Wreckage Wrestler

Back view of the electronics housing
Top view
Here you can really tell that it was a hoverboard motor
Side view of the electronics housing
It's janky but at least it works

Inspiration

Honestly, I don't know what compelled me to make this monstrosity, but I made it because I thought it would be fun and I wanted to learn how to use an ODrive motor controller.

What it does

This is a robot that arm wrestles you.

How I built it

I used a brushless motor that I pulled out of an old hoverboard and powered it with an ODrive Mini. I bought some 2x4 wood and mounted all of the components to it. Some pieces were also modeled in Fusion 260 and 3D printed such as the planetary gear system and the electronics housing. Electronics were all soldered by me.

Challenges we ran into

The ODrive I used turned out to be third-party and of very poor quality. This led to lots of errors, firmware flashing issues, configuration frustrations, and much more. I finally was able to get it to work thanks to an open-source project called FFBeast. I used their firmware which finally got things working. Initially I was wanting to use an Arduino Uno to add more functionality to the robot, but the ODrive firmware issues got in the way of that unfortunately. The motor is strong, but I planned on gearing it up with a planetary gear system that I designed. I printed the gear system and it worked but not that well. I rushed and didn't realize that the outer ring gear needed to be secured in place for the gearing to work properly. I jerry-rigged a solution with bike spokes but it didn't work all that well.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Getting all of this done by myself. I wasn't sure if I could pull this off in time by myself but I pulled through and worked non-stop. The end result definitely isn't perfect but the fact that I got something working and presentable feels like a huge accomplishment.

What we learned

Always buy first-party motor controllers. It will save you so much hassle. I learned how to use an Arduino Uno despite this project not using it in the end. I also learned how to use and configure an ODrive motor controller. My Fusion 360, soldering, electronics assembly, and problem-solving skills have all improved