Battery

[Gabe01]

Hi Guys

Having not built a robot since Robot Wars, I'm going to start again with a Feather. Can you post links for batteries? 18v, suggestions + help would be cool

[mattsdragons]

Re: Battery

what bot did you have on the old wars?

[Gabe01]

Re: Battery

Sabretooth. We made 3 different versions, out in the 1st round every time because it broke itself

[mattsdragons]

Re: Battery

ah, looks like it could have been great, shame about the luck. could it really do 70mph?

cant go wrong with vapex ni-mh batteries

[Gabe01]

Re: Battery

It was mental 17 hp fully automatic engine, with electric start, yes it did go that fast. On that occasion we had massive radio interference, I had no control of it throughout the whole match. Do you have a link for those battery's

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: Battery

Hi Gabriel,

I've spent the past couple of minutes wondering why your name rings a bell. I realise now that I bought a small linear actuator off you waaaay back in 2005! Okay, randomness aside...

A couple of good online stores for battery packs are:

Component Shop
http://www.component-shop.co.uk/

And Vapextech
http://www.vapextech.co.uk/acatalog/Hig ... eries.html

They're both suppliers of sub-c sized Nickel Metal Hydride packs, from 4.8V packs up to 12V packs (just connect a couple of packs up in series to get your desired 18V+).
These days, lithium-based batteries are quite popular, especially among featherweights, as they are capable of providing much-improved power output for their size and weight. But for getting back into the sport, I'd say Nimhs would be the best option. Have a look around some of the threads though and there will be some info on lithium packs, rules and suppliers.

Have you got a particular design in mind yet?

[mattsdragons]

Re: Battery

that sounds mental!

http://www.vapextech.co.uk/

[Gabe01]

Re: Battery

Brilliant ! Well I hope the actuator was put to good use. Sabretooth 4 has a large disc made out of steel in a dome shape. I have a chum who will make a miniature version for my feather. It will have a domed disc, with a interchangeable drill press weapon. Thanks for the links. I will start a build diary once I start on the cardboard mock up chassis

[Gabe01]

Re: Battery

Another question what size MAH should I choose. I will be running 2 x 14.4 motors and a couple of others to drive the disc and animate it

[harry hills]

Re: Battery

as big as you can afford, i use 4000mah to 4700mah in my feathers, most people use 3300mah or 3700mah

[Gabe01]

Re: Battery

So how long do they last ? 4700? . There are 5000's on there

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: Battery

What type of motors do you have in mind to spin the disc?
Drill motors will happily get through a 3-min fight with a battery around the 2000mAh mark, but it all depends on how current-hungry your weapon motors are.

Also, not sure if you know or not, but current regulations mean that you can only run FW spinners in a fully-enclosed arena (10mm thick polycarb walls and, I think, 6mm roof) and the only arena in existence at the moment that complies is the Robo Challenge arena. These guys only tend to host a couple of events a year, so with a spinner, you will be limited to the number of times that you can compete with it, unless you run it without spinning it or fit a different weapon at non-spinner events.
(James from Robo Challenge has said that they're working on one or two possible full-combat events in the spring-time)

[Gabe01]

Re: Battery

I could do with a pointer on a disc motor. I will build a spinner and then build the interchangeable drill press weapon. The plan is to build more than one and fight them in the barn, old school style. I have a idea I might build a mini chaos 2

[Max]

Re: Battery

For a spinning disk most people use speed 900 motors (£36 from Sussex model centre or Cornwall model boats), there are also some cheap (£12) motors like the speed 900 on eBay- they are a bit discoloured and spin faster and less speed than real speed 900s but still not bad I think. Some people use brushless motors and magmotors but I now nothing about them!

[Gabe01]

Re: Battery

Thank you