Next Beetle Event??

Hi all, have motors on the way to make a beetle, think you lads might be onto the future of robot combat with this I really do! Big enough to be a giggle and cheap to make, small enough to not be a pain to build and no space to get my sausage fingers in to work on the thing.

We (me, Ol, Dad, John and so on) were wondering when the next Beetle competition was going to be? Was thinking about having a go at building in time for the next one. Gonna pinch my electics from the feather that keeps falling apart and get into beetles I think.

Hi,
I think we will be at most Robotslive events, like Whitwick and Burgess hill. Also looking like we can put on an event during the mid year AWS that me and Dave Weston are hopefully running. Shane can be more specific :)

Good luck with your beetle, feel welcome to post up any build pictures and advice on the slaughterhouse forums. What type of robot are you going for?
Harry.

I’m struggling for inspiration a bit, I’ve built a feather pushy robot up to now so fancy something a bit more complicated but am a bit bored of spinners and flippers. There’s one I’ve seen on Youtube where it sort of grabs and then lifts but that’s probably a bit beyond me. I’m trying to help my Dad and brother build one each as well so we’re all struggling for inspiration.

Have had thought’s about a drill powered hammer but it’s maybe a bit heavy. I thought I'd have a go at something like Sewer Snake and Ellis's Tormentor but there's a few like that kicking about. The plan changes everyday at the minute. Any ideas more than welcome lol just really want to get in on this beetle thing from the start as I think it's gonna be massive. Big enough to watch and get involved with, small enough to be cheap and easy to build.

The good thing about this weight class being new-ish is that there is no established 'best setup' yet and weapons that wouldn't normally work or be effective in other weight classes have more of a chance of doing something.

I never got round to building a second beetle for the Wales event but if I had, I was toying with the idea of a spinning drill bit (somewhere around 6-10mm) that would go in and out of the robot. It's a wee bit old school and probably not hugely effective but would've been fun.

Using a cordless drill motor/gearbox for a weapon will eat up a lot of weight but it's doable. You can also use smaller scale motors and methods such as friction drive (a wheel rubbing against something to spin a weapon, possibly a flail if you're bored of the usual type of spinners) will be more effective and/or easier to implement at this level. Just keep bashing away at it, inspiration will hit eventually - probably when you're on the toilet or in the shower - then you'll be all set :)

On the loo made me laugh. So we're free to build drills etc? I'm guessing it's a spinner proof arena then :)

Drill sounds good! As luck would have it I have just bought a new cordless drill so I might get on with that!

As weapons, drills are pretty poor, unless you can lock yourself to the floor with the enemy between you and the sidewall. If nothing else it'll be fun!

Also yes it's spinner proof.

Gonna have a go at building something edit: Simple lol.

So, should I bring some more of my Lego robots down to Whitwick? They'd be entertaining, to say the least.

Events are on the Slaughterhouse section on bigconkers.com. There are only 2 events on there and both being at Robotslive....but there are more planned including the first champs at Harry and Daves event...date to be confirmed. Hopefully will have £500 prize fund for that too. Got to be worth building a beetle for i recon :) Daniel your lego robots are always welcome.

A BW champs! Awesome!

oo a champs sounds cool!

by the by, roughly how big are your beetles? from trying to parse measurements i'm guessing about 20cm by 20cm?