Team BLEEP build diary

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voorsk
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Team BLEEP build diary

Post by voorsk »

edit: Updated title to reflect team name (I'm still a noob, tho)
edit 2 (01/10/18): Updated title to reflect new and improved team name

Hi all!

Yes, I'm afraid it's yet another noob build diary thingie. The other ones have been useful for me, as it meant other people asked all the questions that I had. :) Well.. almost all. I'm sure I can think of some for myself.

Personally, I got into this due to one of the recent World Championship episodes of Robot Wars, which revealed the existence of weight classes. Until then, I'd always assumed building a robot was for people with garages, lots of moolah, and very understanding wives. Turns out, all I need is an understanding wife! Alas, she doesn't understand, but I do have a 7 year old son who's really into Robot Wars, so obviously this is all for his education. ahem..

For now, all I have is bits;
FlySky FS-i6 transmitter & receiver (plasticky!)
DasMikro 2S6A ESC
180mah 2s batteries (+charge bag and charger)
10:1, 50:1, and 300rpm gear motors (I got indecisive!)
Pomorororni wheels
2mm Polycarb
1.2mm Aluminium
TowerPro MG90S Servo

So far, all I've done is solder the DasMikro to its wires, and I did a pretty ropey job with that.
Image

I don't think the red output wire is touching ground. I might have to redo that one. My BTEC electronics teacher would have a fit if he saw the blobby soldering. I blame not having soldered in 4 years and having drug-induced shakes! (liver transplant) :P

Next thing is soldering connectors to the motors and the ends of the motor leads. The connectors will add a bit of weight, but make it easy to switch things about. I suppose I should also add a switch to the battery connetors, too.

Then I'll attach it all to a cardboard base, fit some wheels, and see what happens. I'm expecting melted electronics and a LiPo fire. I've always been an optimist. :)
Last edited by voorsk on Mon Oct 01, 2018 8:50 am, edited 4 times in total.
Team BLEEP Suspicious Houmous / Sprouting Potato / Fermented Melon / Black Carrot
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Lincoln
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Location: Olney, Milton keynes

Re: Another noob bot

Post by Lincoln »

Hello, first of all, welcome!
We really don't mind having more new people joining us and asking questions is the best way to learn, other than trial and error which tends not to be great when it comes to lipos.

Antwights is a really great starting point to get into robotics so you've come to the right place.
I can't personally answer many of your questions as i make my own electronics
1464295777_tmp_IMG_20160526_205413__1464296062_109.151.87.121.jpg
1464295777_tmp_IMG_20160526_205413__1464296062_109.151.87.121.jpg (192.24 KiB) Viewed 23488 times
but i can highly recommend you get your son as involved as possible,
i started being interested in robots when i was about his age and now i'm 16 and rather than doing my A level work i'm designing electronics for fun.
Take that as a good or bad thing if you wish.

anyway, welcome to the forum.
Team RobotMad, home of the Smart robots, and very mean pots :)
Chris and Lincoln Barnes
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voorsk
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Re: Another noob bot

Post by voorsk »

Nice electrickery!

I should've mentioned that I did my BTEC back in 1990, and the only PCB we made was a basic 555 timer project with some chunky single-sided PCB work. I made the smallest PCB in class, which I was really proud of, but my maths was too rubbish, so I got into programming. :P

My son's already got some bots to play with, thanks to the wonders of bristlebots. I showed him how to put them together, and he built two bots and a RW arena, including a dial of doom (he launches a toy car into the arena when it gets hit). :D

So he doesn't feel left out when I tell him not to mess with the Antweight, I've also bought him some Lego RC stuff, so he can build and control his own, stronger, safer bot. :)
Team BLEEP Suspicious Houmous / Sprouting Potato / Fermented Melon / Black Carrot
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voorsk
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Re: Another noob bot

Post by voorsk »

in case anyone was wondering about the bristlebots..

Image
bristlestorm immobilized!
Team BLEEP Suspicious Houmous / Sprouting Potato / Fermented Melon / Black Carrot
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voorsk
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Re: Another noob bot

Post by voorsk »

Another night of soldering, and this time I attached some pin connectors to the 50:1 drive motors, along with the anti-interference capacitors. I left the leads on the capacitors, as I'm going to heat shrink them to the floppy wires that hold the connectors for a bit of rigidity.

Image

I maaay have been a bit enthusiastic with the wire snipping there - it could turn out to be a very narrow bot!

I also cleaned up the dubious positive connection on the ESC. I did take a photo, but it's sooo similar to the first one that there doesn't seem much point sharing it. :P
Team BLEEP Suspicious Houmous / Sprouting Potato / Fermented Melon / Black Carrot
Paulmchurd
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Re: Another noob bot

Post by Paulmchurd »

What do the capacitors do? I'm assuming they are the little things attached to the motors?

Cheers
Paul
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voorsk
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Re: Another noob bot

Post by voorsk »

As far as I can tell, they attach between the terminals on the motors in order to reduce radio interference that's caused by the motors sparking.

https://www.pololu.com/docs/0J15/9

edit: oh, and yeah - they're the little brownish things that're attached to the motors. The ESC came with 8 of them, which seems very generous. Makes me wonder if that's what they're for. :-? I'd better check the farads when I get home!
Team BLEEP Suspicious Houmous / Sprouting Potato / Fermented Melon / Black Carrot
Paulmchurd
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Re: Another noob bot

Post by Paulmchurd »

Ah thanks. Makes sense now.

It recommends 1-3 on that site. I didn't solder on my capacitors. Nor did I twist the wires. Maybe I should do it. I guess it's not essential though?
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Shakey
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Re: Another noob bot

Post by Shakey »

The N20's are pretty quite motors so you can run them happily without extra smoothing caps.

Also that was me on the world series! Good to see it working and introducing more people into the sport.
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!

Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
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voorsk
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Re: Another noob bot

Post by voorsk »

I thought it was you, but despite my son having watched it half a dozen times on iplayer, I've only seen that sequence once, so I couldn't remember. :roll: It was certainly eye opening!

I've ran into my first quandary.. I bought a Turnigy 12v 2-3S Basic Balance Charger, and I thought I had a PSU to use with it, but the 12V PSU I've got supplies 2A instead of the 1.5A recommended in the indecipherable manual.

I don't want to risk any explosions, so is using a 2A power supply likely to be an issue, or is it okay? I'm suspecting it's okay, but thought I'd better check. :)
Team BLEEP Suspicious Houmous / Sprouting Potato / Fermented Melon / Black Carrot
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