Firstly, regarding power, we have to use dry cell batteries as Sarah pointed out in an email a whole while ago. I've already discussed with most of you guys my suggestion to go for the sub-C cell type battery to power our robot as these are readily available and fairly good value for money. Plus I've got a pack and the gear to charge them (so we save a bit of money there).
There are a couple of places off the net to get them really quickly and reasonably priced.
http://www.doublel.com.au/index_files/Page440.htm
http://www.harrisrc.com.au/
http://www.feralbatteries.com.au/
These sub-C batteries have a reasonable amount of punch and current (since afterall, they are used for RC cars). We can get batteries that have a capacity of holding 4000mAh, or 3600mAh which is almost double the amount of charge that you can normally find on drill batteries.
I'm thinking of sourcing a couple of used battery packs (6 cells, 7.2volts) for now and seeing how we go. I think we might need to go in the direction of one pack for movement, and one pack for weapons (I'm thinking that two motors will draw alot of current). Also we can pull the packs apart to make new packs with different amounts of cells and change the shape of the pack itself. Right now we just have to get our robot moving and I already have a pack for that.
If anyone else has suggestions for batteries, please post up!
Another problem that we need to figure out (for later down the track) is how exactly we are going to control our robot. We can easily buy a 4 channel remote (2 for driving and steering, another 2 for weapons) but we need to figure out how we are going tackle the problem of figuring out an interface between our motor/weapon system to the receiver unit. At the moment, I'm clueless to how these receivers actually work. We could just probably find some servos to stick on them for the weapons at the very least.
= Self Destruct
2 comments:
Good stuff, Alex. I just wanted to mention that apparently Sarah is organizing remote controls for all the teams. We will have to pay a little for them, but they are guaranteed to meet the standards we need for the tournament.
Wooooo, that's fantastic, doshing out ~$200 would of sucked.
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