Or I could buy a team - huh, how much money do you have?!
Wether you have 2 or 4 wheels depends on design and what you want the robot to do. With feathers, most robots with a weapon are 2WD due to weight. Nearly all 4WD Fws are pushers.
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Or I could buy a team - huh, how much money do you have?!
Wether you have 2 or 4 wheels depends on design and what you want the robot to do. With feathers, most robots with a weapon are 2WD due to weight. Nearly all 4WD Fws are pushers.
I meant buy a kit! I think I will do a 2wd with grippy tires.
Those battlekits look neat, but I wont want the shape of the feather already done for me.
May I surgest that you look here:
http://forums.delphiforums.com/THERFL/messageshttp://forums.delphiforums.com/THERFL/messages
The RFL (Robot Fighting League) is kinda the equivelent to the FRA over here. People may be able to help you source more local parts over there better than we can. They can also answer alot of the questions which we over here cant like if a weapon will be effective over here as the us and uk are very different.
How much does a pneumatic system cost for a feather usually? How big a Co2 fire extingushier do you use?
http://www.robochallenge.co.ukwww.robochallenge.co.uk is currently not working. James is trying to find out why, and sort it out. It appears someone has removed the website and changed passwords so James is unable to access the site. Hopefully it will be back up and running shortly.
Kevin How long is a piece of string?
Thats effectively what your asking, a pneumatic system could cost nothing if made from scrap or could cost 1,000,000 pounds if you wanted it too.
Hi Guys
the site will be back up shortly but hasnt any information on about the kits just yet. heres a little info on the latest version which will be avalible for purchase this week.
The Robo Challenge kits have had 2 years of design and development (including many full combat fights) along with over 35 years of engineering experience to bring you extremly high quality and reliability! All have the same chassis and yet can be completely different machines due to the large arrangement of bolt on weapons etc. For example each motor pod can be attached in 5 different positions in the robot to create anything from a stable wedge bot to a full body hammer, stinger style!
The chassis is lazer cut and robot welded in 2mm stainless steel which is incredibley tough! all the weapons and motor pods are produced from mild steel and then zinc coated so the bot will never rust. These machines are very nippy aswell giving more than enough power to slam your opponants hard. up to 6000mah of Nimh high performance batteries supply the power to the machine and will keep it running at full pace for well over an hour. The speed controllers are top dog allowing your motors to pull a countinuous 25amps. They incorporate high power Gen Xi-FET technology with a new heavy duty, light weight heatsink which provides 50% more effective cooling! The new intelligent power delivery system (PDS) minimises wasted power, maximises traction and reduces motor wear and heat.With improved protection. in fact we are so confident with them we give them a guarentee, there is no way you can blow them up!
We have also made the wiring fool proof with our LX Units. everything simply plugs into the box and supplyies power to the machine. Its impossible to plug anything in backwards so you cant go wrong! The LX Units also incorporte an on/off switch, power LED and a removable link so it complies with all the FRA rules. We also have a guarentee that these things wont break!
When you purchase one of our machines you get A Robo Kit with a choice of one of our range of static weapons, 3000mah of NiMH battries along with a charger. A 2 channel Futaba Radio set avalible in 27mhz or 40mhz. you also get the tools needed to build the machine and to modify the weapon mouting points or the motor pods plus a set of cones to practice your driving skills all for just £495! you get alot!
Upgrades will also be avalible in future like new weapons both static and active and armour plates etc. you will also be able to bolt many robots together to create the ultimate machine!
for more information please email us at Admin@RoboChallenge.co.uk We will be happy to hear from you.
there is no way you can blow them up!
now thats a promise i would love to test.........i know i have some C4 around here somewhere :P
O and james, have you found out how much the 150mm heavy duty wheels would cost (x4)?
(Message edited by typhoon_driver on August 30, 2005)
there is no way you can blow them up!
....so theyre not the ones that caught fire at XFM Cambridge then ;) you heard it here first guys; The first speed controllers to come with a guarantee that you cant break them !
Ed
http://www.teamstorm.comhttp://www.teamstorm.com
After reading this i felt like i watched the homeshopping network for 3 hours straight.
thats right ed!
they were actually the batteies that cought fire at your xfm event. we have been guarenteed that the speedos wont blow by our manufactuer. if you try they will just shut down instead of costing you a fortune!
