Division
Division is a Vertical Disk Spinner 3lb Robot.
Robot Facts
Version 2.8 (February 2021 NHRL)
| Driver | Seth Schaffer from Team Just 'Cuz Robotics |
| Weight Class | 3lb |
| Body Material | Titanium & Aluminum |
| Weapon | 7.5" Vertical Spinner |
| Weapon Drive | Cobra 2814 |
| Drive | Custom Brushless 1806 15:1 Gearbox |
| Power | 4S Lipo |
Version 2.8 (November 2020 NHRL)
| Weapon Drive | Propdrive 2836 V2 |
| Power | 3S Lipo |
Tournament Results
2021
| NHRL February | 3 Wins - 2 Losses |
2020
| NHRL January | 3 Wins - 2 Losses |
| NHRL July 1 | Did Not Compete |
| NHRL July 2 | Did Not Compete |
| NHRL September | Did Not Compete |
| NHRL November | 2 Wins - 2 Losses |
2019
| NHRL August (V1) | 2 Wins - 2 Losses |
| NHRL September | 2 Wins - 2 Losses |
Division's 2021 debut could have gone better. After its first opponent forfeit due to not showing up to the event, Division was faced with an extremely tough opponent in Eruption, a very Lynx-esque beater bar which spins much faster than Division's own weapon. Division always struggles against bots like this, and this was no exception, especially given the brand new weapon system as of yet untested in battle. Less than a minute into the fight Division tapped out with a drive side down, weapon motor entirely detached, and the power switch having been torn loose inside the bot. Fortunately the builder came prepared with a second Division as a spare, and was able to use it for the next fight while finishing up a nearly 3 hour repair job to get the first bot working properly again. It was discovered that the weapon system failure had been caused by not countersinking the motor mount screws deep enough - a costly oversight. All of the electronics besides the switch survived, however.
Division's next fight was against Doom, a meltybrain chain flail bot with unique fiberglass armor. The first two minutes were a whole lot of Division punting Doom all over the box and shrugging off its chain like it wasn't even there, occasionally cartwheeling all over the box without a single issue on the weapon system. This was a great sign, and a huge relief that proved the upgrades had worked as intended. Sadly the spare robot was outfitted with the older weapon which has a blunt neutral rake impactor, so it wasn't able to effectively penetrate the tough fiberglass armor on Doom like the new Cutter blade weapon might have. Even though the weapon was running at under 33% speed for the vast majority of the fight it had no problems almost launching Doom into the ceiling several times. The spare Division bot had a couple drive gearboxes with soldered on pinions rather than press fit due to a gear manufacturing error from the factory. Eventually, about 2 minutes in, one pinion began to slip. Division's drive side gave out, but Division had already bent the steel hoop around Doom up on both sides, so a single hit that flipped Doom was all it took to get the KO win. Division happily enjoyed a gyro dance on its good driving wheel. Spare Division got a new gearbox later on with a spare pressed on pinion and was good to go. Weirdly one of the front wedges snapped where it was bent, likely due to stress fractures from hits past.
Although called to get ready about 10 minutes later, repairs on the main robot were finished up just in time! With a fresh gearbox, rewired switch, new forks, new weapon motor, new rear armor panel, and fresh wheel hubs, Division made its way into the box to see a familiar face. In November 2020, Division had fought and destroyed Sea Devil, a bot by the same exact driver as Division's next opponent: Crossbow. Sea Devil was a vector kit. Crossbow was made of mostly Vector Kit parts, but sideways to make for a big vertical spinner. Unfortunately for Crossbow, its weapon was not a Vector kit bar, but rather a far far heavier weapon, and the weapon motr from the Vector kit couldn;t quite handle the added inertia. Out of the gate, Division gets up to half speed in a second, crosses the box, and delivers a nice hit to Crossbow before Crossbow managed to get spun up or leave the starting position. Crossbow gets stuck on its side, which is its most stable position unfortunately. Trying to keep the fight going, Division goes in for a few more hits until Crossbow magically ends up on its wheels again. However, with one final hit, Division nails the side of Crossbow, which is only held on with a fairly thin 3D printed piece, and Crossbow taps out after landing in three pieces with a drive motor dangling from the side. 27 seconds. One battery swap later, Division is ready to go.
