Just wondering how many channels you guys use so i can look out for some cheap radios-for a feather.

thanks
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Go and get STAWNED!
Visit Me at: http://www.teamstawn.cjb.net

For most Robots, 3 channels is sufficient. 2 for the drive, and 1 for the weapon activation.

The only 4 channel featherweight I can think of off the top of my head is Scoopy Doo which has 2 weapon channels (1 for the arm movement, 1 to activate the saw).

Heamorrhage has 2 controllable weapons as well, but I think Andrew (Vertex) came up with some clever way of running them both off one channel by having the lifter auto return so he still only needs 3 channels.

depends on 2 things, do you like stick radios or wheel radios?

if its stick, get a 4ch as thats all youll really need. if you like wheel radios, 3 will do you fine. as brett said 2 for drive 1 for weapon.
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www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz

The radio and speed controlers are the heart and soul of your robot.

We startred out with crappy radios from toy cars that only had on /off control and we stole the control boards from the toys to activate relays as that was all we had at the time .

Then we graduated to 2 chanel servo type radios ,these were ok but limited us to drive only or we needed two of them on different chanels to fire wheapons and drive at the same time .

The best idea would be to find the best radio possible at the cheapest price by just waiting and looking out for one on places like e bay or local tradres papers ect ..

At least a 3 or four chanel radio would be the best choice as was already mentioned most bots with one wheapon need at least 3 chanels but iff you hapen to come acros a 5, 6 or 7 chanel radio for a good price then grab it as you never know when you might want the ectra chanels as you can still use it with only 3 or 4 chanels.

Further down the track if you decide to build a bigger bot like a light weight or a heavy weight like we did then you will want the extra chanels for activating self righters secondary wheapon systems and all sorts of things.

Ihope this helps .
Andrew team Vertex

I used two channels to control weapon and motors (partial stick on either channel gives weapon only, full stick gives motors as well), but once I find my old 6 channel radio set I'll use that as a 3 or 4 channel I think.
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The Engine Whisperer - fixer of things

4 Channel Tx hacked to 6.

1&2 = mixed steering (1 sprung stick)
3 = unused
4 = unused
5 = spiner fwd/off/back (switch)
6 = remote shutdown (switch)

Might put some headlights on the ratchet travel stick on 3 at some point.

I have 4 I wish I had 6

get in touch with your local RC airplane / chopper club. there is always someone selling radio gear with 4+ channels (heli / chopper clubs are good for 6 to 10 channel radio gear) - often selling very cheap.
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There is no such thing as excessive carnage.

Thanks

I am going to use the sticks to drive cause i don't like the wheels and i prefer tank style steering (i know it's not the best). another question is how many people buy second hand radios or do you reccomend new ones.
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Go and get STAWNED!
Visit Me at: http://www.teamstawn.cjb.net

i have a 2 channel radio but it not i use hope it will be soon

Or my antweight setup....

1 and 2 - 0.3Faze (mixed)
3 and 4 - Housebot (mixed)

Tx control love it when 2 people book out one frequency and Tx to 2 robots

has anybody seen this website before??

http://www.ifirobotics.com/index.htm

They do motor controllers & radios. The radios sound unreal, they operate on 900Mhz & have either 16 or 32 channels. Instead of using a stick transmitter, you can plu in up to 4 PC joysticks. They work out fair expensive but then again you have 32 channels & 40 different frequencies.

yes we have. the ifi speed controllers to this day prove to be some of the best in the sport.
The radio system is alright but there has been problems with them in the US and many builders that did once try them out r moving back to the conventional rc gear.
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Andrew Welch, Team Unconventional Robotics

quote:

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Originally posted by mytqik:
The radios sound unreal, they operate on 900Mhz & have either 16 or 32 channels. Instead of using a stick transmitter, you can plu in up to 4 PC joysticks. They work out fair expensive but then again you have 32 channels & 40 different frequencies.

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Well, most of us use radios that are considered illegal for ground use anyway. 29Mhz is the only legal band for ground based hobbies in Aust, yet pretty much all of the stick radios sold here are build for aero's, and are 36mhz. Most of the 29Mhz stuff is also AM, which sometimes doesnt run real well in high noise environments.

As for insurance payouts, well, we dont have any anyway, so dont bother sueing if you get injured.
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Jeff Ferrara
fb@ffej.net

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