We spent the day today in Chantry Park, Ipswich where the local council had invited the Ipswich robot posse to attend for the day to entertain the crowds.  There was us, Chaos 2, Steel Avenger, Henry 3 and Prizephita Mach 2 there.

Storm arrived at about 9:30 and unpacked - we couldn't do anything initially because we needed to wait until Wickes opened in town so we could get some wood to re-enforce the arena (I don't think the local council really appreciated what was involved in building an arena).  We had brought Storm in bits, having pretty much stripped it down the night before to look through the parts for any damage from Debenham. 

Chaos 2

Cassius 2

We spent the morning building Storm and chatting to the public.  We were worried that taking Storm in bits would detract from the day, but in the end we found it a real bonus as we were near the edge of the public area and they could see us building the robot and asking questions.

Our first play in the arena was against Henry 3 (Prizephita was having problems with their robot so we stepped in).  Our first main breakthrough was that we confirmed that the reason we couldn't turn at Debenham was because the surface was very grippy, combined with the fact that our gear ratio was still not quite right.  Still everything was going fine until we suddenly stopped running - George (Chaos 2) noticed some smoke coming from our right drive train so we shut down the robot to investigate.

Prizephita being worked on

Prizephita being worked on

Our right drive train was locked solid - as there were clearly no problems with the chains we assumed that the problems was with the motor which appeared to have been jammed somehow.  The Chaos 2 team leapt to our rescue helping to strip down the Bosch.  We did so and found the problem was the magnets had come loose - further examination suggests that what happened was a battery strap broke meaning that the battery crashed against the motor when we were flipped by Henry3.

We had not brought our spare motor (After all this was only going to be a simply charity event) however Andy set off back to base to get a spare Bosch (with suppressors already fitted) to repair Storm.  While Andy was gone I checked over the rest of the robot for any damage, but couldn't find anything

Storm with a wheel off in repairs	Inside the front of Storm
The rear of Storm showing Vantec	Storm awaiting its motor

On Andy's return we rebuilt a motor so that we were back and running and could go back into the arena.  We went into a manic 4 way fight with Steel Avenger, Prizephita and Henry 3.  We knew we were in poor shape (the chains had stretched quite a bit since they were first put on in Debenham and as we didn't have any tensioners they were quite slack now).  They did come off once, however we were able to reach in and pop them back on.  

John working on the Avenger

Getting the Avenger ready

Storm was much easier to control on the smoother surface.  It was nippy around the arena and had no shortage of power even with the high gear ratio (we have put this down to the four wheel drive and neoprene tyres).  We were easily able to push people about the arena - and have to apologise for putting holes in Steel Avenger and Prizephita - it wasn't our intention.  We had to stop however when our back panel came off in a glancing blow.  It was entirely my fault - I had only affixed the polycarb with 2 self tapping screws (far from perfect).

Storm in the Arena

Storm in the Arena

Overall it was a great day - we are in debt to Chaos 2 for helping us with our motor - showing all the sportsmanship that you would expect from George and co.  Thanks to Eddy for arranging the event, and to the announcer (I have to admit I can't remember his name) and his daughter for keeping the on looking crowds at bay !

We learnt more from this event, and were quite pleased that some of the problems we had today we had already predicted and actually resolved in the new model design already.

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