For the last month or two, ive been curious about building my first Beetleweight, ive build Antweights before so i have relative experience in building robots.
I was initially debating getting a kit so i could give myself an easy introduction to the weightclass, but im unsure if any options are available.
so, failing that, i was just making this post looking for general advice, and also asking how people usually build their beetleweights? since ive been used to CAD and 3d printing for antweights, i was wondering how it differs in beetleweights in terms of construction.
Any other advice would be quite helpful! Just curious at the moment and somewhat eager to take a crack at it
this is pretty bad advice tbh, not to say the SSP isn’t a valid way into the class or a good bot, but it runs a bunch of components that aren’t easy to get ahold of in the UK without relying on international shipping, as well as a switch that isn’t UK legal (BBB rules for example require it to be a switch approved by them, specifically Fingertech metric switch or lynx switch). There are kitbots that are designed by UK builders, Andy Russell’s Nightclaw kit is a good UK equivelant to the SSP (and, imo, boasts flashier design).
Joshua, if I were to give you some advice it’d be to go through the build logs in the Beetleweight section of the forum, have a look at how people have built things, go along to a beetle event and ask questions and then think about how you want to approach things. Ants and beetles have some crossover in terms of how they’re built but there’s more different than there is in common due to the ‘physics don’t apply’ rules of ants.
i think i remember seeing that kit after looking this afternoon yeah, looks nice, didn’t realise it was a UK kit tbh, i might have to look into it for a start. i’ve watched a few event videos of Beetleweights fighting, i would go to an event but a lot of the beetleweight events seem to be quite far from me unfortunately with exception to possibly the BBB ones, but i usually prefer to travel to compete
I do appreciate the thoughts though! i do assume that at least some of it carries over, i was mainly just curious about how the body’s of bots are built since ive seen some build logs of heat-bended UHMW, but also some 3d printed ones too. i’ll take a look through some of the build logs though, thanks!
If you’re looking to keep it suuuuper basic, we have a guide on the site for building a beetle, which we wrote from the perspective of the way we liked to build, big sheets of plastic cut and screwed together - which still forms the basis of my builds today, just with some printed bits bolted on the outside.
I’d probably say if you’re already mostly familiar with cad and 3d printing robots then I’d play to that strength and design something with a TPU unibody rather than going down the HDPE frame route. It’s super common in beetles right now and it gives you tons of design freedom without having to think about designing for manufacture too much. Just think about which areas you want to be stiffer and reinforce - eg Carbon or HDPE top/bottom plates. I’d have a think about what kind of robot you’d like to make and try and find similar builds on the forum or elsewhere and see what building techniques are being used and what cool little nuggets you can borrow.
As far as electronics go you need look no further than this site anyway as the shop and guides have everything you’ll need
I’m always going to advocate for designing something yourself rather than a kit because I think you learn more that way but obviously it’s just what you’d find more enjoyable. if you just want to get something in an arena quickly and being reasonably competitive then a kit is the way to go
