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Has anyone had any experience with converting radio controlled cars to make simple ram bots, my mate wants to get into roboteering and i was wondering if this could be a cheap option. Could he strip a big ish remote control car and then build a new chasis for it? any advice?
Now, with all the modern featherweights, a 2kg (or around that) remote control car would stand no chance. First youd need a decent drive/weapon to be at all competitve.
Does this RC car have a 40mhz Tx and Rx? And can the frequency be easily changed? Id do an antweight if I were you, as you can make a reasonably competitive one for very little money...
The weight is the main issue.Even an armored car will weight at max 6 kg.Combined with the high top speed,slow acceleration compared to a normal featherweight.The maneuvrablitily is another issue. Car style steering and tank style are vastly different.With car style in the big disadvantage in RW conditions
Also a cheap RC car is in the most cases equipped with a poor quality, interference prone RX set.
So if you want to try this way, get a cheap car, with a replaceable RX set, ,then a good RX set- the cheapest we use in the Netherlands and Belgium with good results is the Graupner X412.
Then you get a sheet of polycarb ot simular,and make the car in an armor like a turtle or the Leonardo DaVinci tank.
Most important issue is then not to fight the better spinners, or if you do, prepare to use a binbag.
But, we have seen the Banger Cars in Brighton, and that was good fun, Unarmored cars going against feathersflippers. Flying meters trough the ar, landing very hard, but when on the wheels, happely driving along.
I for one am not convinced that going with a RC model car and converting it for RW style combat is the cheaper option.
First of all, you need a good car as the base for youre robot. They run up in the costs. It is safe to say all chassis onder the 100 pound mark are not suitable. 200 to 500 pounds are very normal prices for a robust RC car that can handle the punnishment. Especially since you state yourself its going to be a rambot.
For me, the most expensive part in my feather (still under construction) are the speed controllers, in total the costs is nearing the 160 pound mark. that includes RC tx/rx, speedos, motors and wheels. Chassis and armour i make from whatever i have left over from the heavyweights.
my two cents worth.
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Leo
well my advice is just put it in there normally.
no matter what you do to the think its going to get destroyed - and in a big way.
but the people who have to verse it would thank you eternally
yeah, might do that for round 3 event out here. just 20-30 dollars and u have another entry for the event. it will get smashed but hey itl be entertaining and fun. plus u can use whatever motors are left etc for a smaller robot maybe.
You can use an RC car board with an array of diodes and some relays to make up a forward/reverse 2 ch controller. We did this with Wiper motors ages ago and it worked fine, its still pretty safe if you use ww motors.
ewan you used to take apart 100s of rc cars and use them
?
when i was 8 i made a cardboard cover for a remote control car to make it into a robot :-)
Im with the majority that entering an RC car into a featherweight competition would result in its destruction. But if your friend wants to get into the whole style of RW perhaps before building a featherweight from scratch, then using an RC car is great, maybe not for competitions, but for having a muck-about with your mates, chasing your pet (if you wish to) or practising your driving. I used to do it before I built a proper featherweight and it was great fun.
On the other hand, Demolisher (Robot Wars, Series 1) - wasnt that just an old RC car? It went up against robots as large as heavyweights and seemed to survive well.
So basically, RC cars, good for fun and driving, but not likely to last long in competitions. :)
Jamie