Its been through some rough fights now, the fight report should be interesting

maybe also worth trying out different skirt positions. Changing the area which contains the under pressure could also help :)

Thanks for the tips, what I'm hearing is: More blades More exhaust Tighter clearance (its currently 0.5mm) Better skirt These are all very doable! I'll have to give them a shot

@@TeamPanicRobotics I don't know (literally) if more exhaust is needed because you are looking for suction and not high flow volume. I would look at how vacuum cleaners fans are built. A skirt is good, but I wonder if TPU will cause it to stick/drag on the surface. I would go for the bottom surface to be low friction.

I could do a hdpe skirt, that would be low friction

@@TeamPanicRobotics the more blades was based on the three blade prop, the centrifugal impeller looks reasonable. Exhaust comment is purely by eye, deffo test that as it may be good. Clearance will be a trade off, don't want things to collide when you take a hit, but fan performance is generally better with less clearance. Adding a ring to the open side to stop the fan flexing at speed will help, can't remember if that was already in the plan.

I'm glad you enjoyed I like showing when things don't work, because that's always part of the process

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Or was it 3 with the fan?

3 with the fan! its quite the squeeze

Glad you liked it!

I'm not sure I'm following what you're describing The impeller has a wall around it, close too but not touching the blades, with a bit of extra diameter at the top to allow air to escape

AHH! that would explain it! My TX is set with one channel reversed due to other hardware I run (and being too lazy to set up different models) So one will be going backwards I'll give the bidirectional_reversed trick a try, Thanks!!

IMO the test is sound, his goal doesn't require a measurement of total downforce so much as total *grip*. Grip would be a function of vibration as well as total downforce in this case, so designs less prone to vibration would rightly compete better, particularly if they're somewhat robust to damage.

I like the pull scale method, I have one for luggage but I dont think its sensitive enough for 150g scale robots. I'll have to see if I can find a better one I think with a few changes (electronic angle gauge, more repeatable plate moving) this test would work a lot better. I might have to do a deep dive into impeller designs at some point and use both testing methods

​@TeamPanicRobotics I would love to see just a simple test of the robot pushing objects of different weights with and without the impeller. I imagine that would replicate its final use case a give a better idea how much it helps

It may also shave some weight with a small enough one

I didnt know you could get small ones, the only ones I'd seen where 40A ones with a pretty big foot print, I'll have to go looking

@@TeamPanicRoboticsthere are 20x20 and 16x16 ones in addition to the “normal” 30x30. I know Flywoo makes a 16x16.

Wow! 16x16 is impressive for a quad esc, that would certainly solve the space issue

@@TeamPanicRobotics note that the amp ratings are likely not correct for your use case, they’re rated assuming that they’ll have constant airflow

Oh interesting! is there a test video on youtube somewhere? the last time I looked at lego propellers, the brick experiment channel got like ~140g out of 2 very large fan blades and made a drone with them If there are smaller better lego propellers it would be great to find and test them

Thats a good idea!

I do want to make an ant melty at some point!

I have considered this, I'm not sure it will work but I've got an idea on how to test it

Would that only measure the downforce at the wheels?

@TeamPanicRobotics Yes, but that's all you really need it on, isn't it ? for the drive

sure thing! I might program a few more before I make a video because the drive needs some tuning to work better

Not with this design, the impeller sucks air from below and blows it out the top regardless of spin direction

because I and the EO's at my local club disagree with Depth Charge style bristlebots getting a weight bonus. The weight bonus is intended to make walkers and shufflers more attractive to try, by offsetting the extra weight those systems need. Its definitely against the spirit of the rule to use less weight for your drive, and whack all the extra weight into your weapon Also I dont need to bend the rules to make robots with stupid big weapons, I've build a 150g robot with a 77g blade on top, all without using a weight bonus for an unintended purpose (which is a big part of the fun for me, the challenge of fitting something crazy into the smallest weight limit) I get depth charge is chaos and fun to watch, but its not for me, I'll get similar chaos my own way

Not with this design, the impeller sucks air from below and blows it out the top regardless of spin direction

@TeamPanicRobotics yes but if it was the propeller version, it might work 🤷‍♂️

Ohh yeah! definitely one to try

Why that one specifically? It looks to be virtually the same as any other

@@TeamPanicRobotics well is it even good? Its like the only 12a 3 in 1 esc i found on amazon

I dont know, I dont own one and havent used one The one I saw in a quick google didnt look like a 3 in 1 esc, it looked like a standard single motor brushless esc

@@TeamPanicRobotics interesting, also, team just cuz robotics said that brushless escs only work with brushless motors and brushed escs only work with brushed motors, but in your easiest spinner tutorial video you used a brushless esc with the brushed n20 motors?

That is correct, brushless escs only work with brushless motors In my easiest spinner tutorial video, I used brushed n20 motors from dfrobot that have an ESC built into them. They are linked in the description I used them because they are lightweight and easy to use for a beginner