[BW] GR-01 Build Diary

[Giles]

About to start making my first fighting robot and I've decided that a build diary would be a nice thing to do in order to record my progress and to perhaps get some tips along the way!

I plan to make a drum style spinner, currently deciding on design choices.

I have some of the required parts and some early cad work done so far:


UHMW 5mm sheet - top/bottom armour
UHMW 15mm sheet - side armour/structural support
Polycarbonate 5mm sheet - experimental, might use it for housing some fancy LED power indicator strips.
Turnigy 1000Mah 3s 30C battery - main power source
Turnigy 180w brushless outrunner motor - Weapon motor
12v 1200 RPM brushed gearmotors x2 - Drive motors
BotBits 10A brushed ESC x2 - Drive ESC's
Turnigy Plush 25A brushless ESC - Motor ESC


Early cad sketch done in my lunch break at work, rough around the edges but I hope it shows the general idea. I'm currently having a hard time deciding if I want an invertible robot that can run on both sides or if I want a robot that has a larger drum which is raised up slightly. Does anybody have a suggestion here?

I plan to make the armour from 5mm UHMW for now, with hopes to upgrade to 5mm alu or something even hardier in the future. For now though, I think UHMW is strong enough and easy to work with for prototyping.

Another problem I'm having at the moment is choosing wheels. I was hoping to use BaneBot wheels, but I didn't realise those went out of production. My next option is to 3D print some hubs out of carbon reinforced PLA and make my own. Unless there are better alternatives?

Over the weekend I hope to finalise a design, cut out a base plate and 3D print myself some motor mounts and placeholder wheels so I can attempt to get something driving around as soon as possible.

Thats all for now! Thanks for reading