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Introduction - New guy in VIC
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guerd87



Joined: 08 May 2010
Posts: 11
Location: Pakenham, VIC


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Introduction - New guy in VIC

Hello all,

Just introducing myself to the forum, My names John and im from Pakenham, VIC

Been into electrical and mechanical things for as long as I can remember, Have always wanted one of these robots but never had the chance to get into it until now.

When is the next builders meetup or comp to come along to so I could have a look and get a feel for their size of these things? What are the most common type of robots in VIC? The featherweight ones?

Looking forward to meeting up with a few of you guys, Hopefully sooner then later.

John

Post Wed May 12, 2010 10:34 am 
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seanet1310



Joined: 08 Nov 2006
Posts: 1265
Location: Adelaide


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Hi John,

Welcome to the forum.

Yes the most common type of bot here in vic is the fether. Garry is about the only person down here with other classes built.

There is no scedualed next builders meet for vic at the moment. We should probably change that.

The build reports are a good place to get an idea of what some of the bots are like.

-Sean
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Post Wed May 12, 2010 12:06 pm 
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Spockie-Tech
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Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia


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Weclome John,

Things are a little quiet here in Vic at the moment, as we had our big national competition in February and the locals dont seem to have quite recovered from it enough to put another competition together yet Smile

Gary (Team Rotwang) and Myself are occupied with car projects at the moment so its up to the other guys to put together the next comp.

The Sidetracked arena is setup and available for use anytime enough locals get together to hold a competition ! All that needs to be one is organise the competitors and notify Sidetracked..

I know Shreddy was keen and ready, and if you razz up a few of the others, you should be able to get 5-12 bots together for a day of action. Anyone else want to work together and get an event going ?
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Post Wed May 12, 2010 2:20 pm 
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guerd87



Joined: 08 May 2010
Posts: 11
Location: Pakenham, VIC


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Locals still feeling the pain? Smile

Ive been looking over a few different kinds of builds but not quite sure what to go for a first build. I have a fair amount of equipment already that helps me out in the way of costs go, And I have a budget already set aside for building.

Here are my main parts I could use if need be that are just 'sitting around'

- Spektrum DX6i
- 2 x Mamba Max's
- Lots and Lots of RC motors and a few 2 speed drill boxes and motors
- Couple of LiPO 11.1v 2000 and 4500 Mah batts, 2 x 14.4v 6000Mah
- Any other bits and pieces you should have from 10 years of RC stuff

brings me to a few standard Robot questions regarding RC parts

Can you use the built in fail safe on the DX6i and receiver or do you need to use a pure hardware failsafe separately?
Will MM's handle robot competition or would you require something a little bigger or just 'different'?
The rules dont say that you cant use LiPO, but they dont say you can..These fit in yes?

Really just looking forward to getting a look at some bots in the flesh so I can plan out and fab up a final design

There are a few different design I like, Mainly just some KISS type ones. Simple wedge pusher (fast bulldozer is what im thinking Razz), Full body spinner or a back spinning vertical blade. I have a few old 200 and 300w Electric scooter motors around which could serve as weapon motor if needed.

Anyway, Lets hope some of the guys want to head down to Sidetracked and have a meet and Im not working the weekend its on Smile

John

Post Wed May 12, 2010 5:03 pm 
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dyrodium
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Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 6476
Location: Sydney


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Mamba maxes tend to have the reverse delay that most car esc controllers suffer from, making tank style steering a nightmare. Having said that if you were to get away with ANY car esc, it'd be a mamba max, and since you already have 2 it's worth a try. Lipo's of that capacity would be fine for a pushy bot, just be careful if you plan to do any kind of spinning weapon which would need a bigger C rating. Drive motors that people use these days is a bit sketchy, the days of $15 cordless drills are gone so people are having to resort to more specialized and highly expensive options, such as P60 drivemotors from banebots.com

Feel free to add anyone of us on msn if you use it to ask any random/general questions you might have. Smile
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Post Wed May 12, 2010 5:10 pm 
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guerd87



Joined: 08 May 2010
Posts: 11
Location: Pakenham, VIC


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No more drill motors? Damn. Ohh well Smile

I cant remember what the Max;s reverse is like, I think it has a no delay option. I used them in a crawler last time and dont remember having a problem. Just looking over some footage from the rig it seems the reverse is alot slower then forwards, not sure if I programmed it that way or not. Ill have the hook it up and have a look at settings to see if there is a 100%/100% no delay option.

