Quick material question

i couldn't decide if this should go in design or fabrication, so i just picked design


What is a good material to make the top and bottom face plates out of?

Can the weapon motor generate enough heat to melt a plastic if it is used as a bottom plate, if so what thickness aluminum would still have enough strength to support shock while still housing the electronics?

Any feedback or material suggestion are greatly appreciated

I think you have to take alot of factors into that decision. Some teams mount everything to there top and bottom plates so they'll go with a thicker aluminum. You can also get alot of strength out of them depending on the materials.
We have always used 1/16"? i think lexan for our top and bottom. Derry had a decent hammer bot and it only left a small ding in it. That same year Humdinger was the only other bot to touch the top plate, he got a really good bite that made it through the lexan but not the laminate protective sheet.
Its melting point is somewhere near 300 degrees i think, which if your bot is that hot you'll have more problems then melted plastic.

RJWs bots have Ti tops and bottoms but you have to be careful with metal covers because it can block spektrum signal

wish someone would have told us about the metal covers blocking signal, last year being our firs year. we had bad recievers, a broken dx6i (had it sent back to company and they said it was a short somewhere) and a weird weapon ESC, i think it took over 20 seconds to bind with the wheels, then up to a minute for the weapon and if it went over that we would have to turn it off and try again =p, it was bad

Im just going to take a wild guess that you were also using a BR6000 with the dx6i?!

.....yea....creepy that u knew that =p

but yea we were using the BR6000, at the time we had bought the electronics , the owner of the hobby shop said they would work easily, he was a little wrong =p

you guys actually helped us a lot last year that the end of the competition, you and Alex came over and told us about banebots and stuff. it was really a huge step up from what we were using

Ha sorry we couldn't help before :/

I've actually talked to Carmen and have been supposed to go around to different schools and talk to the kids and try and give them some tips as a college mentor/adviser but every year nothing ever happens on her end. I actually had a professor ask me if I was interested in a summer internship with promoting BotsIQ through Penn State. I got all excited for nothing :/

Alex tried telling them that the BR6000s and DX6i weren't going to work at the beginning of the year, you think they would have figured out to listen to him by then

For better or worse, the BR6000-to-DX6i problems will soon be a thing of the past, cuz the BR6000 is discontinued!

What I want to know is if that means our DX6 transmitters (DSM1 technology) will be obsolete once all of our BR6000s die?

Anyone know?

Oh yeah, another thread hijack. . .

i believe so. The Dx6i can eventually bind to dsm1 but as far as I know dsm2 cannot bind with dsm1

Anyone want to sell their used but functional BR6000's? It could give you a "leg up" on purchasing your DX6i/AR6255 setup.

(cuz without the BR6000s, we gots about 8 DX6 that are about to become paperweights. . .)

rdubard wrote:

Anyone want to sell their used but functional BR6000's? It could give you a "leg up" on purchasing your DX6i/AR6255 setup.

(cuz without the BR6000s, we gots about 8 DX6 that are about to become paperweights. . .)

There are ways to convert DX6 to dsm2....search rc forums

1) As far as material go, I've always used Aluminum (layers and layers of 1/8") and have never had a signal problem. It depends on your application and design but alum is a favorite of ours...well only cause we couldn't afford to make it entirely out of Ti (dollars or weight wise).

2) I also use the BR6000 with a dx6i and have never had any problems with it binding. Maybe they're very hit and miss but I wasn't even aware there was an issue with them until they were discontinued.

But again, when it comes to material choosing, look at what it will be used for and see if it's a structural component or part of the weapon (something that will take a lot of abuse). Normally you can get away with alum for structural parts but always use steel for the weapon.

SenaiERI wrote:

1) As far as material go, I've always used Aluminum (layers and layers of 1/8") and have never had a signal problem. It depends on your application and design but alum is a favorite of ours...well only cause we couldn't afford to make it entirely out of Ti (dollars or weight wise).

2) I also use the BR6000 with a dx6i and have never had any problems with it binding. Maybe they're very hit and miss but I wasn't even aware there was an issue with them until they were discontinued.

But again, when it comes to material choosing, look at what it will be used for and see if it's a structural component or part of the weapon (something that will take a lot of abuse). Normally you can get away with alum for structural parts but always use steel for the weapon.

Its funny cause you built an FBS that doesnt really even have a top or bottom cover just a shell and baseplate haha

if his is anything like our FBS, the robot underneath the shell has a top plate to prevent wires from being sucked up.

rjw wrote:

There are ways to convert DX6 to dsm2....search rc forums

I appreciate your offer of help, but all I've found are ways to convert JR 75Mhz to DSM1 by putting in the "radio" part of a DX6, and threads confirming that the DX6 will/can NOT be made to bind to DSM2 recievers. This is a full generation back from what I was looking for. After about an hour of trying different versions of "convert DX6 to DSM2", I am thinking you are mistaken. Would you happen to have a link? Thanks.

Cody wrote:

Its funny cause you built an FBS that doesnt really even have a top or bottom cover just a shell and baseplate haha

I don't get the joke, but our radio is completely surrounded by aluminum, and the only time it lost signal was when the robot lost power cause IIIIIIIIII didn't connect it properly.
Zip-ties. How could I forget to use zip-ties.