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

[armadrillo]

I€™ve been involved in Robot Combat since forming a teams of 5 people to design and build our first robot to enter it into Series 4 of robot wars. We failed to get onto the show until series 6 when we had evolved the robot to build Armadrillo. The robot was funded by us all contributing £10 per month into the kitty by purchase all the parts. After getting on tv (our perceived goal), we build another and better robot, for series 7. We failed to qualify thanks to a some bad driving and a sweet hit from Thor. After the demise of Robot wars the team went its own we and the Robot is now gathering dust after one fight with only superficial damage.

I then joined up with Henry Ryan (aka Major Tom fame) and we went to Brighton 2004. We were inspired to start building feather weights as we saw this a cheaper and more sustainable way the come to the many live events being staged by Jonno, Ed and others. I started building my feather Zero pretty much straight away with little help from anyone and funding it myself aiming to build a competitive robot with the tightest budget possible. I managed to get a lot of material from work, get my design properly drawn out and professionally welding for nothing.

After taking the finished chassis weapon and drive to brighton 2005, I have progressed very little. This is for 2 reasons.
1. I still need to purchase suitable batteries and a charger. For various reasons I have not had the finances to do so.
2. But what I think is more important. It has taken 2 years to get to this point. With my limited resources I am not keen to take the final step and get the batteries and charger taking the total spend of the Robot to about £500 approx. Having looked around and seeing some of the featherweights being built now with 3 motors powering a Hardox disc I don€™t want to put 2 years of work and £500 into the arena to then not have the resources to repair and maintain the robot past 2 or 3 fights.

I don€™t have the finances to buy Ti or Hardox that would give me adequate protection to sustain a lot of damage. I do not see that my robot would be strong enough and competitive. Having built a feather with a drum weapon it feels hypocritical to want to do damage but not receive any.

I still have a great passion for Robot Building and combat and love the social side of the live events and before that Robot Wars.
Is it worth me carrying on and finishing Zero? I€™m not sure at this point.

Sorry for the long post. I needed to get this off my chest and maybe get some views from people in the community.

Thanks Glen

You dont have to fight the humongous spinners.
Thats why RR, our main event organizer, has the white board fights.

Now, on resources and material. Hardox for example is quite cheap compared to Ti or even polycarbonate. And for batteries/charger Its all in what you want to build and achive.

I spend more than £2000 last year on robot wars, and I have only an ant, not even build by myself. But am getting a complete workshop. What gives me the opportunity to build better parts.

And this is another way of doing RW. Dont start a team, but search for a team what can use you to build better machines without adding loads of cash.

I myself just go to events and offer my expertise on certain technologies.

Hardox is about the cheapest armour you can get (unless you have a sponsor). It does weigh a fair bit though.

Dont give up now either. Aim for an event a few months down the road and keep on building to compete in that event.

I bought my featherweights batteries off ebay. 2 6v 3300mAh packs and 2 chargers cost £40 (I bought 6 packs so the total cost came to around £80).

[craig_anto]

i cant offer any advice as i dont see my self as qualified, however if you around for a few events robot or no robot im sure a few white board battles would see you willing to throw anything in the arena, the guys on the circuit are some of the best guys ull find, with a few contacts as well ull have a better i dea where to go for cheap parts and what does an doesnt work

[psychostorm]

May I add my tuppence?

When I was back in Comprehensive(or High)school, The Morgue was being built in the back of my technology classroom. I was in awe of it and promptly went about finding about how I could help. That lead to me to the S4 crowd and gave me a chance to look around. Naturally I gave a good eye to the pits and dreamed of being there.

Time went on, the MORGs came and went. It was only during TG 2003 (Football/Sumo) did I ever get a chance to be in the pits area. Once again I was inspired. From that point on I was determined to make a competitive machine.

Then Robot Wars fell. The robot fell into retirement and there were no-one going to events from Swansea, but I continued to gather parts.

With no mechanical expertise of my own it was a steep learning curve and my build was (and still is)a slow one. My definition of a competitive machine dropped from seed ratings to one that turned up to an event.

Here I am, still building and 100 miles to go before I even start my journey to an event. Im determined to get to one, no matter what and I dont care what Geoff does to my machine when I do get there, because it will have been worth it.

If you want my advice, dont fret about your machine not being seeding spec machine and go. Just chuck anything together that will fit in the weight limit and enjoy yourself. Its exactly what I intend on doing.

Ps. Gary, what exactly did you put into Ebay search to end up with those batteries???

[aliboy]

I have had doubts about building a robot a getting it mauled to pieces but i have since over come them . My sponsor helped me build my robot piece by piece and with that i feel i have confidence that my robot can stand up to the damage inflicted from other robots .
I also had no technical expertise up until recently . I think if you spend your money on the robot to make it go eg speedo batts etc and harldy put anywork into the chassi of the robot you are bound to fail . In most case its not what you use its how you use it.

99% of the time, sustained damage looks a lot worse then it really is. As long as you have a good frame, and your electronics tucked away, preferably shockmounted, the odds of your robot being damaged beyond repair are minimal.

I should know, thanks to Kan-opener and THz ive been in that situation twice, and my total damages never amounted to more then 50 pounds worth of steel and aluminium. And my robots where a mess after the fights. But nothing a little elbowgrease cant handle.

[armadrillo]

Ok. Thanks for your comments so far.

Gary - When you say Hardox is Cheaper and heavier what are the differences? My chassis is built from 2mm 15mm x 15mm stainless steal box section with 3mm Ali in between (see profile pic). Also what will i need for batteries and a charger? Ive got 2 x 12v drill motors for the drive and 1 12v drill motor for the weapon.

Ive had the drive working using a small batt from the old heavy and it works fine using 2 x 15a electronize and mixer.

Somehow during the build i have gone over weight and it currently weighs 12.6kg with out batteries. I am going to change my wheels with blue ones from james baker(if i remember rightly) when i get the chance. This should save 0.5 kg

Alistair - i designed the robot myself and just had it drawn to scale at work so that i knew exactly the lengths i needed to cut to get the chassis welded. Having no welding skills myself i assisted a friend at work to weld the chassis. Ever other part of the robot has been done due myself.

Ceri, email sent about batts.

[babeth]

Do not underestimate the power of this forum and live events when it comes to finding cheap parts or interesting sales. You may also find people willing to help you out.

An example (If I may...):
Our living room is getting a reputation in Belgium/the Netherlands. We simply invite roboteers to come and use our tools/machines that have set up shop in what used to be the living room of the house. The roboteers usually stay for the weekend and we have lots of fun. Mario is good at finding affordable materials and we have some reasonable suppliers in the neighbourhood (one paintball-shop recently opened just 3 streets from here and they have the right kind of bottles ! That alone saves us a 3-hour trip to our old supplier).

Whether to stay in the game and risk getting your robot damaged beyond repair or finances, it is still your decision. But please understand that there are many many more people in the same situation as you. The reason why people have not seen us on live events the past year is because we simply didnt have the money to come over. Or even a working robot... Many roboteers are scraping together what they can, most of them are students, notoriously short on money anyway. And just like safety comes in numbers you could be lucky to team up with other people and pool your resources.

What it comes down to is this: do you go for the fun, the challenge and the exitement, or do you go for the competition, or do you see it purely in financial matters ? Can you afford it now or should you wait until your situation has improved instead of quitting altogether ?