Skipdiving Robotics

[harry hills]

1.5kg here, 1.36kg (3lb) in US and Oz

[daveimi]

Ok...the erm website category says 1.36something...should I message them to change it? Or is 1.5kg being allowed as a round number?

[Revsmin]

There was a vote at the FRA general meeting last year where it was unanimously decided that the beetleweight limit be officially moved up to 1.5kg. The rules page just hasn't been updated yet.

[harry hills]

It wasn't unanimous but it was a heavy majority.

[Revsmin]

If so I don't remember seeing a single vote against the change, but then again it was a year ago and my memory ain't great.

[daveimi]

Oh cool thanks for the info. Made some progress and dusted off the trusty Sabertooth. Also treated myself to a new wheelie box after the wheels fell off the other last month.

[mrsam]

Welcome to the world of Beetleweights! such a fun little weight class, one thing i will say though, if you're planning on using Alu angle like that try and make it as thick and as high a grade you can. Lynx at half throttle could slice straight through the cheese grade 3mm stuff, if you go onto Ebay you can find 6082 angle for peanuts and it'll stand up to a bit more.

It looks Huaaggeee BTW, is it just the picture? what are the dimensions?

[Ellis]

Ooooorr... you could use Ranglebox threaded bar.

Shamless plug, yes, but it really is made for exactly this purpose! All you need to do is drill holes in your plastics, no nuts and washers or tapping threads in brackets.

[daveimi]

It's 25cm wide and 20cm long I struggled to parse measurements from the existing build diaries so decided to make it up as I went along

And Ellis I am about to begin a lifelong relationship with Rangle Box lol. It's sites like that that make robot building possible for people like me that use basic handtools and just enough know-how to be dangerous!

[daveimi]

Well been busy down here at the kitchen step. Muchos progressos. Body is ready to go, drive motors turned up and am just about to order hub adapters after i just bought the wrong ones. Also found a brand new servo i didn't know about called an MG90s which im going to put on the robot, maybe a stupid looking hammer or just a sign that pops up. Anyway, decided it needed incorporating somehow. It's rated 1.8kg/cm so dont think it will have the grunt to be a lifter motor. Wheels are here and battery is here, starting to think a 12v 1.6ahr nimh pack is over kill. It's flaming heavy anyway. Really looking forward to going on the 28th now. Also bought some dodgy looking jst connectors to make a removable link from as trying to make robot building as stress free as possible. Thought I would put a picture up of my parts pile

[harry hills]

Yeah that servo is a on the small side for even an antweight.

[mrsam]

Glad to hear you're going on the 28th, I'll be there with the new Lynx. As Harry said the servo is probably too small for a lifter, look for something with amuch bigger lifting capacity . Also the JST connectors will be fine for a link, just make sure you cut the wires so they're long enough to form a loop when put together. If you want I have a spare 1000mah 3s lipo you can borrow, it's a nano tech pack that doesn't really have the grunt for a robot like Lynx, would work fine in yours though so I'll bring it with me just in case.

[daveimi]

That's really nice of you thanks. The plan originally was to have a battery that would run all day on a charge lol. It's cost me in weight, but I'm not really up to having an active weapon first time round so thought the capacity would do nicely with my small motors. It was the smallest pack I could get with a tamiya connector that would go straight on my cheap charger lol. It's hard to explain but I try to re-use and recycle everything as much as possible.

[mrsam]

No worries, the connector on the battery is a Deans and I don't have a tamiya adapter for my charger but I'll bring some spare Deans with me and if you want to try the lipo we can change the connector in your machine. I understand the re use and recycle thing especially if you're on a budget, it's nice to see a machine that is built for fun rather than to destroy everything.

[daveimi]

Yeah erm well I'm a server technician and design computer networks in the day job so the electrics of the robots take me ten mins to chuck together. So that side always goes great, but I've never even done diy, never mind fabricate robots. I can jigsaw, angle grind and drill and bolt, and have just sort of accepted that without being a fabricator/cnc etc. it's unlikely that I will ever be able to build something at the higher levels. The other big thing is that I have Aspergers so I've also got this weirdly narrow skill set for electronics and computers that's god given, and really struggle picking up anything outside of that. I've built up a relationship with a local fabrication place that built my heavy, which is great whilst you keep lining their pockets. I think if the whole thing became popular at a proffesional level I could understand the thousands people spend. But being a bit of a chav-hippy I quite like recycling house hold objects and electrics. My first robot was wired with a roll of three core and made of chopping board and no one caught on. I'm also working on a solar powered robot I'm just in the process of ruggedising the panel. Life is amazing if you keep your tool bag close and arm yasen with a bit of no-how lol.

Thank you for everything with the battery, I'm a bit scared of the lipo stuff I don't really understand the C's and 2.2's etc. Volts and amps I'm alright with lol.

I will always just build for fun, I've been at it two years and am yet to win a fight!!