Maker_faire - mjbots blog

After a concerted push, I managed to get Super Mega Microbot “Junior” walking, for all of 15 minutes, then packed it up and went off to compete in Maker Faire. Needless to say, with that much testing, I wasn’t expecting stellar results, and I wasn’t disappointed. However, I did learn a lot. Here’s some of the things that went wrong:

Gimbal and Turret EMI

For this new revision of SMMB, I updated the gimbal board to use RS485 and support the 5S system voltage. I tested it some, but apparently not enough. While I observed no problems during Thursday or Friday’s testing at the site, during the first Saturday match, after firing the gun a few times, the gimbal went into a fault state and stopped applying power. The control scheme for SMMB relies on the turret being operational, so this not only made it impossible to aim, but also made it nearly impossible to drive.

Well, Mech Warfare at Maker Faire 2019 has come and gone. Maker Faire was a really awe inspiring event, and RTeam did an excellent job organizing the Mech Warfare competition. There were something like 13 teams with moderately functioning mechs who competed across the 3 days.

Super Mega Microbot “Junior”

My entry, Super Mega Microbot Junior, did manage to walk a bit in 3 matches, but had a previously unseen failure in the turret system that rendered it inoperable a short while into each match. At the end of the 3rd match, one of the leg joints sheared off, and some other of the 3D printed parts were about to fail as well, so I declared it unrepairable at that point.

Archives: Maker_faire

Results from Maker Faire 2019

Gimbal and Turret EMI

Mech Warfare 2019 - First look

Super Mega Microbot “Junior”