How Big is your Beetle?

[EddieJ]

Research purposes !

Having only seen under a handful of Beetles in the flesh - it would be great to judge if a design is going to come in hugely under or over sized!

[Ocracoke]

My two Beetleweights measure as follows:

The Honey Badger 4.0: 35cm length x 22cm width x 12.5cm height
Shu! 2.0: 26cm length x 31cm width x 29cm height (noting this is when the lifting arm is in its tallest position.

[EddieJ]

Thanks! Leads me to believe I was designing things a bit too small

[Tufty]

Thanks! Leads me to believe I was designing things a bit too small

Total noob here (and first post, woop!) but depending how much smaller you were thinking, is that necessarily a bad thing? You become a smaller target, probably more agile simply for having wheels closer together, and less weight wasted?

I'm looking at a conversion of an RC car to start in Beetleweights (fully aware it'll be sacrificial ) and my biggest worry is that it's about the same size as referenced above - meaning it's weaker, by dint of being a toy, AND doesn't have the advantage of a smaller bot.

All that said, by no means take my advice as being from someone who knows what he's doing!

[EddieJ]

I think you are right, it is good to keep things compact and "dense". But for some bots like grabbers or crushers, making sure you are sized right is pretty important

Definitely get your RC car converted to tank steering for a beetle conversion! Or turning around after hitting a wall will be like this

[Tufty]

It's already got tank steering, or I wouldn't even consider using it. I'm going to swap out the ESC and transmitter though so I can add a weapon in the future, and might end up replacing the motors too (purely for the sake of making the robot invertible; right now the motor housing JUST stands on a level with the top of the tracks, and that's a bit of an issue when armour is added!).

By odd luck I've come across two partial scooters abandoned near a friend's house, one with the handlebars missing and one, oddly, actually cut at an angle along the footplate. Brought them home, cleaned them up, and presto! Free armour! Plus the two wheels I now have could be adapted into a pair of brutally heavy spinners, although I think the bearings in at least one are destroyed.