DUCT TAPE D-MON BUILD REPORT
DTD-m started as a solid block of 4 x 4 x 1 1/4 inch lexan. I decided to go for overkill and just carve spaces for the motors and electronics into the lexan using my hand drill and dremel. In this picture you can see about 1/5 of the lexan shavings I created. Orignaly I was going to make a bot with a verticle flywheel (a mini version of D-Monic), but my dad's friend from Florida sent me an old remote control boat. This boat came with a 2 channel AM transmiter/reciever and a 6 volt battery pack.
Due to only having 2 channels on my reciever I was forced to change my design to a wedge. Luckily I had 2 great (and expensive-$25 each) servos that I had bought for a Mini Sumo bot that had never been built due to the size of the servos and the fact that there were too few options in a sumo bot to keep me interested. This picture shows the bot with the battery pack, reciever, and 1 servo installed.
After everything was dremeled out and in place, I had to find a way to attach the wheels (also bought for my sumo bot) to the servos. Tape didn't work. Neither did epoxy. So I decided to "chemically bond" the servo horns to the wheels. This worked very well (not that I've combat tested them yet). It is very messy and the fumes from the epoxy almost knocked me out, but it worked. The only problem is that one horn went on a little lop sided so the bot kind of pulls in one direction.
I then installed the V-plow. I figured a V shape would allow me to deflect any spinning bots. Casey is building an ICE powered spinner/shuffeler and Daniel has his spinner "Crazy Eyes", which is pretty scarry, plus he is building a full body spinner, so the D-mon will need all the protection he can get. The V-plow plus some pretty thick (for an ant) lexan armor plus a water bottle lid plus the indestructable power of duct tape (the only material used for mounting anything in DTD-m besides friction) should hold up.
Here it is! The D-mon is ready for combat. Now SWARC just has to get the antweight arena built and I'm set.
I brought DTD-m to SWARC this month to have a little fun. This pic is of him "fighting" Team XD's wheeled spinner. Team XD is the team behind Steel Reign, so now I can say I've fought a team that's been on TV. It's a British Antweight that only weighs 150 grams, so it wasn't really a fair fight. They cranked up their spinning dome a few times, but I don't think it had any teeth on it or anything. It scratched up my brand new paint job too. Thanks to Casey for taking the pic!I also spared with Team Dark Forces' "Dark Micro Shredder", a normal antweight, until it's wheel fell off. I can't wait until we get our antweight arena made so I can fight these bots with their weapons on full blast to see if the V-Plow holds up. Thanks to Daniel for locating the source of DTD-m's drive problem (there wasn't enough weight on the drive wheels) I flipped the plow to the other side and it drives much better now. I hope I'll be able to lower the bateries and reciever, add a lexan top, and find a better way to attach the V-Plow.
The New Duct Tape D-mon, ready for combat. He competed and took first at the first SWARC Ant Rebellion
My first fight was against one of the bots the original DTD-m was built to take out, Crazy Eyes. Crazy Eyes has a spinning over head blade bent down to hit low bots. He spun up and I hit him, causing his blade to stop. The rest of the fight consisted of him trying to spin up, me hitting him, and the fight turning into a pushing match. At the end of the fight my shock absorber was torn off and I managed to pin Crazy Eyes up against a wall and bend his weapon. I won the decision.
My next fight was against Russ's full body spinner, Micro Shredder. I had attacked a magnet to the bottom of DTD-m to get better traction, but it backfired and I couldn't move forewards or backwards. The spinner cut deep into my "crash plate" and then switched my power switch to off.
In my next fight I had to fight Shredder again. This fight went the distance, with Shredder grinding away at my bot the whole time and duct tape "snowing" all over the place. Once again my shock absorber was torn off. Micro Shredder also bent my sheild to the point where my wheels were barely on the ground. I should have lost, but due to Russ having all of his bots on the same frequency, and having Micro 44 and Shredder in the finals, and the other semifinalist getting his wheel/gearbox torn off, I was allowed to move to the finals vs Micro 44.
At the begining of this fight 44 lost power and died in the middle of the arena. I ramed him until he came back to life, then he used his wedge to push me around for he rest of the fight.
I won a close decision and became the first SWARC Ant Rebellion champ!!!
On February 8 I brough DTD-m to the 2nd Ant Rebellion, but had some bad luck. I won my first fight against Gerbil From Hell by forfeit, then was torn apart by the new and improved Micro 44. My other fight was against Casey's bot Gus, which was also a BB toy, but was able to out push me because he ran at 9 volts instead of my 6 volts. I was flipped over in the rumble by Mike's bot George after he scooped me up and "fed" me to Dark Pounder.