Feeling pretty good about the bot and how it was performing, and with a draw against a front-hinged flipper bot Bison, Division ends up accompanied in the box this time by Mini Mulcher, an antweight minibot that has a weapon larger than several beetleweights. Sadly this proved Division;s downfall, as not 20 seconds into the fight, Division got its wheel hub cut in half my Mini Mulcher, and lost a wheel. The fight went the full 3 minutes with a lot of back and forth, and Mini Mulcher miraculously surviving multiple Division hits and ceiling shots, but Division only got a couple good hits on Bison. At a few points Division appears to be stuck on the wall, but one of Division;s new tricks is reversing the weapon. When doing this the gyroscopic braking forces launch the robot backwards, freeing it from basically any possible obstruction, and this worked flawlessly during the match. Division freed itself from getting possibly stuck many times even with just one wheel, and remaining perfectly mobile the entire fight. Despite Bison needing Brett to free it from getting stuck on the floor at one point, Division was deemed to have lost almost all control and aggression and the damage to Bison was not as significant as a lost wheel, so Bison was unanimously determined to be the victor. Mini Mulcher lived to fight another day after launching itself into the roof, with the only meaningful damage being the loss of its Talon self righter.
Although it only got two real wins, Division is clearly a vastly improves robot with the new weapon system and the Fairloc pulley worked amazingly well to prevent damage to the weapon motor once it was properly secured. The weapon never died after that first fight and always spun up exactly as fast as it was supposed to. The only real repeated issues were the wheel hubs being too brittle, and the titanium forks bending way too easily and getting in the way, though still an improvement over the nylon forks from November. Overall, a promising start to 2021. Division showed it can finally be more than a glass cannon, able to survive any hits it dishes out to the opponent or the floor, rather than getting stuck doing 'the thing' so often like last year. Division will be back, and it only gets better.
Combat History
Division V1.0 first competed at Norwalk Havoc in August 2019 with a blue color scheme. After that, with wins over multibot Sisyphus and The Rock, and Foiled Again, but losses to Trident and Scrambler, the design was completely overhauled for a V2. Division has continually been iterated after every competition. V2.0 competed at Norwalk Havoc in September 2019, and then upgraded versions competed at the Franklin Institute, SWORD Fall 2019, Norwalk in January 2020, and Motorama in February 2020 with version 2.7. In every competition besides Franklin Institute where Division went 0-2, it has had a record of at least 2-2 or better.
Since Motorama (February 2020), the drive was upgraded to a fully custom brushless solution, the rear armor was upgraded, and Carbon-Fiber Nylon 3D prints were added in place of some plain Nylon parts from past versions. The weapon ESC was upped from 50A to 80A, and the battery was larger as well.
In the November 2020 NHRL Tournament, Division did not perform exactly as expected, although still achieving a 2-2 record against incredibly tough opponents. Many changes which were tested over and over again before the tournament and seemed perfectly reliable, failed unexpectedly and early in fights. Weapon reliability was the main issue as it broke in several ways in different fights. In the end the most repeated issue came down to the weapon motor vibrating itself loose, allowing it to slip in belt tensioning slots from its ideal position. The slack in the belt meant that the weapon spun up fine with little resistance, but lacked the torque to self right like it had proven to do in testing. While the robot suffered little to no real damage in the fights it lost, it was unable to get back onto its wheels and keep driving. The custom brushless drive and 3D printed wheel hubs, however, performed amazingly well, and the drive never failed, even with the wheels taking direct hits in three separate fights.
Changes Made for February 6th
- New redesigned uprights with no slots - just the perfect belt tension always
- Titanium front forks, which shouldn't break off
- New 'Cutter Blade' weapon design mixing the best features of the asymmetric disk and "S blade"
- Bigger, torquier, even more powerful weapon motor with a 5mm shaft
- 4S Lipo instead of 3S
- Switch to 16T motor pulley with Fairloc hub to act as a slip clutch
- Improvements to brushless gearbox housing & side armor for better mounting
- Cast polyurethane tires are an option (for rare circumstances like fighting a control bot)
