Initial Project Update 3
Last I had told you, I had written a little application that let me control the servos via jstick instead of command line or remote desktop stuff. Some of you have used to software to move the camera around etc. At this point I figured it was time to get serious and move on from my brothers to building my own chassis etc.
I started doing lots of research and looking for parts etc.
www.northerntools.com
www.wmberg.com
www.robotcombat.com/store.html
www.lynxmotion.com
were some of the great places I found for parts etc.
I decided to buy my own motors and not try and steal the ones from my brothers robot. I went to ebay and got a sweet deal on a pair of used wheelchair motors. After shipping it cost me $75 bucks or so.
They are pretty sweet. They have built in gears and seem pretty strong but I havent really been able to test them as I dont have anything to fit on the shaft.
Here's a pic.
Now that I had my own motors, I started some serious design on the chassis. The earlier rendering was just a concept type thing. Now I know what I was dealing with and could start some serious design work.
The speed controller that I had drove things like a tank. Basically both wheels on one side are powered in tandem. To turn one side goes forward, the other backwards. I figured since I had 2 motors and not 4 I would use a chain drive to move both wheels with one motor. Here is my first design.
As you can see, a single motor drives the two wheels on a chain, the sprocket above the motor is a tension/idler sprocket that would be ajustable to make sure the chain is tight.
I modeled the motors more accuratly to the real thing using drawings from the manufacturers website. The wheels are 12.5 inches if you need to get a sense of scale. The body is 10x30x36in I think. It would about 4.5 inches of ground clearance.
My second design was to have the two motors directly connected to the wheels. This made the things a little simpler but the downside is that I wont be able to gear up/down the drive system by changing my sprockets out. This is the design im favoring at the moment.
Here is a closeup of how I would have to use two bearings (green things) to keep weight pressure off the motor shaft. I'd have to use some kind of coupling as well. (red thing)
Top View
Heres a little animation I made.
http://www.cp-tel.net/pasqualy/land...comotion001.mov
So this is where I stand.
Once I decide on the final design of the chassis I have to find the money to buy the parts and material. Then I have to find the time to head down to the farm and get one of my brothers to help me weld it. I don't weld well enough to do it myself.
Money is a big issue here. Any way I look at it, its going to cost me at least $200 bucks in parts including wheels, bearings, chian, sprockets, etc. Then I have to buy the aluminium for the frame. Then I have to buy batteries. Probably another $200 there. Though I have a few 6V's that I can rig up that I got from various broken UPS's.
I'm also looking at a mini itx board from via. They have one that has a built in 12V power supply hookup that will work perfect for me. Another $150 bucks or so. I have a notebook harddrive for it and adapter already lined up as well as a pci 802.11b card and antenna.
I'm also looking at incorporating something like this from lynxmotion.
http://www.lynxmotion.com/Category.aspx?CategoryID=25
I may build my own however and make it a little more robust.
Anyway, I'll post further updates as they come. As you can see above I just ordered a little electric BB shooter and I plan to mount that on the current battle bot for fun.
Let me know what you think about my chassis designs. Im very open to ideas right now. Personally I think the damn thing is too wide.
I started doing lots of research and looking for parts etc.
www.northerntools.com
www.wmberg.com
www.robotcombat.com/store.html
www.lynxmotion.com
were some of the great places I found for parts etc.
I decided to buy my own motors and not try and steal the ones from my brothers robot. I went to ebay and got a sweet deal on a pair of used wheelchair motors. After shipping it cost me $75 bucks or so.
They are pretty sweet. They have built in gears and seem pretty strong but I havent really been able to test them as I dont have anything to fit on the shaft.
Here's a pic.
Now that I had my own motors, I started some serious design on the chassis. The earlier rendering was just a concept type thing. Now I know what I was dealing with and could start some serious design work.
The speed controller that I had drove things like a tank. Basically both wheels on one side are powered in tandem. To turn one side goes forward, the other backwards. I figured since I had 2 motors and not 4 I would use a chain drive to move both wheels with one motor. Here is my first design.
As you can see, a single motor drives the two wheels on a chain, the sprocket above the motor is a tension/idler sprocket that would be ajustable to make sure the chain is tight.
I modeled the motors more accuratly to the real thing using drawings from the manufacturers website. The wheels are 12.5 inches if you need to get a sense of scale. The body is 10x30x36in I think. It would about 4.5 inches of ground clearance.
My second design was to have the two motors directly connected to the wheels. This made the things a little simpler but the downside is that I wont be able to gear up/down the drive system by changing my sprockets out. This is the design im favoring at the moment.
Here is a closeup of how I would have to use two bearings (green things) to keep weight pressure off the motor shaft. I'd have to use some kind of coupling as well. (red thing)
Top View
Heres a little animation I made.
http://www.cp-tel.net/pasqualy/land...comotion001.mov
So this is where I stand.
Once I decide on the final design of the chassis I have to find the money to buy the parts and material. Then I have to find the time to head down to the farm and get one of my brothers to help me weld it. I don't weld well enough to do it myself.
Money is a big issue here. Any way I look at it, its going to cost me at least $200 bucks in parts including wheels, bearings, chian, sprockets, etc. Then I have to buy the aluminium for the frame. Then I have to buy batteries. Probably another $200 there. Though I have a few 6V's that I can rig up that I got from various broken UPS's.
I'm also looking at a mini itx board from via. They have one that has a built in 12V power supply hookup that will work perfect for me. Another $150 bucks or so. I have a notebook harddrive for it and adapter already lined up as well as a pci 802.11b card and antenna.
I'm also looking at incorporating something like this from lynxmotion.
http://www.lynxmotion.com/Category.aspx?CategoryID=25
I may build my own however and make it a little more robust.
Anyway, I'll post further updates as they come. As you can see above I just ordered a little electric BB shooter and I plan to mount that on the current battle bot for fun.
Let me know what you think about my chassis designs. Im very open to ideas right now. Personally I think the damn thing is too wide.
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