As for the P60's, They are quite expensive. Might be able to find something else instead around the shed. Will keep that site in favorites though

Just going to look through builds after builds and get some ideas now

Post Wed May 12, 2010 8:12 pm 
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Glen
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Joined: 16 Jun 2004
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yeah that mamba max rc car i had from angus said it had no delay but you could notice it was slow to react.

dont believe the lies that drills arent to be used, use them in the right way without huge high traction wheels or in pushy bots and theyll do alright. still on the same set of drills i was using 4+ years ago and only changed one of the motors because the brushes had worn down to the copper tabs Smile that and most of the robots at the recent robowars were drill powered anyway. The only one that springs to mind that wasnt was puncturer?

if you want a pushy rammer bot then perhaps the 200w scooter motors you have could be made into something nice. would be a good challenge with the belt/chain drive needed and the like. seems you have most of the parts for something like that. would just need to invest in something like a pair of IFI victors for speed control. Cool

you dont even need to use drive motors by all means, i was halfway into building a beetleweight spinner that dragged itself around the floor using the rotating weapon axle like a spinning top and a tilting body. anythings possible Very Happy
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Post Wed May 12, 2010 8:21 pm 
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shreddy



Joined: 09 Jan 2009
Posts: 518
Location: Wantirna, Melbourne


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hey! great to see someone else keen for an event! I also note your interest in fbspinners Razz
last I checked dick smiths and supercheapauto were both selling 18v drills for $40, which was what I got mine for.
also on the batteries, if you manage to find an efficient weapon motor as mine then capacity for a spinner should not be an issue, I only draw 800mAH out of my 2300maH batts in a 3 minute match.
hope to see you round
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Post Wed May 12, 2010 9:21 pm 
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guerd87



Joined: 08 May 2010
Posts: 11
Location: Pakenham, VIC


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quote:
Originally posted by shreddy:
hey! great to see someone else keen for an event! I also note your interest in fbspinners Razz
last I checked dick smiths and supercheapauto were both selling 18v drills for $40, which was what I got mine for.
also on the batteries, if you manage to find an efficient weapon motor as mine then capacity for a spinner should not be an issue, I only draw 800mAH out of my 2300maH batts in a 3 minute match.
hope to see you round


Thats really good efficiency, thought it would be alot higher then that

The FBS's seem great, but I think im going to go with a nice simple design first off to get used to the whole thing. If i had access to a lathe then it could be different but I dont right at this time Sad Looking to get one start of next year or even as soon as tax time if the misses allows ^_^

So Shreddy, youve got a bot ready to go in VIC, want to gather up a few people that you know and get down for a run? Even if no one is ready to run yet maybe we could meetup sometime and chat, youre not too far away from me.

Post Wed May 12, 2010 11:03 pm 
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Glen
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Joined: 16 Jun 2004
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probably efficient cause it didnt do alot of moving Laughing >__>; i ususally plow through at least 1800.

most get by on a single 2.3ah pack
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Post Wed May 12, 2010 11:10 pm 
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seanet1310



Joined: 08 Nov 2006
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Location: Adelaide


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i do not have a bot that is remotly ready for comp but if anyting is orgonised ill try to get there.
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Post Wed May 12, 2010 11:12 pm 
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Knightrous
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Joined: 15 Jun 2004
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quote:
Originally posted by shreddy:
I only draw 800mAH out of my 2300maH batts in a 3 minute match.


quote:
Originally posted by Glendy:
i ususally plow through at least 1800.


