The chassis cracked in the corner, completely separating. Doing anything more with this chassis was likely to result in many more things breaking very quickly.
Build process
So, here are the photos as I put everything together.
Raspberry pi attachedAll the wiring extractedHalf the legs off the old chassisLegs re-attached to new chassis!Battery stud and wiring re-installedThe power board installedBottom plates installedUpright with untidy wiresAll set for testing!
Next up is continuing to try and get pronking working!
There were a few minor post-modifications I had to make, which were all much faster than printing the pieces again. All the holes for M3 bolts were slightly undersized, so I drilled them out. The battery holder had a channel to let the power wires out, which inexplicably terminated before reaching the edge of the holder. I also had to install all the heat set inserts.
Mostly assembledAll put together, with a snazzy new sticker
I did attempt something new, which was to post-process the printing by smoothing out a corner by sanding. An experiment it was. I spent about 2 hours on it, of which 45 minutes was on the coarsest paper I had, about 80 grit. I eventually gave up on that coarsest grit and started moving on, so there are still a few blemishes in the final result.
Smoothed out corner
Needless to say, until I get really bored, I probably won’t spend the full day required to do the other 3 corners of the chassis using this method.
There are a few other minor changes I’ll make before installing legs, which will be the next step!
As described in my roadmap, the chassis for the quad A0 was on the verge of failing, or causing the shoulder motors themselves to fail, after only a few hours of walking around. Also, it was nigh impossible to assemble, disassemble, or change anything about it. Thus, the chassis v2!
More than one piece
The old chassis was a single monolithic print that took about 35 hours of print time. Because of its monolithic nature, there were lots of interference problems during assembly. For instance, the shoulder motors could only have 4 of the 6 possible bolts installed, and 2 more of the bolts extended beyond the chassis entirely. I decided to break it up into multiple pieces, which uses a lot more inserts and bolts, but should allow for a feasible order of assembly and manageable repair.
Now there are separate front and back plates, to which the shoulders can be attached in isolation. Then the top plate can attach to that, followed by the side plates, the battery holder, and eventually the bottom plates.
Enclosing the electronics
V1 had the primary computer sitting on top of the chassis. That was a legacy from the first Mech Warfare configuration, where the primary computer sat in the turret. I’ve decided that for Mech Warfare, I’ll just put a second independent computer in the turret, which frees the robot computer to be placed inside the chassis where it is much less likely to get mangled.
The power distribution board is now mounted to the other side opposite the computer, instead of on the now top-plate.
Power switch and strap
I’ve left room for a recessed top mounted power switch on the top plate. This should remove the need to unplug and re-plug the battery any time that power needs to be cycled. That hole is marked in red below.
Also, while I’m at it, I left holes in the top through which a carrying strap can be threaded (marked in blue above). The old chassis had some M3 inserts that I screwed eye bolts in and then threaded some cord through. That didn’t work terribly well and was unsightly.
Battery
As mentioned in the roadmap, I was going to try and replace the battery with something with a smaller form factor. I looked through a number of batteries, and got a Milwaukee M18 as the best of the options, but ultimately decided that the Ryobi style was the best compromise for now despite the wasted space. All the lower profile ones required insertion sliding in from the side, which would have required that the chassis be much longer than it was already.
Thus, I still have the 3D printed Ryobi battery holder, only now it attaches to the top plate with just some bolts instead of a complicated dovetail arrangement I had previously.
Stiffeners
Since this is being printed in multiple pieces, I wanted a separate piece to increase the longitudinal stiffness. That is now just two plates which bolt to the front and back plate, and to the battery holder.
A Modicum of Fun 