Here's the new and improved (hopefully) Duct Tape D-Mon. I decided to replace the "quick fix" card I had in place of the weapon gearbox with a peice of wire. The top plastic box that holds the toy's electronics was removed and the top board was placed in from of the bottom one. The red LED was bent down to give the bot a lower profile. I used duct tape to cover up the bots guts. The bot is now invertible. I changed back to the old tread wheel for this bot, but I might buy some custom wheels from Glenn from SWARC. The new plate on DTD-m is made form the same stainless steel I used on my middleweight. I used tie wraps to connect the plate to the bot and also to create a hinge for my new lexan wedge. I also stepped up the voltage on the bot to 9 volts, but alkaline batteries are too expensive over time. I will have to find a rechargeable battery for the bot.
Here's the almost finished version of Duct Tape D-Mon IV. The tie wraps were replaced with bolts and a hinge for the lexan wedge. The plow and wedge were painted green (later evil eyes and "teeth" were added to made the D-Mon look more demonic) I put some traction tape over the wheels, but it still didn't keep my wheels from spinning. The bot used a ratshack rechargable 9 volt and it worked very well.
Duct Tape D-Mon did very well at SWARC Ant Rebellion IV. Since Sephiroth wasn't completed in time I was able to give DTD-M my full attention. My first match was against the completely rebuilt Robotussin DM, Team XD's awesome wedge. Logan is a great driver (he took 2nd place overall, won the rumble, and won the British Ant competition) and he basically kicked my bot. His wedge was much better than mine and he was able to get under me very easily. His wedge fit perfectly in between my wheels, so when he got under me I was unable to move or get off. Half way through the match he had me on the arena saw right when it was turned on. Evidently whoever put the saw on the the EV didn't do a great job, because the saw just fell off. Robotussin DM got right back under me and got me into the other corner and the "Texas Star" hazard. I took a couple hits, but DTD-M is a brick. I think the final score was like 8-1 in favor or Robotussin DM.
My next fight was against The Wegetarian from Team Impliments of Doom. The Wegetarian was a servo powered wedge with aluminum and duct tape armor (man, sounds like I built the thing). The whole fight I outpushed the wedge (he did get under me a few times), but I actually got bored during this fight. The Wegetarian was so slow I really didn't have to react quickly. I got him into the corner at the end of the match and he got hit by the "Texas Star" hazard. The fight went to a decision and I won. (Duct Tape D-Mon's first win since his championship match)
My third fight was against Glenn Pipe's new bot, T Bone. Glenn's first ant, Veliocibee, had been destroyed at the first Ant Rebellion, but this new beast was a bad ace undercutter. This fight was very short. I got hit a couple times on the plow, but that stuff can survive the kill saws, so it didnt hurt. The hits sent DTD-M flying. The last hit stripped the paint off of my wedge, but (I have no clue how, I'll have to see if any of the other videos that were taken show it) somehow T Bone flipped over. T Bone isn't invertable, so I pushed him into the wall, trying to stop his blade which was causing the bot to spin in circles. It hit the wall and made some very cool white sparks. The match ended with a KO for Duct Tape D-Mon (I don't get many of those)!
My next fight was suposed to be against the R&D Robotics robot, Abomination. Unfortunatly Abomination was blew a battlepack and was unable to fight.
My last fight was against Delay This, an SOBish bot using a "dustpan" style weapon. Since we were both Battlebots toys running at 8.5 volts this fight was all about driving. As the fight started I got under his back and he was nable to move, but I let him go. He got me in the dustpan a few times and pushed me around, but the hazards were off at this point. We went back and forth for most of the match, and at the end I had him pinned against the wall and started ramming him. Unfortunatly there wasn't much time left. As the match ended I went into a victory spin, hoping looking confident in my victory would sway the judges. Sadly I lost a split decision, 5-4.
I can't really remember the rumble. There were so many bots I had no clue what was going on. I remember Delay This stopped moving, I was given a ride by Fluffy Winkles, and I got under Dark Pounder. Duct Tape D-Mon was still moving at the end, but since Ant Rebellion rumbles are decided by audience vote and I didn't put on a very memorable show, I didn't win.
After the event was over, while everyone else was cleaning up, I challenged Russle Tufts and Abomination to a grudge match to see who would have won. Abomination had a borrowed battlepack but wasn't running too well after some very hard fights (including a win over Dark Micro 44). His blade was so warped and he wasn't getting enough current, so he was unable to spin and move at the same time. The match consisted of me getting hit, some pretty titanuim sparks flying, and me going back for more. I decided that since this match didn't count for anything but bragging rights, I would see just how much abuse I could take. At the end of the match I purposly ran into the saw hazard to see if it would do any damage to me. It didn't.
In my next fight I had to fight Shredder again. This fight went the distance, with Shredder grinding away at my bot the whole time and duct tape "snowing" all over the place. Once again my shock absorber was torn off. Micro Shredder also bent my sheild to the point where my wheels were barely on the ground. I should have lost, but due to Russ having all of his bots on the same frequency, and having Micro 44 and Shredder in the finals, and the other semifinalist getting his wheel/gearbox torn off, I was allowed to move to the finals vs Micro 44.