Wiring

[jonny]

Re: Wiring

BTW, its a featherweight, 'cos 8 bar on a heavyweight would be ridiculous!

no it wouldn't, plenty of heavyweights run low pressure set ups. just use a 2 channel for the drive and a battleswitch for the flipper.

[Max]

Re: Wiring

You don't want a speed controller for a flipper,you will want a battle switch relay from robochallenge for it, it just plugs into your reciever. If joiners a srmech the maybe you will need another single channel speed controller or a larger relay

[roketrhino900]

Re: Wiring

OK, I feel much better about 8 bar now! I just did some quick research on battleswitches, am I right to say that they are basically a one-channel speed controller?

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: Wiring

There are no speed controllers (to my knowledge) that accommodate anything more than two channels. Mainly because any RC vehicle requiring speed control never usually needs more than two motive sources to make it move.

Looking at your intended setup, this would be the most common arrangement:

Ch.1 & Ch.2 - Drive. Either through two individual speed controllers (possibly linked by a mixer to give joystick-style control) or by a dual motor controller.
Ch.3 - Flipper. You would want a switch of some kind to control a solenoid (electric coil) which activates the valve and allows the flow of gas.
Ch.4 - Srimech/flip switch. A srimech that is not part of the flipper would probably take the form of a motor or linear actuator. In this case, another ESC would most likely be used. I can't remember the exact specifics of setting up a flip-switch (not too difficult though) but again, this would most likely require a switch of some kind.

The flipper probs wont self right, since I'm planning a funny shape for it, hence channel 4.

Flippers can take up a lot of weight at the best of times, so having to incorporate some form of self-righting mechanism into your robot alongside the flipper would take up valuable weight. Since your robot isn't built yet, I'd advise that you don't design such weaknesses into your robot. Alter the shape slighty so that the flipper will self-right the robot.
The first Drumroll had small wheels that didn't stick out the top. I knew this in the design stage but pressed ahead with the build anyway as I figured I could just stick some roll-hoops on it. But the roll hoops didn't do their job on several occasions which cost me the chance of a win. If I'd spent just ten minutes revising the design before construction began, the robot would have been invertible and it would have been able to avoid the problems of not self-righting in the middle of a fight.

EDIT: Jonny and Max beat me to it!

[roketrhino900]

Re: Wiring

Thanks for your really thurough input, I feel now the flipper should still achieve enough force to self right the robot, I've included an image so you know what I'm going on about.



You said I would need 2 ESC's, would they be connected to each other at all, or would they only share the receiver?

EDIT: The pic looks confusing, black is the flipper, red is mechanic and yellow is armoury stuff. My idea was to have pipes leading from the safety holes in the piston leading out like an exhaust, which would be cool looking when the Co2 was released, but another question relating to that, in robot combat you can see the Co2 when the flippers go, but I thought you couldn't see it? (Co2)

[terry]

Re: Wiring

hi, just wondering how old you are ? messing around with c02 is dangerous,
we dont want anyone hurt

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: Wiring

You said I would need 2 ESC's, would they be connected to each other at all, or would they only share the receiver?

It depends. Your robot will need to use one radio channel per side of drive. So your drive motors (left and right) will use two channels (Ch.1 and Ch.2). On a standard transmitter, Ch.1 is the right-hand stick moving side-to-side and Ch.2 is the same stick moving up and down.

You can either use
a) one ESC per drive motor (so two units in total) or
b) a dual ESC to control both motors (one unit, Scorpion XL for example).

With option (a), your left-hand motor will connect to an ESC and that ESC will plug into one channel of your radio receiver (either channel 1 or 2, but let's say Ch.1 for example). And your right-hand motor will connect into the second ESC, which plugs into Ch.2.
So this means if you move your transmitter stick up and down, the right-hand motor will turn. If you move the transmitter stick side-to-side, the left-hand motor will turn. But this isn't a very natural way of controlling a robot. So we can use a mixer, which is a small electrical device that mixes the radio signals in such a way that when you now push the transmitter stick forward, the whole robot goes forward, instead of just one motor. The same goes for backwards, left and right.

