Converting Robot Wars pullbacks to RC...

In all my infinite originality, I've decided to convert a couple of my old Robot Wars pullbacks to RC for a bit of a laugh in the three months I've got off post exams, but I am a bit stuck in terms of how I'm going to do it for the simple fact that there's not enough space to use a typical ant motor controller along with motors, batteries receivers and all that. The ones I'm trying to convert are Panic Attack, Tornado, Chaos 2 and Hypnodisc, the last of which will be very problematic indeed, given how small the 'shell' part is...

So, I thought I'd ask in here - does anyone know of any micro speed controllers/motor drivers, motors, receivers and batteries that'd all fit in a 2cmx2cmx1.5cm square (rough measurements)? I'm needing 3 outputs on it too, for left/right wheel drive and a weapon... I know that's insanely optimistic, but I thought I'd ask before giving up...

Thanks!

http://www.deltang.co.uk/rx43d.htm
Ok, they aren't going to be big motors...

Funnily enough, I'm working on an antweight the size of a minibot. Just building the shell in CAD.

Jamie managed Chaos 2. I believe he had to dremel out pretty much all the insides though.

Yeah, no chance of re-assembling it as a toy after modding it. Never got it 100% working though and lost interest in it but still got it kicking about and might try again some point. Used small servos the last time but they were both slow and weak. I reckon the micro gear motors would probably work quite nicely for it (and most other pullbacks).

If you have two motors in Panic Attack set up in diagonal orientation, that would give a 4WD-esque performance and free up some internal space. A servo for the lifting forks (the sliding mech is already there), a small 4ch receiver and some servo boards to control the drive motors would see that one easily converted to full RC.

People have run the normal 12mm gearmotors used in ants on the DT boards, so it's very possible :) I know the Tornado one has also been converted before and run at past World Series events and not done all that badly too...

Ah, fantastic! Thanks very much everyone! :D
Going to get cracking on Panic Attack and Tornado first, I think then!

I'd love to see the Chaos 2 in action at an ant event sometime too, could have a mini Robot Wars All Stars tournament going off haha! :)

What motors will you use?
And by the way i am also making a spinner for this new weight class.
Good luck with the build.

new weight class?

Is that link to an Rx with built in dual brushed ESCs? That's perfect for AWs!

Joey_picus, i thought that by what FLAG CAPTURED said: "could have a mini Robot Wars All Stars tournament going off", that if some of us got a few built, then we could have a battle sometime. Sorry if this has been misread, i didn't mean that there is a new weight class or i was starting a new one.

PJ: It is indeed :) the only problem is that the Pololu HP and BotBitz UHP motors that a lot of top antweights are using now draw up to a couple of amps of current, so on their own they're only really safe for use with the lower current Solarbotics/Sanyo motors and various types available on eBay. Peter Waller (for he is everywhere in ants) has used the recievers to make a 5g speed controller/reciever combo capable of 2.4A on two channels and a weapon output though...then again, he built a 14g robot using one of the speedo/reciever combo boards!

Marvin: Sorry for the confusion, I just reasoned that ants in themselves are hardly new (the first Antweight World Series was in 1999 and we've just had AWS 40!). An all pullback/replica tournament would be interesting though - would have to get going on my antweight Flirty Skirty...

How do I go about buying one of the Peter Waller boards? They sound ideal.

They aren't officially for sale due to complex legal reasons (it costs a lot of complex legal money to get them approved as sale products) but you can contact him on the RW101 forums and see if he's willing to make a prototype for you, given proper monetary compensation of course :) For alternatives you're generally looking at either a pair of single channel controllers (hacked brushless, hacked servo boards, or the Fingertechs for which postage is ridiculous - and I say that being presently only one province away from them...) or something programmable like the Pololu Baby-O which a few people have used.

I've used the Waller controllers in virtually all my antweights (I do have an old dual channel SOZBOTS board which is good, if a bit heavy, but they've stopped making those) and never had a problem with them, and naturally as Peter's at all the ant events customer service is absolutely excellent!