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- [00:00]
A
From Cincinnati, Ohio in Bowie, Maryland, this is behind the Bots, the podcast that brings you the stories and the people behind the bots. I'm Jake.
- [00:10]
B
And I'm Brandon.
- [00:12]
A
And today on the podcast, interview with Team Honeycracked and mammoth team member Zoe Lambert. We'll wrap up the show with this week's installment of Robots around the World. If you like our show, please rate us on Apple products, Google Play, Spotify, Tunein, Castbox Player, FM and podcast Podbean and follow us on Facebook at Behind the Bots and tell a friend we really appreciate our community and your kick us off with the calendar. Brandon, what's happening?
- [00:41]
B
All right, so we have two we're gonna try to cover two weeks here August 9th and 16th, so buckle up. For the week of August 9th we're gonna be primarily in the UK and the US so first in the US we got a Ferndale, Michigan where 15 US fairy weight 150 gram robots and 1 pound plastic ants will be competing. In Westminster, Colorado bot Rumble will be hosting their August with 46 robots across the 150 gram control. So more sportsmanlike machines and full combat classes and 1 pound plastic ants. Over to the UK where in Gainsborough they will be hosting the Ant weight World Series 75 apparently will be held in Willingham Village Hall. 150 gram UK ant weights will gather together once again to decide who is the best of the best. In London, UK the others will be hosting their Rock and Robot 22 event as part of a monthly hybrid of live music and fighting robots using 150150 gram UK ant weights. You're gonna hear that a lot. Competitors will first fight their machines and then pass them to the audience members who then fight them in low tournaments before everyone gets a meal and gets to watch a range of live music. Looking forward to the week of August 16th we have events in the US, UK and Canada. So first off in Salt Lake City, Utah they'll be hosting their Summer Slaughter event where 39 robots be competing across the fairy weight plastic ant, full combat ant and three pound beetle weight classes. And over to my home state of Maryland where Macro will be hosting the Alex Richmond rumble or 46 fairy weights, plastic ants and 1 pound full combat ants will be competing in the in the classes. I'll personally be competing in the 1 pound plastic ant class so fingers crossed I can survive the battles and good luck to all the all the competitors. In Houston, Texas the August annihilation event will be held with 21 robots across the 150 gram Sportsman plastic ant and 1 pound full combat classes and 3 pound BE classes. Now they go to Canada. We're in Calgary in Alberta. We're Kilobots. We're running the Canadian National Championships. Across Saturday and Sunday, 57 robots be competing across the ferry. Weight 1 pound rookies and pro classes and 3 pound beetleb classes. Over to Kitchener in Ontario, Canada, we see our largest event of the week with Bot brawl hosting their 20th event across the weekend with 90 robots competing across the ant weight, beetle weight, 30 pound sumo and 150 pound sumo classes. 150 pound sumo classes. Notably in previous years, Bloodsport and other BattleBots teams have competed there. So definitely go check it out. Heading over to the UK Robodojo be hosting their first round of full combat UK ant weights and beetle weights. Continuing in the uk, the Gloucester or the Grocs in Gloucestershire. So Gloucestershire Rock Comet Society will be hosting their Antwaite event. And then finally the UK Bristol Bot builders will be hosting their big bot bash at the Left Hand the Giant Tap Room. Sports and featherweights will be competing outside as part of BBB's third Summer Series event. So for details on these events and more, please visit robotcomeds.com buildersdb.com and bristolbotbuilders.com and now we enter our interview with Zoe. Zoe, how are you?
- [03:55]
A
Hi, Zoe.
- [03:56]
C
Hi. Hi. I'm good. How are you?
- [03:59]
B
Oh, doing well.
- [04:00]
A
Placamet robots, why did you add the moat?
- [04:07]
C
Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy?
- [04:14]
B
Diving right into the hysteria I see there.
- [04:15]
A
Jake, I'm hysterical about hive hysteria.
- [04:19]
B
Hysterical, but hive hysteria?
- [04:20]
A
Hysteria.
- [04:22]
C
The truth is I didn't. I didn't get to decide whether the moat was there or not. It came with the cage.
- [04:29]
A
So you're saying that we have to blame Pete Covert?
- [04:32]
C
Sure. Any of the Colorado guys, you can blame them.
- [04:36]
A
Blame Luke Quinn.
- [04:37]
B
So Luke Quinn, explicitly, directly and purposefully.
- [04:40]
A
Yeah, okay.
- [04:41]
C
Oh, yeah, definitely.
- [04:42]
A
Okay, That's. That's fine.
- [04:44]
C
They can just shift it to the person who had the cage before them. So.
- [04:47]
B
You know what? That's true. So create a whole list of blame. That's what I'm hearing.
- [04:52]
A
So where did that cage.
- [04:54]
B
How.
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A
When was that cage built?
- [04:58]
C
I don't actually know the full backstory to this cage. I just know it showed up on ebay when we had money to buy a cage and then we bought it and now it's here. Stack got the full history at some point, but I know there's a lot of history to it because there's about six different ways to lock the cage from people modifying it over the years.
- [05:23]
A
So you. So you don't even know. So we gotta reach out to one of the. One of the Colorado guys and figure out.
- [05:29]
C
I know it used to be in a restaurant.
- [05:31]
B
Yeah, yeah, the cage has. The cage has an illustrious life. So I know, I know a bit of the lore and I can try to share a little bit about it here. I'm sure I look in the comments and I'm sure Luke can commentary on a bit more. But I do know that previously, like before Honeycrack, this cage used to be like the primary box for the AVC events over in Colorado. So people like Luke and Pete would love to be able to compete in this cage again and do awesome robot stuff. But even before them, I believe this was one of the cages that Fuzzy Malden, way back in BattleBots days, he made, he made Polar Vortex and BattleBots, lots of other team toad machines over the years. But long, long ago, he had a idea for a restaurant, I believe this is tied to it, called the, I think it's Robot Bar and Grill in Pittsburgh, something like that. And so the whole idea was that you could take robot fighting, which is already like live entertainment, just like gladiators and whatever, and then you serve food. People can like sit and watch. And then if you're a builder, that means that they can just feed you food while you build more robots. So it's like a really good entertainment idea put together. That, as awesome as it was, probably had a bit of difficulty because robot builders are like infamous for destroying stuff. So a little hard to keep it running tournament going. But it was a really cool idea. I think over time because the cage was so solid, just kept getting moved down the line.
- [06:59]
A
When would have that been that, that restaurant?
- [07:01]
B
Probably like 2003, 2004, like shortly after the BattleBots days Comedy Central run again. Go a little quiet.
- [07:10]
C
What I'm hearing is I need to start a restaurant.
- [07:12]
A
Yeah, in the hive.
- [07:14]
C
In the hive.
- [07:15]
A
Honey based products.
- [07:17]
B
Exactly. And then you can even hire beekeepers to also be around. So you get like beekeeper. Keep beekeeper somewhere. So you can have like three different potential connections there, like live bees conservation.
- [07:30]
C
And you do have a soccer field outside. We'll just go put the bees out there instead.
- [07:35]
B
Easy. So you have a lot of. So we have a lot of potential here, as I'm hearing, because the hive. Because let's even back up a little bit. So to go all the way back to the beginning. So Zoe, how did you first get involved with Fighting robots come at robots
- [07:55]
C
in 2020 when Covid hit, we could not do normal like our normal frc, FTC stuff that we have liked to do because all the competitions were remote. And so we were looking for something to get all the kids engaged. So we did a little in house event that was supposed to be, I would say the robots were equivalent to Beetle size. But I didn't know about weight classes, I just knew about combat robots. So I said they had to fit in a certain size. I didn't give them a weight. So it actually ended up with, with a. We ended up with a robot called Toasty that weighed like 10 pounds or something. But it was the exact size of the dimensions I gave. But we did that and it was mostly just like modified RC cars ramming each other into a pit. And then in 2021 Cody and I, we like, we weren't really doing combat robots fully at the Hive yet. It was kind of just like a one off thing that we did to give some sort of entertainment. And then Cody and I went to nhrl and I saw that there were teams there and I was like, oh, we could actually start a team. And I spent the whole time in the car. I still had to pitch it to Growing Stems, but I spent the whole time in the car trying to come up with a name. And I saw, I was like honey cracked. And he was like, maybe we should look for something else. I was like, yeah, let's look for something else. Well, I didn't find anything else. So now we have Honey Cracked and it's kind of just like built up from there. I think Liam was one of our first students on the team because he actually won the second competition. Three pound competition. We actually had a three pound competition at the Hive and I made him the mini bot with that robot for Busy Bee.
