Michael HorneFeb 26
2 years since we started to get close to #PiWars Disaster Zone.
Show threadDr Footleg (he/him)Jan 27
What I learned from last nights experiments:
- Fan on the ESC is much louder than the brushless motor it is driving.
- All the nice CNC alloy parts I ordered are smaller than the 3D printed parts I planned to substitute them for.
Looks like I’ll have a set of parts suitable for a #PiWars size robot for the future, but too small for my A2 class #HackyRacer
Show threadHitchin HackspaceNov 9
@recantha There's our Tito at the back in the middle I think? (Matt black with big knobbly wheels) A fantastic day and a fantastic event 🙂👏 I think we brought #BigHak too? #HitchinHackspace #PiWars
Michael HorneNov 9
Anyone remember this day almost 10 years ago? :-) #piwars
Dr Footleg (he/him)Sep 11, 2025
It was challenging to design such a small modular #3Dprinted #robot for #PiWars in 2024. I have started to work on the code again as so much was unfinished for the competition. This was my first robot using a #RaspberryPi 5 and my first robot with encoder motors. I wrote mechanum mixing with IMU support in #Micropython for the Motor2040 board, which the Pi5 talks to over the USB lead. After some work to better comment the code I have finally published it on https://github.com/Footleg/PiWars2024
#3Dprinting
Dr Footleg (he/him)May 28, 2025
My first mention in The Mag Pi back in 2017 was a picture of my children at #PiWars so it was nice to see I got them into the Raspberry Pi Magazine this month, 8 years on. Still doing community events together. #RaspberryPi #MakerMonday @rpimag
Michael HorneApr 20, 2025
Memories of #PiWars 2024. :-)
Michael HorneApr 2, 2025
OMG. It's like #PiWars predicted it!
https://spectrum.ieee.org/lely-dairy-robots
Revolutionizing Dairy Farming: How Robots Benefit Cows & Farmers

In a dairy barn full of content cows, autonomous robots handle milking, feeding, and cleaning, allowing farmers more flexibility and improving cow welfare. With robots, cows produce more milk and more comfortable lives. Could this be the future of sustainable farming?

IEEE Spectrum
Show threadpiofthingsJan 19, 2025
@grajohnt isn’t the van a bit too big for #PiWars 🙈
Dr Footleg (he/him)Sep 12, 2024
Bit rot sets in so fast! My #PiWars competition robot which has been working just fine since the competition in April just stopped running, the night before a STEM event I am showing my robots at. Python can no longer load picamera2. Ended up commenting out all the camera code to get it to run. Now it works, but will no longer auto-run the program from the service on boot. So I still can't show it running unless I take a keyboard, monitor and mouse to start up the code. WHY?!