George LED's are pritty easy to work with and can run off any DC voltage you like within reason (under 48Volts lets say) you just need to put a resistor in series with them.

The formulea for working out the resistor is as follows

R = (E-Vf)*1000/I

Where

R = The resistor value in ohm's
E = Battery Voltage
I = the LED current (listed in the parts catalouges, normally around 20mA)
Vf = Forward voltage drop of the LED (also listed in the parts catalouge.)

Dicksmith sells LEDS that arn't 2 exspensive.

2 white and 2 red leds.

5mm white part no. Z3980 Vf = 4V I = 30mA $1.95 and 2000mcd brightness
5mm Red part no. Z4074 Vf = 1.8V I = 20mA $0.90 and 2700mcd

2 forward facing very bright leds (not the luxon's you may have seen but I think you'll find there bright enough)

5mm white part no. Z3984 Vf = 3V I = 20mA $3.98 and 16000mcd

IR leds part no. Z3235 Vf = 1.2V at 20ma $1.00

I hope this helps. remember LEDS are polarised components so they only work if batteryconnected right way around, for a short period of time they should be ok connected backwards however so you can't really go wrong.

I personally would just run them off the main supply rail.

As for brightness the big green led in 6x7 is 90mcd as reference

I've also got two 15000mcd high brightness white LED's I could send you with the resistors to run them off 12v, also I believe for 24v 47kohms was the right resistance? They're the same type I had as roadkill's power light and are VERY bright.
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THanks guys, just some final questions.
Whats the go with wiring them in series or parralel and do I need a resistor for each LED or for each group of them.
If they are setup for 24 volts do they work the same at 12 or are they less bright.
Feel a bit embassed asking about a freaking light bulb but I do rember they are polarised because of what the D stands for. (generally speaking of course)
And of course all donations welcome
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Bots that do not destroy you, only make you stronger.

You can wire them in series, but then you'll need to do some fancy calculations to work out what the required voltage becomes (eg two ~3.2v LED's need a 6.4v source). Send me your address by PM and i'll get em out to you. They're just gathering dust here, methinks 20 was too much to buy.
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your generally best off wiring them in parallell with a seperate resistor per LED.
thats the "right" way, each LED gets its own current limiting etc and alot of the varience between different LED's is taken up.
At some point the LED wont emit light at all, i dont know if 24>12V would cause you to reach that point however.
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

At one stage I had a led wired up as my power light and during testing the bot used 12volts instead of 24. The LED still turned on but you wouldn't call it a useful source of light anymore, it was very dim. I'd use a resistor per led, espicially since the white and red leds will need different values. and wire them all in parrallel.

You could always put in a +12v regulator (DSE Part #: Z6552) and wire the LEDs purely for 12v. Then it doesn't matter what voltage you run, as long as it's under 30v the regulator will feed them 12v
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https://www.halfdonethings.com/

MY little tracked robot is starting to come together quickly now.
The body doesnt need any more welding so has been painted in a primer which looks close to desert yellow but is called poxy beige.
A can off 2.95 paint from super cheap gave the interior an authentic gloss white.

Have finally come up with a solution for the new front end.
There are many updates on this body but there are some completely new things like ability to adjust tension manually and whats called a compensating idler wheel which is pretty cool.

Took a while to work it out but in short the idler wheel is off set from its pivot and theres some linkeages joining it to the first road whhel.

What this means is that its an active self tensioner. The first four wheels are connected with pivoting arms so they move together using the same 2 springs.
It also works in reverse due to torsion rods.

Only worked it out finally a couple of days ago so soon this robot will be driveable and I can look at the others, want to get KingPIn sorted next b4 deciding what to do with the pooch.
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7812's dont like bots
the IBC limits at 50V and you do get spikes up to that level. This fries 78 series stuff PDQ just ask glen ;->.

Though we had one running a fan on Plan-B for ages and that seemed ok.... hmmm odd.
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

Hey all, just put up some pics of how Pods coming along.

Will be making a narrower set of tracks soon so they tuck in under the guards so I can put some side armour plates which means the tracks you see at the moment will be used on another robot just for fighting which will be the true POD.
I am just going to refer to the tank bot as M41.

A brief description - body is all 3mm steel and has all been cut out with me angle grinder, even all the little details.
New spring steel torsion rods and bump stops are accurate as per the tank.
Its only really missing 6 shock absobers which would like to do, doubt they exist at about 2.5 inches long.
As mentiond b4 It also has a track tensioner and a active self tensioner.

Have almost finished the guards and their supports and started toying with the barrel.

The front end is made up of the usual, drill shafts from planetary gear boxs and pre planetary as well as angle grinder shafts and the usual uni-joints. Its been very cheap to do. Even the springs where dirt cheap.
Anyways here tis

http://www.robowars.org/forum/album_pic.php?pic_id=1314&sid=7abe1bc9f7b1d5497c3b06712c45b6c1&PHPSESSID=cea4acce93fd28f40f5125985a56ca42

http://www.robowars.org/forum/album_pic.php?pic_id=1315&sid=7abe1bc9f7b1d5497c3b06712c45b6c1&PHPSESSID=cea4acce93fd28f40f5125985a56ca42
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quote:

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Originally posted by Valen:
7812's dont like bots

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George you might be able to get shock absorbers off model cars ....not sure iff they are true shock absorbers most are just a spring unit that looks like shockie's some might have an oil damper in them ..ask the hobby guys they would know iff you only want them for looks the remote control car ones might be ok ....

most rc cars have full on shocks with the springs and oil filled bits and such. the cheap crap ones from tandy just have a rod with a spring over it.
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www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz

Would prefer real oil shocks. Everything else is real so far and they will definately be used as shocks.

The idea of putting on cosmetic parts is something I am trying to avoid but guess will do that only for the exhaust system.

Thought of hacking RC car shockers to a shorter length but will see if thats possible. GUessing price of 6 of them will make me go Hmmmmm and prob just make somthing myself.

THinking I might see something at the upcoming model builders expo that might give me a solution.

Its got to be real man
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