Thread: New roboteer looking to get started

Hello there! I'm looking to get started in the wonderful world of Robot Fighting!

Ever since I was a child, I watched Robot Wars with my grandmother and we both loved it, dating back to the first series with Jeremy Clarkson back in 1998.
Unfortunately my grandmother passed away just weeks before the BBCs revived show came back on air last year, and I was inspired to have a go. Unfortunately since then I've had health issues of my own, but now I'm ready to finally give it a proper go, and hopefully at age 27 I can still make my way into the fighting bot life. I know some people doing it have been in it for decades!

My personal experience with electronics is fairly slim, I've only ever worked on low voltage / low current things, no more than 16V and a couple of amps max (model trains mostly and the little circuitry within them), other than DIY modification to lights, changing a flourescent tube lighting to a circuit suitable for LED tubes instead and the basic replacing an old mains socket / plugs and building PCs. I've also played extensively with Arduino and little coding stuff there. I'm always eager to learn new stuff, which is handy because the only thing i have experience with outside of basic electronics is a hammer, nails, screwdrivers and a piece of wood - hardly winning anything there. So i'm not sure to what, if any degree, my past electrical knowledge / tinkerings will help? All I know is, electronics is my forté and everything I've really done with it has just come naturally and I learn that area of things a lot faster than most things I try! So that'll probably be my strong point in it all.

Something I do pickup on during Robot Wars and YouTube videos of battles is the sense of community between the roboteers, the TV shows try to work up intense rivalries between specific bots, but I'm almost certain its producer fabricated really. So hopefully I can find a place in the community and get some help, and give help back when I'm in a position to do so!

Is there anything the FRA offers, like some sort of basic 'qualification' or basic "this guy knows how to kill robots and not humans" safety stuff, something that I can use to later on show i'm serious, and not trying to waste anyones time? I'd love one day to be part of a team or builder for a heavyweight category bot, but I know that a lot smaller (probably featherweight?) is where I need to start by myself at least.

Pricing for such things is leaving me a little lightheaded, i've checked out things like Ranglebox and general stuff on eBay. Not sure how much I can do with my budget (around £250 to £750, but can go higher if I think i'm onto something with potential) - the low budget things I see on TV / YouTube usually rapidly end up being comedic relief rather than anything else (not that there is anything wrong with a bit of comedic relief, of course!)

I'd be very greatful for any help on the above notes, or ideal starting points - I've come across some featherweight 'kit' stuff, but i'm not sure if they're of any real use or if I should start by entirely doing it from scratch. Looking at every possible avenue to go down, its quite hard to know where the best place to start is!

(good grief, this post came out pretty long!)