There are two problems with the basic ideas of robot building talks so far for me.
I dont drink, and I have special diet needs due to allergies.
This makes the dinner/discussion or a pub talk not realy feasible for me.
Just my input before it gets too developed.
I think I see what fluppet is saying here actually, not so much what motor, what battery as most roboteers-to-be know the basics. Its more a case of I have wheels this big, how do I best join them to the motor.
Am I right here fluppet?
This is something I at first didnt know either, and I learnt by attending events, and working in a machine shop. The best way to learn to to have something not work, as you say, its better it didnt work for someone else, and you learn about it from them.
Roger: if it helps, I dont drink either - although that I spend so much of my time in pubs is probably an indication that Im weird rather than that you should necessarily feel obliged (fizzy drinks in pubs are expensive, after all). I appreciate that dining constraints are awkward - although I suspect you can get away with bringing something with you to a pub (especially outdoors) more easily than an official restaurant, especially if there are a crowd of us making them money.
Not that I want to put you off lecturing instead!
James - pretty much, yes. Im expecting to get royally slaughtered with my first few robots, but reinventing the wheel while trying to iron out problems seems pointless (and expensive). Overengineer everything is all very well, but there are trade-offs, and people can tell me whats *really* strong enough, whats too heavy, whats impossible to repair once it breaks, and what just doesnt work. If Ive got an engineering problem, I can come up with *a* solution on my own, but if someone else has already field tested the possible solutions to see what works that knowledge is going to be more useful than any mental experiment I can do.
Plus of course the books I have which try to go into details are out of date; whats solid enough in a season 2 robot would be scrap metal today. Watching the Hypno DVD, its scary just how slowly the disk ran when it first appeared. Current knowledge of the state of the art matters a lot. If I have a robot which goes in against Typhoon2/Razer/WBC/Gravity/TaN/Storm2 I expect it to lose, but if I cant at least re-use most of the bits after Ive swept them out of the arena then Ive built it badly.
It used to be said drive it into a brick wall then fix what breaks; these days I suspect if you cant give your robot a fair whack from a sledgehammer you should plan to be taking most of it home in a Dyson.
Im not necessarily at the how do I fit this size wheel to this shaft stage (which might be a bit specific to an individual bot), but there are plenty of things which people have learnt which can be generally applied to lots of designs.
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Fluppet
If I have a robot which goes in against Typhoon2/Razer/WBC/Gravity/TaN/Storm2 I expect it to lose
A quick guide on how to beat....
typhoon 2, build storm 2
Razer, build Razer
WBC, build dead metal
Gravity, build a parachute
TAN, build sunblock
storm 2, build typhoon 2.
simple eh?
there is one unbeatable robot however, Napalm, it beats itself before you get chance to.
if you want to beat storm 2 build typhoon 2, and if you want to beat typhoon 2 build storm 2. How does that work then?
Joe Townsend
Harsh, but fair. :-) Is team Napalm still going? (Theyre local to me, so I should be supportive.)
Youve lost me on the sunscreen. (Other than that we should wear it, according to a popular beat combo.)
Ive got my pet theories on beating things (mostly posted elsewhere on this forum, in Typhoon2s case), but given that my first robot is unlikely to be the design Id build if I felt I knew what I was doing, losing is kind of a designed-in feature, and Ill settle for not trashed.
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Fluppet
Youre saying that to beat Typhoon 2 you build Storm 2, and to beat Storm 2 you build Typhoon 2.
Is it just me or is that a bit of a circular argument?
exactly.... its the immovable object meets unstopable force arguement.
in otherword a witty addaption of the chicken and egg quandry.
to make sure you do not get damaged by a TAN, use sunscreen.... ah, nevermind.
(mental note, do not become a comedian)
Eugh. I got the Storm/Typhoon2 circular reference (having decided it wasnt a spoiler :-) ) but the TaN thing is just painful.
Does this mean that TaN is particularly weak when Storm, Typhoon or Tornado are in the arena?
(Unless the LED is very bright, of course. Wow - back on topic!)
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Fluppet
lol.
from another direction, I saw TAN and storm 2 in the arena together at Brighton, excellent stuff.
It was very interesting to see the number of robots with activation lights too, didnt realize there were so many already.
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