Getting started, what do I need?

[gizz]

OK that sounds nice, what AH would i aprox need if i go for SLA batteries?

Depending on your drive and weapins.
I would suggest NOT to go below 2.8amp. You may get away with 2.1amp depending on your drive and setup etc, but 2.8amp is the average and safest.

Mr Stu

[geoff]

How do you guys get away with using so little power in your machines? Scorpion Jr. with the new upgrades now needs at least 6Ah worth of NiMH just to see it through a 4 min. battle and even then its touch and go!:sad:

Ahh but, Sir Chairman, Sir (Congrats btw), most people dont have a kin nasty great disc, spinning at n rpm on the back, do they?

Bob.

[maddox]

Geof, TAN used 8Ah, and now 9Ah SLA, are you sure the electrics in Scorpion Jr are ok? No short cirquits anywere?

Thanks for all the replies, sorry Ive not acknowledged the responders before now, but were just in the proccess of selling our house, and its gone a bit mental, so Ive not been online for a bit. In reference to Geoffs comments re safety, how do you guys go about testing out your bots? Obviously drive testing isnt too major an issue with feathers, but what about weapons testing? I dont think Ill be going for a spinner myself (at least not yet), but your comments and advice are certainly encouraging, so once the move is out of the way, Ill be putting some effort into putting a chassis together. Thanks again for taking the time to reply

regards

Graham

Ill be perfectly honest, I go out from the garage and hide behind a sheet of poly and start smashing things up. We dont live on a built up street tho, so I have quite large area of drive that i can play on. The more standard solution is to boldly drive out and find a good flat, quiet parking lot or someother good flat space. As long as there arnt any people around, youre onto a winner.

Ok, I have been thinking of using 2 fanmotors from personal cars as drives and those Electrolise speedcontrollers and I am wondering on how much Ah you think a good SLA batteri that will need? Im not planning on using any weapons yet as it will be my second robot, I´ll build an Ant first when i get the R/C

The fan motors use a lot of juice and are quite heavy, plus i think theyre times slightly, which means theyre designed to spin faster in one direction that the other. This is less than ideal as im sure you can appreciate. I would be tempted to go for something like 4 drill motors 9one on each wheel) for a decent pushy rambot. SLAs? as large as you can fit in the design and weight. Bigger batts mean not only longer run times but faster acceleration and faster turns. So go for ones as large as you can get.

the only problem i found with SLAs, is that if you go very large, you may end up having to build your robot around your batteries! And then if you do ever upgrade you have this HUGE space of nothing, and i personaly hate thatm, i live likkle sweet compactor bots, lol.

Oh and by the way, how can you find out from any normal shop what discharge rate batteries have, because the shops by me know f**k all, they cant tell the difference between NiCads and Ni-Mhs lol

Grant