smart parts tank stolen from Massachusetts Lincoln Sudbury Regional Highschool

[slade]

a 45 CI 4500 PSI tank was stolen from my robotics club sometime yesterday or today. it had a black smart parts 3000 PSI regulator on it with a silver cap, which was replaced after the cap broke last year. it was purchased two years ago so it should need to be rehydroed soon. it had an NXe tank cover. I had to cut off the dovetail so it cant even be used for paintball, unless someone ran it on a remote.

i know the chances of someone spotting the tank may be slim, but i wanted to post anyway in case anyone finds someone from massachussets looking to buy a tank reg. maybe someone will spot this reg laying around at the field some time, or see someone selling smart parts reg parts.

this specific regulator is the only one that meets the battlebots regulations. we are working with smart parts to have it replaced, but i would still appreciate it if people would keep an eye out as our funding is very low, this regulator is currently discontinued, and we also need the tank cover and hardware. personally i would take it back no questions asked, but something tells me my advisors are more out for blood.

any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[sniper1rfa]

heh, they finally limited it to maxflows only?

Crappy choice, IMO, but bastoni loved them, so he convinced everybody to make them standard.

They are too big, and too heavy, and too awkward...

How is the radio situation panning out? Last i heard they switched away from the isaac controllers and towards tethered helo controllers. Yeah? How are they working out?

email me, btw, i might be able to score you a new tank. I will need a phone number and such though. Real contact information, you know?

Hell, we have a factory drilled and ported dual manifold maxxy kicking around somewhere. This is for a flipper, i presume? You'll be wanting that one. Way faster.

yeah... battlebots. I've built eight.

I used to hang the flag of plymouth north high school. I will be back there next week (week of march 20), so i will talk to bastoni about loaning/giving you a tank. Its for a good cause. Hell, i might come by and pay you a visitation.

[behemoth]

Good luck Martha...

If you find out who did it, i have a baseball bat with barbed wire and nails you can borrow...

[slade]

heh, they finally limited it to maxflows only?

Crappy choice, IMO, but bastoni loved them, so he convinced everybody to make them standard.

They are too big, and too heavy, and too awkward...

How is the radio situation panning out? Last i heard they switched away from the isaac controllers and towards tethered helo controllers. Yeah? How are they working out?

email me, btw, i might be able to score you a new tank. I will need a phone number and such though. Real contact information, you know?

Hell, we have a factory drilled and ported dual manifold maxxy kicking around somewhere. This is for a flipper, i presume? You'll be wanting that one. Way faster.

yeah... battlebots. I've built eight.

I used to hang the flag of plymouth north high school. I will be back there next week (week of march 20), so i will talk to bastoni about loaning/giving you a tank. Its for a good cause. Hell, i might come by and pay you a visitation.

yeah, honestly i hate the tank. the reg is huge and cumbersome, which is horrible for battlebots (it was such a pain placing the tank). plus its just not too practical for paintball anyway. the newer SP regs seem better... but i still wouldnt buy them.

technically its not limited to only max flos, but for all practical purposes it is. the reg cannot be capable of higher than 300 psi output, has to be adjustable to under 150 with a locking mechanism, and has to have an on/off to isolate the tank pressure from the regulator. so its not like too many paintball regs fit that.

i dont know too much about the controllers, we've been using the same ones since i joined the team. but i do know that the ones required by the regulations have been discontinued, and we needed a new one this year we called battlebots IQ and they didnt know that they were discontinued, but i think by now theyve made exceptions to the regulations. we sent our electronics back to the manufacturer and its been repaired though, so we're fine.

we're talking to smart parts about getting a new tank, but if that doesnt go through ill be sure to contact you, thanks. our flipper was pretty fast last year and it will be the same this year, its the same design, just different drive train and structure. but im sure that that reg couldnt hurt... it sure would have helped two years ago.

youre welcome to drop by any time if you want. or even better, go to the competition in miami, its towards the end of april. any chance i can see any of the bots youve made?

