Hi everyone,

After attending the Extreme robots Cheltenham event and helping my brother WILL CADDY complete his first robot Pikey the Unicorn ! and helping him out in the pits i have caught the roboteer bug.

I have many questions and my brother advised me to check the forum out and sign up. I must say I'm glad i did.

My name is Chris, I hope to have a feather weight put together and ready to compete in the next Extreme robots tour.

I have my brother's advise, his you tube channel and build log please check him out here if you are also new to bot building

There is lots of great info on there and now with the forum i'm sure I can have something put together for the next event.

Question time !

- What is the best reasonably priced brushless motor ? Is this a route worth taking or am i better off sticking with the 12v or 18 v RS 550 or RS 755 motor as these are much cheaper ? I would rather something be reliable and last than having to replace a faster more powerful motor every fight.

- Then as regards to an ESC i would rather not pay over the odds for an ESC that comes from botbits australia, I know they do good stuff and i'm not knocking them but shipping is costly. I know a £30 ESC from hobbyking can be re programmed with simon k firmware but is this hard to do ? Are there any other options to buy pre-programmed ESCs capable of doing forward and reverse for a drive system?

- Gear boxes something i know very little about. My brother used 18v drills stripped down with 550 motors and drill gear boxes in but both of these components failed and we had to frantically swap them out between fights. I have been lookin into P60 boxes that banebots do and i can source in the UK from robotshop.com which seem to sell alot of banebots gear.
Are the P60s any good are they reliable do they last ?
I know they can be used in conjunction with brushed or brushless options by just changing the pinion gear.

-Wheels ? Is it better to use cheap nylon wheels with a Tyre tread screwed on to them ? OR use a specifically manufactured wheel such as the bane bots ones ?

Any help or comments would be greatly appreciated and I look forward to hearing from you and making new friends along the way.

All the best guys

Chris