What are your go to tricks for cutting down weight on your beetles?
Currently trying to save 20g or so from AntiThesis so I can fit some magnets, and I’m running out of ideas.
Honestly I’ve been super fortunate in that none of my builds thus far have particularly needed the weight saving. I guess a few things to look over before going to the ‘drill all the holes’ approach include checking wire lengths and whether you could get away with a few less fixings? Good luck!
Wires is a good shout, there’s definitely some in there that can be trimmed. Thanks!
I’m already running fairly minimal fasteners. You saw me taking screws out of the top panels to make weight at Brawl!
I might try more aggressive pocketing on the internal bulkheads as well, could probably remove some material there.
I’ve not had an issue with weight since moving to the billet construction on stuff - you can see how much I fit in on Bonbonbonbon! Dropping from 10mm to 8mm walls has helped me in the past if you’re not keen on completely redesigning the chassis, as can thinning roof thickness (though I’d probably keep the floor thickness the same). strategic pocketing walls can really save a bunch of weight if you have access to a cnc router
Along the electronics route - thinner awg wire (a lot of beetle stuff you can go surprisingly thin) and smaller connectors gain back those precious grams! Or even ditching connectors and direct soldering where poss.
Also thin as poss baseplates / lids but I think you’re already doing that. And you’re running foam wheels so!
General things:
Pocketing bulkheads
Shorten wires, smaller gauge, ditch any connectors you really don’t need and hard solder instead
3mm hdpe for baseplates/Lids
Make the robot as smoll as is realistically feasible.
Battery - can you get away with smaller? - I ran 450mah on luchador MK2 with 2*22mms and a 37mm and could still do multiple 2min fights.
But generally most the above will make small savings. Especially on plastics where the weight/density is so low to start with.
So when I’ve had a finished robot that was overweight I’ve always focused in on any steel or Ti and ground/drilled out any excess fat where ever I could. Including bolts, cut down any excess.
AntiThesis has quite a lot of hardox in it. I wonder if you could find some to remove or replace with a lighter material?
If you’re willing to explore brushless gearbox setups instead of the 37mm, you might be able to cut a lot more than 20g:
92.7g, 100:1 24mm planetary gearbox on a 1200kv 2822 outrunner from Overlander, basically a scaled down version of the lifter setup on Bonbonbonbon.
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Thanks for the advice everyone! Should definitely be able to save enough weight.
I don’t think I’ll be doing a brushless setup yet, but I’ll probably be asking you for advice about it at some point, Henry!
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