Noob in need

[Tom]

Hello there
No need to introduce myself as my profile name says it all! Anyway, back to the point, as the topic suggests Im a noob and Im planning to start my career as a roboteer by building an ant - in the style of ming 2 from the 4th robot wars series. I pretty mtuch need help with the entire thing except the practical parts - any and all help would be greatly appreciated (Im on a budget of £120 - 170

[Tom]

It'll be 170 for next month

[alasdair]

Hi there Tom

Welcome to the community!

Right, there are 4 main things you are gonna need for your ant.

Firstly, Power. Most people use a Lithium Polymer (LiPo) battery. These have enough oomph to power an ant for a while and can be recharged. They also have a pretty damn long life. There are loads you can use. I normally get individual cells and solder them seperately since they are a bit smaller, but you can buy pre-made battery packs such as these: http://www.technobotsonline.com/lipo-po ... -7.4v.html which still work fine. From then you need to find a charger which will work with your battery.

Secondly, you need a Receiver and Transmitter. This is the radio control setup people use to control their robots. We normally use the same setup as a radio control plane would do. This is probably where your funds are going to take the biggest hit, as finding a good transmitter is a necessity, but when you have one you can use it to control multiple robots and it will certainly last.

There are two methods of doing this normally. The thing most people start with is a simple radio Transmitter and Receiver, using the same frequency.
http://www.allelectricrc.co.uk/hitec-tr ... -235-c.asp
The idea is that the transmitter is what you control the robot with, and the receiver is plugged into the bot to make it all happen. The way normal receivers and transmitters are bound is by plugging matching frequency crystals into the receiver and the transmitter.

The more common, and arguably more advanced setup is done with Spektrum. Their Transmitters and Receivers can be bound to each other privately, so there is no chance of radio inteference and it is easier to setup.
Here is an example of a spektrum transmitter commonly seen: http://www.spektrumrc.com/Products/Defa ... ID=SPM5510
And receiver: http://www.spektrumrc.com/Products/Defa ... SPMAR6115E

And last but certainly not least, you need Drive, to make your bot move. There are pretty much two ways of doing this: motors, or hacked servos.
Servos are motors used in model aircraft to control flaps and things. They are like motors, but they can only move 60 degrees in either direction, and fairly slowly, but they are very easy to plug straight into your receiver and use. Most people either do some hacking with the gears to make it so the servos go 360 degrees, so you can use them as motors to plug straight into the receiver, or they are used as weapons power on flippers for example. I remember Ming having a crusher, so perhaps you could use a servo to power that.
Here is an example of a servo: http://robotbirds.com/catalog/product_i ... cts_id=413 (although if you decide to use servos to power your bot I would recommend finding some servos with guides on the internet about how to hack them to be 360 degree rotation rather than guessing what to get first)
Secondly, are motors. There are two parts to making motor driven robots. You obviously need the motors, but you also need a speed controller. The kind of gearmotors nearly always seen in antweights are like these http://www.pololu.com/catalog/category/60 but I am sure you can get them much cheaper elsewhere than pololu.

Now speed controllers can get a little tricky. If you decide to make a robot with Motors and a Speed Controller, I highly recommend you send an email to Peter Waller (also a member of these forums) and maybe think about getting one of his boards which are a spektrum receiver and a motor speed controller in one handy circuit board!
http://www.antweightwars.co.uk/Controllers2.htm The RX31, at the bottom of this page is the one I tend to use in all my robots nowadays.

Finally, ignoring weapons for now, is the actual chassis, armor, and wheels which hold your bot together. Firstly, I would focus on getting a square of perhaps 3mm thick polycarbonate, which you can drill holes in and use to bolt and attach all your parts and components to, and then work on armoring your robot. The most important thing to remember when building your antweight is that it needs to fit in a 4 inch cube, and weigh under 150g For the physical part of the construction you can get inspiration from around the forums and on the internet, so don't feel shy to ask and search around

Perhaps if you aren't completely sure, you could come along to an event like the next AWS and just spectate. Have a look at some of the bots, ask some questions, and generally learn stuff.

Good luck, I hope I might have helped!

[Shakey]

If you do go down the spektrum front and plan on multiple robots to shell out a tad more for a DX6i as it can be linked to up to 10 models as opposed to 1 like the DX5e. In other words you'll only need to buy one controller.

[razerdave]

Haywire: there is no limit to how many rx's you can have hooked to a dx5, I have 5 on 1 TX and in fact when I had them on together they moved as normal.

[Tom]

Sorry in regards to a speed controller, transmitter and receiver, I have 1 planet 5 controller and 2 receivers which I got when I first purchased my battle ant. I'm a little hazy as to what the speed controllers for/does. (I have spare v tail mixer - is that of any use?) my second idea is to make robot using the pants kit and cannibalise it for parts - in the style of diotor or Ming 2

[razerdave]

The speed controller is a circuit(s) that take the commands from the reciever and translate it into motor movement. You can buy ones 'off the shelf' but to make some on the cheap, you can also use servo control boards because they do the same thing. They require a small mod to work as a speed controller but its easy. I am not sure what parts currently come with the Pants kit, but the big S3003 servos you have in that Battle Ant will make good speed controllers for a beginner. I have used a pair recently for someone else's.

[Roboteernat]

From my research, the best options for a cheap good ant are: (uk links)

Peter waller RX and controller bassed on RX31, or his option for plygging into std RX. http://www.antweightwars.co.uk/Controllers2.htm

If getting the rx31 motor controller from peter, get a DSM2 tx from ebay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Blade-Helis-C ... 35c2d32ee2
Frame, polycarbonate sheet from ebay

Pololu wheels: http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/wheel-32-7?keyword=wheel

Motors - microgear motors - ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Micro-Metal-G ... 336f92764d (http://robotbits.co.uk/motors-gearboxes ... rod_7.html) other speeds available, also check ebay as i found seller selling pair for £5 of different speeds.

lipo battery - 350Mah is ok, less is less weight, some people use 180mah, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ZIPPY-Flightm ... 5aee479247

Weapon, people use small brushless outrunners (outside case rotates) (inrunner - internal shaft rotates) and attach a disk to it, or a servo axe or flipper. scoop... this is where the fun and blue sky comes in.

Just some stuff i seen in my brief time scouring parts and playing about (tho i not actually faught in battle, well not this size anyway... ahem... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG0tzSBt7Yk)

[BeligerAnt]

Welcome Tom!
The Planet 5 transmitter and receiver will work just fine. The V-tail mixer will come in handy if the transmitter doesn't include mixing. It makes steering much easier!
For an overview of the parts in a typical ant and how they fit together see this link:
http://garya.org.uk/antweight-robots/maker-faire
Since you already have a transmitter and receiver, the cheapest option for speed controllers is to use the control boards from standard servos.
To give you an idea of costs, the entire build of Make-A-Bot cost around £150 (August 2012) including transmitter, receiver and battery charger. Since you already have a transmitter and receiver, you should be able to build your robot well within your £120+ budget.
Good luck, keep reading and if you get stuck don't be afraid to ask!

[knightrous]

Alternatively, you could grab a BotBitz GreenAnt kit
http://www.botbitz.com/index.php?route= ... duct_id=73

It's fairly easy to assemble (15-30mins) http://rrevo.dozuki.com/Guide/How+to+as ... Kitbot/2/1
and it's fairly cheap since the Brittish Pound is strong against the Australian Dollar