It was a big push to get the robot finished on time, including wiring it up in the motel the night before!

Making the inner chassis

Welding in the dividing walls for components, all make of 3mm Aluminium.

Dummy fitting where all the parts go.

Making the outer wheel bearings

Drives finished.

Adding the rear section.

Painted!

Assembled!

It’s been a bit quiet here as we’ve been busy!

Quickly CNC’d up some motor mounts and supports for the drive

Started machining the weapon hub

Then drilling it out

Then boring it

Then making some bushes

Bushes pressed into the weapon hub, then the assembly pressed into the weapon bar.

A quick dummy fit.

Picked up the weapon belts. HTD 5M-325-15

Machining the weapon timing pulley. A 36T pulley to give the weapon a 2.4:1 reduction.

A quick dummy fit again.

The weapon motor mount… an after thought…

After cutting the upright and tack welding it in.

Motor mounted

Belt fitted.

3D printed jigs are awesome.

Drive mostly ready.

Another update!

Batteries arrived, this will give Knightrous a 12S 2.2Ah capacity.

This decision was something I had been holding off, on doing for a while, but it became inevitable with the requirements for this robot. The drive and wheels must go close to the weapon axis and it needs more space to fit them. So the original chassis and wheel guards had to be removed….

This left it looking very bare, but it did make space!

I’m still undecided on which drive configuration I’m going to decide on.

The spur gears are a very simple setup, uses off the shelf parts and will be easy to repair and service

The planetary gearboxes are more expensive, require some modifications but have a nice and simple form factor that suits the robot.

The new wheel guards tack welded in. More bracing and reinforcement to come!

More cutting, welding and grinding!

Began adding some underside structure and bracing.

Tacked into place until final sizing and triming is done.

With the bracing on the back, the drive can now start being setup

Just a quick mock up, but it’s the rough plan

Completed a lot of welding and made some things very permanent.

Uprights multi tack welded into place and positioned.

Side supports and armour welded to the chassis and uprights

Fully welded uprights around the shaft and side supports.

Awaiting some parts to arrive now, so it’s time to move onto the drive.

Had to get brutal with the grinder again. Removed all the weapon assembly and cut all the sections of the lower chassis that are not required.

Welded in the sections that are remaining.

Hoping to start welding in the uprights permanently tonight, the progress onto finalising some parts of the weapon like motor position and belt lengths.

Sent the Hardox 500 uprights off to Glen to have 30mm holes bored into them for the weapon shaft bushes to fit Then tack welded the assembly back onto the chassis for alignment.

Started making an MDF template for the side armour/brace. It’s an awkward shape.

First one cut from yet more Hardox 500. A few errors in the temeplate will require a bit of gap filling with the welder, but that happens 

Closer but the gaps are pretty noticeable from here…

Both sides cut out, aligned into place and tack welded.

And once again a quick reminder on where things should go….

While everyone was having the pleasure of competing at RoboWars Brisbane, I had to settle for a long weekend in the garage.

Have to start some where I guess.

Mocked up a hub + pulley for the weapon.

Using some offcuts to position things to roughly where they will go.

Shaped some MDF for a rough template to transfer into Hardox 500

Hardox 500 parts with a temporary noodle shaft (Till I can drill a 30mm hole in the Hardox  )

It’s back on the bench baby!

We’ve got some new drives lined up for it!

It’s even getting a weapon!

With this big kahuna size motor to power it!

Sadly had to pull out of the August sportsmen event, but pumped to make up for it by attending Nationals 2019 for the first time in 3 years!