Robot Design: Cyclone

Great infor guys, perhaps you may help me, Im NOT completely aware of EXACTLY what I may need, perhaps a technical list of what others use may come in handy, as in a full list of PARTS in the bot, or maybe some diagrams of how some of your bots work.

My mum wants a full list of the stuff before I she will even attempt to gather the parts I require.

So maybe some complete lists of what youi use, may help me to get my parts.

(btw, anyone know where I can get some Featherweight size RAMS from EXCEPT E-BAY?)

Thanks for all the great help!

(Message edited by David B on March 11, 2007)

As for having anything, I dont at the moment, Im waiting to have a pretty solid design, then I can order parts from Technobots and vairous places.

Okay, you will obviously need more than this list if your doing a pneumatics set up, but I dont fully undertand all the components needed so Ill just give the basics...

Radio Gear (transmitter and receiver) - most people use the Futaba controllers you can get from Technobots but you can get alternatives such as wheel controllers if you like
Materials of some sort - you can pick up some polycarb from Technobots, otherwise I cant help much with metals
Wheels - anything will do, but the RoboChallenge blue wheels are very good and screw right onto the drill thread with ease
Motors (prferably drill motors) - you can get cordless drill motors from any DIY shop or GimsonRobotics sell some ready prepared ones if you dont want to spend hours dismantling and preparing them
Wire - from Technobots, make sure you dont get the really thin stuff though
Crimps (or connector blocks if you cant afford them) these just connect your wires, pretty cheap from Technobots
Batteries - depends on your budget, SLA if you have weight room and a limited budget but NiCad/NiMH if your going for smaller, lightweight but more pricey alternatives, from Technobots
Speed controller (Electronize, IBC, SideWinder) - depends on your price range, Electronize are very basic, cheap and available in the UK while IBC are Australian and SideWinder are American if you want to import (these 2 are also much more expensive but have by far better features)
Cooling fan (optional) - just in case, I just blow a fan onto my IBC so that the fets dont burn out, they are pretty cheap and its better to be safe than sorry... fans are certainly cheaper than speedo repairs

Thats all I can think of at the moment. For your flipper you will want some rams, a canister and stuff like that which add to the weight and price. I have no experience in pneumatics so its better to ask elsewhere.

Hi Dave,

You might want to post in the Featherweight section if your looking at building it, a lot more builders read that section of the forums then this one :proud:

AJ has drafted out a good parts list there. Although, I would make a suggestion on getting a Spektrum DX6 radio. Drill motors are a good, cheap source of drive motors, but if you over volt them, try to stay within 150% voltage (ie: 12v motors on 18v is 150%).

Pneumatics can be a pretty dangerous weapon, so your best off starting at low pressure (145psi) and spend a few months talking with those who run pneumatic featherweights. Their advice and experience will help you time and time again :)

Cool robot, Dave!

If you want it built that badly, dont give up on it. Ive had one on my mind for 5 years and it still isnt finished. getting close, though.

Learn to Blag. If youve got guts, you could ask different companies to sponsor you parts. The FRA guide to sponsorship is at
http://www.extremefightingmachines.co.uk/Guide_to_Sponsorship.pdfhttp://www.extremefightingmachines.c...ponsorship.pdf. This may help if have a LP pneumatic set-up as a lot of industrial pneumatics uses the same pressure.

Practice driving. Often this will make or break a battle.

If anyone is in doubt, remind them this is a multi discipline engineering challenge. Mechanical, Electrical, Broadcast and, hell, even special effects engineers had a go at this and they still lost. It is still probably the best vehicle for engineering the world has and is not getting the attention it deserves. A crying shame in my eyes.

Parts wise youll want:

as AJ said above
Note the most expensive points in this are the radio kit (40MHZ FM/2.4GHZ are the main accepted and legal frequencies. 40 Mhz kit will require you to carry 3 pairs of tuned crystals for a fractional frequency), the speed controller (as its customised for the application, combat is a sure way to kill an RC speedo!) and the batteries (it is easy to spend too much on this for very little improvement!)

If I were you, Id use an 18V cordless drill set up for the drive. Itll be straight forward, less hassle and quite fast. Remember floor grip when choosing your wheel/mounting your drive, though.

You may also want to leave the shell and flipper being custom built by one of the companies in the FRAs commercial adverts forum. Be insistant, though. Youre the boss.

LP Pneumatics parts:
Main Bottle, Dump valve, Regulator, Buffer (Optional), Control valves(1 piece), Ram(s) as far as Im aware, though for safety reasons, more devices may be added.

If you follow the next link to design and the bottom of the page, youll see a working pneumatic system in flash animation.
http://www.teamfirestorm.co.uk/index2.htmhttp://www.teamfirestorm.co.uk/index2.htm
John Reids (Killerhurtz) pneumatics page
http://howto.killerhurtz.co.uk/pneumatics.htmhttp://howto.killerhurtz.co.uk/pneumatics.htm
Alan Woody Woods (Onslaught) pages
http://www.teamonslaught.fsnet.co.uk/pneumatics.htm%20%20http://www.teamonslaught.fsnet.co.uk/pneumatics.htm

(Message edited by Psychostorm on March 14, 2007)

Brilliant information from ya guys/girls? The diagrams on Terrorhurtz are very cool CAD designs. :)

You wont notice here, that I connected my regulator directly to my bottle for now, hahahah. :P

http://www.ewe-squad.com/plei/Cyclone/RB1.jpghttp://www.ewe-squad.com/plei/Cyclone/RB1.jpg

Ok, so I noticed some exposures I didnt want in the bot, and I had changed the look a little.

The lift supports were curved, and I didnt like this in comparison to the body. Also, the front panel for the flipper was far too short, and just didnt give enough surface area to hit. Another thought I had was to make it provide a little more protection for the wings, so I made either side have a sharp flail.

The wings also now have something to pivot on, and they are much more ridged to fit with the rest of the arm. I also noticed that a robot like this would be better on four smaller wheels rather than two large ones (agree?).

http://www.ewe-squad.com/plei/Cyclone/bot7.jpghttp://www.ewe-squad.com/plei/Cyclone/bot7.jpg