Team DD Robots

[gizz]

Reviving this old thread as bot building has become of interest for me again, esp with the return of robot wars. Bot building is kinda dead in sweden, but hopefully can get back on its feet with some aid from the television.
Anyhow I've made some progress on my first beetle.I did learn some mistakes from my Ant which i tried getting to be perfect even though it was my first bot. Hence i dialed down and made this a bit less complicated and not having to scrap and rebuild it over and over.
The design i wanted was to hace protected wheels, invertible and somewhat flat wedge.
I have the regular 1000rpm motors, 3s 850mah Lipo, 40mm wheels and an old sabretooth 2x10 so i chuck it in there. 5mm hpde sides and 2mm alu for baseplate and bulkheads. everything hold together using m3 bolds and lokc nuts. its hack sawed and hand drilled so I know its not straight and clean
My ambition was to attach 15mm hdpe sides, some 2mm angled mild steel at the back (hard time getting hold of hardox cutoffs here) and probably some mild steel wedge at the front. along with either hdpe or polycarb top as iI have that lying around.
at 760g here's where it is atm:

[daveimi]

That's awesome, my beetle runs a Sabertooth as well. Where did you get your wheels from?

[gizz]

cool, running a 2x10 or 2x5 sabertooth? how is your bot handling with that esc?
the wheels are from hobbyking, bought 2 different types of lightweight wheens, but I'm trying out these ones first

[daveimi]

Hiya! My Sabertooth is a 2 x 12A, it was originally bought to power the featherweights I was fighting with at the time. I got into beetles as they're a bit cheaper and there's been loads of events for them. I'm always trying to save some cash if I can, so just decided to stick the Sabertooth in to see how it went. A nice by-product is that is gives the motors plenty of current so the robot will easily out-push most things in the weight class. The motors are lower geared than those of most other people (don't tell anyone that's my trade secret lol), and when that was coupled with the beefy Sabertooth and a nice lipo it was awesome. I've been using Pololu hubs and wheels that I've modified to toughen them up and they've been great. I find decent wheels are the hardest part to source or make on a robot.

I find the Sabertooth can be twitchy when cornering, the forward and back response is a lot smoother than the side to side spins. I've learnt to compensate by now, but in the heat of a fight when I get a bit panicky it can be hard. For help have a look at Unmakerbots driving style. I've learnt to mimick it and it works soooooo well...

[gizz]

Sounds good there mate.
I also ordered the sabertooth gor my first FW project. But have gotten a 2x25 after that and even a couple of tz85's lately. Hence putting it in the beetle which like you said is a really nice class in between ants and fw!
Im at a bit of a stand still with the armor, but can hopefully get it cut soon for some more progress. Working out the removable link next in the meantime.

[gizz]

Back panel welded, just need some straightening up.
what awg wire should i run on my beetle motors? Eill 20 suffice or should i use 18?

[daveimi]

Yeah that sounds about right..