Antweight bits for beginners

All things antweight

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razerdave
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Antweight bits for beginners

Post by razerdave »

Hey guys

Some of you may have seen my ripper look-a-like antweight at the Brighton maker fair yesterday. I built that on a budget of £100 and managed to get it in fighting condition, so I thought I'd post a list of the bits:

Motors: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12mm-6V-DC-30 ... 51a0999c28
£8

Transmitter: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Parkzone- ... 1e721d6717
£19.34

Compatible receiver: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RC-Model-Airc ... 27ca7650f5,
also availible here:http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... iver_.html
£6.24

Battery: http://www.component-shop.co.uk/html/small_packs.html - I was using the 210mAh one
£4.60 each.
£4.26 discounted price for 3+ packs

Weapon servo: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... 12sec.html,
or http://www.modelshopleeds.co.uk/catalog ... cts_id=677
£11.20 from Hobbyking or £12.40 from leeds.

charger: http://www.component-shop.co.uk/html/mw2168vd.html - please note I had to modify this to fit the battery linked above.

Speed controller: Peter Waller's Option D2: £37 posted.

Total: £92.37, but this does not include postage. This does not include the wheels (which I had spare for that new robot) or
the material (I got for free and I custom made it)

Now, does anyone know where I can find D-shaft wheels on the cheap, so I can add to that list ? Jonno has been asking again about doing competitive ant kits and, barring postage, thats the cheapest motor driven kit I could get, but it needs wheels.

Any ideas?
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BeligerAnt
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Re: Antweight bits for beginners

Post by BeligerAnt »

That's really useful Dave, thanks for posting.
Along similar lines, here is a complete guide to robot parts and assembly with links to suppliers: http://goo.gl/LUTjl
Total price comes out around £130 inc all materials and P&P and using only UK suppliers.

Technobots sell a range of Pololu wheels, about £5 per pair. Not many places seem to sell the bigger sizes.
I believe Lego Technics wheels can be adapted fairly easily, but expect they cost as much as the Pololu wheels...

It's a real problem, and I don't know the solution. A kit for under £100 (including ALL parts, materials and postage) from reliable sources seems unlikely without obtaining volume discounts, which would require serious investment and significant sales...

Anyone got any bright ideas???
Gary, Team BeligerAnt
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peterwaller
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Re: Antweight bits for beginners

Post by peterwaller »

They dont have the flat, but the green wheels on one of my drive all days, are a tight fit on the motor shaft and have survived three demo events.
Image
They are 39mm diameter, weigh in at 2.8gms and cost 32p inc vat.
Here is a link to them although the site seems to be down at the moment.
http://www.mindsetsonline.co.uk/product ... id=1009819
The only problem with your list is Dave is the controllers, while it is one thing to knock up the odd controller for people I know it has already grown out of all proportion and the expected 10 or 12 controllers has already reached 79, not including the twenty odd I have built for myself, and I am not looking to build a lot more.
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Re: Antweight bits for beginners

Post by razerdave »

Yeah sorry Pete, Jonno asked what I used so I wrote it down. For just £10 more you could buy a sabretooth but I'd rather your controller :). Your speedos are just too good Pete :)
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Re: Antweight bits for beginners

Post by Remote-Controlled Dave »

Peter, would you release the details of your controllers? I'm sure you don't plan to keep them under wraps or anything, and someone like Jonno could find a way to mass produce them for his purposes.
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petec
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Re: Antweight bits for beginners

Post by petec »

Thanks Dave for the list. It's useful to show what can be done and I did tell several people that you could just about do it for £100 but a lot of the ebay shops are too unreliable for me so I have to push the cost up a bit. Also plug-top chargers for Lipos are virtually non-existent (there are a few but they are mostly rubbish) and 'non-technical' beginners don't want to mess around with batteries.

