Spinnerproof

Sam Hutchins and Ryan Bratley
  • 4.2 (10)
  • TECHNOLOGY

Spinnerproof is a podcast about combat robotics

  1. 10/28/2022

    91: Legally Compelled To Fight

    This episode is pointless Rules and judging! Yay! Rule changes You should read them and not just trust what we say: Design rules, Tournament rules, Judges’ Guide Safety! Power lights you can see [Design rules: 3b] Cradles that cradle [Tournament rules: 3.4.2] Fires are bad [Design rules: 16] Minibot battery limitations [Design rules: 4b] No more OotA disqualification threat But a higher wall Lifting/pinning/grappling timing changes [Tournament rules: 7.5.6/7/8] Separation procedure [Tournament rules: 7.5.9] Mobility & count-outs If you’re moving, you’re moving [Tournament rules: 7.6.2] Even if you’re only using your weapon to do so Reducing the chances of people getting angry at officials Unsticks [Tournament rules: 7.6.3/4] We won’t see nearly as many unsticks More fights will end early, but they’re more likely to end ‘fairly’ Time savings for production? Minibots get removed after a second unstick Engagement avoidance [Tournament rules: 7.6.7] Judging changes Post-match functionality displays [Tournament rules: 7.6.11] Aggression - circling is more aggressive than staying faced up [Judges guide: Aggression FAQ] Control - Robots which get their weapon and the hazards into play better than their opponent should win a control tie [Judges’ guide: COntrol matrix] Appeals [Tournament rules: 2.4.7] 1 minute window to lodge your appeal, requiring a specific reason for appealing A failed appeal removes your right to appeal Should there be a mid-ground? Sam explains why this doesn’t apply to refereeing decisions Experimental UK judging system The system! Already used at BBB’s ‘Subterranean Showdown’ and in use for the upcoming BBB Beetleweight Champs Intended to give all robots fairly equal access to every category Damage is dead, long live weapon effectiveness! Not all weapon types can be expected do damage, so judging them on damage is dumb. Everyone with a weapon should be able to use it effectively Lifters lift, grabbers grab, flippers flip, spinners do damage just like before Wedges are a blind spot for the system. They were also a blind spot in the existing system, but the name we’ve used makes the issue more visible Active weapon rule? Aggression is still aggression Free a stuck opponent? ALL OF THE POINTS! Control & Strategy Control - control your robot well, get your weapon into play, use the hazards Strategy - make smart choices Think of strategy as a place for judges to add points, but not a place where we really take them away

    1h 22m

  2. 05/24/2022

    90: Things that Exist, Exist

    We’re back! Back-ish Editing sucks and we’re not doing it. BEVs Northdown Havoc Sportsman feathers are dope Judging Judging is hard Coin-toss fights Let The Good Times Stroll vs Crossblow III vs Head for the Exit Battlebots… This community sucks as talking about this stuff The system doesn’t seem that ‘broken’ Do we need Battlebots? What now? No Battlebots episode reviews Robot building? Events? Clickbait awfulness? Hoping Sam doesn’t die

    1h 12m

  3. 08/16/2021

    89: The Fallibility of my own Everything

    We went to the BBB summer showdown with Split Decision 2 We’re a little rusty, and failed to record a proper outro. I hope you can come to forgive us. Here are the pictures! https://imgur.com/a/TVheEHJ

    1h 5m

  4. 03/21/2021

    88: Have My Love

    Follow Up/Front Matter There is a bingo winner. We haven’t worked out who yet A quite vast amount of information about brushless motors and ESCs Sensorless still involves some small degree of sensing/feedback, and this is important Dual brushless hammer fun Stripped grub screw threads Ryan made a fuss Fake spinner test The real testing setup Battlebots and stuff General thoughts A very strong season, especially under the circumstances A slightly underwhelming end result Robot by robot Hydra The journey Vs Gigabyte - a fight for newcomers? Whiplash Mad lifts vs Valkyrie Sam’s sympathy for Valkyrie Ribbot Not a joke bot. Tantrum There are no words. Except the words we speak. Sawblaze Mammoth vs Copperhead Judging… The judging is made of judgment The whole AMA is very much worth checking out Shatter! Making bets Shatter! shirts Since recording this episode, shipping to the UK has been made available. Trying not to believe and believing anyway End Game M E T A Variety and length of forks Not being Biteforce Being Biteforce Aftershow: Sam’s computer troubles

