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NAVIGATION
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Hello visitor, welcome to our website! This is the old website of Team Hammer Bros.
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Out of my own volition, I take this space to thank my
father, Mark Scholz for all the money he has spent on my robot projects. It has
been a year and a half since funding for my endeavors has come from my father's
pocketbook. The additional money has opened doors that were shut in the first year-and-a-half of my hobby.
Without your generous funding, dad, I couldn't hope to be the feared competitor I am
becoming. Furthermore, I can pursue robotic projects more freely and thus am
better able to educate myself in a hobby that hopefully will someday become my
future career. Thank you so much for the multiple thousands of dollars that have been
spent on supplies, tools, burnt-out components, and revenge on other
competitors. Above all, thank you for shaping me into the man God wants me to become.
With Love,
Jeffrey Scholz
To all: My dad has a website too! www.prostateoncology.com/ If you
know someone who has prostate cancer, do him a favor and click the link to get
on the right track. Remember, he is a specialist who has decades of
experience in that field (meaning he knows more about prostate cancer than I do
about robots). This is not an advertisement, and dad isn't even aware that I
wrote this (yet). For real guys, patients wouldn't travel all the way from
other continents (and overseas) to California
to meet Mr. Scholz without a reason. Again, the website is www.prostateoncology.com/.
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Here's some companies/individuals who deserve some gratitude from Team Hammer Bros.:
Tiger Metals - Thanks for giving us titanium for our robots! To everyone: yeah, it probably sounds like I'm promoting them just 'cause there nice to me, but seriously, you can save yourself a heck of a lot of money by buying from these people - here's why:
- Tiger metals is a surplus dealer that changes it's prices based on market conditions. So when the market price goes down, you actually pay less for your titanium than if you purchase it from a place that has a fixed price.
- You get quotes on the sizes you need. You're not stuck with the traditional 12"x12" or 24"x24" sizes. Say you needed two inches of titanium rod for your spinner's weapon shaft. Why would you spend money on a foot long rod and slice it down yourself? Just buy a two inch long piece, save yourself the trouble
cutting, pay six times less (12÷2), and spend only as much as you need to. Neat huh?
ROAR!!! These look cool. Put one on your robot.
Ace Hardware - I'm specifically referring to the one in Culver City. Thanks much for the discounts you guys give me on otherwise expensive purchases! Great place for those "*Gasp* I ran out of cutting fluid" or "Darn, my metric drill bit broke" situations, or if you just need some parts for your next robot.
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Hello everyone... (sorry if it sounds like I typed this in a hurry, because I did :-) )
Sorry about the really long wait - I had some internet issues that prevented me from accessing my site, but thankfully they have been fixed (for now). Let me give a rundown of the events we have recently attended.
Robogames - Did not compete
SNF 2.0 - 6th place
SNF 3.0 - 1st place
Marin Ant Wars VI - 4th place in the Ant Division, 4th in the Fairy Division.
An earlier post described our most recent ant, Unblinking Eye.
  
Unblinking Eye was first completed 2 days before the Robogames, as an undercutter. Sadly the frame was too weak and the weapon was too strong, so it ended up self-destructing before I could fix it to compete. Sigh.
To elimenate the blade flex, eat frame issue, we made the robot into a "mid-cutter," as shown above. The blade still can flex and cause damage, but it's tolerable now. Here's some stats for our new robot:
Version 1
Spektrum bot receiver
Maxon 17:1 motors for the drive
Barello Ant 150 ESC
Phoenix 25 ESC
AXI 2208/34 belted 1:1 through a 1/4th in MXL timing belt
Thunderpower 730mAh 3S lipoly battery
2.5 oz 8in long S7 steel blade
2 foam wheels with a silicone coating
.041" thick carbon fiber from the Robot Marketplace
3/16" UHMW armor for the sides
Sorry about the lack of pictures. I'm not exactly a shutter bug. Videos of this robot can be found here. Unfortunately, the weapon kept dying due to a setscrew loosening during each match. Also, spinning an oilite bearing in carbon fiber wore it out quickly, causing the weapon to shift.
Version 2 (same as pictured above)
Same receiver
Copal 50:1 (for a greater ease in control, more pushing force, and a thicker shaft)
2 halves of a SOZ board ESC
Phoenix 25 ESC
AXI 2205/34 belted 1.5:1
Thunderpower 480mAh battery
same blade
same wheels
.032" carbon fiber from Mcmaster Carr stiffened with .125in carbon fiber tubes
same armor.
In this version, we mounted heavy duty steel ball bearings into titanium instead of carbon fiber. This turned out to be really strong! We finally got the robot to stop self-destructing and we finally won (admitedly out of five opponents)! Here's a run down of our fights (since we don't have a video).
Fight 1: vs Funest
This robot had me very concerned since his blade is longer than ours, and our little titanium wedge in front was a big target for him to bend and prop our wheels off the floor. That's exactly what happened.
