Impressive! Hydrostatic drive on a small robot. That's very cool stuff!
It's really amazing you got it down to 75 lbs! I'd like to see a video of it doing it's stuff. My Father and I have built several gasoline powered radio controlled combat robots in the 220 to 340 lb weight range. If you notice RF interference problems from the engine's ignition system Resistor spark plugs help out this problem a lot. It also helps to keep the control electronics as far from the engines ignition system as possible and using sheilded wiring for your I/O circuits is a good idea as well. Great looking machine Man...
Development continues and Ken has brought in some new pictures for me to share with everyone. Here’s a little something to whet your appetite...7 new photos of the Gas Powered Bot. Enjoy!
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Capt. Quirk·your assessment is incorrect. The gas robot has practically nothing in common with a go-ped. While both derive thier power from a gas engine, that is where the similarity ends. This robot uses the engine to drive a hydraulic system which is what drives the wheels, the go-ped does not use this technique. Rubber tires designed for off-pavement of comparable size all look alike. The machine shop who built this for us creates custom scooters, perhaps this is where you are seeing similarities.
What an unbelievable piece of machinery.I can only imagine the hours
of dedicated labor that you dedicated to it's becoming reality.The craftsmanship
that shows throughout rivals a NASA creation.I'm going to smash my machines with a big hammer and start over again after seeing this!
We didn't design this machine - we hired a local engineering/machine shop and told him what we would like it to be able to do. The firm that built it also makes really high-end gas scooters - not the kind you see from China but really precise, 100%-machined, artistic scooters. He's certainly got more mechanical than electrical experience, but now he's learned to use a BASIC Stamp so he can test the subsystems on this robot. We figure we can put the Parallax specialties together with his mechanical skills and design a unique robot.
We are shooting for $2000 price tag or less, but every time we meet with this engineer it seems to get a bit more expensive. I'm a bit overly optimistic about some things. I told our forum members that the Prop Proto Board would be well under $20 (or did I say $15?) and they sell for $20-25. Applying the same error ratio to this big robot, maybe it'll be more around $2500. It's expensive, but let's face it that the volume is low so it's tough to optimize the design and move away from machining and towards other alternative methods of fabrication that involve tooling, steel, welding, etc.
We may never recover our costs, or at least in the first three years.
No offence intended, But Shops like that and Production don't mix.
Besides that, If you spent 9 to 12 months of additional R&D and design changes or _more.·Find the right vendors, have your marketing in the right place. 20 to 25 shouldn't be necessary.
Again, No offence intended. It's just a topic within a public forum.
Ken,
Thanks for explaining how the machine was built.I didn't realize that it was
done on a professional basis.I can't imagine having the talent to produce something so beautiful.Wouldn't it be a shame to take it out and beat it up to it's potential? Wow!
Comments
It's really amazing you got it down to 75 lbs! I'd like to see a video of it doing it's stuff. My Father and I have built several gasoline powered radio controlled combat robots in the 220 to 340 lb weight range. If you notice RF interference problems from the engine's ignition system Resistor spark plugs help out this problem a lot. It also helps to keep the control electronics as far from the engines ignition system as possible and using sheilded wiring for your I/O circuits is a good idea as well. Great looking machine Man...
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Development continues and Ken has brought in some new pictures for me to share with everyone. Here’s a little something to whet your appetite...7 new photos of the Gas Powered Bot. Enjoy!
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
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Thank's Brian
www.truckwiz.com
·"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ·· Albert Einstein
Goped tires and brakes, either Ken is·stripping down·the goped that's sitting in the garage colecting dust or Somebody knows the Patmonts??
If there's still a goped left alive, gopeds are for riding and put one of my "Stinger" pipes on it!!
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Paul Baker
Propeller Applications Engineer
Parallax, Inc.
Post Edited (Paul Baker (Parallax)) : 3/21/2007 7:30:21 PM GMT
Post Edited (Capt. Quirk) : 3/21/2007 9:36:36 PM GMT
of dedicated labor that you dedicated to it's becoming reality.The craftsmanship
that shows throughout rivals a NASA creation.I'm going to smash my machines with a big hammer and start over again after seeing this!
Best wishes
Jim Richey
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Thanks, Parallax!
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Thank's Brian
www.truckwiz.com
·"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ·· Albert Einstein
We didn't design this machine - we hired a local engineering/machine shop and told him what we would like it to be able to do. The firm that built it also makes really high-end gas scooters - not the kind you see from China but really precise, 100%-machined, artistic scooters. He's certainly got more mechanical than electrical experience, but now he's learned to use a BASIC Stamp so he can test the subsystems on this robot. We figure we can put the Parallax specialties together with his mechanical skills and design a unique robot.
We are shooting for $2000 price tag or less, but every time we meet with this engineer it seems to get a bit more expensive. I'm a bit overly optimistic about some things. I told our forum members that the Prop Proto Board would be well under $20 (or did I say $15?) and they sell for $20-25. Applying the same error ratio to this big robot, maybe it'll be more around $2500. It's expensive, but let's face it that the volume is low so it's tough to optimize the design and move away from machining and towards other alternative methods of fabrication that involve tooling, steel, welding, etc.
We may never recover our costs, or at least in the first three years.
We're going to stick with this project.
Ken Gracey
Parallax, Inc.
Besides that, If you spent 9 to 12 months of additional R&D and design changes or _more.·Find the right vendors, have your marketing in the right place. 20 to 25 shouldn't be necessary.
Again, No offence intended. It's just a topic within a public forum.
Quirkis Maximis
Thanks for explaining how the machine was built.I didn't realize that it was
done on a professional basis.I can't imagine having the talent to produce something so beautiful.Wouldn't it be a shame to take it out and beat it up to it's potential? Wow!
Best regards,Jim Richey
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Thanks, Parallax!