need help if possible

hi my name is James and i've finally decided to make a robot, i have had a keen interest in robots for years and would now like to make one.

I have around £150-£200 and was first wondering if this would be enough to make a featherweight robot. To begin with i have decided on a robot without weapons as i think this is too complicated for me, but i am open to simple suggestions for weapons.

I would also like a parts list if possible, also places to get these from, and prices.

Finally if there are experienced roboteers on the site, if they could give me a simple building guide, i have a main idea of what goes where but need more of an in depth description of this.

And if anyone has any parts or even robots that they could sell to me it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you and see you soon.

http://www.riobotz.com.br/tutorial.html

download the english version its very detailed and can tell you everything you will need too know

more people will post here, have a look in the feather weight section as a few people post your kind of thread:)

welcome to the forum:)

alex

Hi James,

Sounds like a sensible plan with a sensible amount of money behind it. If you can go to your nearest scrap merchant and pick up some metal your bedget will stretch a lot further because it is still quite tight at £200.

For the drive system you will need a speed controller, batteries and two motors plus the RC kit.

I like the Robot Power kit, the Magnum gear motor is a nice powerful motor and the Scorpion XL is a nice little dual speed controller too. You would proably need to strech your budget a bit thought for that. BUT, it would be money well spent. www.robotpower.com

Drill motors is another option, very cheap but can tend to fail quite a lot so you end up replacing them all the time.

Andy

Thanks a lot, really appreciate it

I don't know whether or not they're compliant with the rules, someone could fill me in on that... but the BattleRatz kits seem like they may be good for beginners?

Cost a bit at between £180-280 and if you want control of the weapons system (it's an auto-fire system otherwise) I think that costs about an extra £20 something on top of the cost of the whole thing. Quite a nice base chassis for £180 though?

I believe the complete robot kit weighs about 5kg?

Link: http://www.roamingrobots.co.uk/shop/index1.html [click on Robot Kits link from menu]

Anybody shed light on whether these are competition legal? Even if they aren't they're probably not too hard to make legal certainly with a removable link and an LED which is required for feathers now to show the robot is active yes?

Jonnos Battleratz are great and as I understand it he'll be running competitions for them next year.

a very good start and look like a lot of fun but do not think they are built to stand up to a 13.6kg lump jitting it at 15 miles an hour. They are 6kg and are made to stand up to each other!!

If you do use them in a feather arena bring a bin bag :proud:

Andy

A bit off topic but maplin do the motors in the battleratz kits http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=43368

Just incase anyone was looking.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by widow_twanky

Jonnos Battleratz are great and as I understand it he'll be running competitions for them next year.

a very good start and look like a lot of fun but do not think they are built to stand up to a 13.6kg lump jitting it at 15 miles an hour. They are 6kg and are made to stand up to each other!!

If you do use them in a feather arena bring a bin bag :proud:

Andy

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Andy - sounds good. I wondered whether they'd be competition legal. I certainly wouldn't buy one to put it in a full-on feather competition! My word there are some lethal flippers in the feather competitions these days. Reading Robot Club showed that one quite well! In fact I can safely say that's true of all the weight classes now. Flippers were always my favorite weapons. Haha I think one of the heavies flung themselves out of the arena at Reading on Sunday - possibly one of the Iron Awe boys' robots...

i've actually been interested in the motors or servos on maplin, also the batteries they supply, would these be o,k as a 12v set

Hi would this be a full components lists, please tell me otherwise.

4 motors ( looking at cordless drills from argos)
a battery or 2 ( looking at maplin batteries)
speed controller ( still not sure)
chassis ( sorted basically)
radio controller ( need help finding one )
wheels ( shouldnt be difficult )

Anything i've missed, also do you recommend my sources

James

You will get batteries with the drills so you won't actually need any unless you want an upgrade.

As for radio the planet 5 is aparently good.

thanks. finally the speed controller, any help anyone?

what about a charger for the drills

I'm assuming you mean these: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...ECHALLENGE.htm

(the 14.4v challenge drills @ £19.99)

If so, they have a charger. It says 3-5 hours but its still a charger.

will they last an event though. Once again thanks a lot, so ive got the batteries, motors, chassis,sort of got wheels, radio controller, need a speed controller, could any1 give me a link to a decend one if i have 2 wheels, anything else?

