Haynes Manual Build a Robot

[AdamST180]

Agreed, Make sure its silicon and highly flexible. I bought some silicone wire from eBay and it turned out to be 16 stranded steel wire in a silicon coating. Wasn't too impressed. Should have stuck with a turnigy branded silicone wire, at least i would have got the right stuff.

That above eBay link is a good one as they list the strand count, being 680 for 12AWG. so thats the good stuff

Yeah have ordered red and black wire from the above ebay link so should be all good

[AdamST180]

Looking at wheels now, I have gone through several build diaries on here and people seem to be using scooter style wheels mounted directly onto the drill motor shaft, seen people use 3/8" inch threaded inserts, are they the right size threads to fit the drill motor I assume?

Trying to get everything in place for W/C 29/07 as booked the week off work to finally get something built

[McMullet]

Yes, the drill output shaft has a 3/8" UNF thread. I think a lot of people use a brake union fixture as a hub, as they are quite long (so they can go all the way through a wheel). The outside is a 1/2" hex.

I used circular inserts (from here: https://www.gwr-fasteners.co.uk/38-u...el-50571-p.asp) press fit into scooter wheels. Scooter wheels unfortunately have quite hard tyres so may not be the best, but if you do use them I think Yak wheels are quite cheap and are reasonably soft. You'll need the 22mm OD inserts, and there's a flange in the middle of the wheel hub that has to be drilled out with a 22mm spade drill.

[Scarrosaki]

Looking at wheels now, I have gone through several build diaries on here and people seem to be using scooter style wheels mounted directly onto the drill motor shaft, seen people use 3/8" inch threaded inserts, are they the right size threads to fit the drill motor I assume?

Trying to get everything in place for W/C 29/07 as booked the week off work to finally get something built

yep, we usually use those fittings, and heat press them into nylon wheels using a drill press (or you can bodge a rig with a couple of G-clamps). Then just cut and screw a bicycle tyre to the outside of the wheel and it's happy days.

[McMullet]

Ellis Ware made a nice how-to video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcIIUGBJzJM

[Roboteernat]

Or there is this vid i made quickly for someone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqsOMvnnRtk

[AdamST180]

Yep, you need a specialist charger for LiPos. A Turnigy Accucell 6 is the charger I use, never let me down yet. You'll also want to invest in a LiPo bag to charge them in, which are dirt cheap anyway.

Looking at this charger now https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-...E&gclsrc=aw.ds and have to confess im confused talks about so many different kinds of wires, im sure can figure it out from the book when it arrives but do I need to order any other wires to work it from USB or mains?

[Ocracoke]

When I was originally getting my charger, I was puzzled by how to power it as well. Luckily, some folks do sell a power supply for it (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Power-Sup...0/223447307905).

The wires it comes with cover a lot different types of battery connectors, you'll need to know what sort of plug your battery has and wherever the charger comes with it by default or if you need to get an extra one, like I did when I needed a XT90 connector rather than the bundled XT60 connector the charger came with. If you are building/buying an Antweight, the JST plug on the multilead (the 2 pin red rectangle connector) is the one I usually go for.

[Redirect Left]

Team Death use these chargers. The power input is a standard DC jack, so any power adapter with a DC jack at the end will work, as long as it is between 11 & 18 volts out. The more amps the adapter can provide, the higher your charge rate (up to the maximum of the actual battery charger), we use 4-5A adapters.

Spare laptop charges may be advertised as DC jack, or look very similar, but they are quite often not the exact right fit despite being on eBay with 'DC jack' labelling, and at worse, they might fit but have the positive and negative reversed within the charge jack (yay proprietary things).

The LiPo battery itself will have the majority of cables you need attached to it, always make sure you have put the balance plug in the right port of the charger (there will be lots, for different cell count batteries), and, make sure you have a lipo sack/bag to charge in, on the off chance the battery catches fire, it is unlikely but always safe, and if you start going to events, you'll definitely need one at that point.

The charger has many different charge modes, for many different types of battery. You can even charge a car battery! (which I had to do when my car died )
photo_2019-07-10_13-35-49.jpg
(this is the previous model, that I have. Basically the same, just without LiHV charge capability, and runs a bit hotter due to no built in fans)

Just be sure you've got the charger in LiPo mode, as it might not be smart enough to detect if you have selected the wrong battery type, and it might damage the battery or worse.

[Ocracoke]

Just be sure you've got the charger in LiPo mode, as it might not be smart enough to detect if you have selected the wrong batterty type, and it might damage the battery or worse.

I've accidentally done this from time to time. The charger defaults to LiPo but I use LiFe batteries and I can confirm it isn't smart enough to know what battery type it is connected to (and I am not sure how it would ever know) so I have started off charging LiFe batteries in the LiPo mode, which if I didn't check, would probably cause a smoke show. Luckily hasn't nuked any of my batteries yet.

[Ocracoke]

Apologies for the double post, I've just noticed that the power supply I've linked to wouldn't work with that specific charger as it needs a barrel type connector and the power supply comes with a XT60 connection (though I should note, the power supply that I have came with a barrel to XT60 converter as well) so that may not work. For reference, this is the charger I use - https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-...v-capable.html

[AdamST180]

Apologies for the double post, I've just noticed that the power supply I've linked to wouldn't work with that specific charger as it needs a barrel type connector and the power supply comes with a XT60 connection (though I should note, the power supply that I have came with a barrel to XT60 converter as well) so that may not work. For reference, this is the charger I use - https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-...v-capable.html

No worries, so that adaptor would work with the 80w charger you use or do I still need a different one?

[Ocracoke]

I can't see how the XT60 connection is made in the item listing but this might serve you better - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Turnigy-A...x/321661460833

[AdamST180]

I can't see how the XT60 connection is made in the item listing but this might serve you better - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Turnigy-A...x/321661460833

Cheers for that, is the 80W one worth the extra bit of money over the 50W one? As found a 50W cheaper https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Turnigy-A...mivFi56-vw_Fzg

Thanks

[Ocracoke]

The difference between the 80W and 50W versions appear only to be that the 80W supports a higher charge rate looking at the specs. Either would do for a Featherweight.