Help/Questions/Build thread

[Ellis]

We could just about build Tormenta 2 from scratch with a £600 budget. It has 4 wheel drive, an active fast-moving electric lifter/flipper, and a thick plastic chassis. However it was our second machine, so the money was spent more efficiently than if we had attempted the design for our first robot.

A budget of £500 will get you by nicely. If you have access to basic tools and some scrap you could potentially halve that.

You might want to consider putting a little less into your first machine, as even if it doesn't get badly damaged, you'll probably want to rebuild fairly soon anyway. It's just how we all seem to work. That doesn't mean it can't be solid, if you know someone who can weld, mild steel is cheap, or free if it's otherwise scrap, and if thick enough you can make something that will comfortably take the hits.

I'd try to get to the UK champs, because you will learn at an immense rate. The rumbles at HW events are fun, and they will be a good electronic shakedown, but they won't tell you a lot about any major design/mechanical issues. And the chances of a spinner destroying your machine to the point where nothing is salvageable is... well it doesn't happen anymore. The whole front end of our first machine got obliterated by the later crowned '12 champ, but the only broken electrical component directly caused by the attack was the loss of a few AAA batteries. Unlike in RW days, where continuing to smash a dead robot was the norm for good TV, that doesn't happen now; the driver of the robot doing the damage will stop attacking once your machine stops, and that's that.

[plargen]

You might want to consider putting a little less into your first machine, as even if it doesn't get badly damaged, you'll probably want to rebuild fairly soon anyway. It's just how we all seem to work. That doesn't mean it can't be solid, if you know someone who can weld, mild steel is cheap, or free if it's otherwise scrap, and if thick enough you can make something that will comfortably take the hits.

lol i can vouch for that, i notice various issues in the design which i think i have corrected in my second version but i could have easily fixed my first bot

[puca]

So build a slightly cheaper robot, see where you go wrong in fights and improve upon what was bad? Like a trial and error process?

[Ellis]

Yes. Robot combat is all one big never ending game of trial and error. Which is what makes it fun and keeps people interested for so long.

[plargen]

well i would say put you money on the internals esc, motors etc as its generally the chassis you will end up changing

[adz600]

If you can use ebay, a hammer and bodge with the best of us under £200 notes should be easy ,
2x cheap model car batts
planet 5 radio
2 argos drills or even gimsons
2 self hacked tz85
sheet 12/16mm hdpe from direct plastics
bits and bobs wheels etc from rs


trawl though all the build threads, look for any with a paper clip next to them for photos

all the best hope to meet you at an event soon

[daveimi]

Guten tag! Welcome to the site! As others have said, build summat cheap and get to the RobotsLive / Roaming Robot events. you'll learn loads. I just got back to building feather number 2 after the first one got badly damaged at it's first event haha. It's common practise to build a drill powered rammer. It involves a couple of cheap drills from argos, cheap speedo and a couple of tamiya 7.2V batteries taped together. You can even get a cheap radio set for 25 notes. Build a basic body (plastic, wood, steel, ally all commonly used) and chuck your running gear in. I came back with my electrics intact so they're going into number 2. I think it's like anything, it's as dear as you make it. As with anything, you won't get to the moon and back on a fifty quid robot but it'll get you too some events for a laugh. I'd recommend that, and as you progress more can spend more if you want to. Just keep it simple and have a read round and remember there's no such thing as a stupid question.

Dangerous Dave

[Mouldy]

re: age limit;

When conducting tech checks I prefer the competitor to have someone over the age of 18 with you (parent etc) to sign the form of and take responsibility for your machine. Not all tech checkers implement this but I regard it as a legal document, and ask for someone over 18 to sign at the fw uk champs.

Welcome to the forum.
Dave

[Flag Captured]

I built a bot from scrap parts from scratch for about £60, but it lost its only fight. Against a DVD player.
It all depends on your technical expertise - if you're good with building, you'll be able to build a very sturdy machine at a fraction of the cost, and if you're not at all skilled like me, you'll probably need to spend a bit more on it to get it about right. The most expensive components usually though are the electronics, but again, it depends what stuff you buy - my hacked 85A ESCs from Botbitz are exceptional, but cost £100, you can buy them for much cheaper elsewhere, but the quality or amp rating might be lower for example. Brushless drive systems are also starting to get a bit of usage from what I've heard - I'm experimenting with a few setups and I'm led to believe there's a few actually in use, but they're not widely used as of yet I don't think.

You mentioned about a rambot, and their strengths are all to do with their toughness and sheer pushing power, so to excel to that, I'd suggest getting 4 drill motors for 4 wheel drive, and the strongest armour you can find, especially for some kind of shovel at the front.
The smaller you can get it, the better too - get as close to the 13.6kg weight limit as you can, but having a huge robot means you'll have to spread the armour more thinly to cover everything. If your robot is half the size, you can have armour twice as thick and that'll help keep the spinners out!

I'd suggest going the cheaper route and using whatever scrap you can find to make the chassis out of etc. just to keep costs down, then you can learn by going to events and fighting, making improvements on top of that and of course have a bit of a cheap thrill! Well, comparatively cheap anyway. Do plan though, planning it out beforehand is a good first step!