Series 5


The trials took place at the NEC in Birmingham, we faced Spirit of Knightmare. They seemed to be old hands and this was a bit worrying. However in the arena they didn't seem to be very mobile and initially we were on top, after ramming them a couple of times it became obvious that our jaws were set to high and we were not going to get to chomp them.L Then when reversing for another go at ramming we collided with shunt, it only seemed like a glancing blow but we just stopped. Shunt pushed us around a bit, then Spirit of Knightmare managed to limp over, and nudged us into the pit. So that was it, we were going home the losers, still we'd be back to fight again, so we didn't give up all hope. One consolation for James at least, was that Craig presented him with a bag of goodies. It was a surprise that Craig was there as it was only the trials after all! So home we went, I wanted to find all the problems, fix him up and see if we could have another go. Unfortunately there were unavoidable delays which prevented me from sorting him in time.
And so the 'Dear John' letter arrived from Mentorn :( Still not to be deterred I continued with the fixing and testing. I had fixed the motors by re-bonding the magnets to the case (they've been fine ever since!). After the motor fix I put Chompie back together and took him for a spin around the works car park on a Sunday. I gave him a good run and he performed well. After a while I noticed Chompie was responding a bit sluggishly to the controls and figured the batteries must be running low, so I brought him to a stop in front of me. However Chompie had other ideas and went into a slow acceleration. I quickly handed the controls over to my Uncle Gordon who had kindly transported Chompie to the car park and I sprinted after him. I caught up with him but what could I do now? I obviously couldn't dive on him and expect him to stop. Fortunately the curbing at the edge of the car park intervened as Chompie crashed into it temporarily coming to a halt where I whipped out his safety link. At this point the heavens opened and it chucked it down.
We pushed Chompie across the car park and loaded up and went home. At this time Chompie went into hibernation whilst Technogames took priority and new plans and ideas were pushed around in the dark recesses of my skull. The team changed, we lost one member who went off to pursue his own interests, and I drafted in Debs, who was my girlfriend at the time. It helped that she was a robot fan, and was 'a people person'.

Series 6

As Debs had been such an asset at Technogames I was keen to have her on the robot wars team as communications and the finishing touches expert. She agreed and helped by offering ideas and being an extra pair of hands. Her major contribution was suggesting the material to use to cover Chompies body shell and she also applied the sticky back plastic, she was an avid Blue Peter watcher when she was a child and did a super job. James was still on the team, he had no choice really being my son :) he got promoted to weapons officer.

After series 5 I knew what it was going to take to make Chompie a better robot but I just couldn't seem to get started. I was stuck in the ideas stage and time was ticking away as Debs kept nagging errmm reminding me. The months rolled by and then finally in mid June I got out the hacksaw and decided to make the dream a reality, Debs heaved a sigh of relief and the work began. I set to stripping Chompie down, cutting out the excess and reducing the weight, 4 wheels were nice but heavy and we had no spares. But if we dropped down to two wheels then we'd reduce the weight, which would give us more scope for development, and we'd have spares! Whilst surfing the web searching for ball transfer units, we came across a web site of a company and decided to beg for one and were pleasantly surprised when we got a mail back asking us to phone them and an offer of a free transfer unit was made.

As well as the robot being redesigned I made ermm asked Debs if she would redesign our web site. This would be it's 3rd incarnation, Debs busied herself with html whilst I played with my new welder. Steve my buddy from work, was upgrading to a humungus welder and was flogging his old one off, excellent. At this stage Chompies remake was banished to the garage, Debs didn't like the idea of having sparks flying round the front room, I think the welding mask worried her a bit actually. So Chompie was now down to two wheels and two motors and was now a third shorter than before. The rest of the modifications went like this:-

1) I got new safety link units, the old safety link had performed adequately but really was a bit pants so a little research in R.S.Components and I found the perfect thing, connectors for electric vehicles!

2) I mounted the motor controllers in a new location, in series 5 they were far too vulnerable, but I noticed a suitable space in the inner chassis, a bit of tufnol sheet was bolted across and they were bolted to these.

3) The batteries used in series 5 trials were 12 Amp hours and since lead acid capacities are severely diminished when drained quickly I decided to go back to the original specification of 24 amp hours.

4) In series 5 trials we had run out of weight and time but now we had some going spare and we also needed a self righting mechanism and dragons have wings don't you know.

