I'm Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

[stu]

Im Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

Hiya Kevin,

Nicads will be better in a feather. More current, less weight, faster charging, take up less space. You connect the batteries to the Speed COntrollers, and the speed controllers will provide power to the motors.

Have a read on stuff like this here matey, it will all make sense. Well most of it anyway.
http://www.stupoo2000.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/teamkat/technical.htmhttp://www.stupoo2000.pwp.blueyonder.../technical.htm

Mr Stu

[kevin]

Im Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

Thanks Stu,

BTW I added you on my msn.

I think I will just build a wooden one just to see if everything works. But that wont be for a couple of years. I need to finish school and do university.

[kevin]

Im Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

How long did it take you people to build your first feather?

[blazerbotics]

Im Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

All of ours have took about a couple of weeks. It depends on what skills/knowledge you already have and what design/weapon your going with. Some feathers have been built in a few days some have taken years!

Have you seen the Zeobots? http://www.technobots.co.uk/contents/en-uk/d608.htmlhttp://www.technobots.co.uk/contents/en-uk/d608.html i dont know what your budget is, but these seem similar to your original ideas, then with any extra weight you can bolt more armour on.

alan
http://www.blazerbotics.co.ukwww.blazerbotics.co.uk

[kevin]

Im Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

Thanks for the links. I was thinking of using 5mm ali around.

Another design idea I had is a Stinger/Blade Runner (from Battlebots) design where I just spin around with spikes on a tail.

[glen]

Im Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

i made my first one a thwacker, was a great learning curve and its still the australian no 1 ranked robot despite having been retired for almost 3 events hehe.

your first robot need not be a tapped together, welded up master piece. take speed hump or tread for example. they use an old tire and some nylon ag pipe, kiddy cars and drill motors and old drill nicads and they never seem to break down, they always do well, they cost bugger all and they are (often) build literally the night before the event.

http://www.robowars.org/forum/album_pic.php?pic_id=964&sid=d517a9d3ec16840b7f63e 38d8a7cf706http://www.robowars.org/forum/album_...3ec16840b7f63e 38d8a7cf706

http://www.robowars.org/forum/album_pic.php?pic_id=966&sid=d517a9d3ec16840b7f63e 38d8a7cf706http://www.robowars.org/forum/album_...3ec16840b7f63e 38d8a7cf706

i think the best advice anyone could give a new builder is to just go out and build anything you can, practice makes perfect..

[kevin]

Im Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

Or I could buy one of those combat Zeobot kits. Buying that guarentees that my first robot wont be a piece of ......... Have those combat Zeo bots been tried in battle before?

[teammad]

Im Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

Paul cooper has the 8wd zeobot fighting with a custom shell and does very good. photo here: http://www.teammad.co.uk/flatpack.JPGwww.teammad.co.uk/flatpack.JPG

[kevin]

Im Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

Just to get everyones opinion one last time, what sounds like the best design for a first time robot?

-A Firestorm type
-A Storm 2 type
-A Stinger type

[andrewj]

Im Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

A Stinger style bot itself would be very hard for a first time builder in my opinion. However a thwackbot like Cobra would be a good start. Unless you have experience in pneumatics to acheive a Firestorm design, Id go for the Storm 2 style design.
Im building a rambot like Storm 2 at the moment because I found it was the most acheiveable design to start off with considering my budget, tools and experience. The choice is yours to choose which design you think will win and is also buildable for you.

Hope thats some sort of help!

[kevin]

Im Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

I could do a Firestorm design with an electric flipper but anyway. I think the Storm 2 design is the best idea for starters. what kind of tyres should I use, the pneumatics or solid wheel ones?

[babeth]

Im Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

Solids. Or pneumatics filled with foam (or something like that - if I remember correctly Stingers tyres were filled with rags).
There are a lot of good tyres to be found these days. Best are rubber ones. You could use those that you find on those 2-wheeled thingies for kids (forgot the name). Theyre solid AND have grip. Also the ones you find on shopping trolleys.

[andrewj]

Im Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

Or the Robochallenge blue wheels.

[kevin]

Im Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

I just had a crazy idea. Why not use a wheel-barrow as the shell? It has a wedge on the front and it has aliminum shielding already. It could be cut down to the size of the chassis.

(Message edited by kevin on August 17, 2005)

[typhoon_driver]

Im Thinking Of Building A Feather, And Need Some Advice

The middleweight doom did that. Unsure if it would be a little too heavy for a feather