Team Jag is going melty!!

A new 12/15 bot is underway and if that works out, then the 120 ttat/StingEm project will be put on ice in exchange for a 120 pound melty....

the school year hasnt even started yet!!

Cody Harris wrote:

the school year hasnt even started yet!!

We've had voluntary meetings over the summer

We had a very productive meeting today....

Quite a few got to drive the melty ant and they like it...so the 15 melty is in the design stages.

We also tested it on a plywood sheet and it translates fine

The students also got to play pushy with brushed vs brushless drivetrains and the brushless setup also looks quite good.

So things are moving along...the 120 melty is also in the works!!!

just a heads up... the bots iq 120 arena is far from perfect.... and they already noted that it was that same arena.

there a re large gaps, warps, and the panels are not very level with each other.

Im not sure if this will cause the melty problems, but im assuming the imperfections of the floor will make translating somewhat difficult and could potentially cause you to send you self flying.

Yup...we've seen it and we learned from Moto that low bots can be a problem on wood and uneven floors.

The 120 will have between 1/4 and 1/2" clearance, so while a 120 melty will bounce around for sure, it should be fun to watch...I'm afraid that if it hits the walls hard enough, it might go thru!!!!

Haven't run the numbers, but if a 15 can create 10 to 40k joules, imagine what a 120 will do!!!!! Should be scary to say the least...so stand back if and when it spins up and hits anything....

Pinpong with a 120 pound ball couldbe hazardous to your health and shold make some BIG crashing sounds as well...

I'm almost sure that if the kids get her built and running right, that they'll shut us down after 1 match and say that it's too dangerous to run in that arena....

When I first ran the 3 pounder at GCRS, it almost took the arena apart. Panels were flying off the sides and the floor was jumping up and down....I had to shut it down and not even calibrate it until the event was over and I got a chance to slow it down

it would be sortof cool to mount a hi speed video camera to it before a fight....

Great meeting today....around 40 kids showed up.....it's growing!!

Melty 15 is almost ready to make chips. hopefully mid to end of next week. Brushless drivetrain motors for 3 bots are in, waiting on controllers.

We are wating on a reply from the bb powers that be, on the 120 melty active weapon question.

Everyone is excited....newcomers got to see some classic mlec video...some good, some bad, some ugly, but mostly good....lol

All I can say is that this is a great group of kids....

Looks like the 120 melty is approved as an active weapon.....

let the fun and games begin

rjw wrote:

I'm afraid that if it hits the walls hard enough, it might go thru!!!!

If the arena is built the same way it usually is, it'll hold up. The Revenant (120 Spinner) had a habit of flying into the walls a few years back, and they held up fine.

Did you see the 120 arena from last year?

I didn't really take a close look at it, but it isn't the BB big one with all the hammers, etc.

Hows the 15lb melty and the rest of your kids fleet looking? Almost a month away, any testing videos or anything?

also what happened to the 120 version i dint see it registered on buildersdb?

There was a 15 mini-event at Starbot two weeks ago (or was it last week? I dunno, time flies!!), and JAG had all their old bots (TTATT, Rattler I, Rattler 2, Sting WMD, and one other whose name I have forgotton) AND THEY RULED! But there was not a melty among them. I didn't ask about it, cuz I know the adults associated with that team have had a difficult year.

We (Ransom) brought 4 bots: an up-armored version of the brickbot we called 'El Caja," the triangular spring-steel-skinned wedgebot called "Trogdor," another triangular non-weapon bot that has been called "Dughi-Amazing-O-Bot," "I love Unicorns," and "Rhino," and really doesn't do much, and our double-eggbeater called "Schadenfreude."

Trogdor got wrecked in its first match--it was using the old Harbor Freight 'gearmotors' and when one jammed there wasn't time or parts on hand to replace/repair it.

Rhino lost 2 and was out.

El Caja won every match in which its sides did not fall off (kinda annoyed at my team about that bot--cost a bit of cash with S7 sides and Ti baseplate and two new P60's, but only 2 screws hold on each side!!)

Our best success was with Schade (that's what the team calls it--pronounced shoddy, which is kinda funny). This bot was a real challenge last year, the concept being counter-rotating eggbeaters, one front and one back, but linked together so the energy of the two work together when it hits (this combined energy thing works to a limited degree). Seems like a good idea because you can attack front or back and the counter-rotation will nullify the gyro (both of which do work!!) It had design and battery problems last year, but those got fixed (mostly by using a Doc Wattson to help us figure out what endpoint to set the throttle on so the batteries didn't get all hot and puffy). It worked rather well, but was still no match for the refined designs of the Miami Lakes' drums. It beat TTATT and one of our bots, but lost to one of the Rattlers and then got one weapon axle completely wrecked by the other Rattler.

A good day, lots of fun, but no meltys. . .I wonder what "Nationals" will bring?