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Robin flash up the soldering iron (robot wars is back)

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 3:17 pm
by thinfourth

Re: Robin flash up the soldering iron (robot wars is back)

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 5:14 pm
by Sanjøy
Spooky I sent a Whatsapp screenshot of Robin on Robotwars at the weekend!

Re: Robin flash up the soldering iron (robot wars is back)

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 6:01 pm
by Ferg
Great to see them doing something like this again. Loads of opportunity to make it part of the fun educational slant that Beeb have been getting pretty right recently. IMO.

So Sanj, you saying that we have a Robot Wars veteren in SE? Spill the beans Robin!

Re: Robin flash up the soldering iron (robot wars is back)

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 6:14 pm
by Shug
Only because Sanj googled it and it cropped up on Whatsapp:

http://robotwars.wikia.com/wiki/All_Torque

A quality Robin quote half way down the page :)

Re: Robin flash up the soldering iron (robot wars is back)

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 8:10 pm
by tut
RobotWars Extreme Event
Robin Iddon Jul 1, 2001

Well,

We came, we saw, we lost :-)

Our hastily put together robot (why is it we are always up at 1am
the night before trying to work out why one of the speed
controllers won't work?) had some teathing problems ...

(1) The sacrificial (read hastily constructed) armour, worked well
as armour but grounded out all round, effectively hoisting the
drive wheels off the ground whenever we managed to move
more than six inches at a time :-(

(2) We forgot to remove the safety pin from our
"Disk'O'Doom(tm)" weapon.

Hence we were restricted to waiting to be attacked, vainly striking
out with our axe and hoping the other robots would all stop
working by themselves! Magically one of them did, but as this
was a three-way fight, only winner goes forward, we were out.
Still the 1,000 mile round trip in a 1.6 Zaffira was fun! The A701
and A702 take on a whole new perspective in such a vehicle.

Luckily, this was just a warm up event for us, and Richie (the
man that does all the work) is back on the CAD system working
on a revised chassis/armour and a pre-fight check list including
"must remove safety pin" no less than four times :-)

Anyone on this list got any electronic design experience,
especially in the area of MOSFETs, BTW? If so, I would
appreciate an email off list, ta.

Robin

Re: Robin flash up the soldering iron (robot wars is back)

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 8:18 pm
by robin
Those were the days :-) I really don't have the time I am afraid and in any case we were always rubbish :-)

Re: Robin flash up the soldering iron (robot wars is back)

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 9:42 pm
by Ferg
Top job! I am actually slightly star struck...

Re: Robin flash up the soldering iron (robot wars is back)

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 9:44 pm
by BigD
http://youtu.be/hmVsofiNYY4

First time I had seen this. Brilliant!!

Re: Robin flash up the soldering iron (robot wars is back)

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 10:29 pm
by tut
As you say brilliant TV, Boy Robin 15 years ago, suave and depreciating as ever, now we have CBB, X Factor and the rest of the crap that took over.

Did a great dicking job, but shame about the safety pin, that cost you dearly. What was the Triffid type protuberence on the top, an aerial?

tut

ps:- watched it all live, two years after I joined S_E.

Re: Robin flash up the soldering iron (robot wars is back)

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 10:57 pm
by Dominic
BigD wrote:http://youtu.be/hmVsofiNYY4

First time I had seen this. Brilliant!!
8)

Re: Robin flash up the soldering iron (robot wars is back)

Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 8:22 am
by istoo
Awesome! Legend in our midst!!!

I love robot wars, in the advent of 3D printing now I expect to see a shift change in design, although razor was a beautifully built thing.

I wonder if an EMP / scrambler warping would be allowed?




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: Robin flash up the soldering iron (robot wars is back)

Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 9:25 am
by robin
No, EMP are not allowed, nor anything that would interfere with radio transmitters/receivers. In fact most of the things you'll probably be thinking would be cool are banned (or at least were in the series we took part in - I know nothing of the new series and rules).

I agree plastic printing might make a difference, though printing large objects is expensive without access to your own printer - plenty of schools and Universities have print labs these days, so perhaps it will be practical. We made ours from girders ;-) (Not really)

(P.S. they used common sense rules for safety - i.e. no DC voltages above 36v, no AC above 48v IIRC, pneumatic systems were limited in pressure/volume due to explosive risk when punctured - hydraulics unlimited as intrinsically puncture safe - etc).

Re: Robin flash up the soldering iron (robot wars is back)

Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 10:41 am
by Fluoxetine
Will Philippa Forrester's leather trousers be making a come back? :P

Re: Robin flash up the soldering iron (robot wars is back)

Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 10:48 am
by graeme
How about a robot with mirrored-glass armour? If anyone broke the armour, they'd instantly get 7 years' bad luck, and lose. Genius!

Re: Robin flash up the soldering iron (robot wars is back)

Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 11:56 am
by Dominic
graeme wrote:How about a robot with mirrored-glass armour? If anyone broke the armour, they'd instantly get 7 years' bad luck, and lose. Genius!
Ha ha.. next you'll be suggesting gaffer taping live puppies and kittens to the robot... who would attack that?!?! Wonder if there is anything in the rules about that! :idea: