Strange Brew v1.5


Vitals:


Name: Strange Brew
Drivers: Dan J. Wiseman, Dan L. Wiseman
Designer: Dan J. Wiseman, Dan L. Wiseman
Weapon: Unique front-hinged pneumatic tosser
Power source: 2 24 volt 3 amp-hour nicad packs in parallel
Drive: 2-wheel tank-style drive with omnidirectional ball castors
Wheels: Beveled6 inch Colson Performa wheels
Motor: 2x 1 horsepower EV Warrior motors
Top speed: 14.5 miles per hour
Max pushing power: 202 pounds
Gear Reduction: 2 stage 11:30, 18:40 for a total ratio of 6.06:1
Base: 1/8 inch thick 6061 Aluminum plate
Armor: 1/4 inch thick polycarbonate plastic on sides and rear, 1/2 inch on the front.
Arm Material: Heavily milled 1/2 inch aluminum plate
Anti-wedge skirt: none at the moment
Min. Arm strength: 250 pounds
Approx. arm strength at point of contact: 750 pounds
Weight: 117.0 pounds
Width: 36 inches
Length: 36 inches
Height: 6.25 inches
Wedge angle: 35 degrees
Approx. battery life: 5 minutes
Special Features: Self-righting mechanism, lot of power, modular design.
Max Stall Current: 250 amps
Reservoir size: 20 ounces
Weapon power: Liquefied CO2 gas
Pressure: 150 PSI
Speed Controllers: 2 Victor883 24v electronic speed controllers from IFIRobotics

Strange Brew 1.5 is the version of Team STUPID's flagship middleweight robot that competed in Battlebots Season 5.0 during May 2002. Though it was outwardly very similar, it was much more refined inside. The batteries and other crucial components were moved further to the rear to try to get more weight over the wheels, which increases acceleration and pushing ability. It also made Strange Brew MUCH more controllable than she was in Season 4.0. The 1/4 inch polycarbonate on the front of the robot proved to be completely inadequate and was replaced with very hearty 1/2 inch thick stock. We have yet to have a full breach through the 1/2 inch polycarbonate. We were also somewhat unimpressed with the speed and power of the lifting arm last tournament, so we made the very wise decision to switch from a paintball regulator and small buffer tank to a very high flow regulator, the Victor SR310 CO2 regulator. This has been one of the best purchases to date for this machine and has nearly doubled the output power of the throwing arm. Strange Brew is now so powerful, that if full power is given to the arm during a self-right, it will land upside-down again performing a complete flip. Also the armor seemed rather insubstantially mounted last time, especially when the front piece cracked in half during the Mobster fight. 1/4 inch thick aluminum braces were welded in to help suppor the lexan on all 4 sides, with 2 on the front and rear and one on either side, each support having 2 additional Nutsert fittings. This proved to be a great decision because it held the lexan much more snugly, not allowing for small-radius bends that can crack it. Strange Brew performed admirably and though she did in fact NOT win the middleweight championship, nobody would say Strange Brew is a pushover.

Fight # Opponent Starting Square Summary
1 The Gremlin, a 2 wheeled wedge with spikes that was frighteningly similar to Psychotron from last season...
 Red Wow! I couldn't believe it myself when we turned on the bot...and it WORKED! That blew me away. Even the weapon, with those new kick-butt pneumatics, was fully functional. This day was a bit of a strange one, like the ones before it. 72 hours prior we had gotten through our visual inspection, but then had to wait three full days before our functional testing began. As soon as we finished our testing we slapped in a new tank of CO2 and got in line to fight. The man we were fighting was a guy named Jay whom I had talked to many times online before and since. Very nice guy. He actually registered his bot before he started building it as far as I hear, but needless to say it was quite impressive for only a few weeks worth. The steel wedge on the front was really REALLY tough. He says it's the same steel they line the beds of rock carriers with. COOL. Anyhoo, our bot works, his bot works, and off we went! Both bots showed impressive speed, especially his considering he was using wheelchair motors. We both rushed eachother and he suprised me by being able to get underneath Brew once or twice. Brew got underneath Gremlin and with a mighty push of the big red button we flipped gremlin into the air. On impact the supports for his radio receiver broke and he lost power. Brew wins by knockout.
2 Darkness, a 2 wheeled thwackbot utilizing a large pickaxe with a heavy steel handle.
 Red Well Brew actually worked again! I think we figured out what we're doing by now. The original plan was to just let darkness spin in place because you don't get any points for spinning. When the match started, I noticed that Darkness didn't spin nearly as fast as I thought he did so I decided to just ram him anyway. With a mighty thrust of the accelerator we pushed under Darkness and shoved him around a good amount. At one point his pickaxe became lodged in Brew's right armor panel just above the pressure regulator and the match had to be stopped to seperate us. The lifting arm got bent and some pneumatic hoses became dislodged, effectively crippling our weaponry system. Darkness definately won on damage but when we went to the wall, darkness always hit it first. I had control over this fight and stayed on him as much as possible, but we were pretty banged up by the end so the judges gave it to darkness with a tough 22-23 decision. Jack said that one of the darkness team members congratulated us on our victory while we were shutting down the robots because they thought we won, plus there was some booing in the crowd, which made me happy.

(special thanks to Jim Smentowski from Team Nightmare for the images.)

Strange Brew, our baby, has gone through some fairly major upgrades to prepare for Season 5.0. The main points to make are that there is heavier armor in the front and the pneumatics are both faster and more powerful than before. Under the "hood" the wiring is much cleaner, the batteries can be charged while still onboard, and best of all the weight has been redistributed to get more weight over the wheels and thus get better pushing power. She's looking quite scary. Here are some pictures of the upgrades she's received.

New pneumatics, a picture of strange brew's new pressure regulation system. On the right are the old mechanisms, a paintball regulator and paintball tank used as an accumulator. The fancy contraption on the left is a super high-flow regulator from Victor that puts out more gas than grandpa after thanksgiving, allowing us to skip the buffer tank with no loss in performance.
Brew's Damage sustained during the fight with Mobster, these are both 1/4 inch thick Polycarbonate (lexan) panels that were on the front. The one on the left was pierced by a spike and the one on the right was cracked diagonally by a hard ram from both bots. That was a VERY good match.
New cylinder and valve assembly that will be used on brew. The valves are on the left, the cylinders on the right. In their little subgroups, the old parts are on the left and the new parts on the right. Unfortunately we won't be using the new cylinder because in our design the rear endcap needs to be rotated 90 degrees and that is not possible. The valve, however, is much smaller and easier to mount than the huge old one. Thanks SMC!
Brew's new baseplate is much nicer than the old one. It is unpainted 6061 aluminum so it is nice and shiny. We also saved enough weight to be able to leave the middle in and not have that ugly steel grate. Brew's pretty!
Distribution blocks have been added to brew to make the wiring infinitel simpler. Remove one panel, undo two bolts, and the battery terminals are free and ready to be placed in parallel and charged. Wonderful Team STUPID Innovation here.

Well we learned a lot this season. 1/4 inch polycarbonate SUCKS. We're going to try to put at least 3/8 all the way around, and 1/2 inch if possible. The top will probably remain 1/4 inch thick because of the very small (if not nonexistant) section of robots that are capable of attacking strange brew from above. Move along to Strange Brew 2.0 to see what the future will hold!