[sniper1rfa]

not gunna be making it to the miami competition. However, if you competed three years ago, i might remember you. What was your team name?

We were running devils halo, praetor, and pink panther. That was when pater wyatchi built his kids a robot. i think. Maybe that was the year before...

Sounds like they havent instated the new controller thing yet, but i would check in to it. The new controllers, iirc, are these.

They have cartridge style power and crystal, so they can be tethered and have the power cut at the whim of the box controller. Just like the old ones, except not as cool.

Although, i've heard rumor that the isaac UI will have a USB version, which is why the analog version was discontinued.

One easy way to give your bot some extra boost is by having a big resevoir after the regulator. Gets it moving faster initially, which means better flipping once its under load.


Remember to drive it a lot!

[skriptal]

Im not too far from you, so ill keep my eyes open for the tank tring to be sold on the black market here. But good luck in finding the tank

[slade]

skriptal, thanks

not gunna be making it to the miami competition. However, if you competed three years ago, i might remember you. What was your team name?

We were running devils halo, praetor, and pink panther. That was when pater wyatchi built his kids a robot. i think. Maybe that was the year before...

Sounds like they havent instated the new controller thing yet, but i would check in to it. The new controllers, iirc, are these.

They have cartridge style power and crystal, so they can be tethered and have the power cut at the whim of the box controller. Just like the old ones, except not as cool.

Although, i've heard rumor that the isaac UI will have a USB version, which is why the analog version was discontinued.

One easy way to give your bot some extra boost is by having a big resevoir after the regulator. Gets it moving faster initially, which means better flipping once its under load.


Remember to drive it a lot!

too bad, itd be cool to meet up with someone at the competition, and it would appear that most of my teammates liked you

i wasnt at the competition three years ago. i only went last year, but was familiar with the bots from the previous year. the year before that, i was in middle school. our team name... im not really sure. we've had two bots and two teams for the past two or three years, and both teams and bots had unique names. i know we've had names like "mass destruction" (that was me last year) "moore destruction" "lost bearings" "debra" and "debraII".

most of the bots have been spectacular failures. the first good bot was a simple wedge two years ago, and the flipper the team made failed miserably. last year i tried to revive the flipper but found that it was pretty much pointless, and completely redesigned the arm system although the structure deviated from my origional plan, and the bot was essentially a box with a flipper. the wedge was brought back with "improvements", most of which made it worse. this year the bots will be much better (if theyre finished on time) but im not posting the pictures until after the competition one of the two bots is finished aside from a reception issue and potential change of wheels, while my bot still needs wiring, completion of some structural components, and some other work done.

i checked the electronics and yes, we're using isaac controllers. IIRC the rules said it was the only one allowed, but that was changed due to the discontinuation.

and i know, a buffer tank would be nice. a buffer tank was used two years ago, but the kids who were working on it decided on a cylinder with something insane like a 4" bore. ...which meant that even with the buffer tank it didnt fire nearly as fast as is necessary, plus it was about 20 pounds overweight (can you say swiss cheese?). when i redesigned the bot it had a much smaller cylinder which worked fine last year without a buffer tank, although a buffer tank couldnt have hurt... oh wait, yes it could have, when we put it on the scale it read 120.0 pounds this year we'll again be fairly tight as far as weight is concerned, and if we have room for more weight theres plenty of things we'll be doing before adding a buffer tank. we also dont have nearly as much space as we did last year as we have added components while reducing every dimension of the bot.

heh and yeah, driving would be nice. last year we had about a week of driving before we had to ship the bots, if that. this year we decided to go with one bot that we would be hard pressed to complete, while we had another bot that would be made quickly and ready for practice, and i think theyve done a nice job on it. however, i dont think we'll have much driving practice with my bot

oh, and SP is sending us a new regulator, but they may not be able to get us a tank. maybe ill find myself looking around the forums for a 45/45.