How would you spend £500?

[Dan-27]

Last night I was given a £500 grant to run a robotics club in school. I want to make sure the money in the right way so thought I'd open it up and see what people think I should buy.

My idea is to build a number of control boxes that take care of all the complicated electronics. These armoured boxes will have threads cut into the bases so they can be easily moved between machines allowing 10+ robots to be built and run with 3 - 4 shared boxes. The boxes will have a number of female connectors around the side to plug in motors, weapons, removable links etc.

So the question is what goes inside the box? and what drive units should I buy?

My main concern is reliability. These unit probably wont face too much abuse, I'm imaging an after school club will mostly produce rambots and simple weapons (spikes, drills etc) But they need solid electronics and drive if this is going to work.

Here's are my initial thoughts:

1 x OrangeRx T-SIX Transmitter (Although I think the Tx85a's code was written to work with HK's own 2.4ghz TX so maybe those instead if they'll make the ESC's work properly)

1 x Orange Rx

1 x Battery (Probably NiMh over LiPo)

2 x Hacked TX85A ESC’s

1 x Weapon controller, either another hacked TX85a, a relay/switch set up or maybe one unit with a brushless output.

2 x GR02 motors

2 x Robochallenge Wheels

Nylon and Lexan for the housing

None of that is set in stone so any thoughts, ideas, additions, sponsorship deals welcome.

Also worth noting I'm going to be donating my kit to this, I've got one complete set, I'd like to produce 3 more with this money but will settle for 2 if it wont stretch far enough.