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Hi after the fun me and my lad Zack has had with our HW robot Saint, Zack wants a robot for himself, what dose the forum members think about what weight class would be best for him he is 10 yrs old. He is saving all his birthday money to get this, can you advise on what to buy, either a second hand or new?
It depends really.
Ant weights are a great way for new young builders to start of in as they will get some hands on building and many of the components are simpliler. Apart from modding the servos which i sugest you do an ant weight can just require two servos a battery and rx.
Antweight events however just run ant weights so more to your calinder and traveling more. However the next big robots live event is holding ants
With featherweight you would mostly have to do the work. I doubt you would want your son holding anything dangerous.
However featherweights are very popular and all events that hold heavys will usually have feathers aswell.
To be quite honest feather would suit you more. Bad thing to say as I have done ants for a good 7 years. Possibly give both a go. Ant weights dont require much and I bet you all ready have the parts around to build one.
With featherweight you would mostly have to do the work
I would disagree. You can build a featherweight without power tools and with a simple rammer setup of a couple of drills etc it can be very easy. Featherweights might be better as when he is able to help you out with the heavyweight the majority of the principles of the machine are the same, just scaled up. Ants (from my knowledge of them) are slightly different.
I dont know what would be different in my ant that is different in my heavy or my feather.
depends how many events you wish to attend and how much travelling. fw you will find are more frequent and their will always be something on a bit closer to home. my daughter is 8 and i decided to go with fw, never seen an antweight competition though but its something i would like to have a go at in the future.
go with a feather
To Gary regarding this statement which you disagree.
With featherweight you would mostly have to do the work
Compared to an ant weight, yes. The youngest ant builder we have had is quite a bit under 10. My couson who was 9 at the time was able to build an ant weight on his own with very little radio controlle experience.
I doubt there are any feather weights out there made with card or celotape.
I admit things have moved on a good amount since then but youngsters are still very involved. I still sugest going for a feather rather then an ant due to attending events with your heavy. However I still think for kids to get hands on experience with robotic combat, an ant weight is the best option. Not to mention esier to drive :)
Hmmm, is there anyone who has built antweights who says that featherweights are easier? Im still on my first wheel, and Ive had to use a hacksaw and a tap plus an allen key.
Ive run antweight workshops for year 5/6 (10/11 year olds) and they can build them out of plastic bits in about three hours, not good antweights mind, but they had fun building them and fighting them. We went to Setpoint Sussex at the University of Sussex a few years ago and they had about 20 antweight kits with two modified servos, battery, wheels and a receiver and there were little kids all over the place building them. Can that happen with featherweights?
I wouldnt give my nine year old a hacksaw without some very close supervision, let alone the lathe, drill and angle grinder that Im going to use to built mine. Ask yourself if you need safety goggles to build an antweight?
So, rant over. sorry about that.
Simon
shane is 11 years old and builds his own featherweights now .... i know hes been around then a long time but still 11yrs and building i just tell him what to do and he does it power tool and welding under supervision only :):):)
Both!
Wont it be easier for you to build a feather Craig as you can use it when at an event with Saint where as, if you build an ant, you will have to go to another set of events.
In my personal opinion, even if you don€™t build the feather yourself, over time you learn allot more about how they work etc. compared to ants, (I made my first one and had no idea what I had done, worked though!)
Tom
Ive done Ants, for a longer time, and Featherweights, for a short time. In my opinion ants are better to start with. Im not gonna tell I was at this age when I made my first ant, becuase thats not the point. The question in the very first post was about which Weight class suits a 10 year old buy, with his birthday money as a budget.
His dad may have done a Heavyweight, but still the question reamins; what is suitable for the young boy?
If he, or his dad, decides to make a Featherweight, its more likley that Craig will do all the work. While doing an antweight, Zack will be able to experiment with diffrent shapes or type of amour, which wont be as easy with a Featherweight covered in thick lexan or strong Hardox.
Just what I had to say. Excuse me for the lack of grammar and spelling.
Antweights are easier to build; my sons (then both under 10) built one in under a couple of hours using a kit like the one Simon describes above and had great fun fighting it and modifying its design to make it work better. But antweight contests are not easy to find and its not much fun to build one and then have no one to compete with.
http://www.robotwars101.orghttp://www.robotwars101.org for all things antweight including events.
Plenty antweight events around, and more on the way.
In October a Reading Robot Club event.
In November Antweight World Series 24 in the area of London
Next year in April the 25th Antweight World Series in the Netherlands.
And there is talk about antweights attending robotslive events too.
Ant weights ARE attending a full competion at robots live Leicestershire. If things run well then they may be a permenant invite for further robots live events.
Go for a feather pusher/rambot-no weopons so less dangerous.
Less dangerous? I think Pillow Torque has been the only non-flippered featherweight to put another robot OOTA :lol:
:rofl:
I didnt know that!
But anyway push bots are always open to modification for a weapon.
And if you dont have a weapon-more armour!
I so disagree with you in so many ways Dan.
I would never advise on a weaponless robot.
Hehe..........I know ,i would never build a weaponless robot.........but some people would..........:)
Sorry Karoline, Alpha put Whirlpool OOTA.
I stand corrected
prodigy also put hornet 2 OOTA at the euro champs, with a lot of help from the mementom of hornets disk though.:)
I agree with Leo, weapon-less feathers are a good starting point, but as far as driving and watching goes, they€™re not all that fun. (Sorry to anyone with a push bot, I do accept that they can be a weapon in their own right)!
i think BonX is quite fun to drive and watch :P
I have never driven Bonx, but I have watched, don€™t get me wrong, its better than watching paint dry but boxes crashing into each other doesn€™t give me a buzz like when a robot is flipped out for example!