MBX on 12S (39.6v) use to pull ~2200 out of the A123 packs after 3mins of spinning/translating. Lack of efficiency lawls....
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Post Thu May 13, 2010 8:07 am 
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Fish_in_a_Barrel



Joined: 30 Sep 2006
Posts: 673
Location: Perth, Western Australia


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quote:
Originally posted by shreddy:
...last I checked dick smiths and supercheapauto were both selling 18v drills for $40, which was what I got mine for...


Which is why everyone is leaning away from them. Back when they were $15 each, they were cost efficient to buy because they are low quality motors. Also they were 12V motors so to get more power (bang for buck) they could be overvolted to 18 or 24V (which is what people were running their weapon motors at anyways).

Starting with a motor that is twice the cost (at least) for the same power starts to lose it's attractiveness. Overvolting would require higher voltages (24V or 30V) which increases the size of the battery. However voltages that high tend to really start to cause excessive arcing at the brushes of the motor, shortening life.

For the extra cash ($40 drill vs. ~$75 gearbox + motor + opposing bearing) you get a drive which is supported at both sides, a better quality gearbox, easier to mount as is is square and your choice of motor and gearbox ratio.

If you can buy drills at a decent price (I wouldn't pay more than $30 for them) then they would be great for your first build, but as Brett said, the days of $15 drills are well and truly gone.

If your lucky someone may have some lying around from the early days from when they started, and have since moved on to more expensive options that they may be willing to sell you. I personally have given some away? or at least replaced some poorly threaded wheels and left handed screws to newbies, because we like to see the sport grow.

Otherwise I would recommend investing in the better drives that would last. On that note, I haven't played with anything but drills so I can't speak for the quality of the other options.
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Post Thu May 13, 2010 3:16 pm 
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guerd87



Joined: 08 May 2010
Posts: 11
Location: Pakenham, VIC


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There 2 x drills on ebay that im watching that are no reserve finishing in 3 days, will see how they go, Current bids are very low

Had a look through my motors I have here and have 2 x 200w Scooter motors, 1 x 300w Scooter motor and my mate has 2 in his shed I can have. They are either 100 or 120w Scooter motors. Hes unsure exactly what wattage they are but they are both the same, which is good.

Because of the type of bot I plan to build first off being a wedge/pusher type, I think ill go for the Scooter motors. I can save a bit of weight by using LiPO's over NICD or NIMH etc so hopefully wont go over weight. Ill benefit more from more speed and more power with this type of bot

Ive seen some scooter motors that have built in reduction units on them, But these ones dont. I will need to get some pulleys and use a toothed belt. Ive done some drawings of an adjustable motor mount with belt tensioner that I can cut out of HDPE on my CNC router. Should be able to fit different sized pulleys to fine tune the speed. My router will only handle HDPE, timber, Lexan etc, no alloy Sad

Does anyone have any good starting pulley sizes I should be looking at first off with a 100w motor? I was thinking of just running the standard Scooter reduction, prob using a bit smaller wheel though will give a bit more torque.

Post Thu May 13, 2010 5:01 pm 
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Knightrous
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Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Posts: 8511
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The scooter motors are a good place to start. Although they are heavier then the drill motors and might need a gear reduction, they have low current draw, have replaceable bearings & brushes, and can handle overvolting rather well. With the low current draw you can use a small, low amp speed controller like a Scorpion XXL and you could get away with a small lipol pack (Save a bit of the weight you've used by having a bigger motor). I don't think anyone has ever burnt a scooter motor out yet, so reliability is another bonus.

I've previously looked at building a 4:1 or 5:1 gearbox for the scooter motors using 0.8 mod spur gears from SDPSI . The spur gears are pretty cheap, between US$6 and US$8 each.
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Post Thu May 13, 2010 6:25 pm 
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