    1h 16m

  5. 02/21/2021

    87: Tickling my Eyeballs

    Front matter Lockdown finally made Sam build things More on that later! Ryan doesn’t know what tools he owns Bugglebots 4K special Vote here! (may require time machine) Watch here! 5 episodes of Battlebots 2020 in 40 minutes P1 The robot is very good Accidentally discussing the top 32 selection A hypothetical 0-3 making the top 32? Is 3 wins a lot of wins? Beta The hammer is very good Magnets! E F F I C I E N C Y Firing while moving? What have they actually proven in their 3 fights? Kraken vs HUGE The fight is very good Effective flamethrower-ing Kraken’s forged teeth Tombstone vs Skorpios The countout is very bad Tombstone still seems to have a lot of mobility Tombstone is still being attacked Unaired fights Fights less TV-worthy than Perfect Phoenix vs Extinguisher? Spinnerproof’s robot building exploits Ryan has access to CNC now How and why - work stuff The ‘real’ use of the machine vs the fun use of the machine CNC ant spinner frame Trying to avoid CNC-creep The ease and fun of designing digitally vs designing as you build The satisfaction of taking a hand-built robot to an event The ’training’ given by just watching CNC-based content online Sam has been developing a weapon setup “A more assertive hammer” PVC - prototyping wonder-material Using cogs, because they are cool Initial brushed setup The brushless setup Thanks Joe 3 Brushless motor/gearbox setup Thanks Alex 3 1806 brushless outrunners Adding a gearbox Running multiple brushless motors P R E C I S I O N The power of using the correct screwdriver PoziDriv vs Phillips (Spoiler: Posidriv wins)

    1h 28m

  6. 01/14/2021

    86: Shalice

    Front Matter Sliding slowly an inexoribly towards The Fight Bounty Hunters How do you cover something which has no formal air date? Is it good? Bronco the “legend” The team? Yes. The robot? Eh… Lack of attention to spoilers Episodes 4 & 5 Good things! Slammow working Chomp working Gamma 9 working Shatter! vs Malice Short memories Expecting Malice to take the decision Because it deserved it? Because we’re used to spinners winning these decisions? Clickbait Hydra vs HUGE Yes, there are still 45 minutes of the episode left Playing Ultimate We promise this is far more relevant than it looks when you see it written down Sport vs TV The attachment It’s a good attachment Exceptional driving skill Questionable driving choices? Similarities to Warrior Dragon vs Chomp Communication with the ref Timings in the edit 3 seconds in reality -> ~10 in the edit Exploiting the weaknesses of HUGE Are production to blame for the dull fight? The team claim to have warned production about their plans Not using your weapon Ideas for preventing fights like these Time outs to deal with disputes? Forced weapon demo pre-fight? Changing nothing? Ryan did not make the diagram Kraken vs Witch Doctor… …in exactly 25 seconds

    1h 33m

  7. 12/24/2020

    85: Stick It In There

    Front Matter How Spinnerproof is covering Battlebots What we want, when we want Fights and topics which interest us, released sporadically Battlebots 2020 - episodes 1-3 Bloodsport vs Skorpios The power of managed expectations Bloodsport’s improvements Shatter! vs Ghost Raptor Shatter! is amazing and if you disagree you are wrong The best hammer? How to use a hammer Shatter!’s driving style distilled Omnidrive all the things HUGE! vs Mammoth The dream match? Are non-meta robots as fun when they aren’t facing the meta? Witch Doctor vs Hydra Long main events are good main events Hydra starting with a flip charged Black Dragon vs Kraken A coin-toss or a theft? Rules not rewarding what fans see as dominating a fight RotatoR vs Beta Decision not rewarding what the rules appear to priorities Enforcing weapon usage? Better hammers firing straight into weapons Shatter! vs Ghost Raptor Shatter! vs Kingpin Blue vs Crossfire Blacksmith vs Biteforce Chomp vs Biteforce Competitors no longer feeling that they can rely on the rules being applied consistently The quality of online discourse How the presentation of the show influences this Robocast #79 - listen to it Listen to it somewhere other than youtube Actually judging the match How the judges scored it The 2020 Judges’ Guide Beta can’t score 5 points for aggression Giving Beta damage points because…reasons? Assumed damage? Penalising RotatoR for their damage being unintentional? Loose rules vs rigid rules Blame falling on people or falling on a system Unnecessary and possibly unhelpful maths Format Bit different, innit Crowd noise Less suppression of audience reactions? Dud fights No basement tapes Generally good handling of the rough fights

