Vorpal The Hexapod Game Arena by vorpal

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

This is an add-on accessory for the totally awesome Vorpal Hexapod, If you haven't seen that yet, then this thing won't make sense, so visit there first:
Thing 2513566: Vorpal The Hexapod
I made this entire project and all accessories open source and respectfully ask you to consider supporting the project. We successfully funded on Kickstarter with hundreds of kits sold, and now we have our own store. We've sold over 700 kits so far. We have more than just the Hexapod electronics, we have all kinds of things useful for small robotics and other projects:Vorpal Robotics Store with Hexapod Kits
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Why do I need this for the Hexapod?
These are corner posts you can use to make a 4 foot by 2 foot field for Vorpal to romp around in. This field is perfect for games like Joust and Capture the Flag, or just for testing. Two to three Vorpal Hexapods can run around in this sized field comfortably.
Here's a video of the field in use during a "Joust" competition:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wikXps27vTA
We use this field at all of our demonstrations, Maker Faires, our internal testing area, and other activities so it is tested in real life for many hours and works very well.
PRO TIP: For transportation, the entire thing breaks down in about 1 minute and can be carried conveniently in a "Corn Hole" game bag. Yes, I had no idea what the game "Corn Hole" was until I started searching for 4 foot by 2 foot bags! But it turns out that bags made for this game are perfect for carrying around Vorpal Fields. In fact you could easily put two Vorpal Fields in a typical Corn Hole Game bag, and some bags are large enough to hold several Vorpal Hexapods stored in plastic shoe boxes, batteries, and everything.
How Do I Build The Field?
What you will need:
Four of the Corner Posts printed in your choice of plastic.
Two strips of polycarbonate strip 1/8" thick, 4" wide, 2 feet long. (Available from McMaster Carr in the USA part number 1749K619)
Two strips of polycarbonate strip 1/8" thick, 4" wide, 4 feet long (Available from McMaster Carr in the USA part number 1749K619)
**Note: it may be tempting to substitute acrylic (aka plexiglass) for the polycarbonate (aka Lexan) but acrylic won't last as long, it tends to crack. Polycarb is made to be impact resistant.
A piece of MDF plywood sheet, 1/2" thick, 2 feet by 4 feet. Paint it on both sides (so it doesn't warp) with your choice of colors. You may substitute regular plywood but watch out for splinters.
Duct tape.
Optional: two 3 foot pieces of aluminum angle, roughly 1" by 1" legs and 1/16" thick, but a wide variety of sizes would probably work.
Total cost for everything is right around $50.
Assembly:
Amazingly, if you can buy the parts I listed above you don't need to do any plastic or wood cutting whatsoever! The plastic strips and MDF are exactly the right size for everything to work. If you don't live in a country where McMaster Carr ships and these sized items are not available, well then you may need to do some cutting. However 3mm thick plastic should work pretty well, and you can adjust the size of the field to fit local size material availability, it doesn't have to be exactly 2 feet by 4 feet.
The plastic strips simply slot right into the corner pieces which then sit nicely on top of the MDF sheet. They should hold nicely without doing anything else. It's a tight fit so wobble it in. If for some reason it's loose (maybe you bought the wrong thickness plastic strips or your printer underextrudes) you can put some scotch tape on the end of the plastic to make it a bit thicker.
Secure the bottom of the long strips of plastic to the MDF by using strips of duct tape. Try try to be careful to only overlap the plastic strips by 1/2" or so, leaving most of the tape on the bottom of the MDF so it won't be seen. This stops the plastic from bowing out away from the field.
Optional: If desired, use 3 foot long sections of aluminum angle to secure the centers of the long runs of plastic so they don't bow out. One leg of the angle will be on the bottom side of the MDF, the other end will go against the polycarbonate strip to provide a slot that keeps it pressed against the MDF. You could tape the angle to the MDF, or sometimes frankly we just let the entire thing sit on a table with no tape and it does work ok.
VARIATION: When we're too lazy to carry the MDF to an event, sometimes we just set the walls and corners up right on a table top with no MDF base at all. It does work quite well and is much lighter to carry.
VARIATION: You could make a field of any size by just using different sizes of plastic strip. A 2 foot by 2 foot field or 2 foot by 3 foot field would be extremely easy to carry to a small demo, and would even fit nicely in a suitcase for air travel.