(BW)TornBot - Team TornTech

[mark_m]

Hi Tom,

I'm part of Hitchin Hackspace, it'd be great to see you down there and talk robots :-)

The 1000rpm motors you've selected should be fine with those wheels. My beetles all use four of those motors for drive with 55mm wheels and they've all had really good speed and pushing power. If you're only going to have two drive motors, like many beetles are, then you may find the acceleration is a bit slow but the top speed will still be there. That's probably why people are suggesting smaller wheels.
I use 3d printed hubs with my tyres. They've very lightweight but not really robust enough for combat. For a first bot, the ones you've selected should be good: easy and strong.
I also use the botbitz ESCs. they're some of the smallest available and actually fairly cheap on the scale of things. The Dimension Engineering speed controllers used to be an alternative but they're £45 each for an equivalent controller! There's also the VEX motor controllers: http://www.vexrobotics.com/276-2193.html They're much cheaper but lower voltage and lower current, you'll need to test or calculate if they'd be suitable for your drive setup.
Brushless isn't really used for lower cost drive systems, its because its lighter/smaller for the same power. They usually need slightly more gearing than an equivalent brushed setup as the motors are faster, so a common approach is to transplant a brushless motor onto a 500rpm gearbox. I think Pinski1's described his setup in another thread.

cheers

Mark

[TornTech]

Hi Tom,

I'm part of Hitchin Hackspace, it'd be great to see you down there and talk robots :-)

Nice. I am hoping to get down there. Hopefully this coming Monday. Get over the awkwardness of being the new guy and not knowing anyone lol

The 1000rpm motors you've selected should be fine with those wheels. My beetles all use four of those motors for drive with 55mm wheels and they've all had really good speed and pushing power.

glad to hear there are others using these, do you find it better driving all 4 wheels with their own motor instead of 2 motors driving a pair of wheels each side?[/QUOTE]

I use 3d printed hubs with my tyres. They've very lightweight but not really robust enough for combat. For a first bot, the ones you've selected should be good: easy and strong.

I like the pricing and the variety on offer with the RC car wheels. that and i get get a few sizes and experiment without having to mess about with different hubs and connections.

I also use the botbitz ESCs. they're some of the smallest available and actually fairly cheap on the scale of things.

Sounds like these are the go to ESC for BW robots. will wait for them to come back into stock and pick some up.... I am presuming you are driving one motor per ESC? so 4x in total.

The Dimension Engineering speed controllers used to be an alternative but they're £45 each for an equivalent controller! There's also the VEX motor controllers: http://www.vexrobotics.com/276-2193.html They're much cheaper but lower voltage and lower current, you'll need to test or calculate if they'd be suitable for your drive setup.

Yeah, £45 X a potential of 4 makes their not V cost effective. the Vex ones seem nice but seem to top out 8.5V and 4 amps.... doesn't leave much headroom..

Brushless isn't really used for lower cost drive systems, its because its lighter/smaller for the same power. They usually need slightly more gearing than an equivalent brushed setup as the motors are faster, so a common approach is to transplant a brushless motor onto a 500rpm gearbox. I think Pinski1's described his setup in another thread.

Will leave brushless for an experiment down the road

I am tempted to maybe build my own dual H-Bridge motor controller though..... although i really should keep it as simple as i can to start with with off the shelf items!