- [09:51]
B
So first of all, cool for Liam. That's a nice little Liam Lorver hearing too. But also like you mentioned, Growing Stems as well. I'm sure people were asking about it. So Honeycracked is like the Combat team. And then we know Growing Stems like a little bit higher level than that. So sort of. What's Growing Stems?
- [10:12]
C
The Growing Stems is the non profit organization that hosts all of the programs that happen in the Hive. And the Hive is just where we live. That's our home. And so the Hive has rooms for VexIQ, Vex, Go Combat and FRC. So we have a field house, we have the Combat room which is where I am now with our big cage. And then we have some smaller, like, classroom areas that are for our other programs, like our VEX IQ program. And like, we have a conference room and stuff to do, meetings and all that. And so Growing Stems is a nonprofit that kind of like all the money that we get gets donated to Growing Stems. And then Growing Stems make sure that every program kind of gets supported the way it needs to to keep alive.
- [11:04]
A
You started this team. When did you really see the team make a big shift?
- [11:10]
C
And that's hard because I feel like I've been doing this a lot longer than I actually have. So we started in 2021, I think in 2022 we got several people involved, and then 2023, we got even. That was like. I think that was the year we had the most people involved. And we were doing three pounders. And then in 2024 and 2025, it's kind of more consolidated to a smaller group. Who does like 12 pounders? We have a. Through a few three pounders. But it really, like, it grew very fast. Like, once we had established it as a program at Growing Stems, it grew way faster than I could actually handle. Because in 2022, I was also an FRC mentor. And as the program coordinator for Combat, I could not handle doing FRC and combat at the same time. So in 2023, I actually stepped away from FRC. I only go and help if they, like, need a few extra mentors or something like that for a day or just go in there every once in a while. But my main focus is Combat, and then I have a sub focus of like, VEX iq. So.
- [12:25]
A
So, so FRC is kind of. How did. How did you start with frc and like, how did you end up going down that route? Like, go back, you know?
- [12:36]
C
Yeah. So in high school, in like 2013, I was in 10th grade and all my friends were joining the team, and I actually missed the meeting that we had to go to to be able to sign up for the team. And they got me the little application, had me fill it out, and then turned it in for me, even though I wasn't there. And so I was able to join the team. And I was already doing other. Like, I was building like, quadcopters and stuff for my aviation tech class in high school, but I wasn't like, I didn't really know much about robots. And then I joined FRC in 2013 just because my friends were doing. And it sounded pretty interesting. And that's. I mean, I haven't had any other hobbies since then, really, like, maybe Sometimes I play a video game or two, but I'm here all the time, so.
- [13:30]
B
Well, we appreciate it. I think you're really awesome at it.
- [13:35]
A
What is it like working with high schoolers, seeing them develop? And what, what is that like?
- [13:40]
C
So one of the biggest reasons I mentor robotics is because I really like. Like when there's always a moment when somebody figures something out that you can see it in their eyes, like that they. They suddenly figured out how to solve the problem that they've been working on for a while. And that's really inspiring to me. And like seeing kids do that for the first time or like figure out those problems that they may not have felt they like, had the confidence to do before, just, it makes me really happy. So I enjoy like the mentoring aspect of it. But working with the high schoolers, it's actually really interesting because by the time they're in high school, they also, you know, are pretty smart on their own. So with combat, we are constantly working together. Like, I can't say that I haven't learned anything from the students that they like, they learn from me, but I also learn from them. So working with the high schoolers, really the only difference between working with the college students or the other adults here is that sometimes I have to steer away from some like, crazy ideas or I have to remind them of money. So
- [14:56]
B
the great humbling reality of money,
- [15:00]
C
I feel like sometimes they have a crazy idea. Like, I like, that sounds cool and it would probably work, but that might cost us a thousand dollars. So let's not do that. But let's. Let's try to find something else to do.
- [15:13]
B
Yeah. Do you ever have to kind of. Well, I guess you kind of mentioned that. But like, when you're reigning in different people's design ideas and even with that kind of inspiration that goes with it, you ever have to sort of gently say, really like the ideas. Very cool. But I think maybe this idea is better because I think that within your certain ide either bomb restrictions, like part restrictions or cost restrictions, or even time restrictions, this might be a better idea. Is that ever something that has to come up when you're guiding your students activities?
- [15:43]
C
I really try not to influence it too much outside of like the budget thing. Like, I'll let them try it as long as it's not going to cost us a whole lot. What usually happens though, is anytime somebody's building a new robot, they have to use parts that we already have or that are cheaper. And if they decide to stick with that robot or once they prove like that they kind of know what they're doing with it, then we'll be like, oh, okay, so you want some of the innovative designs like motors or you want some of these parts that are a little bit more expensive or maybe we have to go out to China to get something made, we can't make it here on our router or on the mill or whatever. And then once they proven that they are invested in this robot design that then we'll start investing in it because I'm up for whatever ideas as long as they're going to actually like it and continue with it. So if it's a new robot, we usually like try to keep it more on the cheaper side, on the budget side, let them test out the idea. Unless the, the idea is like fundamentally like it won't work. I, I don't want to see them like explode or something like it. That's no fun. So we, we definitely, that's the only time we kind of like guide ideas away is if it's just too expensive or if I feel like they're just, just going to fail. I don't want to see that. I don't think they want to experience that either.
- [17:23]
A
So what do you find is like continuously motivating? A little bit about my background is I work with college age students and especially post Covid there was a lot of trouble maintaining engagement and just like academic grit. What do you see in your students that, that you find exceptional or that they find motivating?
- [17:50]
C
I'm not really sure what keeps them around other than it's fun to be here.
- [17:55]
B
We're just so cool guys.
- [17:58]
C
Like I'm not paid to be here. So like the same thing goes for me. Like the reason I'm here is because it's fun and it's enjoyable and they're all a part of robotics for whatever reason. Like they have some their own drivers and a lot of it is like the problem solving, being able to engage in a sport that kind of uses their mechanical skills and stuff. So like a lot of our kids do sports as well. Like they do sailing, soccer, whatever. They do a lot of different activities and that motivation that they keep for those sports is also what keeps them here.
- [18:36]
A
Sailing is such a Maryland. I'm sorry.
- [18:41]
B
All right.
- [18:44]
A
I don't know anybody who salesman.
- [18:48]
C
Do you have water where you live?
- [18:49]
A
No.
- [18:54]
B
Don't you have the river?
- [18:55]
A
Yeah, we have, yeah, we have the Ohio river. But like. And we had, we had a rowing in but I mean there's. Yeah, it's not the ocean. It's a dirty river. Dude, you don't want to.
- [19:10]
B
That's crazy.
- [19:11]
A
Get in that.
- [19:12]
B
I hear that Cleveland. Cleveland's on the shores of a lake. You can always just go north to Cleveland.
- [19:20]
A
That's four hours away.
- [19:23]
B
Not going up there, that's a little tricky.
- [19:26]
A
Maryland activity.
- [19:27]
C
How far do you travel for robotics?
- [19:30]
A
That irrelevant.
- [19:36]
B
Ooh, it's crazy. Caught in your own stream. It's crazy.
- [19:40]
A
My only comment on that last question is what I love about Combat Robotics, and what I love that it presents to young people is that it's very precise and intentional effort with very little reward for an extended period of time. Right. You have to work toward a abstract and distant goal for a long period of time in order to be, you know, to work your way back. And I think that's so enriching. And yeah, you're right. You can do it with other sports, too. And I'm all for that. But Combat is such a good teacher for young mechanical engineers. So it's. It's very cool that your program, I see that in your students and, and it shows in your team dynamic when you guys show up to events. So I just want to.
