Blastwave II

1lb Drum Spinner (2021)

For an overview of Blastwave as a design, please go here

Watch the build video here!

Blastwave II Overview

Blastwave II was a combat robot started in late 2019 and finished in early 2021. It was developed to eliminate the flaws of Blastwave I. After one event in 2021, this robot was retired and replaced with Blastwave III.

Blastwave important features:

• PLA 3D Printed Chassis
• Belt-Driven Drum Spinner Weapon
• Four-Wheel-Drive chassis

Improvements over Blastwave I:

• Smaller chassis size
• Actual bearings on the weapon lol
• Metal Weapon spacer

This robot competed at MN Combat Robotics 2021, an event held in Eagan Minnesota in August 2021. On the way down, Blastwave's chassis warped in the heat, impeding spinup. This led to Blastwave almost failing the functional test, as the weapon could not spin up. I managed to swap everything over into the one spare chassis (all of the rest of them melted in the car!) and made it into the first match.

Fights

Watch the fights here!

Trash the Dragon (Undercutter)

Blastwave had two wheels knocked off, was limping along, then Trash had electronics issues and got counted out, leading to Blastwave's first win. It feels really bad though haha.

Lil Twisty (Drum Spinner)

This was basically a 1 hit KO, as Blastwave's lids were knocked off, and the battery was hanging out. Much like Blastwave 1 and Lobotomy, the match was called on fear of a Lipo fire. Not that it really could have survived that much longer, as I also lost a wheel.

Pronghorn (Shuffling Drum Spinner)

Blastwave went into this fight down a wheel, due to the gearboxes breaking in its first two fights. The drum also didn't work at all. It made it across the arena, got pushed into the corner, then proceeded to lose two of its remaining wheels and both of its lids.

Flaws

• Motors were still fragile and broke often
• Chassis warped in transit heat
• Lids could still easily be ripped off
• Weapon had spinup issues

Parts

• N20_Gearmotor
• Fingertech_Power_Switch
• Fingertech_Hubs
• Generic_5A_Dual_ESC
• Lemon-RX_Receiver
• Turnigy_Multistar_Viking_4100KV
• BL_HELI_ESC (20A)
• Lipo_Battery (2s 120mAh)