To begin the 2022, season, a second system of components were assembled into a complete second robot. Much like Battlebots’ increase in power, Norwalk Havoc creates a demand that must be met. This second robot is largely the same as the first but the weapon became a sleek new single-tooth made to counter horizontal spinners, new pulleys to ensure more reliable spin-ups and single-stage Versaplanetaries to get more space and weight back. In all, the second version became a slightly improved version over the original that ran all of 2021.
NHRL July 2022
The fork assembly was dramatically beefed up with 1/2″ AR500 for the forks themselves and welded 3/16″ mild steel for the housing. These were later switched to 3mm AR500, but these upgrades came very close to the July competition. In general, the robots were set to different configurations in order to minimize time preparing for fights. Shortly after arrival at the event, I took the original (for simplicity we’ll call this P1) down to the shop at Norwalk Havoc to grind down the tips for its first fight against Plyohazard. The main result of that fight is the drive on one side of P1 going in and out leading me to switch to the newer machine (which we’ll call P2) to be called up.
After that loss, P2 had a nice little picking apart with Alternate Side and quick rush against Depth Charge that was brief but violent. Unfortunately I still had to go through a bot as maneuverable as myself, but even more dangerous: Touro Feather. The fight against it was tactical and very violent. The damage from Touro Feather was firm, but less than I expected. The biggest damage was the motor pulley sliding down the shaft and being hit by the blade, causing it to implode. The sheared bolts and gnawed bottom were annoying but nothing that can’t be salvaged. After the competition, Dustin gifted me the bent weapon from Depth Charge after our fight. It’s wild to see how big it is compared to the robot itself, but that also makes it easily the best war trophy received yet!
The first thing to fix was the bent screwheads that Touro Feather had chewed the heads off from. Using some bent steel and a TIG torch I was able to make a very specific wrench to get the head out.
NHRL September 2022
At the beginning of the event, both robots were in separate configurations, ready to go for whoever it comes up against first. The goal going into this event was to try 8s in P2 to see if more speed could be pulled out of the weapon in hopes of some really devastating hits. A Mamba Monster X 8s was paired with a 1450kv and 2x 3000mah 4s lipo batteries were subbed in for the standard 4500mah 6s and it was sent out out for combat. The first fight was against Captain Caveman which is a remarkably stout shell made of solid welded steel and uses a form of shuffling to get a weight bonus to bring it up to 45lbs. Unfortunately, the higher voltage wrecked the weapon motor/ESC combo which killed the weapon most of the match and the drive controllers didn’t like the higher current either. These elements worked together to nearly kill P2, but we scraped away with the win.
The next match was against Other Disko and I was incredibly fearful for this fight. Other Disko is one of those machines that I saw as the standard for a good 30lb spinner and the Doerflers are one of the teams I first learned how to make straightforward and reliable machines that can win. Since P2 was hobbled, the original Phenomenon (P1) came out in the fork configuration and the battle commenced. This match was incredibly cathartic as the two main weaknesses from last year (poor weapon reliability and weak forks) were addressed and the original intent of modularity proved its superiority over conventional rigid-wedge mounting. The only real damage on P1 was the shot to the upright where Other Disko did a nice job machining off some material. Fortunately that only served as weight reduction so all is well for the next round!
After Other Disko, the next bot I fought was Yahoo which was definitely the frontrunner for the event. This machine looked incredibly strong at the Norwalk Havoc Finals and it was no surprise that same ferocity occurred during our fight. After that fight, the damage done to the machine was fairly severe as the drive, weapon, and chassis were all affected. The most notable damage was the front wedge being bent up and the screw heads cleanly sheared off. The leading edge of the wedge was also gnawed away by the drum. On the opposite side of the drum was some incredible rub marks as the harder S7 drum ate away at the softer AR400 wedge but didn’t catch the edge. All in all it was a brutal contest, and it was kicked down to the loser’s bracket.
Through the loser’s bracket returned Other Disko and the fight went even more violently than the original. As a nice gesture, Don Doerfler signed and gave me the bent back bar on Other Disko. Damage was fairly low, but the accumulated damage from earlier fights left many parts of the machine bent namely the holes that secure the top plate. For going into the Finals, that’s not a great place to be.
The fight was brutal with the fork on once side had been torn off and the top plate over the battery had been thrown off which ejected the battery. The robot has been pretty worn by then so I wasn’t too surprised. With a finish of 2nd place, Phenomenon is painfully close to an overall win, but that will have to wait. Once again the machine was stripped down, checked over, reassembled, then prepped as best possible for the December Finals.
