Prior to attending Robot Battles 72 I decided that it was time to start on a new 3lb build. With the new build in progress and the damage done at the event being pretty spectacular now seems like the time to retire High Steaks.
With that, I’ve also decided to release the full CAD in STEP format.
Feel free to build your own, borrow elements, or just give it a look.
For a long time, I’ve wanted a ground style transmitter with a third channel that wasn’t a basic switch or slow scroll through an input range. Not long ago RadioMaster released the MT12 which is a ground style radio running EdgeTX.
Before I get too deep into what I did, here’s the finished mod:
Here are the STL’s you’ll need to print your own:
With that out of the way, here’s how this was made:
After the MT12 was delivered and RadioMaster told me there wasn’t a CAD file available I looked into free 3D scanning apps, eventually settling on Polycam. I took the MT12, set it on a flat metal plate, scanned it, then exported the scan, used a converter to get it into STL format, imported it into Solidworks, then made the first version of the main housing.
Overall, it was ok, but a bit bulky. It also meant that I couldn’t grip the transmitter the way I wanted to. Enter the realm of near impossible to machine parts that are effectively trivial thanks to 3D printing. The second version of the housing dramatically changed the shape and added mounting features. It also made it clear that I’d need at least a short cable extension. V3 quickly followed with fine tuned mounting and a cover for the back of the joystick.
I didn’t happen to have the right connectors on hand, so a quick Amazon order later and I was ready to build an extension cable. For this step the big thing is making sure you don’t swap around the order of the wires from cable to cable since that could cause input issues or damage a board.
With the mod tested and the housing painted it was time for the final step, bonding the housing to the removable base plate with one of my favorite adhesives, Shoe Goo.
The paint’s a bit glossy, so I may give it a matte clearcoat at some point, but beyond that I’m very happy with the final outcome.
I’ve seen a few people request cad files of bots in varying weight classes recently and had already published variants of these elsewhere, however between site updates and host migrations the old links aren’t likely active. Beyond that, I wanted to republish these in a neutral format with both bots in their “final” state.
The above link contains .step versions of the forked lifter and hammer configurations of Nyx along with the final design for Algos and a slightly updated weapon design that should make manufacturing easier. In the case of Algos, there was some hand finishing to get it within weight (wedge sharpening, shaving off small non-critical areas, etc) but it is the chassis design as fabricated.
If you don’t already have a cad program that can open step files one great option is getting a maker license for Solidworks. The SDK-IDs that are working at the time of this post are 9SDK2020 and 9MAKER with the former likely updating each year some time in the fall.
