First time build! Devils Advocate!

[gdibz]

So i've decided to make my own ant weight robot, i've bought all of the parts (i hope) buying parts as i go along aswell! and im hoping that I can get advice along the way! lets get to it then here is my part list:

Chassis - Im beginning with polycarbonate to build a prottotype before going on to an aluminium

ESC - Turnigy 20A Speed controller x2 (mistake meant to buy 10A but oh well)

Voltage Reg - simple 5v reg for reciever (problem when first building explained later)

Battery - Turnigy Nano-tech 2s 7.4v x2(one for speed controllers and one for reciever

Servo - EMAX ESO8MA

Reciever - RadioLink R7EH 2.4GHS 7CH

Transmitter - T6EHP(Need a bit of help explained further along)

Motor - Micro metal gearmotor (extended shaft) (50:1) (pimoroni(dot)com)

Wheels - Pololu Wheel 32x7MM

So I began my first mistake casually playing GTA 5 and trying to connect parts together not paying attention (not good combination) and long story short sparks flying from cable and a blown up reciever, i had connected a battery to speed controller along the wire I tried to connect reciever (poof and a line of smoke) forgot to put VR before the reciever so a new reciever was bought I have now decided to use 2x battery one for the reciever easier to set and one for speed controllers. photos and continued in the next couple of days

[epicentre]

I'm not sure where to start with this...

Firstly, I'm going to suggest you head over to http://robotwars101.org/forum/. This is where most of the antweight builders hang out and there's a wealth of knowledge there.

Now, to your actual post...

"ESC - Turnigy 20a" As far as I'm aware Turnigy don't make a reversible ESC for brushed motors. If you bought one for use with brushless motors, it won't work with those drive motors, as they're brushed. If you bought one that doesn't say it has reverse, or is bi-directional, then it will only go in one direction. Can you link what you bought please?

Voltage Reg - This is not usually required as a separate component. Usually your ESCs will have a built-in voltage regulator (also known as a BEC) to power the receiver and servos, or you can just buy a receiver and servos that will work up to full voltage anyway.

Servo - This servo is a little small. It'll work, but it'll be a bit weedy. I would recommend one of these: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=24764

Your writeup at the bottom is very worrying. Lipo batteries can very easily go up in smoke and/or fire if not used properly, and you're lucky that you only damaged your receiver and not, say, your face or your house. Please be more careful.

You don't need two separate batteries. As I described earlier, there are multiple ways to lower the voltage for other components, or even just to get components which don't need the voltage lowered in the first place. The servo I linked above will work without regulation.

My main concern though is that everything I've just written is fairly easily found with some research. You've obviously done a bit since you've bought some good motors and wheels and know roughly what components you need, but it feels like you've just thrown money at the rest of the components without any idea of what you're actually looking for, and you've endangered yourself in doing so. Please do some more research and ask some more questions before progressing any further. Post a full parts list and have it verified that you're not doing anything obviously wrong (as you have done above) before randomly plugging things in to one another.

Best of luck.

[daveimi]

Get on the ant forum and buy a kit, hey presto...