- [20:35]
C
Yeah, it's one of the things about Growing Stems as a nonprofit organization is that we have to have, like, a goal and, and it needs to be in, like, STEM education through robotics, and so keeping the combat educational. A lot of the things we teach is like, you know, the normal things you're going to learn with combat, like, you need to know about your materials, you need to know about cad, but outside of, like, the actual structure part and like, the dynamics of, like, that teamwork and stuff is managing your time and managing your budget. And the unique thing about Combat compared to our other programs is that it's a lot more individual. Like, we do have robots that are multi bots, and we have robots that kind of you. You need to work with another person to get them done. But most of the time, you have your own robot. It is up to you to ask questions for you to be here to request parts. And we have like a parts request sheet. And if you don't get your stuff in there in time, then you don't get it. Or if you put the wrong thing in, then you get the wrong thing. Like, you have to be able to manage your time, manage your budget, manage yourself to be able to get the robot that you want and the performance that you want out of that robot.
- [22:05]
B
That sounds a lot like the real world skills, for sure, actually, like, that's part of the warnings I did give to people, especially UMD leatherbacks. It's kind of like, all right, the robots are very cool, and they're probably the most fun thing you get to do. But when you have to work at the real world, some of these core skills of robotics that you're kind of like being stealth taught. Like, no one emphasizes the budget or time constraints per se when building a robot, but it's an implicit reality, and that part transfers very, very well. So I definitely see a lot of that point tying into it, because
- [22:40]
C
those skills, those, I feel like, separate the skills from, like, the FRC and the other programs that we have because they're working together. And so they still learn those, like, about materials, they still learn about cad, they still learn a whole bunch of skills from FRC that they wouldn't get otherwise. And, like, how to manage designing a full robot as, like, a team. But because they have that team to fall back on, it's easier for them to have those moments of, like, oh, somebody else will handle it if I don't. So that's where combat is, like, good, complimentary program, if that makes sense. Like, it teach between both programs, you're learning a lot of skills, and then they're backed up by each other, but they also have individual skills that you don't get from the other one.
- [23:31]
B
That's good symbiosis right there.
- [23:34]
C
I'm a computer scientist. I'm a civilian for the Navy, So I program things that go on airplanes, sometimes boats, but not, I mean, for the Navy. I work on a lot of airplanes.
- [23:50]
B
Ah, of course, the flying. Flying boats. Very common.
- [23:53]
C
Yeah, yeah, the flying boats. Um, and I'm going to be honest, a lot of my robot stuff does not benefit from what I do at work. It's actually the opposite way around, is that my work benefits from what I do at robot stuff, because I learn a whole lot more at robots, and work is where I just apply it.
- [24:15]
B
So the US Navy is. Is living off the shoulders of honeycracked at all times. And. Exactly. The hive is carrying the U.S. navy. As part of what I'm hearing, all
- [24:24]
C
of our mentors here are, or most of them at least, are from the local, like, Navy base, and they're engineers, computer scientists, what, whatever, over there. And I. I do believe that the mentors that are a part of our program actually are way better engineers and computer scientists and just the. Just overall, like, workers because of what we're doing. Like, when you're leading kids, you're not Just leading kids. You're leading. Like, if you can lead a high schooler, you can lead an adult. You know, it's a.
- [25:03]
B
We hope.
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A
We hope.
- [25:04]
B
I'm following.
- [25:05]
C
I mean, yeah, they. They each have their own challenges, I will be honest. But, like, like, like I said, I'm always learning from the high schoolers and the middle schoolers that I work with. And so by being a part of, like, this organization, it actually makes my work better.
- [25:25]
B
That's awesome. I mean, I'm very glad to see that. I hope the U.S. navy is happy to hear that. Sponsor U.S. navy, potentially combat robots.
- [25:36]
A
No, thank you. No, thank you.
- [25:42]
B
That is pretty cool. That's pretty cool. Thank you. Zoe.
- [25:44]
A
As far as. And I think that leads in. When you. When you have a student, kind of, what is the ideal outcome for that?
- [25:54]
C
Firstly, that they build something that they're proud of.
- [25:56]
A
We.
- [25:57]
C
We're really about inspiring the students to pursue this stuff in the future. We would ideally like them to come back with combat. It means that they can continue to do combat into the rest of their life, I guess, because we don't have an age limit. But with like, frc, it's if they. Once they graduate and they go to college and they come back and they mentor and they. They become a part of the team again and pass their knowledge on to the next generation. That's what we're hoping to produce is, like, this cycle of developing strong engineers through. Through our programs.
- [26:37]
B
That's awesome. Yeah. St. Mary's is lucky to have you all.
- [26:41]
C
I'm proud of who we have here. And there's like, it's crazy how far people will travel to be a part of our team. When I was in high school, we had somebody who traveled an hour to twice a week to be here. And, like, we have new members on our team, including Micah from Avalanche, and he travels, like, two hours to be here. And that's insane. And I'm just like, that takes some dedication to do that to come here. And I get that we have, like, all these great resources, but the motivation that's in these kids is amazing.
- [27:19]
B
That's incredible. Yeah. Awesome stuff to hear about it. That being said, we're going to take a really quick break. Be back in a few minutes with more questions for Zoe.
- [27:51]
A
Welcome back, guys. Thanks for the break. Hive Hysteria, if you're a fan of the show, you know, you keep track with the streams. I streamed and I watched Hive Hysteria as long as I could before the stream effed and died. No big deal. I'm not blaming I was. It was five hours so I was done by the end. It was a great day. How do you. What are your thoughts coming out? How did you like it? Let's, let's talk about it.
- [28:24]
C
Oh, I am very happy with how this year's event went because grew a lot. So last year was the first time we ever held high Visteria and there was like six 12 pound robots. And this year we opened it up to three pound robots and 12 pound robots. We had over 50 robots total. I was very nervous about the weather because it was very hot and being able to fit all the pits inside so nobody was like overheating. I felt bad for the people who were pitted next to our garage door because I knew it was hotter over there. But we managed to keep the inside cool for everybody. So if you were outside, you got to come in and have a break. But it. Everything went super smoothly. We only had one issue with one cage where we had to replace the polycarb or repair it.
- [29:24]
B
Blue cheese. Oh my gosh. Blue cheese. Sorry, go ahead.
- [29:30]
C
Our three pound cage held up. That's. This is. We built the three pound cage for this event. Oh, sorry about that. Okay. Anyways, we built the three pound cage for this event. I did three, eight polycarb for both layers. After people had who were coming to the event had shown that they had the ability to break cages. I was like, we will make sure it is extra strong. Stack worked really hard on the design for that cage. So it's just like everything came together really well. It went very smoothly, a lot better than I thought it was going to go. So we had a lot of really good fights. Everybody, you know, loves the moat. We put that in specifically for this event.
- [30:20]
B
Brand new addition.
- [30:21]
A
We made it bigger. Will the moat be bigger next year?
- [30:25]
C
Yeah, definitely. Will that be how we battle and the walls bigger?
- [30:31]
B
Can we do battle boats in the moat during the matches that we have two events at the same time?
- [30:38]
C
I mean if your boat can get past the corner brackets, then sure.
- [30:43]
A
I want to know what they.
- [30:44]
C
We might have to seal it up
- [30:45]
A
at the, at the, at the restaurant because that. That's probably from the restaurant days.
- [30:52]
C
It's actually pretty important for protecting the polycarp. It keeps the robots away from it. And then we have the wood walls to protect the robots from the metal walls and the metal walls protect the pack polycarbonate from the robots.
- [31:07]
A
So. So ultimately you end up with a slightly less than 12 by 12 cage. Is that the, the size?
- [31:15]
C
It's 13 and a half.
- [31:17]
A
Oh, wow. So it's actually from the outside is 16.
- [31:22]
B
Yeah.
- [31:22]
A
Okay.
- [31:23]
C
Or like the. The inside is 16, the moat then makes it like 14, and then the sub walls take. Take away a few inches, like half a foot, I guess.
- [31:34]
A
So it said ultimately bigger cage than NHRL's cage nature.
- [31:38]
C
16 by 16, isn't it?
- [31:40]
B
It is. Does that include the. Their walls, though? Because I know they sell the bumper too.
