PiWars 2017

Our blogging has been a bit slow this year but Team Ipswich Makerspace has been very busy beavering away on our new robot. Once again Keith is designing TractorBot (possibly being renamed this year) in Fusion360. Keith has had trouble with files becoming corrupt in previous years, but with 2 x PiWars worth of experience things are going well so far. The model is even parametric, believe it or not the two images below are renderings from the same model, just with a couple or parameters edited to change the primary dimensions.

Short and high

Large and flat

We started off using micro metal gear motors, and this is what we thought it would look like, once again using the trusty 7.2v NiCd batteries.

And the first hardware was born.

And little while later we had movement. It’s always good (and a relief) when you see a robot move for the first time.

TractorBot 2017 from Keith Ellis on Vimeo.

Tim Richardson @Geeky_Tim and Mike Horne @recantha are running PiWars once more, this time though rather than the usual December date it is taking place over the weekend of the first and second of April. The team from Ipswich Makerspace has entered the last two events and we found them thoroughly exciting, challenging and exhausting. Our blog from last year can be found here

Despite Keith having said never again after the last one, it didn’t take much to get him back on the team and to submit our entry for PiWars 2017. When I heard the event was very much over subscribed I got pretty nervous and was worried we wouldn’t be chosen to compete. I hadn’t really “sold” ourselves in the application; it hadn’t been necessary in previous years. I believe Tim and Mike had over 140 entries for only 76 were places. After some nail biting and with much relief I received an email from Mike on 30th September saying our entry had been accepted. We had a place :-D.

So who are the Ipswich Makerspace team?

Currently the team is made up by Phil, Jon, Keith and Steve. Our profiles can be found here in last years blog:

• Jon
• Keith
• Phil

What is the plan

Line sensor PCB mounted to chassis

The rules have changed this year, particularly with regard to size, so that last year’s bot was too big, meaning that we needed to go for a complete rebuild. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, whilst the 3D model looked very nice the actual bot was not that aesthetically pleasing, mostly due to all the wires on show.

TractorBot 2015

This year we are going to try harder and make the robot look nicer.

Let the fun begin