I'm Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

[stu]

Hiya Kevin,

Nicads will be better in a feather. More current, less weight, faster charging, take up less space. You connect the batteries to the Speed COntrollers, and the speed controllers will provide power to the motors.

Have a read on stuff like this here matey, it will all make sense. Well most of it anyway.
http://www.stupoo2000.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/teamkat/technical.htmhttp://www.stupoo2000.pwp.blueyonder.../technical.htm

Mr Stu

[kevin]

Thanks Stu,

BTW I added you on my msn.

I think I will just build a wooden one just to see if everything works. But that wont be for a couple of years. I need to finish school and do university.

How long did it take you people to build your first feather?

All of ours have took about a couple of weeks. It depends on what skills/knowledge you already have and what design/weapon your going with. Some feathers have been built in a few days some have taken years!

Have you seen the Zeobots? http://www.technobots.co.uk/contents/en-uk/d608.htmlhttp://www.technobots.co.uk/contents/en-uk/d608.html i dont know what your budget is, but these seem similar to your original ideas, then with any extra weight you can bolt more armour on.

alan
http://www.blazerbotics.co.ukwww.blazerbotics.co.uk

[kevin]

Thanks for the links. I was thinking of using 5mm ali around.

Another design idea I had is a Stinger/Blade Runner (from Battlebots) design where I just spin around with spikes on a tail.

i made my first one a thwacker, was a great learning curve and its still the australian no 1 ranked robot despite having been retired for almost 3 events hehe.

your first robot need not be a tapped together, welded up master piece. take speed hump or tread for example. they use an old tire and some nylon ag pipe, kiddy cars and drill motors and old drill nicads and they never seem to break down, they always do well, they cost bugger all and they are (often) build literally the night before the event.

http://www.robowars.org/forum/album_pic.php?pic_id=964&sid=d517a9d3ec16840b7f63e 38d8a7cf706http://www.robowars.org/forum/album_...3ec16840b7f63e 38d8a7cf706

http://www.robowars.org/forum/album_pic.php?pic_id=966&sid=d517a9d3ec16840b7f63e 38d8a7cf706http://www.robowars.org/forum/album_...3ec16840b7f63e 38d8a7cf706

i think the best advice anyone could give a new builder is to just go out and build anything you can, practice makes perfect..

[kevin]

Or I could buy one of those combat Zeobot kits. Buying that guarentees that my first robot wont be a piece of ......... Have those combat Zeo bots been tried in battle before?

Paul cooper has the 8wd zeobot fighting with a custom shell and does very good. photo here: http://www.teammad.co.uk/flatpack.JPGwww.teammad.co.uk/flatpack.JPG

[kevin]

Just to get everyones opinion one last time, what sounds like the best design for a first time robot?

-A Firestorm type
-A Storm 2 type
-A Stinger type

A Stinger style bot itself would be very hard for a first time builder in my opinion. However a thwackbot like Cobra would be a good start. Unless you have experience in pneumatics to acheive a Firestorm design, Id go for the Storm 2 style design.
Im building a rambot like Storm 2 at the moment because I found it was the most acheiveable design to start off with considering my budget, tools and experience. The choice is yours to choose which design you think will win and is also buildable for you.

Hope thats some sort of help!