Build Diary for a new antweight

All things antweight

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Fenrir
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2015 8:41 pm
Location: Birmingham

Re: Build Diary for a new antweight

Post by Fenrir »

I'm having a little ESC trouble. One of my ESCs in Roc burnt out, or there was some kind of issue with it, a week or so back, so I cut it out, and resoldered all of the connections. After all of that, it works fine, however during the testing phase, the signal wire in my other ESC broke off, and the other two wires tangled. So I ended up pulling them off and trying to resolder. My soldering isn't the best, it's new to me, and my soldering iron tip is poor. If I soldered incorrectly, then the motor would continuously spin whenever I turned the transmitter on, but after resoldering the ESC numerous times it has now gotten to the point where it won't move at all, meaning somethings not connected, generally, but everything was connected, the connections were a little messy, but everything was firmly on, no cold solders. Upon close inspection it appeared to move ever so slightly for a split second when the battery was plugged in, but nowhere near as much as the working motor would. Anyone have any suggestions? I guess I could post attachments but I undid most of the solders after the last failed attempt.
Fenrir
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2015 8:41 pm
Location: Birmingham

Re: Build Diary for a new antweight

Post by Fenrir »

ESC Trouble: Part II

After giving up on the broken ESCs, I went for a pair that had BECS. I originally went for a pair with brakes but I also have a pair without coming in the post. After soldering some clips onto the motors, the ESCs can be switched out easily, but after taking the advice on here and other forums and only attaching one battery, a 2S LiPo, one motor appears to be much more powered than the other, and forwards results in whichever ESC having the battery overpowering the other motor and turning in the opposite direction in an open circle. I was wondering if there was any fix to this, maybe the charge was down on the battery and it's only powering the one motor the most? I've tried disconnecting the live wire from the second ESC on the receiver connector but that just kills the ESC. Anyone got any ideas?
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BeligerAnt
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Re: Build Diary for a new antweight

Post by BeligerAnt »

I'm not entirely certian how you've wired it up, but without easily being able to draw a picture at the moment, here goes a (hopefully) clear step by step description:

Connect the battery to BOTH ESCs.
Remove the centre (usually red) lead from one of the ESCs.
Connect both ESCs to the receiver.
Connect one motor to each ESC (obvs!)

It's best to connect the battery and ESCs together in a "Y" form, or if you connect them in a line put the battery in the middle and make the wires the same length.
Gary, Team BeligerAnt
Fenrir
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2015 8:41 pm
Location: Birmingham

Re: Build Diary for a new antweight

Post by Fenrir »

Thanks, I thought I'd have to do that but I didn't want to mess with anything just in case. Need a new mixer though, I think something went wrong with mine as it was sending the robot into full forwards, or was wired up so one of the motors was backwards. I could switch a motor upside down I guess and try that but the wires were very thin so I'd worry it would short out, and the mixer from Oni worked fine on the new electronics so I've bought another turnigy one. Still suffering with weight though, the robot will be very close to the wire and that's without all the decoration I like to add with my robots, and I've made the chassis as small as I can just about fitting everything in.
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BeligerAnt
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Re: Build Diary for a new antweight

Post by BeligerAnt »

Drill some holes in it! :)

(There are over 500 in R.O.N.N.Y. :D You can get away with removing quite a lot of material from a chassis)
Gary, Team BeligerAnt
Fenrir
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2015 8:41 pm
Location: Birmingham

Re: Build Diary for a new antweight

Post by Fenrir »

Yeah, I did some drilling, but ultimately, after doing holes too large it looks like I wasn't really able to lose enough weight from the robot. It's ok, it's not exactly fighting fit and really awkward to drive because of the brakes on the ESCs, but it's nice to have something to fight against Oni. I'll try some more weight saving techniques from the start with the next robot I make, including different ESCs I think.
Fenrir
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2015 8:41 pm
Location: Birmingham

Re: Build Diary for a new antweight

Post by Fenrir »

So after making some purchases I have made a couple of very small, very light and very cheap ESCs out of servo boards and a few SMD chip resistors. It's not perfect, even with the trims all the way to the left or all the way up, there is still a bit of movement in them, but it's passable, and better than the clunky heavy ESCs I last used bought for about £7 for two, and with the stuff I have I could make about 8 more of them without having to buy anything else.
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Rapidrory
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Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2013 9:54 pm

Re: Build Diary for a new antweight

Post by Rapidrory »

Yeah, you need to use different values of resistor sometimes to get the trim sorted... 2.2k and 1.8k or a similar ratio would probably sort it
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
Fenrir
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2015 8:41 pm
Location: Birmingham

Re: Build Diary for a new antweight

Post by Fenrir »

Yeah I kinda limited myself by only buying one type of SMD. I'll buy the book with lots of different ones in next time, there's one for pretty cheap on eBay.
Rapidrory
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Re: Build Diary for a new antweight

Post by Rapidrory »

Could always just stick another resistor in parallel with one of them to half the resistance on that side. Might bring it within trim range at least.
Rory Mangles - Team Nuts

Robots: Nuts 2 and many more...

NanoTwo Motor Controllers: https://nutsandbots.co.uk/product/nanotwodualesc
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