5) By now we'd got to two weeks before series 6 was due to start and there was still lots to do, so much so, that I had to take two weeks holiday or Chompie wouldn't have been finished in time. We still had no body shell for Chompie, we couldn't use the old shell, and Debs had screwed her nose up and said it looked tacky. (There's no pleasing some people) For series 5 trials I had strung together 1/3 CD's in a scale like pattern, at the last minute these were screwed to some plywood and bolted to the chassis, but we didn't have the weight allowance for this anymore. The decision was made to spend a small fortune on 6mm-polycarbonate sheet. Chompie now had a shell but something was still missing. Debs with her usual flair for finishing things off suggested we use holographic sticky back plastic, she duly went off and bought loads of it in the team colours and came back and covered the panels and wings. Chompie came to life and although he didn't look as I'd originally envisaged, he did look like a dragon :)

6) A few days to go and Debs suggested that the aluminium eyebrows Chompie had to hang his eyes from were too weak and vulnerable and she persuaded me to change them to 20mm box section steel. She also suggested welding a spike to his rear as he had no weapon and was vulnerable there. I duly implemented both her suggestions and on the day before the trials I decided to weld a stiffener to the upper jaw I had already had to straighten them a little from the trials in series 5. So that was it, a few last checks stuck all the batteries on charge and we went to bed and dreamt that this time Chompie would succeed. The morning of the series 6 trials was upon us, it was raining heavily and we'd forgotten to get a tarpaulin, and he was travelling on the back of a trailer, ohhh poo now what? Debs had a brain wave and whilst I got all the tools and spares together she busied herself sticking loads of heavy duty bin liners together with universal duct tape to make a raincoat for Chompie. It may have looked a little naff but it did the job and saved Chompie getting wet. I think Debs was worried that his sticky back plastic would get wet!


We borrowed a landrover pickup, (short wheel base) with a large trailer for Chompie, after securing him and loading up, we were off. On arrival, first we had to book in the transmitter,then there was the weighing and the tech check to get done. There were a few minor problems with the transmitter, which were cleared up with a little programming of the fail safe positions, and it we sat around till it was our turn.
Eventually were called for, Edge Hog, and a box on wheels with a guard rail around it and another box on wheels (which failed to start and so missed their turn in the melee, I think they took one look at Chompies jaws and took a rain check, hoping to get a better draw). In the melee, it was all about Edge Hog and us, them with their axe trying to do some damage and us trying to inflict some damage on them with our jaws. We eventually found a soft bit towards the front of their machine where Chompie did some damage but it didn't stop them. It was a close tussle occasionally we'd have a go at the box on wheels but then it was back to the scrap with Edgehog.
When cease was called, Edge Hog was declared the winner much to our astonishment, however they also wanted Chompie for his good looks and Derek admitted that we did very well. So we were in, it was back home to assess any damage and tweaks that needed doing. We had sustained very little damage but the drive chains had worked themselves loose so they needed adjusting. We changed the wings from Tufnol to Polycarbonate and we were ready to go again. It was a close tussle occasionally we'd have a go at the box on wheels but then it was back to the scrap. When cease was called, Edge Hog was declared the winner much to our astonishment, however they also wanted Chompie for his good looks and Derek admitted that we did very well. So we were in, it was back home to assess any damage and tweaks that needed doing. We had sustained very little damage but the drive chains had worked themselves loose so they needed adjusting. We changed the wings from Tufnol to Polycarbonate and we were ready to go again.
At the wars we went through the same round of Tech Checks, but we were fine this time, Phillipa came and interviewed us and told us the bad news. We had Stinger, Thermidor 2 and 13 Black. Eeeeek 13 Black, we had seen them at the qualifiers and seen the mess they had made of their opposition. Thermidor was another big threat with that flipper. I wasn't so worried about Stinger. We put ourselves about a bit and chatted to some of the regs and admired the machines on display until our turn. I loaded Chompie into the pen behind the arena took off his safety bar and stuck in his safety link. And drove into the arena. It was only when I was up into the box that I realised I'd left the foam cover on his upper jaw lol. We were in the box with the 13 Black team. Tension was rising 3, 2, 1 activate. 13 black headed straight for us discs spinning, Chompie greeted them with his jaws, temporarily stopping their disc, then we had to quickly turn to face the attentions of Thermidor, who promptly did a runner.
We turned back for a run at 13 Black and things went a bit hazy ( well alright I ran straight into Sir Killalots breast plate and had a bit of a panic). I saw Stinger perched on the edge of the pits and made a run to try and knock them in but 13 Black cut across us. After I chased them down, we managed to get a chomp on one of 13 blacks discs then we had a good go at one of Stingers tyres.
At some point though maybe when we had a hold of Stinger, 13 Black snuck up from behind, attacked and damaged us severely, we lost drive and were sitting ducks. Thermidor had died early on and was counted out and was now in the pits. Stinger had done nothing through out the battle, they just pottered about. 13 Black kept hammering away at us. We were counted out and still they kept charging at us inflicting damage. Eventually the house robots came to play. Killalot picked us up and twirled us about. Deadmetal got a grip and had a go with his saw, we were then placed on the flipper and launched across the arena.
Our 5 minutes of series 6 came to an end as we were pushed into the pit. It was a most enjoyable day. After the bout Phillipa stuck her damage cam up Chompies bum and interviewed James, the wars were over for us that day. It was time to load up and go home after another long day, we were already making plans for improvements and changes for series 7 on the way home. It was overall a great day, we made some good friends and learnt a few things to.