- [31:46]
A
I thought any.
- [31:47]
C
Theirs is more like. Yeah, theirs is more like if we didn't have the moat and we only had the walls.
- [31:54]
A
Oh, they are 16 by 16. Okay. So it's a much. It's slightly. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
- [32:00]
C
Yeah, yeah, it's. Theirs is like 15 and ours is like 13 and a half.
- [32:08]
B
So I mean, for a 12 pounder, that's more than fine. It only really affects like a 30 because 30s need maybe a little more area. But we're not fighting 30s there very often.
- [32:17]
C
Yeah, I tried to keep 30 fights, like big, big 30s out of the cage for fights because I trust my cage. But also like the cage was designed for robots in the 2000s and they're a lot stronger now than they were back then. So I just get a little worried with the 30s just being in there that they're gonna break something that I have I don't want to deal with fixing. Like the. The thing with Blue Cheese was the first thing that happened to this cage where we actually needed to pull it apart, pull a panel out.
- [33:00]
B
Thanks, Matt. Blue Cheese strikes again. You can't escape Blue Cheese. I tried. Well, I didn't even try to escape Blue Cheese. I accept my fate.
- [33:12]
A
These are polls from Discord. So they're not. Probably not the best, but I'm playing them. Yep.
- [33:19]
B
So we're going to watch a few fights for the audio listeners, once again.
- [33:22]
A
Yes. This is Blue Marlin versus Buzzkill.
- [33:26]
B
Oh, my gosh.
- [33:27]
A
Buzzkill on the rail. Blue Marlin pursuing into the moat.
- [33:36]
B
So watch how the fish gets fed. You know, I.
- [33:38]
A
The. The fish likes water, which means the fish likes the moat. And watching it on stream during the day and watching Blue Marlin mo. Every robot was something else. And I think Bob pinged Jimmy.
- [33:56]
C
You know, we got to ask Jimmy when he's going to put the moat into the big cages at nhro.
- [34:02]
A
I felt like the fights were like none of them went to the judges. I don't think a single 12 pound fight went to the judges. They were fast, they were hard, they were fun to watch. They were fun to watch on stream.
- [34:16]
B
It's Pretty cathartic.
- [34:17]
C
Like yeah, there was yeah, lots of really good robots at the event.
- [34:21]
B
So yeah, it was like. It's funny thinking about the hive hysteria because hyperst area being based in southern Maryland, you kind of expect most people to show up there being from, you know, generally around maybe the area, like maybe as far as like Pennsylvania, maybe the Midwest, a little bit like Ohio. But even just considering that and if you, you know, big out of towners, you still had overall a very beefy level of competition. Which is kind of incredible to think about too because that means that we're like. It's one of those effects of honeycracked on the area. And I guess the area is large. Maybe it's affected like the eastern competitions and all that. You had some like. Honestly this is a very an HRL like field. Like you can look at the field for £12 NHRL and probably find 3/4 of it just at this competition fighting. And so whenever these kind of matches were showing up in 3 and 12s, you just had these like really, really fun times the whole time. Like honestly, I think the crowd. I was only in there briefly because, you know, I got fished. I got fed to blue cheese by my own doing. But it was probably very, very fun for the crowd to be like, oh, that's just like huge boom. And then like a very solid ending to it as well.
- [35:38]
A
It's it.
- [35:39]
C
Oh yeah, we.
- [35:40]
B
Zoe's got.
- [35:42]
A
We.
- [35:42]
C
We got lots of like, we had lots of guests who were just like, I didn't know this was around here. And so they were excited to see it. And then there was a lot of big fights, like one of the scariest ones in the three pound cage, which I was definitely waiting for a cage breach when I was watching it was the pine Victus versus Breakneck. Yeah, yeah. They were bouncing all over the place. I was just ready. I was like ready to go get a panel and just replace that because I was just. The amount of power in those robots is insane.
- [36:23]
B
These fights are. These fights are legit. I remember because like one thought as well, even looking later on the competition for £3 especially I think a lot of the like because. Oh, actually no, even backing up to all that a little bit. So for this event, but also very notable too, you like the coin system, like the ante up system and people are definitely interested in that because of how different it is than the classic bracket seating that you have going into matches. So what was sort of the inspiration behind that system for fights?
- [36:54]
C
I'm going to be honest I don't remember where it came from, like the idea came from. I just know that the first year we ran it, I wanted it to be a way for people to test their robots and really just come to the event to have fun. So having the token system meant that you don't have to be in a rush, you don't have to be held to like this 20 minute fight time. Like if you needed to figure out what was wrong with your robot, you could decide to spend the rest of the day fixing your robot and have like one more fight. Or like just like have a grudge match or whatever. Like you. You're not like locked into fighting, however many fights, you can figure it out for yourself. And then the people who want to be competitive, they can try their best. 1. One thing that I didn't really like this year about it is that, like, with the introduction of so many more robots is that there was scary robots that people didn't want to fight, so they weren't getting any fights. So we're actually discussing how we want to fix that for next year because I would like to keep High Visteria as this token system because it is really nice to be able to pick your fights and fight when you're ready and to test new systems and stuff. But there definitely needs to be a better system for random matches, basically for people who are ready to fight but don't necessarily. They can't necessarily find somebody to fight.
- [38:25]
B
Yeah, I remember. I remember pitting near Lars with Impact. I remember that was a concern he had. I fought him first with Hex. Excellent fight. That was very fun.
- [38:37]
A
That fight was great. Do you have a time.
- [38:39]
B
Yeah.
- [38:39]
A
For that fight?
- [38:40]
B
I wished I did.
- [38:42]
A
Okay, let me look. That was just. When was it? That was so much.
- [38:46]
B
Pretty early in the day. It was fairly early in the day, I think, so it's probably not too far from what you're searching for now. But that was. That was good. Like Professor X is really old. Impact's really good. And Hex didn't die. Lars did his best though. I think the only thing that died, like the motor was for it. But otherwise remember like talking with Lars way after later on in the day. And that was sort of his concern, like making sure he could get matches in because everyone's like flying through stuff. And I saw I was able to at least fight with like grudges and stuff. But that's definitely something. I'm sure if he got it, probably others too.
- [39:19]
A
Oh, here it is. But.
- [39:21]
B
Oh, yeah, it's like an Unexpected result of the hive growth.
- [39:25]
C
Yeah. And, and that's another thing is that I was thinking about space. So, like, we didn't have all. All 2412 pounders sign up. So I was like, oh, all those spots could be filled in with three pounders so I could get people off the wait list. But what ended up happening with the 3? The 12 pounders were fine. Like, we were able to keep the cage pretty full all day, but without like having too long of a weight. But there were so many three pounders that the, the list for fights just kept building up faster than we could keep up with it. So next year, I do think that there needs to be like a hard limit on the 3 pounders. Like it needs to be 243 pounders. I shouldn't let it get up to like, I think there was like 33 three pounders, something like that probably.
- [40:18]
B
It was a pretty good wait list for it.
- [40:20]
C
Yeah. So as sad as it is, I don't want. I want people to be able to show up if they want to, but that keeping a certain number of robots is important for timing, for sure.
- [40:37]
B
And Jake pulled up the Hex Hex impact fight.
- [40:42]
A
This was this. Thank you for reminding me of this fight because. Because the stream, it was a five hour stream, so the fights became a little bit of a blur. But this was one of the most fun fights to watch of the day. Professor Hex, this first shot, I don't understand how you.
- [41:01]
B
I just punched him really hard in the face and threw him backwards, I
- [41:04]
A
guess because this is like, this is such a loser shot for a horizontal most times. But I guess you just got a really good engagement. And then immediately like Lars's reaction time getting back on his feet and then the other thing. And this is, this is not a criticism. The same way the mode is not a criticism. The Beetle rails were huge and I know.
- [41:28]
C
So they're four by fours.
- [41:29]
B
Yeah, they're huge.
- [41:34]
A
Which was. It was brutal on impact and it was brutal on Alex. Alex Wang's robot pine Victus, which also had a really good showing. Just like as he gets better driving that robot and as its reliability increases, it just. It comes back so strong to every event. Yeah, they were having a hard time with the rails. So what's the story on this three pound cage? You guys just built it.
