When I was younger I always wanted to play with RC toys like cars and things. Most of all though I liked the powered Legos because I could design whatever I wanted. Unfortunately Lego Battlebots doesn’t work out very well. Yes, I tested that.
For the altered toys project I’m going for a very major alteration. I’m making a “toy” Battlebot similar to the ones HexBug sells but more of a scaled down version of the ones you see on the show. The ones that compete on the show are 250lbs, this one will be 3lbs and a lot will be 3d printed. Since I’m an engineer as well as doing art, it shall look good and function. Something I would like to do but need to see viability for is making a vinal sheet for the top and bottom plates on the back.
I’m not sure if this is already part of the plan but my suggestion would be to add a button/switch activated small dc motor so that the blade can spin at non dangerous speeds.
My plan is to run Brushless drone motors to make everything move, this does require quite a but of electronics though.
I think it might be interesting to have your battlebot be kind of like those pull-back cars which use springs to store energy and then release that energy to move forwards. That way, you would not need any motors in your design but it could still move. A similar thing could be done for the blade.
I do plan on making it move and spin, however that might not be functional by the end of this class. I plan to compete with it eventually so the weapon will spin pretty fast.
I would suggest trying to make this at different sizes, it could be cool to have a very small one on a desk next to a normal sized one.
My layers project is a similar design but layered out of wood, so its my smaller scale desk ornament. I’ll probably hand this on my wall as its a but bigger at roughly 9″x7″.
It could be cool to make it look like it is made of legos.
That would be a cool aesthetic. I could do it by making a vinyl that’s looks like Legos to make it more robust!
I don’t know what you’re using for hardware, but you could recycle the parts from the hex bug toy into your new design
I would, but this is roughly 10X larger, its hard to see scale from the image. The spinning part on the front is a 3.75in radius. Plastic fasteners such as used in the toy probably wouldn’t hold up.
Do you plan to use screws and nuts and bolts on a 3D printed part?
For fastening to printed parts I will use plastite screws. They have an arbitrary pitch and deeper threads with a triangular profile to attach to soft materials like plastic. For parts that need to be more structurally connected I have standoffs running through the printed part so I don’t need to be worried about the hole degrading over time.
I suggest trying to use or replicate off the shelf parts like an erector set so this could appear to be something a kid could make to their own design from a kit.
How much of it are you planning to print? Will every part be printed except for the motor?
This will use quite a few manufacturing methods. Since I want this to be functional at a 3lb scale 3d printing all of it would be challenge. The main body is printed out of TPU as well as the wheels guards and belt guard. The pulleys are also 3D printed out of PLA. Other pieces like the plates on the top and bottom of the back are made of really thin spring steel. Other materials include, AR500 steel, and Aluminum.