.2.

HURRICANE HARVEY

Twilight Foundry HQ, post-Harvey.

On August 25th, 2017 hurricane Harvey made landfall as a category 4 hurricane smack dab on Rockport, TX. This sh**ty little fishing town just so happens to be where I live, and the destruction was incredible. According to the city, approximately 30% of the buildings in Rockport were destroyed by Harvey. Another 35-40% of them were damaged so severely that they have been condemned by the city and will need to be demolished and rebuilt (assuming the property owners want to do that, otherwise they will just be demolished). That's 70% of the city completely destroyed.

We did not do so well during this storm, as the photo above shows. That's the building where I lived and worked. That's where all of our robots for the past 17 years have been built, and it's gone. Damages are in the tens of thousands of dollars each in regards to property damage and personal losses. I lost most of my music collection, movie poster collection, collection of herpetology/paleontology books, video game magazine collection, and much more. We nearly lost our collection of old bots as well; some were severely water damaged but when all was said and done everything was eventually accounted for.

With no workshop however, bot building has come to an end for now.

DARC ROBOT REBELLION 1.3

Twilight Foundry Robotics at Robot Rebellion 1.2.

Robot Rebellion 1.3 was set to take place just a couple of weeks after Harvey hit and once I saw the damage done to the workshop I posted a photo to the DARC Facebook group and said "that's it, we're done". I had no plans to attend RR 1.3, however I quickly grew sick and ****ing tired of the drama and bullsh** taking place in Rockport and after getting an earful of BS from some asshole at work over something that was out of my control I just up and left and decided at the last minute to drive up to Dallas the day before the event.

I only had one robot, Telefrag, and it was only going to be me present at the event since everyone else was busy dealing with clean-up and rebuilding things. Thankfully we suffered very little damage to Telefrag at RR 1.2 so repairs were easy enough for me to carry out in the hotel room I was staying in and after tightening some screws and cleaning the tank treads Telefrag was ready to go. Worryingly Telefrag and its radio got some water damage during the story but everything still worked.

Some changes were made to the fairyweight arena that didn't sit well with me because they basically invalidated Telefrag's design. Walls were added to ALL pits in the arena as opposed to just half of them, and because of this Telefrag's effectiveness in the arena was greatly diminished. We had moments were we'd be on the verge of winning by ring out had the new walls not been there, and then ended up losing the match in the end. :(

Telefrag went 1-2 at Robot Rebellion 1.3 and finished 4th of 8 robots.

NEW BEETLEWEIGHT -- WILD RIDE // THE PHOENIX

The Phoenix, post-Harvey.

When Harvey hit, we were in the process of working on yet another new beetleweight named Wild Ride. We'd gotten as far as assembling the base parts (drive motors, weapon motor, battery, etc) and left it on the workshop table. When the building collapsed the robot was knocked off of the table and crushed underneath a window air conditioner unit. We recovered the parts, tested them, and decided that it would be appropriate to rename the robot to The Phoenix.

Phoenix's design is similar to Robot Wars competitor PP3D, two wheels out to the side with an undercutting horizontal blade. I wish I could give you better insight as to the motors and parts we're using for this robot, but they're all salvage parts that I know nothing about! Phoenix's drive motors I believe are Chinese knock-offs of the popular "B-series" beetle motors and the weapon motor is driven by an RC car motor attached to a propeller gearbox taken from a crashed RC plane. It all works and looks good on paper, but we're expecting it to probably break in battle.
The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.