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Wednesday07-Sep

Dragon Con Robot Battles 2005 First Place! (0)

Welcome to Evil Robots Inc
Tuesday, August 19 2008 @ 04:18 PM CDT

Robot Battles Chattacon 2008

Sunday, January 27 2008 @ 03:46 AM CST
Contributed by: jebrown
Views: 226

I attended the Robot Battles at Chattacon 2008 this year.
This is the first time we have had a Robot Battles event at Chattacon in over 10 years.

The same arena we use in Atlanta at Dragon Con was brought up for the competition, and we held a small event with 1lb and 3lb robots.
I brought Rippy's Revenge, an antweight based loosely on it's namesake Rippy, using the same weapon blade. Rippy was destroyed at the Dragon Con Robot Battles 2007 by the arena hazard.
Rippy's Revenge did not live up to his name and was also destroyed by the arena hazard.

I also brought a 3lb beetleweight robot called Ringo to the competition. There was only one other team there with 3lb robots, so we really just made it an exhibition match. I still lost, mostly due to the track system I stole from an RC car having horrible traction on the painted plywood arena floor.

Both Rippy's Revenge and Ringo used brushless motors for the weapons, but I was not terribly happy with their performance. The brushless motor controllers are too smart and shut down when a heavy load like hitting another robot is introduced. Brushed motors will just keep on trying to spin. I think I prefer that behavior. Also, brushless motors require a separate motor controller, which takes up space and adds extra weight.

I have uploaded a few pictures to the media gallery. Hopefully I will have some video from Kelly Lockhart next week.

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Dragon Con Robot Battles 2007

Thursday, September 13 2007 @ 12:42 AM CDT
Contributed by: jebrown
Views: 269

Evil Robots Inc attended the Dragon Con Robot Battles again this year.
I am hoping to obtain the full competition bracket information soon to post for everyone but the most important part is our 1lb robot Rippy took first place in the antweight competition. Rippy was later mostly destroyed by the arena hazard in the Battle Royale. The audience loved it, and so did I!.
Probulator did well in the 12lb competition but did not win.
Vorpal Bunny Fufu also did well in the 30lb competition but was out when the Vantec motor controller died while fighting Stewie Bot.

I have a lot of videos that have been sent to me that need some editing and compressing. Hopefully I will have those up in a few days.

Update- I am obviously a slacker about posting the videos. Go see some of them at the Robot Battles website.

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Xbox SPDIF coax output mod

Monday, December 04 2006 @ 02:44 PM CST
Contributed by: jebrown
Views: 627

I recently got a new HDTV and I wanted to hook up my Xbox properly, but the only inexpensive HD output cable I could find had an optical TOSLINK audio output instead of the SPDIF Coax that I needed to hook into my sound system. It also had standard stereo left and right, but wanting the best output I could get. I wanted digital audio out.

After a little research, I discovered that the signals for TOSLINK and SPDIF are pretty much the same, and I ran across this site: http://wrongcrowd.com/staticpages/index.php/xboxspdif .
HAH! I have you now! A quick dig in my electronics inventory came up with a female RCA jack. A couple bits of wire and some solder later I have my Xbox hooked up with full digital sound.

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Video from the DC 2006 Battles

Wednesday, September 27 2006 @ 02:27 PM CDT
Contributed by: jebrown
Views: 436

Dragon Con Robot Battles 2006 Highlights Dale Heatherington's video hosted by Google Video.

Dale always has the best footage. I have a bunch to edit and I will try to post it eventually.

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Robot Battles 2006 first report.

Monday, September 04 2006 @ 07:10 PM CDT
Contributed by: jebrown
Views: 705

Atlanta Robot Battles 2006.

I just returned from the Robot Battles in Atlanta. Here is a quick run down of how things turned out.

We won 1st place in the 12lb category again with Probulator!!
Dale did some amazing damage to Probulator with his new bot Omega Force. I will have some pictures and video soon.

Ugly Pancake fell flat. But, we built him in just a few hours from junk and we did not expect much.
Joe Torre took the 30 lb championship again this year.

