Hey all!
Some of you may remember a robot named PHRANQ that was flipped over the fence last year, the video of which was posted right around this time. I’m here to inform you that the PHRANQ saga shall continue, and we have created a PHRANQ -3,0 (this time recorded in glorious 4k)!
The videos can be found here and here.
Here’s just a (more or less) copy and paste of what I put in the video description, in case you want a bit more information on the bot:
This was a bot that team 536E brought to league. It’s essentially a “motorcycle” made of VEX parts, complete with side car held up by an airplane wheel/tank tread support. 3 269 motors and 2 393’s drive a 5" traction wheel on a 1:3 ratio through a system of sprockets. Additionally, there is a servo to rotate the front wheel to turn.
Originally, there weren’t enough spare motors around to use all 393’s so PHRANQ was built with all 269 motors. However, during the competition, a mobile goal was set on top of the robot, and one of the motors (strangely) completely seized up. By this I mean that all the gears within the motor could spin fine, but the shaft of the motor itself could not be turned unless with much force. There were a few spare 393’s at the tournament so two motors were replaced. For those of you concerned, high strength 393’s and 269’s are both meant to spin at 100 rpm. Don’t worry, we checked.
Originally, the traction wheel was bald, since the club had shaved all of the nubs off of it. In the hallway at our school, it was much more fun to drive around this way because it would then burn out and drift. However, this provided too little traction on the field tiles at the competition, and with no wheel to replace it, we were forced to remove the rubber and replace it with an intricate combination of mesh, rubber bands, and zip ties at league.
Finally, the robot is driven not with buttons on the controller, but by using the built-in accelerometer. The only buttons to be pressed are the two lower bumpers on either side as a “safety”. This made it very fun/challenging to drive and also entertaining to watch.
Feel free to leave criticism below.
As always, enjoy!
