Trax (My First Combat Robot)

[daliad100]

Well cheap drill batteries are typically 1000mah so two in parallel should do nicely.

[team_orr]

use the drill motors

[Max]

Hi again,
I spent all day yesterday working on the frame and armour of my robot and got most of the major welding done, the result of all this work was an industrial strengh box! Pictures of my box are on this website:
http://fightingrobotpics.webs.com/
It is very heavy but hopefully because i don't have a active weapon it will stay in the weight range. The speed controlers arrived yesterday but I still have to go to the post office to pick them up as there was £25 import tax to pay for it, and I am still waiting for the other wiper motor (apparently it is hard to get hold of the right one). I am coming to the rr event at the O2 tommorow so hope to see what some other robots are like. The main things I have left to do are make the tracks and tensioning mechanism and set up and fit all the electronics. By the way how to you guys connect your wires to the motors,battries,etc., do you just solder them or do you use dean/anderson connectors?
Thanks,
Max

[harry hills]

deans are probably the way to go, i like to use tamiya plugs but they are not as good

[joey_picus]

Welcome to the forums, looks like a very nice design you've got there

Speaking as someone who has built tracked robots in the past, the layout does look a bit concerning to me I have to say - the robot looks very narrow in relation to the length of the tracks and I would personally have made it wider, so less of the track has to turn sideways when you're turning...something I read on the old Pain/Judge Mech site (which unfortunately seems to be down at the moment) is that the length of the robot should be, at most, no more than one and a half times the width, otherwise you're draining a lot of power just to turn and it'll be quite slow (and the tracks will be susceptible to coming off - how do you plan to make sure they stay on the drive wheels?)

Really the wider the robot is, the easier it will be to turn quickly while keeping the tracks on, and although I'd have to see it in action to be sure I can foresee one or two problems with the current dimensions I'm afraid. The very best of luck with it though, I love tracks and will be following this with interest as I'd love to do a tracked feather myself someday

[swanaldo]

Trax is long time gone. I do still have the tracks but i cant really see me building another. Your welcome to the name no worries.

[Max]

Thanks for letting me use the name, just a quick update
I am back at school now and am waiting for a chance to finish off the welding, but I have just been told by the garage who are trying to get me another wiper motor that it may be better to get a electric window motor, I am sure I have heard of them being used before and was wondering which type people think will be better? And what are the differences between them?
Thanks
Max

[harry hills]

well they are both useless and a bit out dated

[mattsdragons]

if you want to go down that route then by all means do it. but, the £10 argos value drill motors would do a better job. beauty 2 (which has won the european championships, correct me if im wrong) uses the argos drill motors

[typhoon_driver]

around 80 to 90 percent of featherweights use drills