Joined: 29 May 2012
Posts: 454
Location: Rockhampton/qld
Wolfe Industries-3K build
Hey all, I have been bothering Knightrous and Marto asking questions, and they gave very good responses so I made some orders and nearly everything is in.
all I am waiting on now is the order to botbiz for some 50:1 motors and esc.
My plan is to build a wedgebot first and when I get that under control I'll add a spinner, see how we go,trying to keep it simple so far.
But because I am new (or stupid) and still figuring this stuff out I ordered all the wrong connector's :s what connectors do you guys use from the batt to the charger and batt to esc?
and mods if this is in the wrong forum please move, flame, comment all you like!
Last edited by Cpnwolfe on Wed Jun 06, 2012 5:14 pm; edited 1 time in total
Moved to usual spot is in the Builders reports as this is more of a build log regarding your own ant rather than a general question. Might be a good idea to change Title to its name and your team name as you notice that is the format of most of the others here.
Most people really only have 1 connector in their ant weights. The battery plug.
This is because each connector weighs 1 - 2 g and when you only have 150g this adds up quite quick. Everything is typically soldered together. (this also means they can't come unplugged)
To start off with might be better to use plugs but you will probably find you don't end up using them.
One thing I would suggest is getting some heat shrink from hobby king as keeping things neat inside your ant often saves a lot of space.
Steve
(Should get BotBitz stuff friday) _________________ Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com
Wed Jun 06, 2012 2:23 pm
Glen Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 9481
Location: Where you least expect
Hey
List looks fine, only thing would be the batteries will be a bit small in capacity for a spinner. So you might have to grab some 180mah ones when you build that.
And yeah plugs aren't used in ants aside from the battery one. They're just too small to have things like that in there. As for the battery plug most use the balancer one only to save the weight of having a pair of plugs hanging off the battery. _________________ www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz
Wed Jun 06, 2012 3:25 pm
Jaemus Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 01 Apr 2009
Posts: 2674
Location: NSW
haha gotta love new players that actually intend to start up with a wedgebot instead of a super ambitious mechanised doom machine, great to see!
(PS. I was one of the latter, but experience punched me in the head eventually)
post pics of sketches or cads or whatever when you have them! _________________ <Patrician|Away> what does your robot do, sam
<bovril> it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls
Wed Jun 06, 2012 4:54 pm
Cpnwolfe
Joined: 29 May 2012
Posts: 454
Location: Rockhampton/qld
Well I'll be honest I was gung ho for building a full scale spinner( of course scarlet inspired) but marto gave me some good advice, and I'll get to that later in time.
soldering everything together sounds a bit better especially for weight and I'll get pics and sketches up as soon as i can still having trouble figuring out how to charge the batt (only comes with a balancer plug that's too small for the charger) I'll post pics to show you what I mean.
Friday sweet hopefully I can start putting stuff together.
Wed Jun 06, 2012 5:13 pm
Daniel Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 2729
Location: Gold Coast
Joined: 29 May 2012
Posts: 454
Location: Rockhampton/qld
So I have the balancer plug on the batt and the charger only has pos & Neg how do I charge it without blowing it up? (need to do some more research on what a balanced plug actually is lol told you I was new)
and then to go onto the ESC i only use the pos and neg?
Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:43 am
Daniel Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 2729
Location: Gold Coast
The battery's plug should fit into the top right socket on the charger, unless the plug is too small. It might not need the positive and negative lines to charge. I use a smilar looking charger, mine is blue, but mine wouldn't charge through the balancing lead and I had to make my own adapter. Everyone else uses the black chargers and seem to be able to charge through the balacing line, so you should be fine if the plug fits. And your right about using the black and red wire off the battery for powering the robot.
Thu Jun 07, 2012 12:23 pm
Cpnwolfe
Joined: 29 May 2012
Posts: 454
Location: Rockhampton/qld
same problem as yours I cannot fit the plug into the charger(too small)
Daniel can you tell me more about your adapter? did you just get a plug that fit the charger and solder'd it up? ie-pos to pos, neg to neg, bal to bal?
Thu Jun 07, 2012 12:30 pm
Daniel Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 2729
Location: Gold Coast
Ahhhhh, well I cut a plug off a dead battery that had a bigger plug and soldered it up to the little 3-pin connectors that fitted into the little battery. My charger still didn't find the battery so I added an extra red and black wire with a banana plug on each end and shoved them into the charger, which decided it could find the battery. I then covered everything with hot glue to reenforce more terrible soldering. I think I might have more scrap parts lying around then you do.
I just made a 3pin adapter for this one. You will need a positive and a negative wire to go to the clip leads on the charger and then 3 wires pos + middle+ neg to go to the balancing port. I didn't really think about the smaller battery plug size.
You can always charge without balancing but it is advisable to balance them fairly often, particularly in high discharge situations, as the cells are never exactly the same.
Also if you make your own connector be careful with shorts as these will damage your battery and potentially lead to fire.
Joined: 29 May 2012
Posts: 454
Location: Rockhampton/qld
sweet as, it only has one plug on it (the micro connector) so I think I'v ordered the right adapters and some little micro plugs as well so I can solder up an adapter. I will wait until tomorrow to see if my botbiz parts come in then I'll finalize the HK order and see how we go!
Thu Jun 07, 2012 3:28 pm
Cpnwolfe
Joined: 29 May 2012
Posts: 454
Location: Rockhampton/qld
Botbiz parts are in! those motor mounts are awsome steve did you print them?
and when are the hubs going to be back in stock again?
today was really busy post some pics tomorrow see if I have anything running yet
Not sure with the hubs, not really a high priority. Aaron? Would probably be better off just making some wheels just drill them out to 2.8mm or 3mm and add some superglue or a little grub screw. _________________ Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com
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