Banshee Decal Sheet
Making Banshee in Robot Rumble 2? Putting together a Banshee papercraft? Use these decals to make your model look just like the real thing! (This image is provided for free but is not for commercial use)
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Team Small Robots Blog
Note: This archive is incomplete. I am slowly moving all of my Facebook posts to this site. More and more will be added over time.
EVAC Nov 2024 Event Report
EVAC (East Valley Attack Combat Robotics), is the newest combat robotic club in Arizona alongside Wolves Robotics Booster Club, UoA’s Wildcat Robotics Club, and of course my own club: Arizona Robotic Combat. Since this was their first ever event, I was expecting a nice laid back competition that was fun to both hang out and…
Harbor Freight Replacement Bins (More Compartments)
The Harbor Freight black and yellow organizers are nice and cheap, but I wanted some smaller compartment options. These are drop-in replacements of the existing bins that do just that. 4×2 (Large) 2×2 (Medium) 1×2 (Small) These all use the same grid system so you can combine two Smalls to make a Medium and so…
Púca V3 (and 2)
Puca V2 Wait a minute, Puca 3? What happened to 2? Let’s cover that real quick. So after Puca won Norwalk in January 2023, it fought at Motorama the next month where it would slowly obtain a negative win/loss ratio. Pictured above is Puca’s big secret. The 4-in-1 ESC actually sticks out the back…
The Highlander V10
Wow… I can’t believe I’ve made 10+ versions of this robot and it’s almost a decade old! V10 is my biggest redesign yet. The chassis is all TPU again, except for the baseplate AND the arm supports, which are carbon fiber to keep things rigid. Laser cutting is great and all, but quite pricey. That’s…
DARK ENERGY DISC, a 1lb Plastic Ant THAT WILL SEND YOU TO THE SHADOW REALM
Background Dark Energy Disc (DED) is a 1lb plastic antweight I built for my brother James. It’s a simple horizontal midcutter that uses a Colbolt-inspirted blade for a weapon. Theme DED is a Yu-Gi-Oh themed robot. The name itself comes from one of the more humorous instances of censorship in the anime. Originally, Yugi and…
Motorama 2023 Event Write-Up
Fight Videos All of Gimli’s fights can be found here.However, I won’t be doing a recap video on Púca and Son of Kram. They didn’t do too well and I don’t have the time. But I will cover what happened in their fights in this write-up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOJ8inG1hKQ&ab_channel=TeamSmallRobots Gimli So the first day of Motorama…
Introducing Puca, a 4WD Drum Spinner!
Background Puca is my take on an uber-competitive try-hard Beetleweight. Those of you familiar with my Hobbyweight Son of Kram will notice that’s nearly identical in everything except size! (And of course the drum isn’t a stack, but more on that later). Due to SOK’s success in previous event, it seemed like a good place…
Mega Smol Hubs
Introducing V2! (11/24/2024) V1 (with spokes) V2 (no spokes) The main issue I was having with v1 was the entire tire would get ripped off during a hit instead of just a small chunk. This was fixed by removing the spokes entirely and enlarging the base of the hub. This provides plenty of surface area…
BattleBots Destruction Debrief: Banshee VS Switchback
Join me as we breakdown our first fight of the new BattleBots season with Banshee after we took on Switchback! We’ll cover some of the backstory behind getting Banshee combat ready as well as take a closer look at the damage we received during the match.
Banshee Battle Tunes
Hello Banshee fans! Looking for some new tunes? We have a Spotify playlist dedicated to the bot! In this playlist, you’ll find some heavy banshee-themed tracks, some of David Small’s favorite folk metal songs, and a handful of other metal songs that embody the spirit of everyone’s favorite screaming ghost lady. I’m always looking for…
The Highlander V9
Time for another Highlander! Starting things off with a fresh nylon print. Nylon loves to curl, so these “lily pads” are added to keep the part from curling during the printing process, then are snipped off after. I also decided to make the baseplate its own part since carbon fiber is much more rigid than…
The Highlander V8
Version 8 involved learning how to print Taulman’s Bridge Nylon myself. It’s a huge pain to print, mainly because the diameter of the filament isn’t constant. But after a ton of trial and error I got some decent results. Certainly not as good as Isaak’s prints, but it’ll hopefully get the job done. The other…
Morag, a 30lb Full Combat Pneumatic Flipper
We start with the custom ram I designed to handle the 900+ psi pressure of the robot’s HPA system. The ram and the buffer tank were hydotested to 150% its operating pressure to ensure safe use. Previous Next Adding the keyways to the BaneBots hubs Previous Next The black piece is the base of the…
The Highlander V7
As cool as the TiLander was, it wasn’t the best at taking hits and, more importantly, replacing parts is expensive. My friend Isaak Malers has been working tirelessly the last few years trying to make 3d printed chassis’s viable in antweights. After showing me how flexible printed nylon is, I decided to design the next…
The Highlander V6
And now for something completely different! Highlander V6’s chassis and arm are made entirely out of laser-cut titanium! Introducing… The TiLander! The entire robot is bolted together with #4 bolts and nutstrip. It’s shaping up to be the best looking version of the robot to date! The top plates are bent to match the curve…
Dual Valve Modification for The Highlander
In my Motorama Event Report, I mentioned how the dual valves in The Highlander usually don’t fire at the same time. After taking the valves apart, I was able to have them share a single RC Switch. Now they fire at the same time every time! The view of the valve with the manifold removed.…
The Highlander V5
Highlander’s biggest enemy (aside from horizontal spinners) has always been weight. For this version, I ordered a fresh set of chassis pieces and had them pocketed as well. The entire robot is a little bit smaller too, so that’ll save a nice amount of weight as well. To save space, moved the EndBots DESC underneath…
The Smol Hub: Stupid Cheap and Easy Insect Wheel Hubs
In search of a wheel hub lighter than the FingerTech SnapHubs for my antweight The Highlander, I’ve come up with this simple 3d printed hub. The hub is just a simple cylinder with a d-slot for a 3mm shaft to fit into. A 1/2″ foam tire can then be super glued to the hub. …
The Highlander V4
After the disasterous performance of both the 3d printed chassis and the heat-set inserts, I moved back to UHMW for Highlander’s chassis. However this time, I had the pieces CNC’ed by my friend Matthew Tompkins! Only the side profiles were machined though, so I still had to drill and thread holes for the screws myself.…
The Highlander V3
For V3 of my flipper bot, I had the entire chassis printed as a single Onyx part by EndBots.com! This saves a ton of weight and allows me improve the pneumatic system. 2x the tanks! 2x the valves! Highlander’s air supply didn’t last very long with just one tank. Plus, the working pressure of the…
The Highlander V2
Big Improvements for The Highlander! Faster Drive Better armor PNEUMATICS! I made the chassis by printing out a drawing of the side rail, then tracing around the outline with a coping saw and drilling the holes with my drill press. The drive wheels also been upgraded from n20’s to 16mm kitbot motors! The chassis is…
The Highlander (Formally Torsion 2)
New parts in the mail! Pulled Torsion out of its box and wow! It looks even uglier than I remember. But not to worry, most of these parts are being scrapped. Parts I’m Keeping: Wheels – Brackets – I’m really happy with these Polou Wheels. No issues. Battery – I used an E-Flight 30C 450mAh…
Torsion – A 1lb Spring-Flipper
Started construction of my 1lb combat robot Torsion. The bot will use torsion springs (thus the name) to power a flipper arm. It uses a snail cam and a tsiny 9v 12rpm motor. The final version won’t have metal this thick/heavy. So here is a Youtube Video of my prototype of Torsion’s spring-loaded flipper. My…