Newbie - help neededHow do

[Ds1638]

Hi fellow roboters,

I am after some advice about building a heavey weight robot called "dumble", i took my boys to watch robot wars live up at gloustershire and I was so impressed by the newer robots (beast, Saint and many more). I have been into electronics for many years but my mechanical skills a slightly lacking. Please see my questions below :-


1. What would be the best frame and armour design material ?
2. Would strength be a higher priority than speed ?
3. Flipper design or something different ?
4. How do I participate - do I just turn up on the day or is there meets before the competitions ?
5. What amount of spares do you recommend that I take per competition ?
6. Who fancies a one to one battle )


such a great website guys, can't wait for next year.

All the best from the "dumble team"

[Albear]

Hey! Welcome to FRUK! Im a newbie myself, so ill be watching the reply's intently!

I think the best place to start is with what weight category you wish to compete in and then decide if you want a "passive" (pusher robot, lifters etc) thats all about speed, strength, agility and perseverance or and "aggressive" robot (spinners, exs etc) that are all about weapon strength. if you can combine the two, than i guess you may be onto a winner haha!

Rule 1 is to enjoy it have fun however!

ill let you know when i build something regarding the 1v1 however!

[daveimi]

Hiya, you wanna be building a two wheel drive rammer in either the 1.5kg beetle weights or 13kg featherweights as a first attempt. Get to the events and look up close at parts / websites / construction methods people use.

[Ds1638]

I want to go to the heavy weight first, I have a electric wheel chair base and my own base design to start on. I have a few Bosch 750's but need the esc's, are sabertooth any good ?

[daveimi]

Depends which sabertooth and whether you plan to run 750's or wheel chair motors. Heavy is ok if your an experienced fabricator etc.

[Ds1638]

Hardnox or mild steel 5mm ?

[daveimi]

You will struggle to get hardox

[Eventorizon]

Welcome David

To save us repeating ourselves, since this kind of thread is started every time someone new joins, you are best to start by reading and getting familiar with the Build Rules - http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/cont...s-and-safety_1 - then I would read through the various Build Logs in that section of the forum. Every question you could ever ask, and I mean this literally, has already been answered in those sections so they are the best place to start.

You need to become familiar with the current types of construction techniques and the parts used if you are going to build a good, reliable robot. Below are several of the new starters threads, just like you, as well as several build logs of existing/veteran teams that are worth a good read!

New Guys -
http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/thre...-need-help-plz
http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/thre...t-robot-please
http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/thre...zontal-spinner


Existing-
http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/thre...go-build-diary [Diary of Rango the 3rd Seed in 2014, built by Ellis Ware]
http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/thre...oguetwo-robots [Diary of Drumroll, one of the longest running drum spinners by Jamie McHarg]
http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/thre...mini-hypnodisc [Covers 360, 540, 720 and 722, 4 amazing robots by David Moulds]
http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/thre...on-build-diary [My teams own thread, contains a lot of basic stuff near the start, good to see the progression of a design over time]

There are many others out there. Richie the £50 FW is a good one for building a very effective machine on a budget, NST is basically engineering pornograpy along with the Big Nipper thread.

Have fun reading and good luck!

PS - Hardox (Which is a brand of Wear Steel used on most modern UK robots, and bulldozers) is superior to mild steel in almost every way, however it comes at a cost. I would stick to plastics initially as they are easy to obtain, easy to cut/shape and cheap. My first robot Conker was basically all plastic and many robots still are!

[Ds1638]

Both bases if possible, the wheel chair motors are 220w at 24v, I was looking at the 32Ax2 but the rumours are they burn out very quickly ?.

[Ds1638]

Budget is not really a problem, I just can't weld mild steel. I am fine with electronics and software, 3d printers etc it's the heavy mechanical side I struggle with. I want something really different and have the ability to beat razor and beast lol

[Rapidrory]

Just out of interest, How do you come to have some Bosch 750s? They're like gold dust these days...

[Eventorizon]

I want something really different and have the ability to beat razor and beast lol

Ummmm... Razer doesn't compete any more, it hasn't fought competitively for over 10 years. You may be thinking of Tiberious, and in terms of weapon force, Tiberious beats Razer hands down.

Don't start by building a HW, they are just to costly to build and maintain. Go Featherweight or Beetleweight!

[grant_ploughbot]

Go for it and build a heavyweight if you have parts already and seem to have done your research then that's awesome.
Hardox for sure over mild steel. You can get it fairly cheap if you ask around. John Findlay gets 3mm equivalent to Hardox at a good price.

[Ds1638]

Such good advice thank you so much guys. I will start a build log very soon. How do particapate for for the for time ?, do you need to register for the events ?

[Ds1638]

A friend had some Bosch 750's in his garage from an old attempt. I need to go for heavy weight due to the hardware I already have. What happened to razor ? It was one of my favourite robots !!!!!!.