This bot was my first test design for the 2001 Denver mad scientist Critter crunch. Sort of a proof of concept on the articulated body steering system. While this bot never developed into a finished critter I have experimented extensively on this basic design. I believe if I was ever to do a new bot for Denver's 2 lb class I would blend the best of both Black Dog and this bot into one.

Some of the impressive features of this scratch built bot include, 4WD, 2 Axel spring shocks, drivable upside-down, articulated body, and able to tractor pull a 6 pack of dead weight on a surface similar to our combat surface.

The down falls of this design was that as you see it above, without weapons, it was already a bit over 2 lbs. to get the weight down I decided to re build using slightly smaller dimensions and that produced Black Dog. Looking back multiple design tweaks could have made this critter work without a complete re build but hey half the fun is in the building of these critters

The huge tires you see above where basic light weight model aircraft tiers but when they showed up from the online hobby store they where hard plastic with little if any traction. Due to how wonderfully light weight these tiers where I decided to try to work with them and add traction by building up a layer or rubber and sand on the tread. I accomplished that and it did in fact improve traction but after adding glue, sand and rubber cement the tiers where simply to heavy for the weight class. Next time I consider adding my own tread onto tiers ill keep it far simpler with foam and spray on rubber. Always remember soft rubber always gripes better than hard rubber.

This bot uses Two Tamiya high speed gear box's. Both are built with the highest torque gear set that comes with that kit. Both of these gear boxes are shock mounted to the top of the robots body using a home brewed shock absorber spring system. Tamiya makes great hobbyist gear boxes, unfortunately they put low quality motors in them. I am still trying to find an upgrade replacement motor rated higher than 1.5v that fits this drive train.

I ran this bot for the longest time on the same hacked from a servo speed controller that still runs Black Dog to this day. Unfortunately once I got past the basic testing phase and started stress testing the drive train the low current speed control could not handle the needs of both motors under stall conditions, and would constantly burn out. In the end i had to break down and purchase a standard hobby speed control I started with a Duratrax blast and then later moved to a micro Futaba speed control. you have to be careful when you purchase speed controls for motors other than standard Hobby RC car motors. Something about the winding makes some work better than others in odd ball motors. The blast worked well at 7.2v with a standard motor but ran unreliably at 4.8v on low current motors. The Futaba was a bit better. One day ill track down a good speed controller for this bot and get it up and running again just for the fun of driving this odd machine around.

I experimented with using hobby wood on the very first build. I had an artistic vision of an all lacquered wooden robot that looked more like an antique than a combat robot, unfortunately at the thickness needed to be sturdy it was just to heavy. A year or so later I also tested thin sheet fiberglass and if I was to re build this bot I would probably use the fiber glass.