cost

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stuart luxton
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cost

Post by stuart luxton »

hi,how much have you spent on your robots ,who has spent the most in total, and the most on one antweight?

stuart
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BeligerAnt
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Post by BeligerAnt »

Personally, as little as possible!
Whatever the parts cost is, I'm sure it's dwarfed by the time, effort and creativity put into it by the builder. If anyone were to cost their development time it would start to get silly very quickly!
Some robots, like Vacuum, have custom hardware and software which would cost many thousands of pounds to develop commercially.
Where does the cost end? A basic ant might not contain much in the way of expensive parts, but by the time you add batteries, charger, spare crystals, and of course a transmitter the total cost has probably more than doubled.
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Flippt
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Post by Flippt »

If I think of all the time I have been doing ants (my four years), and add the money I spent during that time, I get about 5000kr = ?375
Thats alot of money :o when you dont have any sponsors......
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josh
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Post by josh »

well i spend roughly 120 pound on each bot and spent about 200pound on different radio sets and crystals minus the receivers so a lot of money and ive got 4 bots :P so i never relised i was so rich :P

josh



(lots of oney lots of money :o )
Remote-Controlled Dave
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Post by Remote-Controlled Dave »

I'm scared to calculate the costs I've spent on mine (Specially if you include train tickets to/from events!). Considering its only been about 8months since I started, it'll be a very scary figure indeed. I don't see the (overall) cost as an issue, its not nice to think that way for something that's built to be destroyed. I just enjoy it so much, hell with the expenses.
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paul
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Post by paul »

i tend not to think of it as something you build to destroy, more as something you build to play with and fight with, however in totaly skint and have been for some time and so havnt really done anything towards mine, so money does matter but it should be what you worry about if you get me.....

(dont worry if you dont cos im confused myself =P)
stuart luxton
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Post by stuart luxton »

well ive spent about ?500 on my failed heavy weight robots ,about ?150 on a feather weight and another ?250 on antweight.the most in parts in any single antweight is ?95. grand total ?900 my wife had better not find out. still worth every penny.

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Flippt
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Post by Flippt »

If we're gonna compare with the travel too, then I have to add another ?428 for all three AWS I've been to.
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Rhys
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Post by Rhys »

When I think about what I've spent on robots in total over the last few years, I usually start to have a bit of a cry. In total it's about ?2000, but considering thats everything, I suppose thats not too bad for a hobby that I've been constantly enjoying for the last 3 years.

And I do mean everything. This is counting transport to events, tools (which I had none of before starting robotics), and stuff I have used for other hobbies, like chargers, transmitters etc (for planes, cars etc.). Also, I have spent a bit on stuff for a heavy which never happened, so a large amount of that is for batteries, motors and a set of 4QD controllers that are just sitting in my shed. Plus I've also built 3 different feathers.

For cost per ant I'll always try and stay below ?60 if I can. Only specialist ants should be more than that (pneumatics, brushless etc). But then again I do rebuild my ants after every event (currently planning Duff mk11 fo AWS18!), so that can get pricey. One day I'll be satisfied and save myself a fortune!
Adam Hargreaves
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Post by Adam Hargreaves »

I'm always skint. Current cost cutting measures include one recever for two bots, only one Tx, using a servo board as a speed controller, gaffa tape instead of screws... and an SD200 servo made from dead bits out of a couple of Daves SD200s... (when we ripped em apart for AWS17). Largest outlay has been train tickets for AWS17. and my Tx/Rx
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