I have just added to the shop a version of the existing kit which uses gearmotors and std servo controller boards but sticks with the good old fashioned 4.8v nimh cells and chargers. With a 30:1 motor this performs well (I've just had Pants running around like it) and is a good first step. If people later want to move to Lipos, they can. Price is the same as the standard kit for now. I constantly look to reduce the costs - as you all know I really do it more or less at cost with a small contribution towards the running costs of the website.

Wheels of different sizes can be got from RobotBits.co.uk - but they still start about £5 a pair.

PeteC
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stimpy
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Re: Antweight bits for beginners

Post by stimpy »

Hello,
I was at the makers faire in Brighton on Saturday and came across the antweights. As a fan of robotwars in the day I am keen to have a go at making one of these little monsters! I am hoping to get my 7 year son involved in the chassis designing and making to. He enjoyed playing on the one pictured above. I was desperate to have a go but too many kids wanted a go so lost out :evil:
Firstly the information available on this site is excellent, I just hope I can cobble something together. I am a 3d artist and draughtsman for architectural metalwork, so once I have some bits I should be able to design something. Hopefully I can assemble it as have no experience in this sort of thing

I have started pricing up based on what I have gleaned and realising it's going to cost about £100-120 inc p&p

2 questions:

1. Can I make one of these less competitive, but cheaper?
2. Could I buy say a cheap helicopter for £25 off ebay and cannibalising it for transmitter/receiver and possibly battery/battery charger/weapon servo/motor be a way of saving cash? (seems a shame but I will play with it 1st!)

Thanks for any guidance
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Team Orr
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Re: Antweight bits for beginners

Post by Team Orr »

1: Very possible. There are kits available here for £100 or so which make for a decent starting point OR you could buy bits individually yourself for about the same price. TBH battles are so fast pretty much anything can be somewhat competitive. I came second in my first event with a robot that was, lets say, less than shoddy. Driving skill and luck make up a large majority or wins/losses.

2: Also possible but honestly i would advice against it. It would be plagued by so many problems that honestly its not worthwhile. The frequency would clash with other things for one thing, also the motors would have no power and it would all be a lot of hassle for a not-very-good end product. If i were you i would invest in some basic equipment, theres loads of guys on here that will point you in the right direction.

Hope that helps, its a nice community here and whilst daunting at first it makes for a really satisfying hobby. You mentioned you work with 3D software, that skill will certainly help later on if you decide to go the 3D printed chassis route, but for now keep it simple and with a little time and effort you make something really cool for the kids (both big and small!)

Jack
"if it wasn't for Edison we'd be watching TV by candlelight"
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haz
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Re: Antweight bits for beginners

Post by haz »

Hi stimpy, welcome to the forum :)
Robots can be built very cheapy if you are willing to sacrifice alot of funtionality and general effectiveness.
Last night on MSN i was talking with Dave Weston and he had worked out a realy basic antweight for about £60, using pretty poor but very upgradable parts, enough to get something moving then build upon it and improve.
cheers,
Haz
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petec
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Re: Antweight bits for beginners

Post by petec »

Welcome to the forum - it was great meeting so many people on Saturday. To answer your questions:

1 Yes, definitely but not as a kit. The simplest robot is a pusher (no active weapon) which means two drive motors, battery and receiver. To keep costs down, use servos for the motors. You can can get Towerpro MG90S servos for about £5 each from giantcod.Co.UK - you can also get a complete 2.4Ghz transmitter and receiver set for about £30. You then need a battery and charger. A basic battery would be a 2/3 AAA 4.8v NiMh battery pack. This can be charged with a good old fashioned plug-top charger. Google prices for the battery - strikealite is usually about £6 quid. The chargers are becoming harder to find so go to sussex-model-centre (worthing) where you can get them for about £10 plus £3 or £4 postage. (Or pop in and talk to them).
Total cost of this is probably £60ish. EBay is worth looking at if you are not in a hurry as there is some good stuff from China.

2. No, don't bother. Waste of money and will just cause more trouble than it's worth.

PeteC
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