I’m getting into creating my first antweight battle robot. I’ve had a look at the parts, and I kind of want to try something that focuses on either pushing a robot out or a very light piercing weapon. I have the funds to buy a drive kit, but I am lost on other parts i’d need Soldering CAD/3D printing, etc). Additionally, I wanted to see what advice any other bot builders had for somebody new.
For 3D printing I use a Bambu labs a1 which is a good quality printer that doesn’t cost a fortune. Alternatively if you want to go cheaper, you can try the Bambu labs a1 mini which have a print plate size of 150mm by 150mm, perfect for ants. For CAD I would reccomend starting off with something simple, such as Tinkercad, to learn the basics of designing (assuming you don’t have any experience at this already). My advice would be to take your time and try and learn as much as you can. Especially when you’re building your first bot as that can be a great learning experience. Also, try to go to events as much as you can, it’s a great chance to meet new people, learn from experienced roboteers and get some driving experience in!
ps, welcome to the forum James!
Hollis
a 3d printing service: 3D People UK | 3D Printing Service | Order Online
soldering irons cost around £15.
always read the rules, and learn from your losses.
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as for a kit, the Pusher Ant from Nuts and Bots goes around £92.50, or £125.00 if you want a weapon hat with it.
Hi James. Welcome to the forum!
The biggest learning curve you ever have with robots is getting your first moving testbed. What I mean is there is no real substitute for getting parts (the BBB kit is great for this) together and onto a sheet of scrap material moving under its own power.
Genuinely I would get to this stage and then see how you want to progress.
I’m a huge fan of CAD and processes such as 3D printing and other CNC processes but you can still do so much with pen and paper drawings and hand built frames.
You can’t realistically do without a soldering iron, but it’s a really nice low price point skill. I have always had either an Amazon basics or currently a Lidl own brand station and it does everything I want. I’d grab some wire, heat shrink and just burn away and afternoon getting the hang of it. The only cheat code I can offer is don’t bother with the lead free solder and don’t get the really chunky stuff. So long as you’re not eating the stuff or inhaling cloud after cloud for weeks at a time you’ll be fine.
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Graph paper is your friend! I like to use it to plan out what the robot’s chassis is going to look like and how parts are going to fit into it before firing up a CAD program. It also gives you a chance to see how big the robot could potentially be and make adjustments before printing/ordering parts!
I tend to use CAD (cardboard aided design) using old cereal packets to get the overall shape and check that everything fits. It is possible to make some great shapes with 3d printing but it is not essential.
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So before I even get a bot that can fight, I should just focus on making something that functions. Slap motors+battery onto a piece of material and set if off.
I mean you don’t have to but I feel it’s a really useful step to get familiar with how the components work together and do any problem solving before transplanting them to a combat ready chassis.
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Strongly agree with Harry! It’s super helpful to understand your components and work without any material/design restrictions to start just so you know you can make something that drives and works.
Read and watch guides, try things, ask for help when you need, and you’ll get there!
Lots of guides to bot building on our site if you haven’t checked them out already 
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For a first try, should I just buy the reccomended components?
This one?
Yes I would. It’s simple and cheap and the support around it with the guides and such it’s your best bet.
If I only put the wheels on a chassis, does that cause issues with soldering/unsoldering?
Not sure I follow the exact nature of the question?
If you’re asking if you have to disassemble your electronics when you take them from bench testing to a test platform to a final robot the the awnser is “No” with an “it depends” caveat.
Once you have wired it all together, soldered wires to motors and so on and had a little test to ensure it’s working correctly (you may have to swap motor wires to get them going the right way) you can just drop that arrangement into whatever frame or chassis you like.
You might need to disconnect things if you have access problems or tight spaces and you need to cut wires down or you need them longer. But that is something that’s within your control as you build your robot.
I pretty much was asking that, mainly because I was slightly concerned about weather dissembling would require un-soldering, and how problematic that could be.
Unsoldering is probably quicker than soldering, you just reheat the solder joint with the soldering iron and pull apart.
I’d definitely read the build guide, maybe a YouTube guide on how to solder and just get cracking, you learn more through doing than not 
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Is there any major considerations I need to make for soldering irons, like apsecifc brands?
Also, I was thinking of going with lead-free solder, but im not an expert.
Personally I would get 6040 solder - I can’t recommend lead free as I find it’s harder to get good joints with.
30w is about right for general purpose robot work. I find having a station with a built in stand easier as it just gives me somewhere to put the iron that isn’t just balancing it on a tabletop. Mine was just a cheap one from lidl (Parkside 4 lyfe) though they’re much of a muchness. I’ve always had luck with antex or maplin (showing my age potentially there)
I would recommend an iron with actual temperature control over one without - something like a TS100 or Pinecil is a good compact option if you want to avoid lugging round a big mains powered station.
It’s definitely easier to get good joints with lead solder, with the caveat that most stuff now comes soldered with lead-free solder, and you’ll need to remove as much as possible before re-soldering with lead - when they mix you get weird alloys that can be fragile or soft. You can just dab at it and wipe off the old solder with the tip of the iron, but some no-clean flux (I like the marker pen style ones), a solder sucker (Engineer SS02 gets my vote), and solder wick are good optional extras for making your life easier when soldering!