Featherweight Build Tutorial - Research

I know exactly what Dave's saying but one of the issues I had when starting of was 'information overload'. There is a lot of great stuff on the forum but some thread have hundreds of posts, are repetetive or conflicting, matters of opinion, describe equipment which is outdated or not available anymore. There are some genuine nuggets of info there too.

Now we have our new web site maybe will see the emergence of the long awaited wiki which would be cool and then I would fully agree there is no excuse.

A video is a good idea but i do feel it would get lost pretty quickly after it's posted so again, a good insert into a wiki would help.

A moderated wiki is just what's needed. The Riobotz tutorial (all 367 pages of it) tried to tackle the issue but is ineffective in it's format and lack of adaptability- similar content on an inter-referenced wiki would be much more useful.

Thanks for the replies, some interesting points raised.
I should add, another reason for contemplating the video tutorial was the non-emergence of a wiki. It's been talked about several times over the past year or two but nothing has come of it yet. If I was a beginner, having a wiki to refer to for information would be easier than letting a bunch of videos load up and then trying to skip to the relevant part. As Ceri mentioned, it's sometimes easier having something solid in your hand that you can take to your workbench and refer to when it comes to making stuff. If a wiki pops up now we have the new homepage, I'd welcome it and refrain from doing the videos as they would become somewhat unnecessary.

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But would miss minor details such as joining/cutting materials etc.

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That's one area I would be hoping to cover. The bot chassis would be Nylon so I'd mostly be covering cutting it and drilling/tapping holes. Obviously there are other different methods but I need to limit how far into these alternatives I go otherwise the content of the videos will be excessive.

Wiring seems to be the main area that people would like to see covered thoroughly. Tony mentioned this as an idea and it was the one I was thinking of: having a video on wiring that shows everything getting connected up/soldering joints etc, but then had an image file that can be linked to showing the circuit connections that can be referred to easily.

I've written up a rough chapter list so far:

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Chapter 1 - Design:

- Establish intent and design
- CAD/paper/cardboard models
- Pile of parts
- Material selection


Chapter 2 - Chassis:

- Base plate construction
- Bulkhead cutting/drilling/tapping
- Component mounting locations


Chapter 3 - Drive:

- Mounting the motors
- Melting a nut into a wheel
- Attaching a nut-insert wheel


Chapter 4 - Power:

- Mounting the batteries
- Fitting power distribution bolts
- Mounting a removable link
- Installing a power LED


Chapter 5 - Electronics:

- Fitting the speed controllers
- Fitting the weapon control
- Installing the radio gear
- Wiring the system up


Chapter 6 - Weapons:

- Making the drum
- Fitting the weapon motor
- Assembling transmission


Chapter 7 - Finishing touches:

- Test of failsafes
- Test of weapon system
- Armour
- Paint
- Practice and full-scale testing


Chapter 8 - Summary

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Hmm, just hit a possible issue. Just realised that most videos will probably come close to the 15min max limit on Youtube, with 8 chapters that could be well over two hours of footage. I doubt even the most enthusiastic beginner is going to sit for that long watching some random build a robot.

Maybe worth just building the robot and documenting it as a build diary (as per usual) but with a short video thrown in now and then to cover areas such as wiring, nut inserts or cutting/drilling/tapping.

Think I'll need to spend a bit more time considering the logistics of a video series vs. usefulness and practicality. Will mull things over during the next few days.

most beginners would probably watch the parts that they are having problems with the most which differs from person to person so it would be good to have all the information on there but the build diary with videos is a good idea and at the end of the day it is your choice

I was considering, for each weight section, having a sticky thread(s) titled weight class for beginners: motors/batteries/radio/materials, and then relative diagrams (Andy hibbard has a great thread with a diagram of every possible wiring configuration in antweights), and if they are sticky then newcomers will have a good place to start and ask questions on said subject. I will do it if o one else wants to.

Also, a video tutorial would be great but maybe not a spinner :p

Some good ideas here which could help to stop the same questions being repeated over and over again. I think having a sticky thread for each weightclass with some general info may be a good idea.

It also got me thinking that it may be an idea to film a Tech Check so that the newcomers know what to expect when they get to an event and that they can be sure in advance that their robot will be allowed to compete.

Im about to start a heavyweight how to build a simple robot along these lines too !! 8)

I posted on facebook about it the other day !

John
Roaming Robots

A tech check is a brilliant idea also. With a heavy weight getting done then its only right that a feather gets done. It could be a stick thread with lots of short videos displaying a part each. Example video fir wiring, a video for making wheels etc

I was going to do it bit by bit in the various sections rather than one big build diary. I may need some assistance with diagrams for heavyweight pneumatics.

Dave, I think we can talk about those diagrams soonish....