Oh, fair enough James - thought it was the speedos
Ed
http://www.teamstorm.comhttp://www.teamstorm.com
James, your kits sound too good to be true.
ye we jammed extra batteries in the bots so they were a bit heavyer but one of the packs had snipped wires and so shorted out on the body work! thought it was a speedo at the time.
How would I remove the bodywork between fights? Also how would I attach the body to the chassis? Screws or welding or allans keys.
Weld what you dont need to remove and use lots of screws or bolts & nuts for the rest. I dont know what allans keys are. A cordless drill is advised for faster screwing and unscrewing.
You can weld nuts to the chassis so that you can simply screw the bolts into them. Theyre a bit tougher than the usual screws. Watch out for deformation by the heat though: sometimes you have to thread the nut anew before the bolt fits.
(Message edited by Babeth on September 02, 2005)
Hi Babeth ......... I believe that Kevin means Allen Screws or Socket head cap screws.
http://www.mcnallyinstitute.com/CDweb/a-html/a015.htmhttp://www.mcnallyinstitute.com/CDweb/a-html/a015.htm
(Message edited by woody on September 03, 2005)
Oh, I see, thank you Woody !
Ah well, its the same as normal screws then.
Another thing I just thought about: when we do use them, we often sink our screws. You drill a wider hole on top of the hole, at the size of the screw head. So that the screw heads dont stick out and get damaged.
hi kevin,
was that questition regarding my kits?
What was?
about attaching the body etc......!
The lid is bolted ontop, once this is undone and removed then all the components are easily accessible. If you wanted to add an extra armour shell, then either welding or bolting would be fine.
there is no way you can blow them up!
sorry to sound like a party pooper here, but I know for a fact this is not the case.
RC wars (when I was paying half the replacement costs) blew many of them up at RAF cosford last year, and I personally blew one last week.
They are quite good, but they are not the holy grail of speedos
We had the old version ones then james. I use the latest version.
Having spoken to my manufacturer they have said they are confident you cant blow one up. if you try to pull too much power through them the speedo will shut down rather than smoke up. if one does gets blown up somehow they will be replaced free of charge.
James Cooper
Robo Challenge
*Takes ball of paper and lights it onfire and puts it in the speedo*
See it can let out smoke :)
JB-The speedcontrollers used in the earlier kits were the origional version. RoboChallenge now have the new version with a garantee! if somehow they do blow up, you get another one free so even if it did blow up its not too bad.
Ian- Just try getting paper in them :)
Was is the difference between stored pressure and working pressure in a pneumatic system? Would you put a servo on the regulator?I forget, would you need a servo for the speed controller? I joined the Robot Club at school.
Q1- http://www.teamdavinci.com/understanding_pneumatics.htmhttp://www.teamdavinci.com/understanding_pneumatics.htm
Q2- No
Q3- Most speed controllers use a direct interface to the receiver.. so in general ..NO SERVO.
http://www.4qd.co.uk/robot/start.htmlhttp://www.4qd.co.uk/robot/start.html
(Message edited by woody on September 13, 2005)
Thanks, but that link just confuses me even more. How would you fire the flipper?
Kevin, I use an Electronize switch pluged into my RC receiver to activate a solenoid valve in my robot. It really is simple once you have done it once.
I like Pauls guidance notes on pneumatics http://www.technobots.co.uk/http://www.technobots.co.uk/ Home Support / Find Us
Reread any information you dont understand. Good luck.
quote James Cooper
We had the old version ones then james. I use the latest version.
Having spoken to my manufacturer they have said they are confident you cant blow one up. if you try to pull too much power through them the speedo will shut down rather than smoke up. if one does gets blown up somehow they will be replaced free of charge.
quote grant cooper
JB-The speedcontrollers used in the earlier kits were the origional version. RoboChallenge now have the new version with a garantee! if somehow they do blow up, you get another one free so even if it did blow up its not too bad.
