We needed to resolve a couple of issue with Dangly Too, namely
He goes too fast, so we need to slow him down a bit to make him more controllable and capable of tackling the challenges
He’s just too wide… but only by about 3mm at 228mm
The solution is to fit new slower motors and shorten the wheel axles a bit to reign him in to be Pi Wars-compliant
Time to Disassemble
Open-heart surgery time… remove the wheels, remove the pulleys, remove the axles, remove the motors. He looks a sad state now after his run-around at the CamJam event on Saturday.
We can rebuild him
We now just need to fit the new slower motors - they’re a bit longer due to a bigger gearbox, but just fit into the available space with a bit of wriggling. Removing the 4 screws and the wires is straightforward. We’re adding a washer to the screws for additional strength against the 3D printed body and reconnect.
For the axles, we’re adding some 1mm thick washers to bring them in a little at the centre. Easier than cutting a bit off, and we’re now down to just 220mm wide, sufficiently within the Pi Wars limits.
Then re-fit the pulleys and belts. We need to adjust the motor mount screws to get the belt tension correct. A bit fiddly and we’re guessing how tight they need to be, but we know that slippage will cause real problems. Bit worried that one of the motors appeared to be jamming, but hopefully that’s only me trying to back-turn the motor via the gearbox and that’s not how it runs when powered. We’ll see.
Time to test
All rebuilt now, just need to test out the modifications. Initial motor control seems to work, now for the challenges 😀
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