2024 had some big shoes to fill after the path laid in 2023. That resulted in an ambitious year of which only some of the work paid off as planned in the end.
Since there was no BattleBots activities, all the effort went into small bots; they all had full rebuilds and new parts which resulted in headaches and learnings not always on an ideal timescale.
NOTE: At time of writing, I have not yet published the build or event reports which are referenced below. I will be publishing those and adding links (and deleting this block) where appropriate as those become available.
Return of the Hubmotor: A Silent Adventure
The NHRL rules change decreased the weight allowance from 5 lbs to 4.5 lbs for novel-translation locomotion (NTL) robots so I revived my old love for hubmotors in support of this target.
In typical fashion, Silent X was the guinea pig and fought two early-season events proving the importance of mechanically locking your stators, my disdain for adhesive-based retaining solutions, and more beef is needed to survive the modern vertical spinner.
These changes were promoted to Silent Spring by end of season but other issues ended up affecting its performance. New, untested microshufflers among a forward-shifted center-of-mass made mobility unreliable and SS barely qualified for the NHRL World Championships. Boxellmania provided a critical chance to validate the hot fixes but its run in the World Championships was ultimately ended by new electronics and component layout. But it does look sweet doesn’t it?
Are You Saiko!?: Is More Power Better?
The short answer is… no. A brand new build with a streamlined chassis designed to accommodate a 6s voltage system brought only headaches and mysteries. In April, well-vetted component combinations went up and smoke and a conservatively driven robot squeaked a 2 place finish.
Mid-year it appeared as though the issues were solved. Dropping to 5s returned the drive to its former glory but a small scare due to AM32 gremlins sent Saiko! back to its old reliable electronics. It looked like a championship contender once again with its narrow win over King Size for the NHRL Teams 12lb division. Which BTW, was very awesome to be a part of!
Unreliability continued into the most proven combinations of parts. Test operation could not prepare for what would happen at World Championships; two fights with quick weapon bearing failures resulting in the shortest tournament in the bot’s history.
From Mega to Plus-Ultra: MegatRON Transcends
The ambitious plan to overtake the two-time king (Emulsifier) came in two parts: first a retrofitted 2023 MegatRON took the world by surprise as it entered April sporting a hubmotor weapon and tracked drive. I gave the 2023 version a send-off so grand, it was nominated for fight of the year!
With those features proven, the third piece was the counter-gyro system implemented as a full rebuild for September. The build was ambitious: new frame layout, higher cell count, custom gearboxes, among many other changes; the robot almost didn’t make the event. While the flywheel did not pan out, the robot was surprisingly successful with drive alone; undefeated until forfeiting to Yahoo in the finals to preserve itself for December.
The flywheel was scrapped for finals in favor for weapon reliability. A bigger weapon esc and larger hubmotor were added atop the proven drive base. Although the bot was consistently underweight, it performed spectacularly winning its second Golden Brett. Some of that spare weight will definitely go into fire resistance and attachment strength/rigidity.
Achievements At a Glance
- Silent X: 7 wins, 3 losses
- Silent Spring: 12 wins, 5 losses, NHRL Sept. 3rd place
- Saiko!: 10 wins, 5 losses, NHRL April 2nd place, NHRL Teams Bracket Winner
- MegatRON: 11 wins, 1 loss, NHRL April 3rd place, NHRL World Champion
- Me: NHRL “Best Driver” 2024!
I want to revisit the NHRL Teams event for two reasons. First, it was amazing to win the overall prize alongside Emulsifier (‘Mulsie) and Lynx as the Dream Team. Second, I wanted to reiterate the value of the teams aspect; it made each battle just a bit more meaningful. I know other builders feel similarly; just look at the ever-growing teams in the community (Team Pandamonium, Team Defective, Team Stamina, and all the college teams). I am excited to see what this means for the future of the sports and the elusive NHRL “Pro League”.
What’s Next?
So MegatRON is the king of 30’s for the moment. It’ll likely receive minor updates to reliability and function as identified in the finals (1+ lbs to play with!).
Silent Spring will continue into 2025 which I expect will be its final year. Its retirement has been discussed for a long time and the only things keeping it around are the large number of usable parts and one final season of unchanged NTL bonus. Look for it to make as many appearances as possible.
Saiko! is a bit of a wildcard; it has had the least consistency of all the bots despite the highest development cost for the year which is dissatisfying from an engineering perspective. The immediate plan is to run it as-is until its spares are exhausted at which I will determine to renew the project or scrap it in favor of other interests.
A walker? I have been dreaming alternate locomotion methods for mobile robots and with the NHRL 2025 rules incentivizing these designs of course I’ll throw my hat in the ring!
Jamison Go 