New Roboteer!

[ajw]

Hi everybody, my names Andrew, and I'm new to the forums and also robotering so thought I'd say hi.

I've been a long time fan of all things robotic but have only recently found the time and some funds to progress to buidling my own. I don't want to spam up your forums with what are probably common questions as I assume most will already be answered somewhere, so thought I'd contain it to one thread. I plan to focus on both antweights and similar size autonomus robots as I have some micro experience, but will initially be focussing on radio control (which I am completely new to). Initially I'm going to try keep costs down as much as possible, so servo drives (of which I recently bought some inexpensive micros to mess around with) and Nimh batteries, and see where I go from there.

As I mentioned, I have no previous experience with hobby radio gear, so am trying to fish around for an inexpensive system which will hopefully suffice. I've been looking at this:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... ouse_.html

Seems good value (especially compared to what was available when I was looking into it a few years ago) though haven't got a final price for delivery from Germany yet as I haven't signed up to the website. I "believe" they are the same or simialr to the ones Giant Cod sell (but are currently out of stock) but not entirely sure of that. If anyone could chip in on that I'd be extremely grateful.

I think that's about all for now, so I'd better get reading! Thanks to everyone for providing such an informative and friendly forum

P.S. I'm from South Wales. Not to sure how much antweight or other weight robot activity there is around here but would be nice to hear from others in the vicinity!

Cheers

Andrew

[Simon Windisch]

Hi Andrew, and welcome.

Feel free to ask, it may have been asked before, but similarly if you're asking it then someone else will want to know as well.

Consider posting each question in the Questions (and answers) section, that way it'll be easier for another newcomer to read each question and answer without having to trawl through pages of unrelated information, IMHO.

Simon

[Rhys]

Ah finally! Another antweight builder from Wales! So far Andrew, it's just been me. Where abouts are you from?

Don't worry about asking questions, people here are always happy to help. Though you probably won't need to ask too many as this forum already has a lot of bases covered.

[ajw]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys and thanks for the tip on using the Q&A, I'll make sure I post in there.

I'm from Neath but also spend a lot of my time in Bridgend, Duff. I though I hadn't seen much Welsh activity on the boards, but nice to see there's someone 8) I'm looking forward to delving into this new hobby as it's been an interest for a while but I think with the increased accessability and lower cost of parts, I've finally bitten the bullet Not sure how competitive my bots will be for a while but I'm sure I'll have fun trying!

[peterwaller]

Hi Andrew and welcome.
When you start looking at the autonomous robots here are a couple of other forums to try.
http://er-online.co.uk/minisumo/forum/i ... d6f8996b38 for all things minisumo
http://www.micromouseonline.com/forum/ for all things micromouse, wall follower, line follower etc.
Looks like the next AWS at Bristol will be as close as they come to your home.

[haz]

hello andrew

[bitternboy]

If your wondering about activity near you then your lucky to live in the south of the UK, it's where most stuff is based.

Also, hello...

[Rhys]

Neath is about 45 minutes west of me and it takes me at least two hours to get to most events, so not exactly in the heart of the action! But Bristol will be a welcome change, should be able to do it in under an hour.

Andrew, that transmitter receiver combo looks pretty good for the money. I was toying with the idea of trying one out but the shipping was always too much. Now they're in the DE warehouse, I might give one a go. It's programmable, where as most other cheap transmitters aren't. Shipping is $15.64, so just under a tenner.

This set doesn't come with servos, so you'll need those too. The DE warehouse doesn't have the full range of servos, but they do have some decent ones.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... duct=10191

These turnigy servos are pretty good for drive, I used them in DUff at AWS34, which you can see here

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... duct=10375

I believe these are the ones used by the current fleaweight champion, Tesla, the small black one in this video

[bitternboy]

not exactly in the heart of the action

Could be worse

[Andrew_Hibberd]

Welcome to the forum, its always nice to get a new builder. Feel free to ask questions and I am sure someone will be able to help you. Come to the AWS in Bristol with a robot for the fastest way to learn about ants.