BIG 3D PRINTED TANK FIELD TEST (Patreon)

Hi everyone!! I've been doing a lot of work on the tank to get it ready for this field test. I think it looks very cool with those lights and I'm really happy about the new control panel, it does everything that I need. I wasn't that happy with the pedals that I designed a few months ago so I did a complete redesign of the spring mechanism and now I can safely rest my feet on them without fearing pushing them accidentally. I also reprogrammed the Arduino used to control the motors which now also takes care of all the inputs and outputs on the control panel and now there are two drive modes, one by RPM which sets the desired RPMs for the motors which is meant for control at low speeds (it is the one I use to load the tank on the van) And the other one controlled by current that allows for high speeds (and destruction).

SPOILERS AHEAD:

In my opinion almost everything that broke was due the parts being printed very light with few walls light infill and with a .4 nozzle. When I originally printed these parts I was setting the prints for speed not part durability. Also there are a lot of +3 years old parts in there and PLA isn't known for its durability. 

The new suspension sets on the back held up perfectly even though these are the ones that hold most of the weight of the tank which kind of confirms my theory. 

I had a few other issues like the treads curving (derailing) under the tank, I'm thinking about new tread link designs that could help with guidance and durability and also modifying the idler wheels to help keeping the treads aligned. A tensioner at the front is something I'm considering too.  

So I'm afraid I'll have to do a major overhaul of the drivetrain. It won't take too much time because now I can print very large batches on my big printer so hopefully we'll see a new test very soon.

Either way I had a lot of fun and I'm even more confident on the tank success than before the test. 

I've been having trouble finding all the right parts for the big printer so I'll have to push it back a couple of weeks more and in the meantime I'm going to build a TiniCNC MkII which will be almost fully compatible parts wise with the previous version but will have linear guides and will be compatible with different profiles. 

I'm also drawing the next projects that will be printed on the new big printer and I cannot wait!!!

Thanks and enjoy!!!