The 12lb Battle Royale had to be fought twice since ALL robots were eliminated. We ended up losing the second time around too due to electrical failure. A battery tab broke loose due to a bad solder joint. Dale Heatherington won the 12lb Battle Royale.

The 30lb Battle Royale was won by Stewie Bot. I drove Ugly Pancake off the stage pretty early in the fight.

An interesting note, the 12lb, 30lb and 12lb Battle Royale had exactly the same winners as last year.

In the Antweight fights, Rippy lost quickly but did do significant damage to his opponent and to the arena itself.
There will be some video soon of Charles Guan literally tearing another bot to shreds. It was removed from the arena with a broom and carried away in a shopping bag.

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Robot Pictures 2006

Thursday, August 31 2006 @ 08:39 PM CDT
Contributed by: jebrown
Views: 448

Here are some pictures of the robots for the Dragon Con Robot Battles 2006.

Rippy	1 pound
Probulator	12 pounds
Ugly Pancake	30 Pounds

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Robot Marketplace

Wednesday, August 30 2006 @ 12:23 PM CDT
Contributed by: jebrown
Views: 864

I am having problems with Robot Marketplace again. They have a great selection of parts, but I have a few problems with orders.
Early in the year I ordered 2x Speed T-280 DC Motors for use on an ant weight weapon.
It seems these were not in stock and I kept getting promises they would be in soon. They never came.
After a couple months I finally just asked for a refund. To their credit they did not give me a problem with that and they were very nice and polite through the whole incident. The rest of my order was received on time.
Last week I ordered a new Spektrum DX6 Radio and an extra BR6000 receiver. Today I got the radio and 1 receiver. I was charged for the extra one, I just did not receive it.
I have called and left a message and also sent an e-mail to Robot Marketplace but I do not yet have a response.
This is very frustrating since I needed these items for the competition this weekend. I will be able to get by, but it is annoying.

(Update: 08/30/06)
Jim with Robot Marketplace got back to me this afternoon and refunded the price of the extra receiver to my credit card. It still annoys me that there was trouble, but I appreciate them giving me a refund without any hassle. I will continue to use them for parts, but I will try to leave myself more time to straighten out problems.

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Gearing up for Dragon Con

Wednesday, August 30 2006 @ 12:14 PM CDT
Contributed by: jebrown
Views: 678

Robots 2006

The robot rush is going full swing. Just a few days to go until Robot Battles 2006 at DragonCon.
The builds are going well though, Beelzubot has been retired. It was just not a viable design. He will be scrapped for parts. Probulator, who took first place at DC 2005 is getting a major upgrade. New motors from Banebots will increase his speed an maneuverability. I blew a big chunk of change upgrading the battery system to Li-Poly. Wow these batteries are awesome!
Probulator's chassis is also getting an upgrade. Replacing the plywood and HDPE that were used in the test design with 6061 aluminum and titanium. The "probe" is also getting a little bit of an upgrade.

This robot will be the first I have built singe buying a MIG welder and teaching myself to make ugly but strong welds in aluminum.
(Update: I can't weld aluminum worth a damn, not until I get a spool gun at least. Too many feeding problems)

A 30 pounder will compete, but I don't have a name yet. It is being thrown together with spare parts and will be interesting to say the least.

I am also bringing a one pound Ant-Weight to the microbattles. I think I will call him Rippy.

I will try to post some pictures of these later tonight or tomorrow.
View the rest of the story to see my schedule.

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Web Links

Wednesday, April 05 2006 @ 12:52 PM CDT
Contributed by: jebrown
Views: 567

I added some links from my old site today, I am trying to build up a nice collection here on the site and I have many more to add.

Please submit any links you think might be useful to the robotics community. [Add a Link]

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New Lathe and Milling Machine

Friday, March 17 2006 @ 03:03 AM CST
Contributed by: jebrown
Views: 758

I recently purchased a new lathe and Milling machine. A 1987 Jet 1325PDB Belt Drive Lathe and a Rong Fu 30 milling Machine.

I am very happy! It will take me a while to get them cleaned up and start making chips.

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