- [42:00]
B
Yes.
- [42:00]
C
And all the wood was donated, so it was originally supposed to be two by fours as the rails, but we got the wood donated. And the four by fours are the same four by fours that we got out of the, for the 12 pound cage, they're like the off cuts. Oh, I believe. Or like we got them donated. But yeah, either way that also one of the. One of the later decisions we made for the cage was that we have screws that go up through the underside of the cage into the rails to hold them down. And the two by fours were not long enough for that. So for now, until the side rails kind of get more beat up or leaving them in there will probably like sand them down and stuff. And we are going to keep them as four by fours. But the next set that we put in, we're actually going to chamfer the outer edges so they're angled instead of just squares for the record to help with that.
- [43:09]
A
Yeah, I think the chamfered edges is the way to go because that's how the BattleBots cage is. I'm one. I like a good wall stick. I know it. Because they're 90 degrees, a horizontal can get stuck in there. And then simultaneously they're so large that a vert can get stuck on top. So like if you just beveled the edge so that the blades more likely to glance or tear out.
- [43:35]
B
But that's just.
- [43:36]
A
That's a little stunlock about gauges. Sorry. All right. And fight
- [43:43]
C
something that kind of. Because of the area that we're in and the temperature that was outside and just the overall weather is that our wood, especially in the three pound cage was super soft.
- [43:57]
A
Yeah.
- [43:58]
C
So you'll see horizontals get stuck in it. And they were getting stuck in it a lot easier than other places because the wood was just. It was so soft. It was like you could feel it with your hands and. But that also means that if you had cleats, they probably worked extra well on the soft ground and then the fight. So we need to update our timer. Cody's already working on it to make it to where. Where we can select to have two minute or three minute fights. Because we kept having three minute fights because that's what our timer did outside. But it was so hot that people's robots were getting like extremely hot inside the cage.
- [44:51]
B
Yeah.
- [44:51]
C
So it would have been better if the matches were like two minutes instead of three minutes.
- [44:57]
A
Is the robot being hot? Does that use up the battery more?
- [45:00]
B
I remember actually, by the way, first of all came in from Ricky. We're also also Zoe's member of Mammoth, so we'll probably touch on that at some point. But anyway, so our fearless leader Ricky also came by and was also able to visit the event too. And I remember talking to him a little bit about the heat for the lipos. He said, kinda like native. They're definitely less happy when they're very hot. But it also isn't as critical. They're a little hot. So the robots are probably like in those spikes of the weapons drawing tons of amps and so on. That's probably when the robot's getting. Or the battery is probably a little less happy. I think our biggest fear is that if it's prolonged and you keep trying to just do it, not letting it cool back down again after a cycle.
- [45:41]
A
Yeah.
- [45:42]
B
Then you can get at risk of quick degradation. Degradation. And then that leads to the, the sad fires. Even just like puffy lipos. Lifetime.
- [45:51]
C
Well, I mean, I think you're not only concerned about battery heat, but you're concerned about the rest of the electronics too.
- [45:59]
B
And your chassis at that point too. Like if everybody's plastic, then maybe if all things are. Everything begins melting on robots that are not made.
- [46:08]
C
I wanted to show off our plastic ant weights at like we had these booths of like our FRC team and our VEX IQ stuff and I wanted to show off our plastic ant weight program. But it was all outside and I told them they weren't allowed to take their robots outside because it was too hot and they were gonna melt.
- [46:24]
B
That's, that's, that's very, very understandable. It was like 95 or so. For everybody who's wondering, it was super high with high humidity because it's Maryland and you're near the ocean where you can. Yeah, yeah, where you can. That's the key. If we just sailed away, be fine. But.
- [46:46]
A
I did.
- [46:46]
B
I love the event. I definitely love the bots there like right now like jackalope and peekaboo was great.
- [46:53]
A
Was Jay driving this one?
- [46:55]
C
Yes, I think so. Yeah.
- [46:57]
B
Yeah, Jay was there. Jay was driving. That's great. No, because like this is a prime example of like these are really top tier Beetle weights who are fighting here. Like it's very much back and forth. One gets underneath the other, big launch throws whatever, whatever. And both of these bots have history doing well. Jackalope qualifying ain't and being good at G Scroll and then Peekaboo also being a D scroll and being like a monster down in Florida back when Bob was down there with that. So like you're talking about pretty high tier robots that just sort of show up and just do great and they're just having fun just fighting people under the, under the Maryland sun.
- [47:31]
C
Yeah. I was worried that People wouldn't want to show up to the event because we're kind of very remote where we are and so like we're an hour and a half to two hours from D.C. and Baltimore. So there, there's getting here is not like fun. But I, I, I mean more people showed up than I thought and like everybody seemed to have a great time so. And then like I've learned a lot this year so I'm hoping that next year one will growing stems is looking at some opportunities right now to become bigger and have a bigger building to call home and I'm hoping that next year will be more established and be able to have the ca both cages inside. All the three pounders will be able to have like full pit tables instead of half a pit table because I felt a little bad about that. Some other event runners told me that they've done that before so it's not too bad. But definitely would like to give everybody like proper pit space and like I want. We didn't have a three pound test box. We didn't have a 12 pound test box. So those things in the future it's just what I'm hoping that our events like as they get bigger, as we get better that those are improvements that we can make and then we can also hold more events in a year besides just the one.
- [49:01]
B
That's awesome. Also the chat has wanted us to to note that it was in fact Bob who's driving against Gwen Peekaboo Jackalope so. Oh thank you chat. Thank you chat for life corrections. But anyway, not to not to take away from your points, that's definitely a big point because actually Maker Nakamiski specifically asks are there ideas for more hive based events like you already mentioned, I have a stereo is a big one and the goal is other events. Are there any sort of other events on the horizon that might be potential potentially happening that are sort of on the ideas or. Everything's still pretty pretty got to figure it out.
- [49:38]
C
So right now one of the big things about our three pound cage is that it's mounted on a trailer and we did that so we could take it other places other than the hive to have events. So we actually are looking to partner with people to who are willing to host the events but they don't have a cage for like beetles or whatever is that we can grab bring our cage to them and help them host an event. So something that we are working on don't have too much details right now for is that we're working with a science Museum in Maryland to host an event in October. So keep an eye out for that. I'll give more details eventually once we have more things figured out. But we're already looking into trying to host more events, and we just. We can't do it by ourselves. Like, we would love to host events more often, but we have so much of our team is, like, busy all the time. So if we have other people who just need a cage and we can help them run an event, then we would love to do that.
- [50:45]
B
So that sounds great.
- [50:46]
A
You're putting the Bat Signal out for other builders on the east coast to utilize your space. Utilize your space, utilize your cage. Bring the cage to them.
- [50:58]
C
Yes. And so we've built our cage very strong, and so we can find it reliable. Obviously, we want to be the ones running the cage, so we that then have the responsibility over that. Because the last thing we'd want is to basically let somebody borrow the cage and something happen. But as long as they're willing to work with us and let us be there to run the cage, and we are open to working with people on hosting more events.
- [51:24]
A
Okay, the Bat Signal is out. If you're in Maryland and you have fighting robots, they got a cage. All right, we're gonna take a quick break. We're gonna be.
- [52:13]
C
Foreign.
- [52:18]
A
Welcome back from the break. Thank you, guys. We're back with some more fight review. Zoe, your team has a fleet of. How'd that happen? How did that start? And right now we're watching Mine and Impulse.
- [52:34]
C
So the first real, like, multi bot that we had, like true multibot was mining and PlusL. And that was because Team Defective has a lot of background in combat robotics. And Matt and I got along pretty well. And he had been like a mini bot driver for me because he was teaching me, like, drive coaching skills so I could drive coach better for my team. And then we went from, like, multi bot, like the mini bottle full bot setup, too. A multi bot setup and just learning how, like, those skills, like, with interacting with each other and how. How those fights play out. And, like, what he was pointing out to me is things that I've learned to communicate to my team. And, like, it was mostly for him to teach me proper, like, fight techniques and what to keep an eye out for during a fight.
