FeatherWeight on a budget.

[PJ-27]

I have just found and ordered a £10 cordless drill from Argos. I figured building on a budget this was great! Charger, battery, motor and gearbox for a tenner!

I have ordered 2 and waiting for them to come, I'll let anyone else building on a budget whether they were worth it. In mean time has anyone else had experience of this particular drill in a robot?

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/p ... +DRILL.htm

Anyone else got any building on a budget tips?

PJ

[typhoon_driver]

Re: FeatherWeight on a budget.

ask in the wanted section for section hand parts. You will find most people have old electronize speedos, old radio gear or old chassis kicking around that are no longer being used which are still just as good if not a little battle worn as new. Usually you will find they cost around 40 to 50 % of the price brand new so its well worth it when starting out.

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: FeatherWeight on a budget.

I have ordered 2 and waiting for them to come, I'll let anyone else building on a budget whether they were worth it. In mean time has anyone else had experience of this particular drill in a robot?

They should be worth it, as the motor/gearbox inside it is likely to be very similar to the motor/gearboxes in a lot of other low-priced cordless drills which have been used several times in many robots with high levels of success.

Some people seem to be unfortunate in the sense that drill motors don't tend to be reliable for them and they go through several replacements. It could be the way they are mounting them etc or it could just be that for whatever reason, their robot doesn't like drill motors. But cases like these are significantly less than cases where people have had success with drill motors.

I tend to use drill motors because they are light, cheap, moderately fast and come pretty much ready-made. I also have my own preferred way of mounting them (that is low-cost for working on a budget) that seems to work well. Thanks to Robo Challenge, attaching wheels to them is a doddle too.

Basically they are a good all-in-one option for drive motors. You could go for more powerful motors, make your own transmission system and have an extremely powerful and (probably) fast drive system, but for anyone who doesn't have the budget or facilities to make something like that, these are ideal.

[PJ-27]

Re: FeatherWeight on a budget.

What is your preferred way of mounting them? If you don't mind my asking...

I will check out the for sale section, as I need 2 speed controllers and I'm working on a very tight budget. Our team motto is to salvage as much as we can to make our robot and spend as little as possible, obviously in some cases we will have to spend (ie, getting 2 identical motors, gear boxes, chargers and batteries).

Thanks,

ps. I'll put a request in the sale section to see who is selling what.

[Danjr1]

Re: FeatherWeight on a budget.

I'm using the Argos drills as well. It's Same method as any other drill with regards to disassembly isn't it?

[PJ-27]

Re: FeatherWeight on a budget.

I'm using this guide;

http://www.robowars.org/guides/guides-d ... cking.html

Found it somewhere on the forum......

Never used a drill for something other than drilling before!

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: FeatherWeight on a budget.

What is your preferred way of mounting them? If you don't mind my asking...

It is similar to the Robo Challenge mounts in the sense that I support the motor at the gearbox end. Basically, I tend to use a bulkhead design in my robots so I cut the back-to-back-D shape of the front of the gearbox out of whatever material I'm using for my bulkheads (usually some form of plastic). Usually the depth of the gearbox at that part is 20mm so my bulkhead material either has to be 20mm thick, or if it is thinner, I have to cut the same shape out of a thinner piece of material and use it as a spacer. I then bolt the whole motor in place using the mounting plate supplied with the drill (this is a round black plate, maybe around the 50mm diameter mark with two holes in it that you will see when you remove the chuck from the drill. It holds on the torque ring and you need to unscrew it in order to remove the torque assembly)

I should probably get some decent pictures up of what I mean because I feel I don't quite explain it as clearly as it could be. Essentially though, it is a pretty quick process and I've never had a problem with drill motors mounted in this fashion.

[PJ-27]

Re: FeatherWeight on a budget.

Thanks for the detailed explanation! Some photos would be great.

[psycho_fling]

Re: FeatherWeight on a budget.

there is a picture already up Jamie shows some detail

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c367/ ... uild22.jpg

alex

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: FeatherWeight on a budget.

Well if that picture helps then good
I'll probably have to disassemble the robot at some point before the upcoming champs just to go over everything so I'll try to take some step-by-step photos then. What I should add actually is that, in the Drumroll 2 build - so the picture above, I didn't bother cutting the back-to-back D shape to match the gearbox. Instead I just cut a 30mm x 25mm rectangle in the material as this is overall width and height of the gearbox and once the round plate is screwed on it still provides a sturdy enough mount. Once you get your hands on your drills and take them apart, you'll probably understand these ramblings more easily

[PJ-27]

Re: FeatherWeight on a budget.

Yeh I plan on taking them apart and then re-reading everything you said!

Cheers,

[Leonardomayo]

Re: FeatherWeight on a budget.

Have you taken them apart/ruined them yet? Are they any good? I'm thinking of buying a couple for a featherweight I want to make.

[PJ-27]

Re: FeatherWeight on a budget.

From what I can tell the insides are just like any other drill, although at 12v they are at the lower end of most drill ratings. We plan on over volting them to 24v though. I'll post again when they are in the bot and running.

[beast]

Re: FeatherWeight on a budget.

We plan on over volting them to 24v

i personaly would only go max of 14.7v they might burn out ar 24v

[PJ-27]

Re: FeatherWeight on a budget.

I have read both ways, overvolt to twice as much and 1.5, think ill start it at 18 and see how that goes. I figured it'll just be a lot of start stop for 3mins, so the motors will infact have very little travel. Although I could be wrong in my thesis....

In terms of charging, I currently have two 12v chargers, for each 12v battery, will using the same charger for my made up 18v (same cells) be alright?