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Thread: New beginnings

  1. #1
    Hi all,

    I was originally active on this forum about 7 years ago and got a lot of great advice but still being a student never really accomplished much! Having seen the recent RW series it rekindled my interest and I re-joined a month or so ago and started scouring all the advice threads again. Now I’m slightly less budget constrained I’ve decided to start off again and would appreciate some more advice .

    So current setup drives around and is relatively nippy if not a little basic.
    • Spectrum DX6 + BR600
    • Wotty 100
    • 4x12v Drill motors + robo challenge mounts + blue wheels
    • Wooden proto-type wedge frame
    • Pile of NiMH batteries

    My main problem before was that I have fairly limited mechanical experience (pretty handy with wood and diy now just never touched metal…) and no tooling. So questions:

    1. Chassis / amour : Would love to have a metal frame but HDPE sounds like the way to go given then above. Anyone disagree or know how I can build a metal chassis easily? (Initially I will probably look at non-spinner events as I would hate to have all my hard work completely destroyed straight away!)

    2. Weapon: Initially started building an electric axe with a 300w scooter motor and chain. From the post I’ve read pneumatics seems to be the slightly better way to go, is this achievable with my skill set and tooling? If so my other worry is ongoing running costs, an electric axe is pretty much zero, how much would refilling a pneumatic system cost?

    3. Battery: When up and running will switch over to Lipos, can anyone recommend a good charger, threads seems to suggest an iMax B6, is this the right one?
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/5fn/iMAX-...rds=b6+charger

    Thanks in advance!

  2. #2
    Welcome back to the forum!

    1. HDPE is great. It's so light and relatively cheap, and easy to work with. You can even weld it, and form it in your oven fairly easily. Otherwise, if you want to go with steel or aluminium and you don't have access to a welder, it's not impossible. Some people have a steel or aluminium frame onto which HDPE armour is bolted. Aluminium is light and easy to drill and tap, so if you want to go with metal, it's a good choice for internal components. My FW has metal parts for the lifter mechanism, and they were all waterjet-cut by KCut, so that's a way you could go if you need precision. Overall, HDPE is an excellent choice, but don't be afraid to try metalworking if you want to.

    2. I think refilling CO2 is fairly cheap for Featherweights, just head down to your local paintball shop. Something like £10-£20 it seems for a refill, though I don't run a pneumatic bot myself. Making the mechanism should be doable with restricted tools, just buy the components and pop them together. You might want to read up on pneumatics before you start designing though, they can be pretty dangerous, and most of the details are still a mystery to me.

    3. Charger looks fine, should be enough for featherweights. I think a lot of people seem to be a bit afraid of LiPos (and perhaps with good cause), but I went straight for them and I've never had problems yet (not to say that they don't require care to charge and use). The charger doesn't come with a power supply though, so make sure you buy one of those too. Grab a 12V 30A supply off ebay, and wire it in. Just take extra care whenever you're wiring anything that's connected to the mains, obviously. Make sure everything's insulated before you switch it on.

  3. #3

  4. #4
    Hi Matt,

    If you're having an active weapon as well, then 20 mm HDPE for all the armour and bulkheads might cause weight problems down the line. Granted I've yet to fight any spinners, so I can't say much for resilience, but my robot uses 20mm for front armour and 15mm for the rest of the armour and bulkheads, with a 10mm base and lid. Obviously it depends on the size of your robot and how heavy it will be. I'm cutting some spares in case anything gets chewed up in combat - since it's just bolted together HDPE, busted panels can be switched out and changed quickly.

    I use the IMAX B6 and it does the job pretty well. I'm not particularly experienced with electronics and I was a bit worried about charging LiPos, but I found it really easy to use. I use something like this for a power supply which just plugs right in:
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/hub/Danel...6+power+supply
    Last edited by dotDominic; 27th May 2017 at 10:25.

  5. #5

  6. #6
    Direct Plastics is the cheapest I've come across for HDPE. Much cheaper than buying off eBay. 20mm HDPE all over could make you a bit too heavy as dotDominic said, but you can always take some big weight-saving chunks out of your bulkheads and still have adequate support.

    Honestly I have no idea how many fights you're going to get out of one refill, depends how much pressure you're using and how aggressive you are. I think most if not all events have a place where you can fill up your CO2 between fights so it shouldn't really matter as long as you can last one fight.

    Unfortunately I bought my LiPo charger second-hand and it's discontinued now. I don't really have the experience with anything that's currently on the market.

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