Tom
what gives me a buzz is when a pusher stuffs a flipper or spinner in the pit, as i think pushers against these are always looked upon as the underdog, :) but also remember some, not all, dont have the £££ or fabrication skills to build a spinner or flipper, and we need any robots around to help make up the numbers
(Message edited by ady on September 27, 2007)
Sorry Adrian but im going to have to disagree with nearly everything you said there.
Pushers are not looked on as the underdogs by a long shot. You can fit incredible amounts of armour and push into a rammer which a spinner or flipper can only dream of. You dont need fancy fab skills or a lot of cash to build a spinner or flipper. Far from it. You could build one for next to nothing.
I would rather see a competition with 6 flippers, spinners and axes compared to one with 50 boxes.
Remind me Gary - what kind of robot is Hive?
:wink:
its a pit dewller John lol
go feather Craig
no bull hunky reasons jus build a feather over an ant
my opinion
Craig Danby
AWS4 & 6 champion lol
A bot that I wished had a weapon john :)
What happened to the drill motor and wheel systems that were available from Gismon Robotics complete with the speed controller for the feather weight dose anyone have any of those, or know were to get them? I think Zack may get a pants kit (Ant weight) to start with but I think we together may build a simple feather weight for the shows. I do hope the ants get a look in, on the main shows, as they can be used in-between the heavy fights to keep the audience interest the people could see them via some video link to a projector screen perhaps!
Funny you should say that Craig, thats exactly what were trying to get going. With any luck the ants will be on a big screen at Leicester in February.
BTW, for an antweight of any seriousness the servos in the Pants kit are a bit out of date. Try two Sanyo copy motors (perhaps from http://www.precisionmicrodrives.com/product_info.php?products_id=159http://www.precisionmicrodrives.com/...roducts_id=159
and controllers (perhaps http://www.robotpower.com/products/scorpion_XL_info.htmlhttp://www.robotpower.com/products/s...n_XL_info.html
All the best - Simon
a weaponless robot is NOT a robot.
quote:
BTW, for an antweight of any seriousness the servos in the Pants kit are a bit out of date. You mean... Theyre pants. :)
I have made a antweight from one of these kits, and they are a bit (well, very) slow but very rugged. It even lasted 30 seconds against Katjuscha with added gaffatape armour.
Simon that sounds great, I know ants will be well received by the public, I have had a look on the sites you suggested for the motor and controller I use the sidewinder in my heavy. Can you suggest a wheel that would fit the output shafts on those motors I was thinking of getting the pants plans and having a go!
gary, im talking from a crowds point of view. a competition with 50 boxes, would their ever be an event with that many, or are their that many around? flippers are effective but disapointing when the fight lasts 15 seconds when the other robot is sent out the arena, spinners are also good but spinners against spinners normally have a quick finish also maybe? owning a spinner wouldnt you rather come up against something else that isnt a spinner i dont know, i agree totally that boxes against boxes are not the most exciting things to watch. also the comment a weaponless robot is not a robot the term robot is From Wikipedia:
In practical usage, a robot is a mechanical device which performs automated physical tasks, either according to direct human supervision, a pre-defined program or, a set of general guidelines using artificial intelligence techniques.
it doesnt mean a mechanical device with a weapon
(Message edited by ady on September 28, 2007)
im sure you can build a spinner or flipper for next to nothing and maybe you dont need the fab skills either, but ive being doing this a while now and i still struggle with these designs and giving a newbee my opinion.
like when you pass your bike test, you dont go out and buy the fastest thing going if you havent had any previous experiance.
but this discussion started with someone building their 1st bot, when i built my daughter her first bot would i go with a spinner or flipper, no, because i want something strong,reliable,reasonably effective, easy maintenance and an ideal starter bot. my first fw was a wedge, now im moving onto a spinner, you will always have wedge robots as its a good starter, then in time these people will move onto something more advanced. but i will still always go back to use my wedge as it is effective and beaten good machines. the same as when robot wars started how many machines had weapons? most built a moving chassis then add something later on, even in the later years of robot wars you had machines that you took one look at and thought that weapon wont do any damage, they might have knew it themselves so why didnt they fit a fast spinning disk or a full pressure flipper? probably cos it was their first machine, or they didnt have the knowledge.
also i would find a fight with 50 flippers boring, but thats me.
(Message edited by ady on September 28, 2007)
All fair points Adrian. Always good to have a bit of heated discussion on these topics.
There is one thing that was mentioned at the UK champs that would make this discussion irrelevant though. I remember during the FRA AGM it was mentioned that there may be a new rule that states that all machines must have an active weapon of some kind. No idea what the status is on this one but its something for all of us to keep at the back of our minds.
Woo post 1400! :)
(Message edited by typhoon_driver on September 28, 2007)
No rule about active weapon yet! Would be good though, as I think it would bring more creativity and variety, which we all know is the spice of life!
Tom
havent heard that one before, and personally i would be very dissapointed and have to seriously consider my future hobby if it happened, as its taken me till now to build a half decent machine for my daughter. the active weapon of my robot is the chassis, its sounds like the start of the same route mentorn took,what next?? having to fit a weapon into a machine has a big effect on weight, and then armour, then when you get smashed up more cost to repair, cant afford titanium! i believe this would also make it harder for newbees to get started perhaps. i thought their was a good bit of variety and creativity already lol.
one thing i am sure about is any consideration to make a change in build rules should immediately have a thread posted by the FRA, as perhaps like me, others building are not aware of this, and i WOUldNT consider this a slight change in feather building rules, perhaps the FRA could answer my question please..
(Message edited by ady on September 28, 2007)