NHRL November 2022
Before December though there was a little detour! November Norwalk Havoc was the last event that 30lb Sportsmans were going to compete at. This means that all future NHRL events (at least for the foreseeable future) will be full-combat. A good of friend of mine named Zac O’Donnell made an incredible machine called Magneato whose flywheel flipper become an inspiration for the incredible flipper Blip on Battlebots! Unfortunately this machine isn’t made for full-combat Featherweights so Sportsmans is the only option to fight it. I hadn’t seen him in awhile so in order to ensure that he would come up to NHRL and show off his incredible machine I decided to adapt Phenomenon into a lifter robot based off the lifting method popularized on Claw Viper using components from an older machine. Since the commentators had hummed Phenomenon’s name to the tune of ‘mah-na mah-na’ from the Muppets I decided to name this new configuration “Mahna Mahna.”
Because this was designed to be a retrofit into a currently existing machine, everything had to be designed to accommodate any of the design limitations of Phenomenon’s chassis. To begin the process there was some preliminary CAD‘ing just to get the shapes lined up and see how the design worked out and to see if there were any other modifications needed to make everything function within weight. Once the 3/4″ UHMW central rails were made, the components were laid out to check fitment and notice any discretions in the system. The biggest observation was noting that the lifter gearbox consumed more room than expected which forced the electronics to move into the internal area between the central frame rails. This forced holes to be drilled for wires to move between areas.
Because the the baseplate doesn’t have a pre-cut position for the lifter gearbox, I had to get a little creative with making a consistent mounting hole position. Using a leftover piece from my SendCutSend order I cut it to the rough shape of the gearbox then poked holes into it to create a mounting jig. I then used the holes to mark holes into the chassis, checking its position by marking the gearbox’s outer edges in red ink then laying the cardboard in position to match it.
In the same way, because the lifter is referenced off the gearbox’s position I had to complete a much more analog method to figure it out, i.e. Cardboard-Aided Design. Once again I used some leftover cardboard, noted the position of the lifter then modified the computer model of the design to meet those criteria. I then transferred the design from Solidworks to Fusion360, completed the CAM for it then headed to the CNC router.
Using a low-profile vise I began machining some 1/2″ 6061 to make the rails. After a little bit of deburring, 3D-printing a jig (printed in green TPU, sitting behind the pieces), drilling/tapping 1/4-20 holes, and pressing in bronze bushings the lifter supports were done.
A green TPU center piece was printed to cover the gap between the UHMW rails and protect the electronics. In the Sportsman class there aren’t supposed to be any high-energy weapons so the odds of anything (especially just Magneato) reaching in and poking the electronics is extremely low, but its better safe than sorry! I then used a leftover #25 36T originally waterjet cut from 1/8″ 6061. I was not confident in using it, but since it was on-hand it was worth the attempt to learn for the future. In its first attempt at lifting the un-converted Phenomenon the much harder steel keyway easily pealed through the much softer aluminum, deforming it horrendously. This was then replaced with an 1/8″ AR500 sprocket which was waterjet cut with a sprocket profile. The sprocket was then placed on a 1/2″ shaft where it was then squished by two rubber pieces and shaft collars to keep things compressed. It was then placed in my small desktop drill press, spun up, then I used an angle grinder to bevel the edges. The rubber provided some slip just in case I was leaning too hard onto it with the angle grinder. In the end it created a fairly even bevel and the chain fit into the teeth nicely.
Mahna Mahna had a nice run time demoing at the competition. Ultimately the keyway on the output sheared so it couldn’t suplex, but it did prove to be great inspiration for Fracas.
NHRL December 2022
Phenomenon’s run in the Finals had some good learning and incredible violence. Though it lost the fork game to Plyohazard in its first match, it led a very solid run against Captain Caveman, Touro Feather, RIPperoni (30lber not the 250lber), and culminating in a loss to the legendary MegatRON. The RIPperoni match was easily the most destructive as the drivetrain failed in new ways. In vice versa, the destruction inflicted by Phenomenon onto the weapon was equally incredible as it failed too. In the end, the greatest learning about the machines wasn’t a new world-shaking idea, but rather a refinement to avoid the failure modes that the chassis accumulated over time. The ground game remains a difficult one to play and the pursuit of it is a hot topic in the robot combat world. While there may be new attachments to work on down the line for the robot, the general shape is still exactly as I want it to be. For this event. Norwalk Havoc announced that every qualifying robot would receive $5,000 to direct to a charity of their choosing. For Phenomenon, growingSTEMS was the chosen charity. Zoe, whose team operates as a part of growingSTEMS graciously commemorated the opportunity through giving this little plaque. A wonderful way to cap off 2022!
Bone Dead Robotics 