To Build or Not To Build - That is the Question!

[armadrillo]

Thanks for all your comments. Its been good to hear your thoughts.

After reading through i dont think im quite ready to give up yet!
Thanks for your comment Geoff about the white board events. If that is the attitude of most teams then i dont think ive got too much to worry about.
Geoff - (Enter it into a competition fight however.... We will treat it exactly the same as any other machine... As long as it still moves, it is a threat to our machine, and considered a valid target that will be dealt with until it is no longer a threat, or it surrenders!). I wouldnt expect anything different from a competition fight and would try to give as good as i got! Am thinking about the UK Champs in August if i can get to some events beforehand.

Thanks all. Hopefully Zero should be at an event by the summer.

I think that my feather DB5 has suffered most at the hands of Evilution, with one scrapped chassis and one bent one. But John was kind enough to help hammer it back into shape, Glen most roboteers will try as much as possible to help fix any damage they cause past the cosmetic.

[james...venom]

The spinner guys like geoff, ed and the big nipper boys are great guys though. If you get drawn against them, they dont make you feel presurized into haveing to fight their nasty spinners, they understand the work involved in building these machines. Its easy to say no thanks and you dont feel as though you have to swollow your pride either. Ive had to do this before with Venom as 2 years of work and over £1k isnt worth the giant risk sometimes, especially when i need the machine for work lol. thats why i am makeing my new machine so i can enjoy the competitive side of robot combat again.

[armadrillo]

Well, all that geeing up has got me going.

Just started to cut and shut the robot to reduce the weight. As i said in an earlier post, somehow, the robot weighs 12.6kg WITHOUT batteries. Doh! Bit strange as i weighed everthing as i went along. Ive worked out if i change the wheels (-500g), drill the holes out bigger on the chassis (-250g) and do some other bits and bobs i should be able to get under weight.

Hoping to sort the batteries from my drills for next week then i can finish the wiring quite soon.

Feel like ive got a second wind!!

I have always fancied building a robot if only the series had started now rather then ended i may have got there. i am currently working on a smallish robot and cheap too its very simple just 2 motors, 2 servos the reciever and aas i was thinking of building the chasis/armour out of circuit board as this is fairly light but strong. my design a pivitable wedge (so it can swing when the robot is inverted)made out of steel food cans. Its barely started but i am sure it will prevail althiough with my a levels underway and university to follow it may be quite a bit of time before i complete it.

Good luck with the machine, keep us posted on you progress if you can.

Just a little pointer though that circuit board material isnt the kind of material most suited to weight classes beyond antweights/super-antweights. Though there are many PCB materials around, they are very much suited to electronic circuitry as opposed to structural support.

[typhoon_driver]

alex, if you are aiming to go larger than an antweight then I would recommend something a bit meatier than PCB material like Ewan says. If you are on a budget then you can use wood or steel. Nice and cheap and strong enough for a bigger bot.

[bulldoser]

well as i have said it is only a small robot so far maybe a kilo at most as i have none of the tools such as welders/grinders etc appart from a macano set!!! so i dont think i am going to go larger then that.

just noticed a post from glen above

am going to change my wheels with blue ones from james baker(if i remember rightly) when i get the chance

not me, james cooper by the sounds of it. i dont do wheels.

Yeah it is James Cooper. I looked back on my emails the day after.

I wasnt sure i got it right when i wrote it, hence the (if i remember rightly) .
Got the first right at least lol.