- [53:30]
A
You're stuck upside down or you're trying to get Matt back over right now.
- [53:34]
B
Yes.
- [53:36]
A
It's so cute. Watch.
- [53:39]
C
So I think this is the fight where I hand the controller to Michael because I can't do it. And I get Stressed out. So I like, I hand it over to Michael and he figures it out. Like it becomes like from no experience. Like right here is like where it goes from. Oh, Zoe doesn't have a lot of experience to somebody who has a lot of experience and just can figure it out.
- [54:02]
B
So he just runs straight into the other one. So now both of them are fully back back on their wheels and they're both attacking Baby Grim after being invaded briefly.
- [54:10]
A
I remember watching this fight and it was the first time where I really saw like. Because this is like pre repeater pre. This is like a very early. I don't know, it's the first time I really saw synergy between a multi bot and for people who have never watched Zoe and Matt fight together, it's kind of terrifying because they don't say anything to each other. They're just, they're completely silent when they're cage side. It's really sure it's, it's some level of fundamental communication that I don't understand.
- [54:46]
C
Matt has said one thing to me that like stuck into my head is like when I was driving around, it was before this fight, like when I was running into him a lot, it was hit them, don't hit me. And talking about us having lots of multibods, every time I'm working a new person on a multibot that is I'm like, okay, remember, hit them, don't hit me. And we, and we joke with that all the time. And like going from mining and plusle having a second driver down there that you can learn from was like really helped me. And so having multiple multibots and Honeycraft is so that one more of our team participates. We have more drivers, we have more people working on robots. But also you have someone there that you can kind of like you can communicate with, you can like jump off of. When you're like analyzing fights, you, you're not alone when you're down there. And it's just made the multibots like a lot of fun. And with B Force and Honey Bombers they're actually supposed to be our like premier honeycrack specific bots. So Honey Bombers was introduced this year and it so that way somebody who has experience can be working with somebody who's new on the team. And it's two different robots. It's a vertical and we have a horizontal. So before you're ever building your own bot, you have a chance to drive both and figure out what style you like best.
- [56:22]
A
So if it synergizes so well with
- [56:25]
B
so difficult for a Fight for the opponent because now they have to consider each different direction to approach you at. And that can just drive. That can throw somebody off pretty fast. It's like, oh, here's the big wedge for the horizontal. And then the vert's like, perfect. I have forks. And you just go right there. Yeah, bend the wedge.
- [56:44]
A
I don't remember this fight.
- [56:46]
B
This is crazy against Torrent, by the way.
- [56:48]
A
So Matt's completely dead. Matt's completely dead. At this point, it's been a pretty good back and forth.
- [56:54]
C
I'm struggling because my wedge. So the. The mining and plusle bounce a lot. They are very bouncy robots. And as soon as you take the wedges away, they have nothing keeping them on the ground. So they actually, like, move around. Like they just want to fly all over the place. Gyro flip and everything. So I have one wedge gone on one side, the other wedge is lifted up, so it's providing none of that stabilization. So it's very difficult to drive. And I was just sitting on the ground with Zach and Matt next to me telling me what to do, and I was just like, it's so difficult to drive.
- [57:34]
A
You're so focused right now. You are so focused.
- [57:38]
B
Eyes are deadlocked on the robot, every single part. Yeah. And you. So you flipped over, Torrent, got a pin in the corner, and now it's like free shots on the bottom of it. That's pretty good because even though you have two robots, one of them's down, the other one's still going and it's. It's doing well.
- [57:52]
C
Yeah.
- [57:53]
B
So I guess that goes alongside it. So like with Mayan and plus hole. Exactly. It's like with mine and plusle with the multi bot direction you have there. So we already heard a really good part which is like the team facing side of it, which you get to learn a bit from the different versions, vertical or horizontal. On honey bombers. With my Impossible. Do you see that advantage with the multi bots also, just like as you're fighting against somebody else, having the two options, the two bots instead of the one bot, does that give you additional benefits you've seen over time?
- [58:25]
C
Yeah, I. I really love multi bots because it's nice having backup. It's one thing I mentioned is that the robots are bouncy, so if you can get the pattern going, the robots literally open up for the next one to come in. So you can go in. It bounces back as soon as you hit and then the other one can come in. So it's like, you don't have to let up.
- [58:51]
A
It's so fun to watch when you guys are able to get that, like, it's almost like a drum beat where you guys are just like back and forth and back and forth.
- [58:59]
C
Yeah. And it's harder to practice with my nin and plus so because Matt and I do live like five hours away from each other. But when we have like with B Force and Honey Bombers, we actually utilize our cage that we have here to practice that sort of rhythm. Because we have, we have a 10 pound medicine ball and we'll actually like push it around and push it to each other and try to navigate that same spot space as each other without hitting each other, keeping that rhythm and making sure it doesn't like get stuck in the corner or something. So all that practice and push, pushing that medicine ball around actually gives us a lot of like, driver practice about how to work together in a match with a moving object.
- [59:44]
A
It. It is so cool. So, you know, I touched on it in one of my videos, Jake Hoffman's one video a year. It's so cool that you keep your cages open to people. That's such a. That's such a cool opportunity.
- [60:02]
C
Yeah, it's something that I really want to make sure that everybody knows that if they want, they can come here and they can test our space. I never want like our cages to be isolated to. Oh, Team Honeycracked is the only one to benefit from this. And occasionally I'll post pictures to prove that we are doing that. You'll see that the Leatherbacks come down here, Brandon comes down here. I want people to be able to come here and practice and utilize the space and like, it's open. Like, it's here, it's all the time. It's just right behind me here. So like come, come and use it. Like, I want, I want people to, in the community to have the same advantages that we have by having it here is that they can practice with those robots that they normally. You for a 12 pounder, it's like really difficult to practice if you don't have like some sort of safe space.
- [60:59]
A
I don't spin up with my drive train.
- [61:02]
C
Right. And that literally feel very defeating.
- [61:05]
A
Yeah.
- [61:06]
C
If you find out like at the event that all of a sudden your weapon and your drive can't work at the same time, like, there's something funky
- [61:13]
A
with your escs that's, that's like the determiner of like, if you make your first fight and ultimately like, if you return to. This is like, can you test it and figure out it. That's so cool that you guys have identified that as the problem and then immediately generously gone out of your.
- [61:30]
B
And that was just my bustle.
- [61:31]
A
I wish I lived closer.
- [61:32]
B
Okay, so you just have to import. You make a wormhole, simple as that. Yeah. You know, when we figure that out, it'll be easy. But as well with the. With the other bots, that's mine and Plusl, they're awesome. So we're also looking at like B Force and it's fighting against. This is 30. So what was some. So what was the big difference you found between B Force and Mayan and plusl? Because one at first glance could probably say, oh, it's two vertical spinners fighting against other robots. That seems pretty familiar to us. Is there something else that you really wanted to experiment on with B Force that Mayan Plusle themselves didn't teach it on its own way?
- [62:13]
C
Yeah, B Force and Mining Impossible are very similar to each other in that, you know, hub motor, vert tread, two of them. But B Force is actually a lot more stable than Mining and Plusl is. So they're a lot easier to drive. They're mining and puzzle. If you look at, like, the side profile of them, they have a bigger back wheel than they do a front wheel for the tread. And B Force is flat. It's flat and wide and it's very stable. It's harder to flip over. Like, it doesn't bounce all over the place. But that means it's easier to drive. It's easier to kind of navigate with. And they're also slower. So that going from driving, mining and Plusl to driving B Force, it felt like all the skills that I learned from Minan and Plusl translated well. But it's just easier with B Force. It's a lot more stable. And they have. So Mining and Plusl now have metal forks, but they used to have like, I believe it's called, like bailing forks.
- [63:25]
B
Yeah.
- [63:26]
C
And that's what you see in this. This match here is that they have those yellow baleen forks which we're not going to use anymore. Um, they, they held our opponent away from us more than we would like than actually like being forks. But, like, see, like here we can't gyro flip back over. You can see that robot is like, really struggling to get back over, whereas Mining and Plusle, you struggle to not be flipping all over the place. So if I could find the balance between those two, that would be great, but I haven't quite Gotten there yet.
