Blogpost by my husband:
Robot Wars part IV
A new Hope.
An old undercarriage of the robot cannot serve its purpose anymore. One of the motors started to jam a bit and began to show its humors. Neither threats or humiliating it helped. Also cleaning the gearbox (it was already clean), checking the electrical connections, correcting the soldering – nothing works. I had even replaced the batteries and a motor controller for a better ones. The motor still didn’t want to cooperate. I could have replaced it for a few coins but…
This however was not the only flaw of this undercarriage. It never wanted to go straight, was initially designed for AAA batteries only and fitting the rechargeables there was a nightmare. Terrain capabilities were comparable to sheet of paper. Elevating centre of the mass helped a little – thanks to this modification it now was better than two sheets, but started to trip while accelerating or braking. Another words: it was a piece of shit.
This is why we made a decision to buy a new undercarriage. Herewith is the unboxing of this chassis.