New guy in town - take 2

[onionjack]

Hello everyone. This is my second attempt at posting for the first time as the last one didnt seem to take. Anyways... Im hoping to built a lightweight over the coming months/year and Im hoping some of you guys will be able to answer my questions as they pop up during the build. Ill see you around.

[onionjack]

New guy in town - take 2

Just while its in my head cos Ive just noticed it... how do I change my name to... my name, like everyone else has?

[woody]

New guy in town - take 2

1/ Dont build a lightweight...build a feather.
There arent many / any lightweight bots.
2/ Click on mrgeneric&f2s.com next to your post and edit your profile.
The Forum is currently under going some restructuring so it may not be possible to edit your username....If all else fails ask a moderator to do it for you.
3/ Welcome to the Forum.

(Message edited by woody on March 14, 2009)

[xtreme]

New guy in town - take 2

Hi, Welcome to the forum.
Like woody said dont build a lightweight, Build a featherweight for your first robot.

[onionjack]

New guy in town - take 2

Doh... my first mistake, that didnt take long... I did mean to say featherweight and not lightweight.

There must be some restriction on changing names then as I didnt get the option to from within my profile.

[psycho_fling]

New guy in town - take 2

Hi welcome to the forum, best place to make the mistakes is on here instead of in the workshop!

So any plans and what do you all ready about the robot sport?

great choice in posting on this forum :wink:

alex

[onionjack]

New guy in town - take 2

Its one of those things Ive been wanting to do since way back when Robot Wars started... I did actually start to make a robot heavyweight at that time but the expense of a heavyweight and lack of facilities to build the thing in the first place eventually forced me to pack the idea in. My interest was re-sparked when I happened upon a flyer for the recent Barnsley event which I went to and saw the featherweights and how much sheer fun they looked all flying about the arena.

My plan is (currently) to build something that works - not too fussed about how it looks just yet, that will come after I think - but the ultimate aim is to build a featherweight with flipper and axe. Quite how im going to pull that off is a mystery to me as yet so Im going one step at a time and seeing how I go

I shall be ordering my first parts this week too and cant wait to get stuck in.

[psycho_fling]

New guy in town - take 2

so what parts are you ordering any pictures of the creation you wish to make?

i run the psycho flign team btw

[onionjack]

New guy in town - take 2

Pictures... no not yet... just a vagur image in my head. Havent got round to drwing the design up yet. We use AutoCAD at work so im hoping to draw something up in that at some point.

I need to budget on this build so might take a long time to get all the parts together but my first purchases will be motors, batteries and speed controllers so I can get that bit working first. I have radio gear already from my earlier robot venture I mentioned before.

This brings me nicely onto my first actual robot building question... I suspect that most people have the control setup so that each stick controls one side of the robot. I have a problem here as my controller has a throttle stick on one side so doesnt return to centre. I was hoping that there was some way to use the one stick for control if you see where im coming from.

[woody]

New guy in town - take 2

99% of us use one stick for driving ....usually the right stick.
What make and model etc is your transmitter?

http://members.toast.net/joerger/AskAaron/radio.htmlhttp://members.toast.net/joerger/AskAaron/radio.html

His whole site is worth a browse.

(Message edited by woody on March 14, 2009)

[onionjack]

New guy in town - take 2

Thats good to hear. The transmitter I have is a Futaba Skysport 6A (FP-T6VA). Is it suitable to use with this setup? It would be the right stick that Id be using.

That site looks to have lots of info on... ill give it a good look over when I get a few hours to spare. Cheers for that.

[john_frizell]

New guy in town - take 2

Both the sticks on the Futaba Skysport 6 are two axis sticks so yes, you can use the right stick. You will need a mixer for the speed controllers. Im one of the 1% who uses 2 stick steering so I took my Skysport into the shop I bought it from and they took out the restricter on the left stick and installed a spring so it returns to center the same as the right one does. Took them about 10 minutes.

Since you are planning two active weapons you really should go for one stick driving to leave the other one free to operate your weapons.

[onionjack]

New guy in town - take 2

What do I need to buy then in addition to speed controllers to make this work? Anybody have a link to a specific item at all? While Im on the subject of speed controllers, what is the best make (probably opening a can of worms here)? Was going to go with the Electronize FR30 ones to use with 2 Graupner 720BB motors. Good/Bad choices?

My plan now is to use the right stick for control and to use the left stick to a: fire the flipper and axe via left and right and b: use the throttle to maybe have some form of height adjustment.

Geez... Im so glad I found this place.. its gonna make my life so much easier!

[psycho_fling]

New guy in town - take 2

well after my personal expierence i would not go for electronize i would go and buy a dual speedo like a
sabertooth
or scorpion xxl

serach the net to find them

i think they both have mixers built in, what gear ratio are planning for the 720bb motors?

do you msn at all?

glad to help

alex

[onionjack]

New guy in town - take 2

Ill check those speed controllers out... thanks for the info. It would be nice to get a couple more opinions on them though.

Im not 100% sure just yet on gear ratio as Im not 100% on wheel size but Im planning on about 15mph top speed. I figured anything more would start to become less controllable (unless anybody knows better). If my maths is correct - and it might well not be - if I use a 100mm wheel and the motor runs about 4100rpm, I would go with a gear ratio of around 3:1.

I do have MSN messenger but dont log into it all that much.