New to Robots and the forum

Hello, I'm Darren.
Been a huge fan of Robot Wars for years, but never really thought about looking in to making one, or finding out about the different weight classes etc until we saw the recent display at Truckfest. That, combined with my boys thinking it would be cool to make a robot, got me looking around and reading lots of the different forums / Facebook pages.

Since then, I've built a budget featherweight based on the roaming robots video, which was a bit fiddly at times, but fun.

I've also got a couple of antweight robots coming - one built and battle ready, and the other as a kit for me and my boys to build.

I fancy doing another featherweight too, building on and improving from my first.

I'm still very much a beginner with a lot to learn, but looking forward to finding out, most probably making mistakes, asking questions, getting robots built, and hopefully taking part in a few battles - and then rebuilding again :)

Welcome to the forum! Looking forward to seeing your robots.

Hey there, welcome to the forum! :D

Not replied here for a while, so an update. I've recently bought a Featherweight that, once it arrives, I'll get to grips with and hopefully let it see some action next year.
My ant build has stalled a bit, mainly due to just being a bit busy, but aiming to get back on track, although trying to get everything in a small space is quite fiddly.

I'm also looking in to Beetleweight. Going a bit bigger and having more space to play with is certainly appealing, but that's just in the thinking about stage.

Either way, hopefully next year I'll have something capable of fighting - wether it wins or loses is another question :p

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Not replied here for a while, so an update. I've recently bought a Featherweight that, once it arrives, I'll get to grips with and hopefully let it see some action next year.

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Oh yeah? What sort of Featherweight is it?

I bought Livewire, it's a spinner.

Neat, plan to make any modifications to it or just run it as is for the time being?

Initially just run as is, and get used to everything.

Well I've ended up having a few robots in different weight classes.
Livewire (fw) is just waiting to get wired up ( have the parts, just need to connect it all ). Being a spinner, I may not be able to get to lots of events, but aiming to take part in some next year.
I'm the new owner of ill tempered mutt, a HW. It's currently not running due to a speed controller issue, but I'm hoping to resolve that soon and get it up and running. And it'll probably have a name change once it is.
And I also have an antweight flipper that needs a name. This was built by Alex and is a great little robot. Annoyingly, my 10yr old son drives and controls it better than I do :)

My plan with all of them is to gain experience and knowledge with robots, get to a few events, experience the live scene, try not to cry too much when they get beaten up lol, and generally have fun and enjoy it all.

Wow, seems like you're taking on a lot for a beginner, but a great way to get stuck in. As far as I'm aware, the Extreme Robots arena is (finally) completed, so you should be able to use the spinner there, same as the Robochallenge champs but not Robots Live. This long break will give you plenty of time to upgrade and work on them.

It does seem a bit crazy :) I'm hoping over winter to get stuck in to everything, and spend a bit of time figuring bits out. There's still a huge amount to learn, but must admit, the search function on here has been very helpful - lots of very knowledgeable people out there, plus chatting and gaining information from those I've bought from has been good too.

Bit of a robot update. HW - have started to look at the electrics and found the faulty esc ( it was secured under a panel ). After speaking to Gabriel, have a couple of options, either getting it repaired if possible, or replacing with recommend parts.

FW - I'm glad it came to me needing a bit of re-wiring, as it's given me the chance to figure out where each wire should go ( with help from Matt ), practice my soldering skills, and then also figure out how to fit it in the shell in a way that works.

If anyone does buy a robot that's already built, then I would recommend taking it apart, checking over the wiring, and getting to grips with it, as so far, I'm glad I've done just that, and it hopefully means when I get round to competing, if it does break or go wrong, I'll have better knowledge as to the best way to fix it.

I'm glad someone bought Ill Tempered Mutt, It was sadly out of my price range
-keep us updated about that one and it would be interesting to see some
video of it running when you get it going Darren.

I didn't pay the original asking price. There was quite a bit of back and forth before the price was agreed and we were both happy.
It will be good to have the mutt fully working. Will certainly put a video up when it is, although may not be for a while.