Version 1.0
I first got the idea for Voxel after I saw Robert Cowan's video series on his antweight drum spinner, Sgt. Cuddles. I liked the amount of detail Robert gave, so I felt comfortable using some of the main design aspects in my first beetle. After playing around for a few weeks, this is what I first came up with:
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| The first complete version of Voxel. |
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| The first complete version of Voxel. |
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| The first complete version of Voxel. |
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| The first complete version of Voxel. |
The chassis was very similar to Sgt. Cuddle's, being machined from a single solid block of UHMW. Drive motors were 22:1 Silver Sparks with TinyESCs, each driving a 1 5/8" BaneBots wheel. The weapon motor was the FingerTech inrunner with a 25A Turnigy Plush. The whole electronics system would run off of a 3S 850mAh LiPo. I had previously used a HK-T6a Tx/Rx, so I decided to run with something I knew would work.
After putting everything together, I was still ~8 oz underweight, so I opted to beef up the weapon and make it as heavy-hitting as possible. The weapon would be a solid 6061 drum with hardened S7 teeth. The final weight came out to ~1.25 lbs, way above the standard for beetleweight weapons. I still had weight left over, so I went pretty overkill with the axle, a 3/8" OD rod of tempered 4140, which ended up weighing nearly a quarter of a pound.
The biggest mistake I had with this whole project was having the drum machined first. I had a local machine shop mill the aluminum, and I attached the teeth back in my garage. Doing the weapon first cased some major issues down the road when I opted to switch to heavier drive motors. I didn't have the option of making another drum, so I had to reduce weight from other parts of the robot that I didn't want to remove weight from.
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| The finished drum for Voxel, weighing in at 20.1 oz. |