A mixer has two input plugs and two sets of output pins. These plugs and pins are the same as you have on your receiver and on the end of ESC receiver wires. Instead of plugging your ESCs directly into the radio receiver, you first plug them into the mixer, and the two output plugs then plug into your receiver. So you still occupy channels 1 and 2 of your radio receiver, but have joystick-style control of your robot.

With option (b), a dual controller again still occupies channels 1 and 2 but instead of being two separate ESCs, the controller is one unit that you plug both motors into. Most dual ESCs used in robotics have some form of mixing built-in as standard, so you don't need to use a separate mixer between the ESC and the radio receiver.

So you don't necessarily need two ESCs, it depends on the type of ESC (single or dual) you buy.

[roketrhino900]

Re: Wiring

I get that I wouldn't need 2 ESC's, I'll use some battle switches for the main and buffering valves, and that sorts all my misunderstandings. I'll be using tank steering though, which can be operated by jumpers on the speedo.

Terry, if you think I'm messing around don't worry, I am a teen, but everything I do is planned first, my father is a mechanic and all our pneumatic parts are being welded and tested by a friend of his who worked building on the Queen Elizabeth II! The diagram was only to show the flipper shape as well, obviously the ram will be horixontal, driving an arm with the correct joints, on the ram rod end, and the flipper itself.

If you are concerned about the actual exhaust effect, please tell me what is so dangerous about it, since the ram will be built for much higher pressures, the pneumatics are to be held down with steel straps, and the actual exhaust will be built of a suitable material, with release holes at the base if needed, and everything is tested and adapted as needed, because if you must know, this model will not be for competition, it is a test to see how everything goes before the final model.

[roketrhino900]

Re: Wiring

I've got everything electronic wise now except the speedo, I wanted a Scorpion XL, I can get them from robopower, or the robot marketplace, but are there any cheaper, or in England, or for sale on here?

[Anttazz]

Re: Wiring

Have to go to the USA i'm afraid. I haven't seen any for sale on here for a long time, My robot currently uses 2 of them and I had to import the first one from the USA, the second one I was lucky enough to mention to someone at an event that I was looking for one and they had one going spare.

So I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask, but you would be very, very lucky .

EDIT: Also, if this is for those motors I gave you I would advise something bigger than an XL, possibly an XXL or Victors if you can get em. There was some for sale on here a month or so ago, can't remember if they sold or not.

2nd EDIT: Here they are here viewtopic.php?f=166&t=4664

[roketrhino900]

Re: Wiring

Yep, the ones you sent are 24v, i believe. I wouldn't mind getting xxl's, I'll wait a bit more for something to turn up here since I'm busy with pneumatics right now. Scorpion X's never turn up on ebay. Too specialist I imagine. I thought victors were old-school, some Robot Wars contestents used them?
EDIT:For the life of me I can't find how many motors they control, but looking at the screws they do one channel each, right? Wiring, they both plug into the same receiver?

[Anttazz]

Re: Wiring

They are 24v yeah, but current is different. You'd just need 1 XXL, but the current handling on the Victors would be much better and give you a lot more from those motors. Nope, they're common these days on larger motors such as the Golds or Speed 900s, and a lot cheaper than something like a Sidewinder.

The Victors would be better than an XXL, you could get a lot more power out of the motors, and if those ones are still available it would be cheaper too. The new XXL's have just been released a few months ago so don't see them turning up here anytime soon.

[roketrhino900]

Re: Wiring

I'll probably get victors then, assuming they're single channel controllers, and an unrelated question, do I need relays to operate the buffering valve, or do I do it manually with a battle switch? Manually sounds dangerous to me.

[Anttazz]

Re: Wiring

They are indeed single channel.

Could use a battleswitch-relay combination if you like, but cheaper to use a basic servo and switch.

[roketrhino900]

Re: Wiring

So you mean to use a mechanical switch?