- [64:01]
B
So going alongside it with B force versus mine and plusL. So B force hasn't been around as as much as mine and Plusle has. But is there plans to upgrade B Force to improve it at some level to bring it back and make a run for.
- [64:17]
C
Yeah, we do plan to bring B Force back. We just got the. The biggest inhibitor for B Force is the hub motor weapon because we got custom ones made for mine and plusl that made it so much easier. But for B Force, every single time we wanted a weapon we had to take a like Tempest motor and take it apart, disassemble it, reassemble it with the hub motor components. And if doing that for two bots was just. It was a lot. And so we kind of told ourselves we weren't going to run it again until we found a better solution for the weapon. And the solution was is that now we have badass motor 4520 hub motors for B Force that are pre made. We don't have to drill out and make a custom hub motor every single time. It's already there like that. That is the biggest improvement that we have for B Force. And then we are also upping like the weapon diameter from 6 and a half inches to 7 and a half inches. The rest of it I haven't figured out yet. And so Cody and I are still working on it. But that is the biggest improvements that we wanted out of B Force. Otherwise we are very happy with it. We also have to drop the weight down this year compared to last year. So that's a little bit of a struggle also is we have to get rid of a pound on each of them.
- [65:48]
B
So that's like a rule change difference right there.
- [65:50]
C
Yes, yes. The rules changed for multibots. So the 50, 50 or 30 pounder anxiety per per robot to 20 per robot.
- [66:03]
B
Gotcha.
- [66:04]
C
I thought it went up for 12 pounders. It went up, yeah.
- [66:08]
B
Yeah.
- [66:08]
A
For 12 different 30s it went down.
- [66:12]
C
Yeah. There was such a weird disparity between them. It didn't make sense before. It makes sense now. I understand why they did it. It just means that there's a little bit more work I have to put into B Force before Cody and I can run them again.
- [66:27]
A
So wait, you're telling me it used to be 22 and a half?
- [66:29]
C
It used to be 21.
- [66:30]
A
Different than all the other week.
- [66:32]
B
That's £30.
- [66:33]
A
Sorry, I'm a 12 pound head. I'm. I'm just.
- [66:36]
B
Yeah, sorry.
- [66:38]
A
It makes so. No, it makes sense the way that it is now. Good that it's.
- [66:42]
C
Yeah, yeah, it definitely makes sense. It just means I need to take that into account. Without the forks and stuff, they were just under 20 pounds before. But now that we want to make the weapon bigger, there's like just more weight that has to be kind of distributed differently than before.
- [66:58]
B
That is still pretty cool because with the bigger weapon and different fork geometry and stuff like that, that makes it worrying. So, you know, I'm worried, so, you know, yippee. But at the same time it's kind of cool because they're not really a lot of 30 pound multis. I think the last big 30 pound multi that really did high level of success is polyester. And I think that was two years ago now. And so there have been other attempts at it, but I don't think any been quite as good. And to see B4 sort of taking up that rare niche in the class and building up to it, I think it gives you opportunities. Especially because I can say this as, you know, one of the competitors, I'm mostly geared to fight one robot at a time. So I'm. I'm used to a, let's say Vorion vs Undertaker match. least it's mono a mano. But I have to fight two B forces that have a weapon almost as big as my own and are more maneuverable too. That could make it very hard because 30 pounders definitely like, like 30 pounders can very easily get broken because the physics of that class is different than like a three pounder doesn't. They don't really bounce anymore, they just begin to break and bend. So all I have to do is like nick the right area of a 30 pound robot. You can kill the drivetrain pretty effectively. And two robots, Big Weapon, great chances of doing that. So it could easily become a very worrying entry for the class.
- [68:18]
A
They're so dominant.
- [68:19]
C
That's my hope.
- [68:20]
A
They're so wide. I mean, they're just as wide as like an. I mean maybe not a Voreon, but they're as wide as Anxiety.
- [68:27]
C
They're basically as wide as Voreon.
- [68:32]
B
Yeah. There's actually a time I brought a like a bear chassis version to the Hive and I was figuring out the hub motors way back in the first place on Phenomenon. And it's about the size of B Force. It's kind of concerning actually. It's like, wait a minute, I thought these are, you know, half the weight, you know, multi bots, but it's like, nope. I just. Physics works out in such a way. Or even like a 21 pound B force is not that much smaller than a 30 pound Voreon. Little differences here and there because of shape and all that. But it can get very worrying very fast if you're like nose to nose, you're trapped and you can't escape. Any other one just swoops around, just squishes you in the middle.
- [69:10]
A
All right. Would you like to. So. So Honey Crack sells. Do you want to call it a product line?
- [69:17]
C
Sort of. It's products that we want and it's cheaper to buy a bunch of them than the amount that we need. So we then we sell them.
- [69:28]
A
Where can I find these?
- [69:30]
C
Growingstems.org under the Combat tab.
- [69:33]
A
Growing stems.org yeah, you go to store
- [69:37]
C
and then there's Combat.
- [69:39]
A
Combat. Okay, so you've got talk me through these.
- [69:43]
C
We've got the bespoke the 38 drive axle to replace a shoulder bolt for 12 pound. And I use it in B4 so 30 can be used in 30s. Use your own discretion for that though. And basically it's a 38 shaft that has a hex on the other side to key into the frames. These were designed by Liam and I wanted to encourage him in that design process and learning that. And so we turned it into a product and with as it's the same with all our products is that we tested on all our robots first because usually it's something that we, we need anyway. So these were tested on mining and Plusle. They were tested I believe on Bumble Blitz and B Force and they worked out really well. Like they worked way better on B Force than the shoulder bolts and held up super well. So we decided like after that we ordered like a hundred of them and decided to sell them.
- [70:47]
A
Securing your wheel like a queen in her hive.
- [70:51]
C
I use ChatGPT to generate all these.
- [70:54]
A
That is very upsetting.
- [70:57]
C
I tell it to put a lot of B puns in it.
- [71:00]
A
Might I add I had a little influence over this. The hexagon has a 0.07 inch radius mill. The pocket quarter inch very dfma and that's.
- [71:11]
C
That means cut it on our router. One thing that's nice about this is that you can do the screenshot with a countersink. You with a countersink on the other side.
- [71:25]
A
I am now.
- [71:26]
C
But if you do like a laser cut welded frame with like an 8th inch drive rail, you can just put a quarter 20 bolt through it and cut out the hex with the like the laser. So you can do it the way it's set up in B Force. Or you can do like it on a. Like a flat sheet, like a 2D sheet.
- [71:46]
A
Very DF. Excellent.
- [71:47]
C
I love it.
- [71:50]
A
And then we've got your. So this is the B box. I know a thing or two about Helen.
- [71:58]
C
Yes. And again, these were. These are something that I started working on because gearboxes are expensive and I wanted something for our team that was something that we could get that wasn't like super expensive. And then the more you buy of them, the cheaper they are. So we experimented with them on B Force and Bumble or Not Bumble Blitz Buzz Kill and the Mini bot for Moccasin, which is just, you know, it's B Force but a giant wedge instead of a vert. And then. Yeah, so they're aluminum and I wanted just. If something happens to them, I want people to be able to replace them. And then on B Force, it's indirect drive for 30, but we've never had one break. So after doing so many matches with those gearboxes and it being so reliable, we're like, yeah, we can sell this as a product where. I'm always very cautious about the things that we are going to sell to make sure that they withstand fights. So we test them on multiple of our robots, which we have the resources to do that here because we have such a large team. And so. And then like, one of the modifications we wanted is that with the 20, 27 to 1 gearbox, you can't use a 5 mil motor like shaft, so. And some people don't want 27 to 1, so I got a modified set of gears that uses the same ring and everything. And you can just buy the set for the 15 to 1 ratio that has a. It comes with 184 mil and 5 mil pinions.
- [73:35]
A
And another really ban on is the double height output. Um, so basically with a. With a planetary gearbox, your initial stage, that's all you run that through a dock. Second stage has, what is this, four to one and then a four to one or a five, three or a three to one and a five, something like that there.
- [73:52]
C
It's not exact. They're like five point whatever, three point whatever.