The two robots met in the middle of the arena, then after a good double hit, Funest bent our wedge, and we flipped him over. Now both of us could barely drive. For the next minute, the two robots tried to hit each other, but since both had drive train troubles, it was pitiful. Although funest was more aggressive, we did more damage and the judge's (only one judge) decision went in our favor.
Fight 2: vs Carni's Revenge
After the Funest fight, we bent the wedge back into position, charged the battery, and fought CR. For the first 20-30 seconds, CR outdrove us (since our blade was starting to vibrate, making driving tough) and got a few minor shots in, but we finally got our first hit on it, and completely disabled CR by tearing off his wheels and sawblade, the later of which was still spinning and bounced around the arena for five seconds.
Fight 3: vs VDD kit
Cool! A chance to fight a former champion! VDD kit's titanium armor made it difficult for us to dig the blade in, but we just kept hitting it until iot died.
Fight 4: vs Argon
This was a short fight. There was one weapon to weapon hit that kicked both robots away from each other, but we got one good shot in and completely tore him apart. That was Argon's last fight :-)
Fight 5: vs Corrosive
This final match would determine who got 1st or 2nd (since neither robot had lost in the round robin - yet). Of all the ant fights I have seen, this one is probably one of the most spectacular, and also the one I am most proud of. During the first few half-a-minute or so, the robots hit blade to blade and only made a couple minor sparks until we finally were in one corner of the arena still sparking and then - *WHAM* The hooks on our blade got into one of the cut outs in his saw and Corrosive threw us AT LEAST 3 feet into the air... and we kicked ourselves accross the eight foot arena, bounced of the arena wall, and came back for more like nothing happened! Corrosive was not so lucky... his polycarbonate frame split apart and his .1" titanium blade bent into a pringle and ate his motor controller and battery, but that wasn't all. The blade, along with most of the weapon assembly, got torn out of the frame and got flung multiple feet away. It was cool! Sadly, my video camera died and the data is corrupted. :-(
Man I won't forget that one for a while. It seems like we finally know what we're doing. Nice driving Peter!
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Unbliking eye had only minor upgrades, making a stronger front wedge and making the frame slightly smaller. A month later, we took it to Andy's house to compete at the Marin Ant Wars VI...
the videos are here.
I won the first fight by tearing off both of my opponent's wheels (and no, I didn't cheap-shot him, as it may have seemed in the video :-) ).
The second one I lost since the shaft collar wasn't tightened all the way... duh.
The thrid I won although my battery died.
Now for the third fight... I lost this one for a reason I still kick myself over... I tapped out when the robot was still working! DUH!!! Well, it wasn't working when I tapped out, and just after I did, it came back to life! Ah well, there's an important lesson in not surrendering too quickly. At least I managed to tear off several chunks of my opponent though. :-)
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Unblinking Eye has certainly been our most sucessful robot so far, but it has some issues that will keep it from defeating the drumbots here in California
- It flops like a fish on land after it hits the opponent. There isn't enough weight on top of the blade.
- It's too high off the ground and can't be lowered without a re-design. The issue with the height is that it glances off the top of drum-bots. This happened several times with Emsee Fry Pants, and two other drumbots I fought in a melee.
- The frame is too weak, and we're out of weight.
As of now, I plan on building a new ant of some type (not sure what kind) and my brother is working on a new fairyweight. Hopefully we'll be able to compete sometime later this year.
-Jeffrey Scholz- 10-20-06
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April 4, 2006: Added sponsors section
Jan 3, 2006: Added many links to the links page.
Dec 28, 2005: Created an old news page.
Dec 11, 2005: Fixed typos and updated the site.
Nov 18, 2005: Worked one Elusive Adversary's page some more.
Oct 28, 2005: Started Elusive Adversary's page, but can't complete it yet =(
Sept
25, 2005: A few days ago it occured to me that "selection of cool
stuff" doesn't tell readers much about the kind of products a
particular store sells. Edited in the links page. Added the Robolypics/Robogames to that page as well. Hmmm, I wonder why I didn't put it there before...
Sept 19, 2005: Added something to the homepage that should have been there from the start (look up).
Sept 16, 2005: Clarified something on Aftershock's page
Sept 14, 2005: Shockwave's page has been edited a little.
Sept 6, 2005: Aftershock's engineering section is completed.
Aug 31, 2005: Added to the links page again.
Aug 19, 2005: Added links to the links page. Very funny.
Aug 16, 2005: Finished the links page.
Aug 15, 2005: Errors,
oops! On the links page by the way. I'll get to finishing the links
page soon. I'll probably add more links in the near future.
Aug 14, 2005: A one-page report on Shockwave is done. Also added statistics section to Shockwave and Aftershock. Fixed some errors on this site. Made progress on the links page.
Aug 7, 2005: Added the news section and edited Aftershock's page.
Aug 5 ,2005: Worked on Aftershock's page.
Aug 4, 2005: Just starting up!
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