***DISCLAIMER: Some of this information could be better or is inaccurate. Specifically how big of a battery you need. I plan on making a new tutorial eventually, but for the most part this tutorial is accurate.***
Have you ever wanted to build a combat robot (battlebot), but gave up because you didn’t know where to start? Well, hopefully this tutorial/instructable will help. I condensed a lot of information down into a step by step process, taking out most of the stuff you really don’t need to know, but leaving the crucial information. This tutorial is focused on the insect weight robots (75grams to 6 pounds), because the majority of competitions held are for insect weight robots, and they are the least expensive.
Throughout this tutorial I will be putting a robot together for demonstration. I used wood for a material,and you shouldn't. The reason why I used wood, was because I was just putting the robot together for this tutorial, and I am never going to compete with it. In fact I already threw it away, because it was a mix-match of a bunch of different ways to do things.
Have you ever wanted to build a combat robot (battlebot), but gave up because you didn’t know where to start? Well, hopefully this tutorial/instructable will help. I condensed a lot of information down into a step by step process, taking out most of the stuff you really don’t need to know, but leaving the crucial information. This tutorial is focused on the insect weight robots (75grams to 6 pounds), because the majority of competitions held are for insect weight robots, and they are the least expensive.
Throughout this tutorial I will be putting a robot together for demonstration. I used wood for a material,and you shouldn't. The reason why I used wood, was because I was just putting the robot together for this tutorial, and I am never going to compete with it. In fact I already threw it away, because it was a mix-match of a bunch of different ways to do things.
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Signing UpStep 1: Weight Classes
Before you do anything else, you have to pick a weight class. The weight constraint helps determine which parts are needed.
Insect Weight class:
• 75g Fleaweight (not common)
• 150g Fairyweight (5.3oz)
• 1lb Antweight
• 1kg Kilobot (Canada Only)
• 3lb Beetleweight
• 6lb Mantisweight (not common)
I suggest building an antweight or a beetleweight as a first robot, because you don’t have to be as concerned about weight as with lighter robots. It is less expensive to build a antweight, but you will find it easier to stay under the 3 pound limit. Also, beetleweights are more common than antweights, but any competition that has beetleweights will have antweights, and vice-versa. So, it is really up to you, just pick a weight class and go with it, you can always build another robot for a different weight class.
Insect Weight class:
• 75g Fleaweight (not common)
• 150g Fairyweight (5.3oz)
• 1lb Antweight
• 1kg Kilobot (Canada Only)
• 3lb Beetleweight
• 6lb Mantisweight (not common)
I suggest building an antweight or a beetleweight as a first robot, because you don’t have to be as concerned about weight as with lighter robots. It is less expensive to build a antweight, but you will find it easier to stay under the 3 pound limit. Also, beetleweights are more common than antweights, but any competition that has beetleweights will have antweights, and vice-versa. So, it is really up to you, just pick a weight class and go with it, you can always build another robot for a different weight class.
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Do you recommend another motor for fairyweight? a faster one with a shaft large enough to fit finger tech wheels (0.5in or 0.75 inches of Width)
Thank you
If your original question about motor mounts was about fairyweights rather than featherweights, then absolutely you can use UHMW as a motor mount material. That would likely be my material of choice of a fairyweight motor mount because it is strong enough and very light. In my last reply I said I didn't have much experience with featherweights. However, I am much more experienced with fairyweights as I have built one and I am familiar with the components because they are sold on the websites I frequently by things from for my antweights (1lb).
If this is your first robot I recommend building a fairyweight or an antweight because they are much less expensive and are easier to build than a featherweight.
But Im focus on the fairy now.
I dont have time and I need a fairyweight motor to fit FT wheels.
The 100:1 RMP is to slow and the 30:1 is to short on the shaft, even the lectra wheels wont fit.
Do you think 5mm armor wall's will be fine on combat?
Thank you for the help!
Depending on the material 5mm should be plenty. My current antweight uses 3mm UHMW in some places. I'm not expecting the 3mm to hold against most weapons though but it should be thick enough to protect the electronics even if the UHMW gets torn up during a hit.
Do you know any material besides titanium, to use on a vertical spiner weapon?
I have another question, about speed controlers and motors.
If for instance i have a Victor 884 with the Maximum Current of 40A continuous, and use it to control the CIM Motor(12V DC), with a Stall Current of 133A. In the case of conecting a LiPo battery(12v) to control the motor the Esc's will burn? No way I could use this combination?