- [73:56]
A
Yeah. This has three times as much torque on it as run your high stuff through that reduction. So it doesn't make sense to have the same size, same width here, spread that higher torque load out and subsequently increase the capacity of your output sun, which is what always fails. It's always the output sun that's the cranky baby right there in the middle. Always, always. So if you can make that wider, you can Spread that load out, spread that torque out and get a stronger gear set. So what's really real nice, real nice about these is that they've got the double height output. I'm a double height output fan. It other companies, you know, won't do that because it's cheaper because you have six of the same gear instead of, you know, three different gears. You know, six of the same gear, two side less expensive. But not in. These are baby. And yeah, yeah. No, I love, I love teams that sell and I'm this way too right Is, is if I allow me to plug myself like I'm only selling stuff that I use and it's very cool to just sell stuff. The person who's making like believes in what they do. I think that's cool in that way.
- [75:08]
C
One thing that makes it nice is that it means we. I tried to keep the price low so it's a little bit cheaper than other gearboxes of the same size, I believe. I'm not too concerned about matching other people. I just did it enough to where, you know, it made sense for us. But every gearbox comes with an extra set of planetary gears, so it comes with an extra set of planetary gears and you get both sizes of pinions so you're not having to lock into whether you're getting the 1, 8 size pinion or the 4 mil pinion. You get both with the gearbox.
- [75:49]
A
That's growing sims that work and soon
- [75:53]
C
I'm going to have a new modification for it. So the B boxes, the square on them is one and a half inches but that's too big for all of my half weights for 12 pounders. So I've been working on a 1 and 3, 8 size that also has a 3, 8 hex shaft that uses the same gears, the same ring. And so once I'm ready with that, then that's going to be another modification that you can buy for your already existing gearboxes because the only difference is the, the front and back plate and the hex shaft. So that will be a separate thing that if you already have, you know, B boxes and you would like to have a smaller profile for them, then you can get this modification for it and make it fit in your smaller robots.
- [76:42]
A
Wow.
- [76:42]
B
All you gearbox heads, you, you heard it here first. New updates to the Honey CR Honey HiveTech HiveTech Bbox updates inbound.
- [76:52]
C
It'll probably be like a month or so before that comes out, but I'm still working on it. I'm about to get, get them produced.
- [76:59]
B
So exciting. All right, all you 12 pound builders lock in if you haven't already. We're not sponsored, but also really big fans.
- [77:09]
A
Okay, thank you so much, Zoe Lambert. You have a great story, you have a great mission. I love everything about your team. You're okay too, I guess.
- [77:19]
C
Oh, yeah. Hey, the team wouldn't exist without me, so.
- [77:22]
A
Okay, well, thank you very much. Thank you guys. I appreciate it. Thanks for tuning into. The podcast will be uploaded to all of our streaming services as soon as I download it and send it to Brandon. So thank you, guys. Oh, yeah. Wait. Robots around the World. Oh, my gosh. Why didn't you say something sooner? Oh, my gosh. Okay, read Robots around the World and then we're out. Okay, I'm sorry. So. I'm sorry.
- [77:50]
B
You're good, you're good. It's fine, it's fine. Jump. Scare everybody out there. Anyway, so for Robots around the World, first of all, I wanted to give a big shout out to Lindsay. Not only was Lindsay phenomenal, she also did my homework for me for the week. And she found the story this week. So big thanks to her. This past week, the University of Florida researchers, they deployed a robotic rabbits in South Florida to lure Burmese pythons. So these pythons originally came to the state through the exotic pet trade and since then have devastated Florida's ecosystem. The researchers want to use these rabbits to seek to mimic aspects of real rabbits so they can attract pythons and researchers can capture them and attempt to curtail the population. These things include, like, different HE signatures, many of the visual cues, like eyes and whatnot, with plans to potentially even add smell as another feature in case they're ineffective. So what do we think about this new application of robotics to stem the tide of Burmese pythons in Florida? Hearing ominous laughs over there.
- [78:52]
C
Oh, it sounds. I don't know.
- [78:57]
A
Rabbit.
- [78:58]
B
Get.
- [78:59]
A
I will say get Alex and Gwen down there with. Yes. Jackalope and the other rabbit, whatever it is.
- [79:07]
B
Usagi.
- [79:08]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Usagi. Stick those. Stick those on them. They could kill a snake.
- [79:13]
B
But can they kill all the snakes? That's the question.
- [79:16]
C
Yeah, you can make a multibot.
- [79:19]
B
You know, if we had. Listen, listen, Question. If we have a thousand jackalops versus a thousand Burmese pythons, who's winning?
- [79:27]
C
We have a thousand Gwens.
- [79:29]
B
You know, what if we. What? Hive mind. Gwen could be a fascinating thought. What if Gwen could just tap in and be able to control a thousand jack clubs? You could try a thousand Gwen. So.
- [79:39]
C
Well, because, like, I don't think having the thousand jackalopes Hooked up to the one controller would be very effective. But if you had a thousand Gwens, very effective. Super effective. No sinks.
- [79:54]
B
Oh, and then, and then you have multi bot with jackalope and Usagi. So like Jackalope Usagi versus Abrame's Python, like 10,000 times over. That could be a 2v1 multi bot setup right there. I don't think a python's going to beat them if that was the case. If a thousand Gwen's, thousand Alexes and a thousand pythons.
- [80:09]
C
Do snakes count as entanglement devices?
- [80:15]
B
That's a good question. You know what?
- [80:17]
C
No. Snakes in the cage.
- [80:21]
A
Snakes in the moat. Fill the moat with snakes.
- [80:23]
B
Ah, that's the punishment. Water and water. So that's the. That's the secret. Okay, so we have snakes in the water. Snakes in the moat. I will say it is definitely ironic that we are now having to engineer rabbits to fix a problem caused by snakes being brought in because they're killing all the rabbits. I will. That's very much like a. I will say there's something definitely fascinating about like, all the bio animal like trends. I'm thinking of like early 2000s, like 90s movies, something like that, where they're like, we have like all these robots, robo pets, robo dogs, whatever. I think just kind of super ironic that we're like going all the way around how to deal with the problem they're killing the rabbits will make robot rabbit. You're so right. I don't know.
- [81:06]
C
Not think of your robot as a pet. Is Von Phenomenon not. Not your thing to take care of?
- [81:15]
B
No, I. I think I. So, so here's the thing. If I think of Voron or Phenomenon as like, living, I feel tremendous guilt because that means I'm saying them to like, die repeatedly.
- [81:28]
C
That feels that's what they're made for.
- [81:30]
B
Yeah, but that's also like a bit wrong. I mean, it's like from my. So I guess that's the way they die.
- [81:38]
C
They just. They just.
- [81:43]
A
That.
- [81:43]
B
That's what they tell me when Luke tor Voreon in half that they're like. It just fainted. You know what? He's fine. Give it a new potion. Give it a potion. That. That one's on a shelf somewhere. Luke tore. Luke sent that one to. To the. To the scrapyard. I think Alex has that one now.
- [82:01]
A
But.
- [82:03]
B
But I will say that definitely does give a new vibe of like, okay, like all the Pokemon games. Are you going out into the wild, like, challenging animals, like, being up with them with your. Your favorite animal. If you treat it like that, and it's like, okay, I guess you can make your robot send it out there to fight snakes. Just getting xp, and that could be a way, like, you train for naturals. I don't know. Maybe it's an idea.
- [82:23]
C
Yeah. And each version is an evolution.
- [82:25]
B
You know what? Maybe you're onto something.
- [82:28]
C
I think it lines up. I already have mine in PlusL, so I think everybody should just get on my level.
- [82:37]
B
You heard it here. Everybody, you heard it here. Get on her level.
- [82:40]
A
Get on her level. All right, I'll call it out for real this time. Thank you for tuning into the live broadcast. Catch us on all of our streaming. Oh, we already said which we're on. Thank you very much. Zoe Lambert. You have an inspiring story. You have an inspiring team. I cannot wait to see more honeycracked action. Thank you, guys. Thanks for tuning in. See you next.
- [83:00]
B
See ya.
- [83:01]
C
Bye,
- [83:07]
B
Sam.