My bot, Double B will be competing at:

Seattle Bot Battles
April, 12, 2003 (Saturday)
Pacific Science Center (Seattle)
10am - 6pm

The antweights (including my bot) should start fighting sometime after 10am. If you show up by 11 or so - you should get a chance to see Double B in action. Judging from previous events the fighting will likely continue until 1-2pm.

There will be robot fighting throughout the day - including 12lbs bots a bit later in the day.

The build reports kind of long so here's a quick summary:
- Bot is working and quite destructive
- Video and pictures at http://www.spambutcher.com/bots.html

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The bot is basically put together and fully functional. Bottom is .06" lexan, top is .03" lexan. Sidewalls will also be .03" lexan. Motor mount is also lexan (formed to shape while heated).

Current weight is about 14.5oz - so I've got 1.5oz to do the side armor - shouldn't be a problem. I also plan on adding an anti-flip bar of some sort.

I've measured the blade at about 2/3rds throttle at 9800 RPM. I wasn't comfortable having it spin any faster with me a few feet away. I suspect full speed is about 12k RPM. The Rocket 400 motor has performed as intended. I wanted high RPM without having to go too high voltage wise. Power is from 5 x Sanyo 500AC cells (nicd / 500mah).

Current blade is high-carbon steel and was originally a backup blade for my original bot - Arrogant Bastard. I'm probably going to replace it with a cobalt-steel alloy blade (less likely to chip).

The bot is quite controllable at up to about 3/4 throttle - beyond that it likes to start dancing a bit.

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I'd been having a lot of problems frying my drivetrain speed controllers (ES-01's) - I initially thought they were junk components. I eventually switched back to sozbot's speed controller - but found it shut down after several minutes of driving (likely due to overheating). I'd also been burning out a lot of drive motors.

New theories on this:

A. The gearing I was running my gearbox at was too high in conjunction with the moderately high voltage (6v) I was running the motors at
B. I'd mounted the gearbox too tightly against the lexan, causing it to bend / create extra resistance
C. Combination of A & B

I've since loosened up the mounting on the gearbox and switched to a lower gearing. The bot is much slower now (top speed of maybe 2mph vs 5mph) - but is quite reasonable for a 6'x6' arena. Control is also much easier. Have not had further problems with motors or speed controller.

Runtime is 5-8 minutes depending on how hard I run the blade.

After my last bot's marginal performance - I'm cautiously optimistic about double b's prospects (that said - someone should really bring a broom - there's going to be a mess to clean up)

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