RobotWars101

Hi, My robot will probably be called "Unmitigated Disaster". It is a semi-intelligent microprocessor driven 4wd flipper. It will use a total of 6 N20 gear motors - 4 for the drive and 2 for flipper. It uses a Raspberry Pi Zero W as the main processor and radio receiver; a DasMikro ESC for ...

This is somewhat worrying to me, I plan to try to power the Raspberry Pi from Dasmikro's regulator (I think it's within spec), but I don't want any firey surprises!

"BEC" is a weird term invented by RC people for a voltage regulator. In the electronics world they are generally referred to as regulators. There are two types of regulator - linear and switching. Linear regulators work, as you say, by conceptually dumping some amount of virtual resistance...

You can measure the current by putting a multimeter in series with the circuit. Alternatively one of those wire-clamp current measurement thingies will do too. It's normal for some types of electronics to get hot. If the ESC is rated for the voltage and current you're using, it should be no problem....

Yeah, looking at a mpu9250 I used on another project, it is fairly small, but probably doable with a steady hand particularly if you have access to a magnifier of some kind. I know some people at Reading Hackspace who can solder such parts. The really problematic components are the ones which don't ...

Right I'm guessing that won't be on an antweight :) A couple of questions: * Why do you need a wifi / bluetooth module when the Pi Zero W has those already? * Why use a breakout board for the mpu9250 when you could just stick the chip directly on your board? It is a qfn package which is possibly han...

Alex, that is really cunning, modifying one of the servos to run the opposite way by reversing leads to the pot, so you can run them off the same input channel

Mark

You can parallel two servos, but don't expect them to behave identically to each other with respect to pulse-widths and positioning. The ones with a small screw on the back to "tweak" the neutral position - you might be able to set them so they're about in sync. Others- good luck. If you i...

Servos don't need speed controllers because it's essentially built into the motor's electronics, you just connect the power and pwm line (from rx or other device) And the motors used by spinners are usually brushless rc plane motors which need their own special controller, so you can't use a brushed...

It doesn't sound like a particularly good idea :) Antennas' length is tuned for the particular frequency to get the best gain and some funky RF magic. If you trim it, the magic might stop working (or just work less well). I'm surprised that a 2.4g antenna needs to be so big. But then again, it's pos...