Ian- Just try getting paper in them
Thanks guys, nice to know I can get 2 replies confirming the same thing when I ask questions. Thats what I call service (theres another e-mail in your inbox by the way JC)
Yes, I know all about the products from mtronics, and I know all about the new ones, of which I recently had one blow up. Its nice to see that you have a gurantee that when one blows up you will replace it free, im sure any roboteer that buys them from you will be very happy to have that in writing. By the way, if they dont blow up, why would that gurantee be made? They made the same gurantee to us with the old speedos and they refused to replace those because of our unique use of them in robots. I know how bitter I felt with wads of cash sitting in a box smelling of smoke, when wed had the same promise of unblowable
Just trying to clarify to the roboteering public here that the warrenty you offer must be made in writing and is a robochallenge warrenty, just in case mtronics dont replace the product (again)
Did I mention by the way that it was the 12v 25A continuous controllers that blew up running a 7.2v motor with a 1A stall current???
James you sound very bitter,
Ive already put it in writting on the forum, and il say again. anybody who buys our speedos and smokes one will have it replaced free of charge.
My surggestion is that you call Mtroniks, speak to the tech department about your case and im sure they would be happy to help. Sounds like you had a faulty one. If not i would be happy to have a word with them for you if you like?
Lets try and keep topics productive :)
Just needing some simple advice or assurance regarding speedos:
Im finally gonna be getting round to getting some speedos (and getting rid of those damn microswitches :)) Im most likely gonna go for the Electronize 30A with ex relays - should these be okay for using with both W/W motors and drill motors? I reckon they should be but thought I ought to check anyway.
Cheers
Lenny
Yep they should be more than fine Jamie. Go For it mate.
Mr Stu
Thanks, have to wait a week or so until my student loan comes through (thats where Im getting the money from - instead of buying books for uni :)) but will be good to get them
LOL!!!!!!!!!
Stupid thing to do, student loan is for Uni Mr. God some people.
Mr Stu
(Know the feeling, my Student loan is paying for my new Laptop LOL!)
I would want a low 150psi pneumatic system.
Not bitter at all James, just making sure our friends like Mr McHarg dont spend all their student loan on motor controllers sold as unblowable, which are quite easily blowable. In fact, since my last post Pete from the Bloody L team has been to see me with another blown MTronics controller.
Thanks for the offer of talking to MTroniks for me, but I managed to do that myself, and they did indeed offer to replace the speedos if they are manufacturing faults, but be advised anyone purchasing these, if they blow through overvolting, or back emf generated by motors bigger than those used in RC cars, you are unlikely to get your money back as they are not designed for robots. In fact, MTronics only have 1 controller designed with robots in mind, and they are for motors that dont work in the robots that have tried them.
As I said, Mtroniks do excellent controllers, I personally own over 40 of them at the moment, but they may not be suitable for featherweights, and to be honest Id think twice about using them in a decent 6kg robot. They simply cannot take the spike loads we would give them in combat, in machines heavier than RC Cars.
Good luck with your robot building Lenny, but make sure you do as much research as possible before buying anything, as it is very easy to buy something that someone has reccommended, and find it is not what you need.
I would pesonally always reccommend the electronize range of controllers to any first time builder, and to us older blokes to. They are by far the most flexable and reliable controller for under £50, in my experience anyway.
Thanks for the advice James. Ive been looking into all the options for a while now and Electronize (from what Ive seen and heard) seem to be a decent choice. There are of course the slighty fancier options like the IBC but its a bit out of my price range atm and does a helluva lot more than I need speedos to do. Still got a bit of research to do into it but Im 99% sure just now that Electronize is what Ill go for :)
Regards
Lenny
Ive found no problems with our range of speed controllers and they have handled running drill motors in robots that ran for 10 hours a day none stop.
Hence the guarrentee that if you were to blow one it would be replaced free of charge, so you cant loose out. If a motor too powerfull were to be run on one the speed controller it would simply shut down.
Electronize are great speedos and have been used for a long time in combat robots. the only down side is that thy weight 3 times more and they are twice the size of the Mtroniks which are a world wide distributor.
Also Ive got to say there perfomance is as good as the electronise if not better, As its all solid state electronics, no relays involved. The robots ive driven with Mtroniks installed have imediate reaction times and drive very nicely.