Hey all,
Fresh back from makers central this weekend and my son has found a new love for robot wars! (Thank you to the really lovely lady on the Accubot stand, she was really nice and showed him all the robots there and explained everything to him! I am gutted we didn’t get her name as she’s the person that recommended BBB to us)
Having had to disappoint him in not having the budget to invest in a full size combat robot I’ve suggested we start out looking at the antweight robots to start with. He’s picked up supervised soldering and he loves the 3D printers at home and he’s spent most of last night and this morning designing his robot (I can imagine he’s going to be in trouble at school for doodling robots!)
Is there an age limit at events? He’s only 6, nearly 7. Obviously not operating it on his own, I’ll be driving with him, maybe him operating the weapon via a trainer remote?
What sort of things to people bring to events regarding spares and tools? I’d imagined we’d need to have a few batteries and spare armour bits but is it worth doubling down on motors and controllers etc?
At events are there facilities to bring a battery charger or should we have multiple charged batteries ready to go? Also soldering for repairs if needed, would be need a battery soldering iron?
I’ve said we’d look at a wedge design to start, maybe a flipper - but i know he wants a spinner! Are there any designs for weapons out there or is this something that we’d have to figure out ourselves? Also producing the weapons - are there services like JLC or PCB way that will produce the weapons and what materials would be best for spinning weapons?
I have a history in electrical engineering and were part way into starting an R2D2 build but this has taken over his imagination! But my mechanical skills are somewhat limited
Ah, a new roboteer, how splendid! There aren’t any minimum ages as far as I know, since a 4 year old has a fairly decent flipper down at Rock and Robots. Bringing spare parts is a good idea at full combat events, but if it’s a sportsman you probably won’t need them. You need to watch charging LiPos, so bring 2 or 3 and keep one eye on it as it fills up. Nuts and Bots might still be doing their fully-built robots, so you could buy that.
I recommend finding a CAD online and 3D printing it. As for doodling robots at school, that’s a good sign. I’ve been doing that with tracing paper in maths class.
Hey Oliver,
Unsure about age limits - but there are usually a number of youngsters at BBB antweight events.
Events typically have power sockets available, so bring your own charger to charge batteries etc.
As for tools and spares people tend to vary a lot on this. I’m a bit on the blasé end of that spectrum and tend to come with tools enough to change batteries (small screwdriver and some hex keys), a charger and lipos in my lipo bag and just a couple of spare wheels for spares.
Many people bring complete chassis and enough parts for full rebuilds and what ever tools that requires - soldering irons, drills etc.
I’d highly recommend a simple servo driven control bot (like a lifter) for a first bot. Gives you a practical and useful weapon and a bit more interest than just a drivable box - but is still relatively mechanically simple.
And I would recommend avoiding a spinner for a child that young - they can be quite nasty from a safety perspective.
Thank you for the responses, I don’t think i’ve seen a community thats been so helpful with questions i’ve had ever!
I’ve found a great model available from the accubot site (ModulAnt V2) that i’ve just started printing bits out so we can get started
I think I’m going to suggest he looks at the servo flipper version to start with, gives him the weapon he desires and seems safer for him and I think mum will be happier with that. Simpler the better as i’m hoping to teach him the basics of electronics and bits whilst we work on this together, feel like it’s a good bit of knowledge to have in life!
Thank you again
As a little extra question - regarding motors - N10 or N20? and which RPM is best? I would imagine the 600rpm motors might be slower speeds and easier to control but is the speed an advantage with the 1000rpm motors?