First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

[ewan]

First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

*gimson

Ill give it a shot:

Mechanical / structural
Robot chassis (depends upon weapon and design obviously, for a boxy design as you suggest maybe 4wd is best?)
Armour (or none )
Drive motors
Gearboxes (of not already on motors as with drill motors)
Wheels
Drive motor and drive train (if 4wd with two motors for example) mounts
Weapon motor(s)
Weapon drive medium (belt/chain etc)
Weapon support
Weapon disc/bar etc
Other fixings and design features additional

Electronic
Drive speed controller(s)
Weapon controller (could be another speed controller or a relay switch for example)
RC Receiver (or Rx)
Main battery
Receiver power source (most speed controllers will take this from the main battery so you dont need a separate battery though)
Power connectors (battery connectors as well - you might want to take the battery out of the robot for charging)
Wiring (cables linking everything together)
Transmitter (or Tx)

Tools and other stuff


May have missed something out in my tiredness but thats a half decent brief summary

[ewan]

First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

http://www.micro-maul.co.uk/vertigo/img_1397.jpghttp://www.micro-maul.co.uk/vertigo/img_1397.jpg

Thats what the insides of a spinner may look like before tidied

[xtreme]

First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

how much u think i could get everything i need for? minus the weapon components and chassis and armor.id need the wheels to be larger than the stuff inside so i could make a invertable rambot but still keeping it low and as slim as possible.

[geeza]

First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

I still maintain that you can build a feather for under £100, ok this means making your own controllers (using microswitches and servos), scrounging a lot. Realistically £300 could make you a pretty good feather. DB5 is probably in the £500 region, the new scorpian probably over a grand - Geoff??

[jamesb]

First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

the weapon motor alone is £600+ Ed, a grand may be a low guess. Can you email your address to me Ed, Josh wants some titanium cncing (you are doing it i believe?), so i need to post it to you.

Drop me an email Tom, I have some second hand bits you can buy if you like. It may be monday/tuesday before i can reply properly though, as im busy until after the mold event.

[xtreme]

First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

id would use the cheapest speed controllers as they probably cost more than anything. may sound stupid this bit but if it was a 4wd rambot how many speed controllers would i need?

[jamesb]

First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

2 or 4, depends on the power requirements of your motors

[woody]

First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

Tom .....Youd need 2 speed controllers ...one for the right hand side and one for the left.
They are however often combined into ONE dual controller.
E.G. http://www.robotcombat.com/store_scorpionxl.htmlhttp://www.robotcombat.com/store_scorpionxl.html

(Message edited by woody on April 25, 2007)

[ewan]

First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

You could get by with one. If you want to invest in the best quality speed controllers for bot-specific applications, most of these will have dual channels suitable for driving two or four motors (you can run four if you hook the motors in parallel).

[geeza]

First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

James, just pass on the Ti at the weekend, will save you the postage. I wont be able to do it before next week anyway.

[RogueTwoRobots]

First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

This is a rough price breakdown for my bot - its a 4WD invertible (I hope!) rammer so quite similar to what youre after:

Motors - 4 x 9.6V cordless drill motors - £40
Batteries - 4 x 7.2V Nicad packs - £20
Wheels - 4 x 75mm blue wheels - £22 (Although Id strongly recommend using 100mm blue wheels if you wanna be invertible - I managed it with the 75mm ones but vertical space is tight! Main bot chassis is only 50mm high!)
Speedos - 2 x Electronize 30A with external relays - £100 (15A microprocessor Electronizes are a cheaper option but only by about a tenner each)
Radio gear - 6ch Skysport - £120 (Technobots 4ch kit would be better though, and only £40)

Then theres the things you forget about at first:

Battery chargers for nicads - 2 x fastcharge units - £40
Miscellaneous nuts/bolts/screws etc - Could well possibly be up to £30 depending on how much you use.

So, going by the cheaper options Ive listed, youre looking at £255 give or take a bit, not including materials for chassis etc or any form of weapon. Thats the cheaper end of the scale anyway......

EDIT: Forgot about things like a removeable link, power light, failsafes, mixer etc - approx £35-£40 on top of that

(Message edited by K_C_R on April 25, 2007)

[geeza]

First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

Jamie, if you are going to spend £120 on radio gear. You may as well get a Spektrum for an extra £30, we have 2 they are brill. Unless its too late.

[RogueTwoRobots]

First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

Spektrums werent around in 2003 unfortunately

£120 was one of the cheaper quotes I got for the full kit; receiver, tx and rx nicads, charger and servos etc (one greedy model shop were trying to flog it for £170 - no wonder they went out of business)
It was also before the 6EXA came out, back when the Skysport 6 was the main product, hence why it still cost a lot

[woody]

First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

ABS Roller from car boot £2 = 4 off 100mm dia wheels
3/8 UNF Deep Manifold Brass Nuts from your local motor factor another £2.

So for under a £5 you could get four wheels thatll fit on drill gearboxes.

[ewan]

First Time Bot Builder/Buyer

As good quality wheels that arent likely to break? Questionable.