gametechmods
Off-Topic => Real Robotics => Real Robotics Discussion => Topic started by: Natef on October 21, 2011, 04:27:54 PM
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I really want to get into combat robotics, but I can't spend that much.
I was thinking of taking the chassis out of an RC car, and put some sort of a casing on it.
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No do not go the Aaron Joerger route.
Check out http://kitbots.com/ (http://kitbots.com/) all of their kits placed at the Franklin last week.
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Also-
http://nearchaos.net/guide.html (http://nearchaos.net/guide.html)
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No do not go the Aaron Joerger route.
Why not?
The whole grudge thing?
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It just kinda makes a whole joke of the sport. It's way more fun to have an actual robot you built yourself than an RC car with a piece of aluminum duct taped to it. Also what's more entertaining to watch? D12 or Trilobite?
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Can I see a pic of Trilobite?
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Ok its not a video of Trilobite winning but its still a good promo for both 3lb kits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJFl6pycYB0# (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJFl6pycYB0#)
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That chassis is 130 bucks with no weapons, electronics, or even motors.
Weta is 150 bucks same thing.
A good class to start out in is hobbyweight, you can get drills from Harbor Freight dirt cheap, with a coupon, I can get two drills plus batteries for 30 bucks. With skillful handiwork, you can also build much of your bot from UHMW cutting boards from the Dollar Tree. From same cutting boards, you could also fashion your own hubs, and bolt on Colson wheels, nice, durable, wheels for a good price. For the ESC a Scorpion XL could work wonders for you. For a Radio, if you want to go bottom of the barrel, the HK-T6A from HobbyKing should get the job done. Adding that all up, it will come to about 180 dollars, all from scratch, a far cry from any of the "kits" offers.
I hate to be a soil sport to SKBT, but to build the Trilobite would be nearly, if not, 300 dollars, and that's not even including shipping and taxes. It's simply not a good starting point for beginners.
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While going that route is cheaper, it may not be the best option.
There's a lot of stuff you have to learn when building a robot and a lot of skills that need to be built. You're ignoring most of what makes the kits worth the money. They're a reliable, tested, and stable platform to build on in classes that get run at the majority of events.
Both routes have pros and cons. If you go the kit route, you don't need as much mechanical skill, and you're paying extra for reliability. If you go the complete DIY route you might save money on the initial build if you get it right the first time, which doesn't always happen, and there's the distinct potential that you've messed something vital up in the design and will either need to redesign part of the robot before it's even ready to run or rebuild it after the weak spot gets found in the arena and the internals get bounced off the wall.
With either option, you need to be willing to spend an event or three figuring things out, as something will go wrong and learning from the problem is what makes for better bots.
The choice between kit and DIY comes down to these two questions:
Do you want something that's fairly reliable and easy to put together so you can get something working into the arena?
Do you want to build something from scratch, even if it takes a few tries before it's really working "right"?
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I found a kit on a website linked from NCR's site. It's a little bit less than $200.
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i think that building from scratch is always better