r/battlebots

I haven't followed it for a long time because I couldn't find a place to watch it in Brazil, but has Bronco been retired yet?

I have a decently hard-hitting, belt-driven weapon on my antweight robot and at an event this last weekend, in one of my fights I struck the opponent's weapon and an immediate plume of smoke emitted from my weapon motor, which was then down for the remainder of the match.

When I got the bot apart in the pits afterwards, it appeared there was melting/shorting at all three phase wires where they start their windings.

My guess is that the weapon strike caused a very brief but intense overcurrent/overvoltage that melted through the enamel and shorted the stator wires.

I run the smooth-side of an s3m belt to drive my weapon, to try to allow for some slip, but it is possible that the tension was a little on the tighter side, this has not really been a problem before now however.

Would adding a capacitor to the power pads on the ESC offer any benefit here, or cap+tvs diode for spikes?

I know it is pretty common or recommended for beetleweight weapons/6S builds, but hadn't really seen it mentioned anywhere for antweights.

I use the 45A ReadyToSky ESC to drive my weapon motor, which is a decently high kv 2207 that I've been pretty happy with lately.

Thanks!

Why did they stop making Robogames? The last tournament got some nice traction, action and exposure. And for the last two years, without Battlebots tournaments overlapping, it was the perfect time to stay active.

My wife and I went to NHRL last night. Jamison was there with Saiko. He took on Pyre in the 12lbs semifinal category. I have no doubt Jamison would be to first to tell you that he and Saiko were getting absolutely wrecked by Pyre and his driver Lars.
Just as all hope seemed lost for Saiko, Pyre just stopped working. Dead on the floor. Jamison steers Saiko into Pyre and starts pusing him, trying to get him to wake up. No luck. Time is ticking, 30 seconds left, KO count down sbout to start, Jamison jumps over to the tap out button to surrender. Right as he’s about to give Pyre the well deserved win, pyre wakes up and starts driving.
Right as the bell is about to ring, Pyre shuts down AGAIN. During the waiting period after the match, Jamison drives Saiko into Pyre AGAIN to try to wake him up…..
Pyre wakes up, and wins the JD. It’s unclear whether Jamison’s actions actually did anything to wake up Pyre, but the fact he went out of his way to help so much…. Jam-O knew he didn’t deserve that win and acted like a real competitor.
Goddamned national treasure.

Anyone like hydra, or huge

Tombstone vs. Bronco made me wonder. Ray did time the final hit against Bronco such that if something went wrong it would be too late for a count-out. Still, it was a silly gamble, as Tombstone's guts burst forth from its own energy.

In an extreme hypothetical case where TS completely exploded into metal confetti in the final seconds, I wonder if the judges would have scored it differently? And if so, could it ever be enough to lose? (Bronco was a banged-up mess and could barely move near the end. Tombstone looked in good shape until that final dumb move.)

When you look at the judging system and look at the advantages of a crusher-bot, they line up almost exactly.

Damage: The most important category, and Crushers are perfect at exploiting it, and arguably are even better at it than spinners are. A spinner has to hit the opponent several times to finally knock something loose and mess up the opponent. When a crusher bites into another robot it is almost always going to damage something important. Just look at Razer’s battles over the years. Whenever it successfully punctured the opponent’s armor, it pretty much always immobilized it or at least severely hampered it with just a few bites.

Control: As a subcategory of grabber, Crushers are great at exploiting this as well. Quantum for example is great at grabbing the opponent, and taking them on a very violent tour of the BattleBox.

Aggression: Unlike spinners, Crushers don’t need to take a few seconds to spin up before they can deal damage, in fact, the way their weapons work kinda requires them to stay on top of the enemy for the whole match, making them perfect at scoring those.

You want any more proof that crushers aren’t outdated? In 2018, Spectre, aka Quantum with a reskin, won King of Bots, and did very well in the competitions afterwards.

But… you read the title. They’re only almost perfect. So let’s go over a few of the problems.

Durability: Hydraulic systems are heavier than most other weapon systems, so that doesn’t leave a lot of room for redundant components or tough armor for the rest of the bot.

Reliability: From what I’ve seen, crushers are somewhat less likely to outright fail than other weapons, but they run into this problem sometimes where they can’t seem to crush with full capacity, like Razer’s fight with Onslaught, or, more recently, Petunia’s performance in 2019, where it failed to fully crush anything. (On a side note, if someone could explain what causes this, I would be very thankful). There’s also Razer’s early years, where it seemed to just randomly break down for no apparent reason on several occasions.

Skill: Because they’re control bots and not spinners, crushers are naturally more complex to operate, requiring more precise driving and positioning, compared to other weapons that just need to get under the enemy to get the weapon working.

In conclusion: I think if a crusher bot could fix the issues while honing in on what works, then it could be a very serious competitor that could perfectly exploit the rules. Just remember, in Robot Wars, Razer was a crusher, and it was undoubtedly the bot to beat if you wanted to win. So far, it looks like Quantum is hot on the trail of making a successful crusher, but we’ll have to see how it does in the future.