Please keep the replys coming they are great help everyone :)

if your budget can strecth that far a sabertooth 10 A would suit your needs ( 45 quid) other than that its on off controllers:( .

would the top one of these be o.k
if not please advise http://www.micronradiocontrol.co.uk/scorpion_esc.html

yh i think so i've got

2 cordless 14.4v drills from argos for £40
Chassis and armour not yet sure on price but dads sortin that
wheels shouldnt be much
Radio controller £36
Speed controller £45

so thats £121 with batteries charger armour chassis wheels a few pounds radio controller and speed controller,

Any suggestions or upgrades with around 50 quid

taking into account the soldering kit and wires i have to buy, but there also cheap?

http://www.technobots.co.uk/acatalog/On ... C_533.html
is that what u mean, would i need 2, i assume as it says dual its only 1

Thats a dual channel speed controller, ie it can control two motors.

If you put either one of those speed controllers with two drills, you will blow them. Drills motors will happily draw more than 10A in the arena. My advice especially for someone starting out is to buy the electronize controllers. Rough, rugged and perfect for someone starting out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by typhoon_driver

Thats a dual channel speed controller, ie it can control two motors.

If you put either one of those speed controllers with two drills, you will blow them. Drills motors will happily draw more than 10A in the arena. My advice especially for someone starting out is to buy the electronize controllers. Rough, rugged and perfect for someone starting out.

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I would tend to agree with this, The 10A Sabertooth will hold out until you get a significant stall current for a while.

I reckon you have the option of the electronize or the robot power scorpion XL or XXL or the sabertooth 25A. Just remember for the electronize you will need a mixer if there isn't one built into the tx handset

Andy

In my experience, the sabretooth 10a handles 2x 12v drills at 14.4 volts easily.
The only time I ever blew one was when I burnt out a motor at the same time with the help of Little Hitter. So, I think that the Sabertooth will do you fine,
and have better control than the electronize. This is just my opinion, and its all down to personal preference really.

id like to second what alex said , the sabertooth handles 2 14.4V over volted drill motors in my FW no problems , and it has good over current protection so its pretty hard to kill , one thing i would advise though is giving it some sort of heatsink as it can get quite toasty running on 14.4 V , it also has thermal protection which it has only ever stopped on once , the heat sink solved that.

Oh and argos drills are 10 quid each :D ( and i cna confirm they work just lovely with the sabertooth 10 A)

i second that they get hot, but dont blow unless you stall them for ages, or overvault them to stupid voltages they will be fine :)

oh and tom (muchalucha) can u come on msn, got some stuff to tell ya

jack

Not all drill motors are created equally. Granted you may well be fine if you don't stall them etc but I would always recommend over rating everything in a machine. Any robot is only as strong as its weakest part, which I have found out on several occasions the hard way.

mainly now im looking at the sabertooth 10a, it seems to have everything i need, but just checking around as if i broke thats 50 quiid down the drain, buying two of the 14.4v drills from argos, as 4 would mean id need two speed controllers somebody said, but if you kno otherwise please let me know, most things are sorted and should have GIZMO, mostly likely to be its name after my cat, up and running by early 2010, thanks again for everyones help in this, ive really benifited from it, see you at some event somewhere :)

you can put 4 drills through a dual controller however you will definitaly kill the 10a sabertooth doing that

sorry to bring you down mate but iv already used the name gizmo for one of my feathers

thats fine mate wasn't sure anyway, think im going for a two wheeled invertible wedge shaped robot, some big tyres for traction, and may look over drills for more pushing power, as most robots use them, would need help on a speed controller to suit this though

to clarify , the sabertooth will handle 2 drills but not 4 , for 4 all i can recomend is the 40 A electronize's or my 30 A team thants speed controllers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jmurph

will they last an event though. Once again thanks a lot, so ive got the batteries, motors, chassis,sort of got wheels, radio controller, need a speed controller, could any1 give me a link to a decend one if i have 2 wheels, anything else?

Please keep the replys coming they are great help everyone :)

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Sorry about this bump, but, by using 4 drill motors, and 2 wheels, you are making things overly complicated.

4 wheels, each with it's own motor, for one, you have double the grip, and two, it's a wheel+motor assembly, making it very simple.

Speed controller wise, I really don't know, I am not experienced enough to be able to recommend anything, just browse the various forums, what kind of speed controller should I use and where can I find them? has to be one of the most asked questions on the site! :D