Help with choosing parts for a first robot, please.

[Niels - Team K.a.L.M.]

I use 12 and 14 awg wires in my machines.
XT90's are somewhat big but will do the job.

[Ellis]

I tend to use Deans/XT connectors, but anything along that scale is fine. For drills you could use 14awg comfortably, but I would still make the main power lines (LiPo/fuse/link/up to distribution for the ESCs) 12awg. Spinners and big weapons in feathers use heavier (10awg and sometimes 8awg), so you'll use it up for sure.

[dotDominic]

Right ok, thanks for these quick responses! I was also a silly sausage and didn't buy the right size of heat shrink for covering the joins between connectors & wires. Just wondering what do people usually use for that?
Thinking I might need to buy more wire too, so I might as well return the XT90s and buy XT60s instead. Are XT60s ok for a removable link too?
Sorry about more questions, just wanted to double check: Is the connector on the end of this battery I've bought ( http://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbyking...Lipo_Pack.html ) the same as this: http://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbyking...0pcs_set_.html ?
And if it is the same, I'd therefore need to buy those connectors too, right?

[Rapidrory]

I just wrap insulating tape around the solder joints instead of heatshrink, but I know most people like to use heatshrink for it... can be a bit of a pain if you forget to put the heatshrink on before soldering it up though.

XT60s are fine for a removable link; it's what I use, as well as quite a lot of people use.

And yeah, those connectors are the same as on the battery, so you'd need some of them... You could also use those instead of XT60s for the rest of the bot if you didn't want to buy 2 sets of connectors.

[dotDominic]

Cool, thanks very much! I might as well just use insulating tape then.

[Garfie489]

XT60s make great links because they have a very firm grip onto themselves which means they dont shake off easily.

Inversely however, they can sometimes be quite hard to remove by hand when you need to for the same reason :P

Make sure its either mounted well, or left completely loose and you wont get anything better for the ease of use

[Ellis]

I would actually suggest you do try to use heatshrink. It's just good practice. All electrical products use heatshrink, which says something.

[Rapidrory]

But then again, most electrical products don't need taking apart in a hurry :L You're right though, heatshrink is generally better practice, but I have more insulating tape than I do heatshrink or patience!

Going back to removable links; can't remember if it got mentioned before, but make sure it's secure and somewhere it can't get knocked out. Nothing is more annoying than losing a fight cause your link fell out

[shakesc]

XT60 do close up over time making them a looser fit. You can wiggle the pins apart slightly to make them a tighter fit to reduce risk of the link falling out

[dotDominic]

I just bought some of these since they were the same as the connector that came with the battery:
https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...dProduct=34477

Ok, sure. Heat shrink it is, then. But what thickness of heat shrink is usually needed? I did order some a few days ago but turns out it is the wrong thickness. :/

The link has to be in an easy to reach place, though, right?

Thanks very much for these responses!

[shakesc]

Those connectors are good and you put the wire through the connector then solder on the terminal, pulling the terminal back into the housing. Therefore you dont need heat shrink for these

The downside of these connectors is that they are quite long and a very tight fit. Therefore they are not a good pick for a removeable link. (the arena isnt well lit where you put your feather into and there isnt masses of time to fiddle about with an awkward connector)

[dotDominic]

Hm, right. I might get XT60s instead then since they are more compact. I'll think about it.

Thanks!

[gizz]

Many diy stores sell boxes with different ssized heat shrinks, these are a good investment imo as you will probably build more robots. And robots of different sizes. I myself have used them for fw, antweights and on cables in my car and i syill have plenty to go. I'd also recommend a cheap hot air gun for it

[dotDominic]

@ gizz

That's a really great idea! Thanks very much!

[dotDominic]

Ok, so basically my plan is to build a 4WD rambot with a wedge on the front and the back. I intend to use 10mm HDPE for Chassis/Armour, but I was wondering if HDPE is suitable for a wedge? Would HDPE be too soft to get the wedge close to the ground? As in, would the tip/end of the wedge become too blunt/rounded over to get underneath anything after a short amount of time?

Again, sorry about all these questions! The thread is already 6 pages long and I haven't even started to build the robot yet! (Though the DX6i Transmitter arrived in the post yesterday! Yay! )