Antweight Motors

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daylosh
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Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2016 8:33 pm

Antweight Motors

Post by daylosh »

Hi all,

This will be my first build and I want to make something fairly generic so I can mess about with different motors servos etc. I'm planning on making a PCB, to also act as a chassis, an build the motor controllers on that. I've had a look at some posts and pictures on here and it seems that the cheap toy motors with a metal gearbox attached are popular and I've ordered some to get started.

I'd like to know if any bigger, more powerful motors are commonly used in antweight builds as I'll need to make sure my controller can handle the current?

Thanks.

Day
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joey_picus
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Re: Antweight Motors

Post by joey_picus »

I don't think so - the only things I've seen that do use bigger motors have been either brushless (which needs a specific controller anyway) or the odd machine using standard sized servos, which hasn't been a viable tactic in a while! The 12mm gearbox motors should be as big as you'll ever need to go.
Joey McConnell-Farber - Team Picus Telerobotics - http://picus.org.uk/ - @joey_picus
"These dreams go on when I close my eyes...every second of the night, I live another life"
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Shakey
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Re: Antweight Motors

Post by Shakey »

Yeah the gearmotors have more than enough power for ants so not much more is needed.

My only worry about combining the controller and PCB is that one spinner hit could really take out most the bot. Having the ESC separate from chassis helps greatly in terms of robustness and ability to change the design in future.
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daylosh
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Re: Antweight Motors

Post by daylosh »

Thanks for the advice, I hadn't considered the PCB getting damaged.
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BeligerAnt
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Re: Antweight Motors

Post by BeligerAnt »

It has been done before though. Peter Waller had at least one robot where the chassis was the PCB. If the electronics are in the centre and reasonably well protected they are possibly at no more risk than a separate custom ESC. The advantage of making your own boards is that you are in control, so make them whatever shape works for you. If that's a single chassis/PCB then go for it!
Gary, Team BeligerAnt
daylosh
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Re: Antweight Motors

Post by daylosh »

I like the idea of the PCB chassis as I'm making one anyway so it's like getting a precision engineered, custom part thrown in free!

I'll play around with some designs and post them, see what everyone thinks.
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peterwaller
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Re: Antweight Motors

Post by peterwaller »

Here are a few I have done in the past not all antweights but 1.6 mm PCB is really very strong.
Variant with interchangable weapons.
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An early Antrax.
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Mini Sumo Low Blow
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daylosh
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Re: Antweight Motors

Post by daylosh »

Thanks Peter, Variant looks absolutely lethal!

I think I'm going to start with something very similar to Antrax but with wheels. Do you find the tracks vulnerable?
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peterwaller
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Re: Antweight Motors

Post by peterwaller »

Back in those days there weren't so many vertical spinners but now days you need some armour down the outside like Dominant.
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