Skipdiving Robotics

[daveimi]

Planning on trying a bulk headed wooden chassis with metal outer skin to see how it holds up. There's a lot more to go on like wheel guards, loads more bulk heading and stuff. I've been at it a few weeks trying different ideas and this looked about right so got excited and went and dug out the motors and batteries and an off-cut to see what it would look like

[daveimi]

Erm the other robots weren't really working out, the motors were naff, the 1200mah batteries were giving up too quick, the ally angle bends to quick. The only good bits were base and scoop so stuck with them. Fed up of the Rag N Bone name so calling new robot ruSt. It has a new battery and new drill motors, fresh sabertooth and is as massively simple as I can make a robot. Asside from electronics everything on this is recycled, down to the bolts. It looks rubbish and simple and it is. Hopefully see you at Doncaster on 5th October.

[daveimi]

Started building an ant! Got the running gear going yesterday and bought some scales today! Hopefully start building tonight!

[SamO]

Looks good, just thinking, your battery and receiver are quite big and probably weigh quite a bit. There are a lot of other, lighter options available:

I use this receiver in Mini E: http://www.deltang.co.uk/rx36-2.jpg
But you could easily get away with something like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Orange-Ora...item3a95230743

In terms of battery's, there's a host of small, reasonably priced lipo's out there. Just thought this might be helpful

PS: Not sure if you've already know about it or not, but there's this forum as well that focus's mainly on AW's and a lot of help and advice can be found there!

[daveimi]

Thank you for the great advice

Yeah I've just joined the 101 forum and been having a read. The parts for the ant are a gear motor kit I bought from the same site. I know some of it is clunkier than other stuff out there, my plan was to get a good base and add/upgrade as I go.

[daveimi]

Got a sketch together for antweight

[daveimi]

Just wanted to vent thoughts, as I said I would be at events and haven't been. I've spent the summer getting baby number 2 here ok, and finishing a degree I've been doing part time. It's been a busy year and summer, but baby is here and I got a 2-1 FTW. I've now turned my attention back to robots after half heartedly abandoning things for six months but I suppose that's how it goes sometimes.

On the robot front I've built a feather called ruSt which is literally waiting for a competition oop norf. I have ordered an ant kit and have some pictures above. I'm waiting for some more stuff and am going to have an ant up and running before long. I've also been having different attempts at a heavy, and so far nothing has been successful. I was on the verge of selling up and admitting that the heavy class just wasn't for me, when my dad came through and has sorted out a box section and angle frame for me. The heavy will still be crude, (I imagine an invertible brick) but will run ok and be up to weight. The heavyweight class is where I aspire to be, so I'm planning on getting an ant running for my 5 yr old, doing some bits with the feather, and concentrating over winter on the heavy to get it to events in the new year.

I have running gear, sla's, tx and rx and charging stuff all put to one side. I'm making a link and LED this week with a wiring harness and so will just need to get the ESC together although I have an idea of what I'm going to do with that. People will tell me it won't work so want to try it first before I announce it. Thank you for reading, and I appreciate all the help I've been getting and for the patience everyone has with me and my daft questions.

Dave

[SamO]

That ant design looks very interesting indeed! Like like like......

Anyway just checking you knew about the 4 inch box rule, kinda assumed you do but always best to check The rest of the plans for the feather and heavy also look very promising. Oh, and good luck with the baby

[daveimi]

Thanks! Yeah just wanted to build something a bit different! I'm planning a feather and heavy version if the ant works lol. I only clocked the 4 inch box rule at the last second lol nearly ended up with the world's biggest antweight I joined the ant forum and have been having a read to get a feel for how they go together and stuff.

Thank you for the kind words with everything else

[daveimi]

First attempt at an Ant!









Quick vid of it driving round the couch!

[harry hills]

Better than my first (and some of my recent) antweights

[daveimi]

haha thanks

[daveimi]

I've become a bit obsessed recently on the idea of a wooden heavyweight. I have 16 tons of ply and 2x2 / door frame that seems to be on a never ending supply. I have a half baked box section frame as well. Over the last 18 months I'd accumulated wheel chair running gear, batteries and an rx/tx, all I really needed was a speedo. So when deciding to call it a day with a heavy a load of family said I should give my wooden heavy idea a go. If it got mashed up at least I'd not really lost anything as I'd been planning to give the stuff away anyway. All it owes me is £50 for a pair of wheel chair motors and around £40 for the SLA's and their charger.

This got me to thinking about how to make a chassis strong enough, and if a robot were to be made entirely of wood you'd have to be really careful with the design. It would need metal skid plates and maybe bits of steel sheet as armour, but I'm about 60% convinced it will work. So I've made about 12 wooden chassis up to now and finally have something I can jump on and chuck about. The idea is pretty much just an invertable brick as it's all I can really build, I am toying with the idea of getting someone like Mario to weld me up a scoop. If this doesn't work I have money to start water jetting and getting stuff welded etc., but really wanted to see if I could get this to work. So, here is my wooden chassis, I will populate it with bits tonight and see if I can get another picture up.

[maddox10]

If a DeHaviland Mosquito could do what it did made from wood, a robot can do the job too.

But I would look up Dr wallis and geodesic design.

[Gabe01]

This is a good way or working up to a metal heavy. My thoughts are, if you're going to build a brick then it needs a scoop. This could be fabricated in wood and then you could bolt on metal plates! The its heavy we built was a cobbled together item, but we made it run and it got on the show. it was a bit crap, but the point is it was loads of fun.