New father/son builder team

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Beerdy
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jun 19, 2018 2:47 pm

New father/son builder team

Post by Beerdy »

Hello everyone.

I’m new to the site, new to robotics, and just new in general. I’m here because my son has recently found Battlebots and fallen in love. He is 10 and goes to a local STEM school, and I want to encourage his exploration of this field/tech.

We recently attended a local combat robot show (North Carolina), and he was hooked. He now wants to make this own!

I’ve been doing a lot of research, trying to find out exactly what we need, and I think I have a lot of it figured out. With that said, I still have many many questions.

First I’ll start with the bot info. We are going to build either an antweight or fairyweight bot, but I’m leaning toward antweight (1lb) so that we don’t have to worry about keeping weight down as much. The design he wants is similar to Tombstone (his favorite), but with a saw blade for cutting.

I have some polycarbonate sheets for the body, and was going to use some nutstrip to hold it together. Having little fabrication skills, I was going to keep the body relatively simple for our first bot.

Here is the list of parts that I’ve assembled. Please let me know what else I need.

Motors for wheels – 2x Fingertech Silver Spark 100:1

Speed controller for wheels –2x Fingertech tinyESX

Wheels – Fingertech 2.5x75

Hubs for wheels – Fingertech Snap Hubs

Motor for saw – Fingertech Brushless inrunner

Speed controller for saw – tinyESC

I’d like to adapt a Dremel blade of sorts for his weapon.

The power, Tx/rX, and battery will be done essentially the same as Fingertech’s Viper kit.

I’m not a fingertech groupie, it’s just that it’s the first site that I found with all of those parts. Please feel free to critique.

This will be our first time soldering, so I got a “learn to solder” kit first to get acclimated.

I guess my biggest question is in regards to the weapon. I get the motor and the speed controller, but I can’t wrap my head around getting a blade to attach to a shaft (still need to source this) to attach to the motor, etc.
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voorsk
Posts: 167
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2018 8:11 am
Location: Stockport, UK
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Re: New father/son builder team

Post by voorsk »

Hi

I'm still a noob here, so I didn't want to reply with any dodgy information, but it seems weird that no-one's replied, so I'll do it anyway! :P

You might find it a bit tricky finding advice here, as this forum is mainly for 150g UK antweight (fairyweight) bots, and I don't think anyone has much experience with 1lb antweights, as the next step up from 150g are 1.4kg beetleweights (quite a big jump!).

That means the components you'd typically use in a US antweight are too big for UK antweights, and too small for beetleweights (I think?), so not many people have experience with them. I could be completely wrong, however! Actually, your mounting problem might be common, despite the weight differences, but I've never built a spinner, so I personally have no idea. :roll:

From what I've seen from the web, it sounds like you're on the right track. I don't think you can go far wrong with Fingertech stuff.
Team BLEEP Suspicious Houmous / Sprouting Potato / Fermented Melon / Black Carrot
Coboxite
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2018 2:22 am

Re: New father/son builder team

Post by Coboxite »

I have to interject here, because I have a fair suspicion that you're extremely new to this.

100:1 Silver sparks are far too slow for drive. At the voltage you're using and the wheel size chosen, you'll be moving at an absolutely glacial .8mph. 50:1 is what I would consider the absolute max for gearing, most ants run 22:1 or 30:1, which will get you at a much better pace of around 3 to 4 mph.



The Fingertech inrunner is designed with beetles in mind(the next weight up). Its going to eat a big chunk of your weight, it's not designed for 1:1 drive, and worse yet, it's going to draw more amps than your battery can handle. At best, its going to brown out your entire system, at worst, its going to cause a battery fire. I'd highly recommend a brushless outrunner for an antweight, the one that comes with the Viper spinner add-ons(The DYS D2822/17 1100KV) is a perfect choice for the class.


As an added note, your weapon motor is brushless, and is 100% incompatible with the Tiny ESC, which is made to only drive brushed motors. The Turnigy Plush 12amp is what comes with the Viper spinner add-ons, and its what I would recommend for the class starting out.


A dremel blade is likely going to be too small do deal any meaningful damage to an ant, and the standard fiber blades will fragment on hit. The average horizontal ant blade is around four to six inches in effective diameter. The standard Fingertech titanium six inch blade is a good starting point, strong and hits like a truck when it gets going.



To attach the weapon to the motor depends, but the standard is using a hub. The fingertech blade hub is the standard, but if you're using the titanium blade, you can also use the Servocity hubs. Do not use the set screw hubs, they will fail.
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