Btw do you have a active robot for this year??
Thank you
Do you think UHMW motor mounts should work fine on Featherweight?
the links to the above mentioned items are below. thank you for any help you can give in advance.
-ahleagle
motor:
(http://www.robotmarketplace.com/products/0-FT-SPARK16-20.html)
esc:
http://www.robotmarketplace.com/products/0-SABER2X5-RC.html
battery:
(http://www.amazon.com/E-Flite-1800mAh-7-4V-Battery-13AWG/dp/B000YUTIVI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356744401&sr=8-1&keywords=lipo+battery+7.4v+e-flite)
For the ESC I recommend fingertech tinyescs. They are the same price (or pretty close) as the sabertooth and are tremendously better. I have used the sabertooth escs before and had a lot of issues with them. If you get the tinyescs you have to buy two, one for each motor.
The battery had two leads because it is Lithium Polymer (LiPo). One lead has the positive and negative (red and black) wires which connect into you robot, these are like the normal terminals on a battery. The other lead has the wires which connect to each individual cell of the battery. This lead is used when charging the battery, because the cells need to be kept within .1V of each other to avoid damage to the battery. LiPo battery chargers take care of keeping the cells within .1V of each other when charging.
That battery is likely too low of voltage if you use silver sparks, and too high of a capacity. I don't know what capacity you need for sure with out knowing weapon specs, drive motor, and tire size. But, 1800mAh is a little overkill unless the weapon draws a tremendous amount.
This will help with motors and battery choice, at least for drive anyway.
http://www.killerbotics.com/kbtools/TentacleTools/
Silver Sparks aren't an option so you will have to input their specs from fingertech's website.
-TTR
-TTR
-TTR
I tried google products and ebay but couldn't find them
-AI
And if my receiver have only the labels: Channel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and Battery?
Controlling 4 motors is very similar to controlling 2 motors. You basically just add one extra motor to each side of the robot, and hook the wires from that motor into the same place the other motor on that side is. You have to make sure that the motors can handle the stall current from both motors combined though. If you were using a Sabertooth Speed Controller, you would put the wires from one side of the robot into the "motor 1" screw terminal and the wires from the other side into the "motor 2" screw terminal. With a setup like this it would use the same amount of channels on the receiver as a 2 motor setup.
It sounds like in the video that the person is using "tank style steering" where the motors on one side of the robot respond to one stick, and the motors on the other side respond to the other. The Sabertooth has a feature called mixing. This allows for controlling the robot with the up/down and left/right movement of on of the sticks, freeing the other stick up. It is good that the stick on the other side of the radio is freed up, because that stick is good to use for weapon control. This channel that is freed up is the throttle channel. It is a stick that will move up and down, but it will stay where you leave it (it doesn't return to the center).
The radio you found appears to be a good radio. I have never used it, but it should work. I don't know about the reliability of that site, but they appear to be the manufacturer of the radio.
You only need one battery when using a sabertooth. There is something called a "BEC", which stands for Battery Elimination Circuit. What this does is provides power to the receiver. The sabertooth has this feature. So, you can just hook the battery into the sabertooth, and it will power the receiver for you. There is a problem with this though, if your weapon speed controller also has a BEC, then it can damage the speed controllers because both are trying to power the receiver. Fortunately, it is easy to fix this, you can pull out the red wire on the connector that plugs into the receiver. The part 3 wiring video shows how to do this. (It's hard to explain in words)
I have never used that receiver before, so I am not sure what the numbers correspond to on the radio. You would have to look at the manual to determine that. On spektrum receivers, they are labeled with the words of what usually would go there for a model airplane. But, it wouldn't be to difficult to determine what responds to what. You could just plug a servo in, and see what stick/switch on the radio causes it to move.
P.S. Don't be sorry for asking questions, I am happy to answer them.
Thank you very much!
=D
-AI
RioBotz
RoboCore
Both of these are in Portuguese, but since you are from Brazil, I assume that you know Portuguese.
-AI
If i buy separately a RC Controller for the weapon.
Oh, another question:
Is the gearbox inportant on motors?
Whats the function of them?
-AI
I see on youtube a tutorial about transmitter and receiver.
In that tutorial they have used 2 motors, the first in Ch1 and the second on channel 2.When the left toogle was actvated, the lef motor rotate, the same with the other side.
But, if my robot have 4 motors?
Is the other channel for buttons to activate the weapons?
You recommend this?
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=9041
Thanks by the attention!