    1h 23m

  8. 12/05/2020

    84: Heat, Fuel, and Oxygen

    This episode was recorded on November 28th, 2020 The cards can be seen in all their graphic glory here The teams: Mike - Mystrsyko Sam - Robocast Sam & Ryan - Spinnerproof Charlie - Good Robottal Ned - Spoiler Alert & ESC Oliver - ESC and No More Spinnahhs David - David of Smeg Jevan - World of Woodrow & No More Spinnahhs The cards: Mike Puff the Magic Dragon A LiPo fire in the box The Atomic Bomb Atom#94 catches fire Lotsa smoke or visible flames The 2020 Dumpster Fire A returning competitor flops HARD EG Bombshell in 2018, Bronco in 2019, or any robot designed to win fights which fails to Let it Rip! Captain Shredderator vs Gigabyte (1v1) Improvise, Adapt, Overcome Swiss-army bot makes the top 32 Swiss-army bot = multiple weapon types Jumping in the Grave A robot is dubbed ’the new Bite Force' Does not include the new champ once they are champ A Surprise, to be Sure Half of the top 8 are ’new' New = no team members have reached the top 16 before What Would You Like on Your Tombstone? Tombstone loses its first 2 fights Mr Flibble’s Very Cross A team quantining on entry to the USA is mentioned Thank God for the Arena A robot is flung into the Lexan Ice Ice Baby ICEWave tears another robot in half No bonus points!! Close Quarters A fight is restarted due to an unstick Might not be shown in the edit They’re Good Dogs, Bronco The dog from the Pain Train team photo is acknowledged on the show Shocker! A rookie makes the top 16 Rookie = new robot with a new team, even if some members have competed with other teams Crowd Favourite Chomp scores a OHKO ‘OHKO’ = first hit from the weapon Clusterfunk Gemini fails to get a win Sam For Grant Grant Imahara mentioned directly Rocky Balboa Tantrum works Working = weapon spins, hits as well as other similar weapons, and the punching mechanism is clearly helpful Just Like The Simulations An AGWWAPTBABF fantasy matchup happens, and the result is the same David Attenborough Two or more animal themed robots fight (each other) Animal themes must be part of the bot’s aesthetic Absent Audience Attention repeatedly drawn to the lack of audience Repeatedly = at least 10 mentions Lithium Polymer Armament A LiPo fire occurs Old Farm Derby Bale Spear vs Black Widow (1v1) Split Personalities A robot is split in ~2 The Steel Chair Slammow manages a suplex Hammer to Fall Beta vs Chomp (1v1) A Game of Two Halves A robot gets split apart Look at Me, Pa! Two robots with minibotds fight, with their minibots Pink is Sus A predominantly pink robot makes the knockout stages Axolotl, Sporkinok, and HiJinx are all predominantly pink Extinguisher by Name… Extinguisher puts out a fire That’s Not 30 Seconds! A team is reminded they can only hold for 30 seconds Oh Lawd She Comin! Chomp ends the season with a positive record Spinnerproof The Killshot An axe/hammer scores a KO Any big overhead hitty thing, but not a ‘hammer saw’ or similar, and not Rusty We Die Together Gemini only uses the multibot config A Noticeable Absence Bite Force not being present is mentioned Apologies to Craig Danby Slammow makes the top 16 OOTA is OOTA ‘Proper’ OOTA from a non-spinner ‘Proper’ OOTA = not behind the screws or stuck elsewhere BLUE TEAM, READY? Button hit with something other than a finger/hand Non-starters A robot with a website profile doesn’t have a fight Out With Win and You’re In No places in the top 32 are decided by a play-in fight Stop the count A robot comes back to life during a countout My Leg! Chomp loses a leg We Get it Already The cast avoids saying “Covid-19”, “Pandemic”, or “Coronavirus” for the entire season Cast = not competitors LiPo Fire 2 A LiPo fire happens Why Why Whyachi? 2+ Whyachi robots face each other in any kind of match Don’t Bring Wheels Into the Arena A hori

    2h 1m
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4.2
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

Spinnerproof is a podcast about combat robotics

Information

  • Creator
    Sam Hutchins and Ryan Bratley
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2022
  • Episodes
    91
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2023
  • Show Website
    Spinnerproof