Son of Thump's debut at GCRS

Son of Thump battles it out at GCRS

vs a Big Scrub Bubble



vs Pacman



All in all, we are extremely happy with how our bots performed....Paul and I need more stick time, but now that the bots are close to where we want them, it should all work out.

More importantly, we now have some real world results of how the 15 pound clones will perform, so that our MLEC kids should be well prepared for future events.

SOT will return, the question is if any other builders in South Florida are up for the 3 lb. competition.

Yes, that is an open challenge to all of the BotIQ teams in South Florida!

my dad's pretty intrigued by the 3 lb division! We'll see what he comes up with.

I would love it if Ransom took up a 3 pounder or two as a project, but it all depends on how the kids want to spend their time and the school's money.

I notice that SOT turns a bit more quickly than would be desirable. Not that I really think you need any more advantage than you clearly already have (truly awesome 'bots), but I have found that adjusting one of the aileron dual rates to a lower value on the DX-6 gives you a one-switch way to adjust the "turn sensitivity" either down or up during a match. We also do the same for the elevator, so that we have a slightly slower 'bot most of the time, but can flip a switch to 'go turbo' (as my students like to call it) during pushing.
I'm not sure if the other Spektrum transmitters have this option. . .

That's how sot is setup as well

I believe ailerons are at around 30% and elevator at 40%....Also exponential on both

Part of our problem is that we can't drive very well...yet lol

Actually , this was the first time that Paul and I have competed, so, besides being totally burnt out (all nighter to finish the bots), some rookie nerves were at play as well.

Ahh, that makes sense.
I actually cannot say I have firsthand knowledge of this, as I have never driven a bot in 'real' battle (a few times at the school, just for fun, with no weapons, but that's all). But I have witnessed it in students, and it is a very real phenomenon. No time for test driving, no sleep, and first time jitters can be a lethal combination. OTOH, a crappy robot is even worse, and boy has our team had experience with that.

From an instructor's/advisors viewpoint, this was and will be a great learning tool.

I can see a lot of good stuff coming out of this experiment.

1) We realize that while our kids have been green, that they have (in general) much better hand skills that us older people. I guess it comes from all the video game stuff.

2) Nerves are definitely at play...the kids have a lot of pressure on them to perform well

3) At first, I thought that the 3 pound bots would be a joke, but i also thought that about the 15 pounders a while back. In reality, it is a good weight class. Having seen all the insects first hand, I wouldn't bother with anything under 3 pounds...but that's just a personal thing.

4) Having diven the 15 pound clones and now the 3 pounders, they are very close in feel and performance, so as we tweak the little bots, it's an easy natural step to apply changes to the bigger brothers.

5) As far as excitement/crowd pleaser factor, the 3 pounders have the same appeal..you can hear, feel and experience the destruction, etc. under 3 pounds, the WOW factor is somewhat diminshed. again jmo

6) They don't require that big of a production to come up with an arena, location ,etc. so a lot more R & D, testing and competing can be done with much less effort.

For the record, I had my 1-piece-chassis wedgebot done before all of you!!!! HAHAHA!!!!!

will bales wrote:

For the record, I had my 1-piece-chassis wedgebot done before all of you!!!! HAHAHA!!!!!

you finished that in a week....

will bales wrote:

For the record, I had my 1-piece-chassis wedgebot done before all of you!!!! HAHAHA!!!!!

Ya but it didn't really have a weapon.
So it wasn't very awesome.

BabyDork wrote:

will bales wrote:

For the record, I had my 1-piece-chassis wedgebot done before all of you!!!! HAHAHA!!!!!

Ya but it didn't really have a weapon.
So it wasn't very awesome.

Still a pretty awesome wedge. I could win a few matches with it.

Sean Rubin wrote:

BabyDork wrote:

will bales wrote:

For the record, I had my 1-piece-chassis wedgebot done before all of you!!!! HAHAHA!!!!!

Ya but it didn't really have a weapon.
So it wasn't very awesome.

Still a pretty awesome wedge. I could win a few matches with it.

But it was only a wedge. =\

How do you think your aluminum wedge will fair against Sting?

It had a titanium front!!! And it doesn't matter that it didn't have a weapon because it was done first, and had no problems in the process!! But sting would probably win.. more thought and design put into it. It took me 2 hours to design the wedgebot.. really..

If you still have it, we should get together and do some pushing.....????

Will, that sounds like a challenge. . . are you gonna just sit there, or "take 'em on?"

'cuz I wanna see. . .

rdubard wrote:

Will, that sounds like a challenge. . . are you gonna just sit there, or "take 'em on?"

'cuz I wanna see. . .

It's a friendly gesture....I've been trying to keep Will in the loop......All of our bots could probably use some R & D type testing...not to destroy anything, just pushing and shoving without spinning any weapons...we'll save that for another day.

We would also benefit from more stick time ... heaven knows, we need it...lol

we should do that some time!

will bales wrote:

we should do that some time!

You have my number...let me know when you have some free time