Big Disk Energy V2

After having BDE completely together and fighting for 2 matches and a rumble, I was able to conclude that the poor CG placement of the robot made it very hard to maneuver in combat and that my wheels had to change because the lite flites and fingertech hubs fell off every match. BDE V2 is going to address these issues with a new frame and a change from lite flite/fingertech wheels to the botkits D2 foam wheels.

I knew that I wanted the next iteration of BDE to be short but wide so I could push the electronics behind the wheels to move my CG back while also being able to fit blade's full diameter under the robot. Since most of my CAD was based off of a single sketch, changing the frame shape was relatively simple. 

Through a little bit of trial and error changing different parameters, I was able to get the CG of the robot about halfway between the front skid and the rear wheels. This means that about half of the robot's weight is on the wheels. I checked the V1 CAD and in that the CG was far closer to the front skid, leaving only 1/4 of the robot's weight on the rear wheels.

The second part of this iteration is switching to the improved botkits D2 wheels. I ordered them a week after Franklin and they arrived shortly after. These wheels use a clamping hub to attach to the motor shaft and hold the wheels on with two bolts, so they should be much more reliable. The reason I did not use these at first is because this wheel system is much more expensive than lite flites and only come in a 2.75" diameter, while BDE V1 used 2" wheels. 

Because of this, I needed a longer front skid bolt head to keep the blade from hitting the ground. I decided to machine a bolt myself this time so I can polish it to get a lower coefficient of friction on the front skid, further improving the robot's drive-ability.

After re-machining the frame and switching wheels, BDE was once again ready to fight.