Last Minute Changes and Other Notes

New Design Error Discoveries

When replacing the set screws for the wheel hubs, I noticed that the hole in the hub isn't actually lining up with the slots in the drive shaft and the set screws are actually sitting outside of the slot. So, I'm going to do a slight rearrangement of the wheel assembly to see if I can get the slots to line up with the set screw, and if not I'll grind the slot slightly wider to accommodate. I suspect that this was the reason why I lost so many wheels in my first competition, since the set screws weren't in the slots, any loosening of these screws would cause the wheels to come off with enough centripetal force.

Also related to the wheel assembly is that the mounting hubs are actually not screwed in all the way due to the short length of the screws used to screw it in. I believe at some point in the design process I changed the depth of the counter sink and never adjusted the screw size to accommodate for the new longer distance the screw has to reach to be fully threaded into the mounting hub. If I have the time I'm going to make my way over to the hardware store to get a 1/4" or 5/16" screw to replace the current 3/16". I didn't necessarily have issues with the hub ever coming lose in the last event, but better safe than sorry.

Additionally the teeth on the weapon are only held in place with zip ties working kind of like a shaft collar. I think I'm going to try and replace them with larger zip ties to get a more effective collar on the shaft, possibly add some sort of high friction item on it so that it really chokes the shaft and doesn't slide.

Update On Current Status

With the competition coming up in just a few short days, I'm getting down to the wire here. I still have to manufacture 1 more wedge, I don't think I'll need more than 2 for the whole weekend. However, if time allows I will try to cut out one more so that I can have a total of 3 for the weekend. I currently have only 1 extra back plate, but I'm not really worried about any of the bots at this event having the destructive power to destroy the plate outside of Silent Spring since most of them are wedge bots, or other vertical spinners.