Ant or Feather

[craig_colliass]

Hi after the fun me and my lad Zack has had with our HW robot Saint, Zack wants a robot for himself, what dose the forum members think about what weight class would be best for him he is 10 yrs old. He is saving all his birthday money to get this, can you advise on what to buy, either a second hand or new?

[Gaseraki]

Ant or Feather

It depends really.
Ant weights are a great way for new young builders to start of in as they will get some hands on building and many of the components are simpliler. Apart from modding the servos which i sugest you do an ant weight can just require two servos a battery and rx.
Antweight events however just run ant weights so more to your calinder and traveling more. However the next big robots live event is holding ants

With featherweight you would mostly have to do the work. I doubt you would want your son holding anything dangerous.
However featherweights are very popular and all events that hold heavys will usually have feathers aswell.
To be quite honest feather would suit you more. Bad thing to say as I have done ants for a good 7 years. Possibly give both a go. Ant weights dont require much and I bet you all ready have the parts around to build one.

[typhoon_driver]

Ant or Feather

With featherweight you would mostly have to do the work

I would disagree. You can build a featherweight without power tools and with a simple rammer setup of a couple of drills etc it can be very easy. Featherweights might be better as when he is able to help you out with the heavyweight the majority of the principles of the machine are the same, just scaled up. Ants (from my knowledge of them) are slightly different.

[leorcc]

Ant or Feather

I dont know what would be different in my ant that is different in my heavy or my feather.

[ady]

Ant or Feather

depends how many events you wish to attend and how much travelling. fw you will find are more frequent and their will always be something on a bit closer to home. my daughter is 8 and i decided to go with fw, never seen an antweight competition though but its something i would like to have a go at in the future.

[john]

Ant or Feather

go with a feather

[Gaseraki]

Ant or Feather

To Gary regarding this statement which you disagree.

With featherweight you would mostly have to do the work

Compared to an ant weight, yes. The youngest ant builder we have had is quite a bit under 10. My couson who was 9 at the time was able to build an ant weight on his own with very little radio controlle experience.
I doubt there are any feather weights out there made with card or celotape.
I admit things have moved on a good amount since then but youngsters are still very involved. I still sugest going for a feather rather then an ant due to attending events with your heavy. However I still think for kids to get hands on experience with robotic combat, an ant weight is the best option. Not to mention esier to drive

[simon_windisch]

Ant or Feather

Hmmm, is there anyone who has built antweights who says that featherweights are easier? Im still on my first wheel, and Ive had to use a hacksaw and a tap plus an allen key.

Ive run antweight workshops for year 5/6 (10/11 year olds) and they can build them out of plastic bits in about three hours, not good antweights mind, but they had fun building them and fighting them. We went to Setpoint Sussex at the University of Sussex a few years ago and they had about 20 antweight kits with two modified servos, battery, wheels and a receiver and there were little kids all over the place building them. Can that happen with featherweights?

I wouldnt give my nine year old a hacksaw without some very close supervision, let alone the lathe, drill and angle grinder that Im going to use to built mine. Ask yourself if you need safety goggles to build an antweight?

So, rant over. sorry about that.

Simon

[botmad]

Ant or Feather

shane is 11 years old and builds his own featherweights now .... i know hes been around then a long time but still 11yrs and building i just tell him what to do and he does it power tool and welding under supervision only

[tom_kane]

Ant or Feather

Both!
Wont it be easier for you to build a feather Craig as you can use it when at an event with Saint where as, if you build an ant, you will have to go to another set of events.
In my personal opinion, even if you don€™t build the feather yourself, over time you learn allot more about how they work etc. compared to ants, (I made my first one and had no idea what I had done, worked though!)
Tom

[flippt]

Ant or Feather

Ive done Ants, for a longer time, and Featherweights, for a short time. In my opinion ants are better to start with. Im not gonna tell I was at this age when I made my first ant, becuase thats not the point. The question in the very first post was about which Weight class suits a 10 year old buy, with his birthday money as a budget.
His dad may have done a Heavyweight, but still the question reamins; what is suitable for the young boy?
If he, or his dad, decides to make a Featherweight, its more likley that Craig will do all the work. While doing an antweight, Zack will be able to experiment with diffrent shapes or type of amour, which wont be as easy with a Featherweight covered in thick lexan or strong Hardox.

Just what I had to say. Excuse me for the lack of grammar and spelling.

[john_frizell]

Ant or Feather

Antweights are easier to build; my sons (then both under 10) built one in under a couple of hours using a kit like the one Simon describes above and had great fun fighting it and modifying its design to make it work better. But antweight contests are not easy to find and its not much fun to build one and then have no one to compete with.

[leorcc]

Ant or Feather

http://www.robotwars101.orghttp://www.robotwars101.org for all things antweight including events.

Plenty antweight events around, and more on the way.

In October a Reading Robot Club event.

In November Antweight World Series 24 in the area of London

Next year in April the 25th Antweight World Series in the Netherlands.

And there is talk about antweights attending robotslive events too.

[Gaseraki]

Ant or Feather

Ant weights ARE attending a full competion at robots live Leicestershire. If things run well then they may be a permenant invite for further robots live events.

[Guest]

Ant or Feather

Go for a feather pusher/rambot-no weopons so less dangerous.