So where to start?

[Sedge55]

For years I’ve loved Robot wars, hell im sure we’ve all thought about building and battling a robot and thought we couldn’t do it. Well the time is right now, I have two boys (12 &10) egging me on so it’s time to get my finger out and get started; but which way?

ideally I’d like to go straight to the heavyweight but let’s start small first I think. That way I can get to grips with the electronics and motor selection (this leaves me cold tbh). The thing I’m struggling with most is....what class size should I build?

I want ant to be able to compete with it. I know it’ll get destroyed but I this surely is the point of building a fighting robot, to fight! What are the most popular sizes for events in the UK? Are there many events to take part in?

Sorry for for the rambling post but hopefully some of you fine gents (and ladies) can point me in the right direction.

[Sedge55]

I think I better tell you a bit about my background as well so you can see we’re I’m starting from.

Im a design engineer so know my way around 3D design. This bits the easy part. I also have access to cheap fabrication so welding, sheet metal etc are going to be cheap to access. The body and chassis shouldn’t be to much of an issue. No idea about electrical engineering or RC control. Read a lot on web but without knowing what I want to build size wise is preventing me getting going. Stupid really but I don’t want to buy all the wrong bits.

Oh oh I do have a spectrum dx6 controller and a spectrum AR6100e receiver to get started with.

[maddox10]

Events. Look in the top "bar", and you'll see a few names. Extreme robots, Robochallenge, Robots Live and Kinematic. Those are UK Robot wars related event organisers and the websites will tell you about those events.

Classes most used.
Antweights. 150gram of concentrated mayhem.
Beetles. 10 times heavier and about as much more meaner.
Featherweights. 13.6kg of sheer destruction.( current crop of feathers has powerlevels equal to series 5 or even 6 heavies)
Heavyweights. 110kg of mayhem.

On the Mainland we have the 6kg raptors that is proving viable as a class.

Oh, sooner or later you'll have to shoot the engineer and build the damn thing....

[Ocracoke]

Hey there, welcome to the forum!

I started competing in live events this year starting at the Featherweight class and am now branching out into the Beetleweight category. I'd say either of those two would be ideal as a starting class.

You'll want to decide on that first and then comb through the build threads to see what is being made in those classes to get an idea of what armour/weaponry/motors etc are being used and to see what works and what doesn't.

[Sedge55]

AreThere are many events in the UK for beetle weight robots? I’m still trying to decide on featherweight or beetle as a starting robot. Has anybody got any links to the best read to read first regarding what motors et cetera to use

[Garfie489]

There are loads of Build diaries in this forum under another section. Roguetworobotics even made a featherweight parts guide somewhere.

Featherweights compete at nearly any heavyweight event, and have their own dedicated championship.

Beetleweights have less events, but more dedicated championships. So depends what level you really want to be competing to.

[Theo]

Beetles are great as they combine the basics of making a feather with the simplicity of antweights, but have much fewer events as they are too big for ant arenas but too small for feather arenas. From my experience, starting with a feather has been just fine and the elecronics are far easier than they may seem at first. Plus, as Garfie mentioned, where there's a heavyweight event, there's a feather event; all of the live shows have featherweight meles as well as the robochallenge champs. Good luck!