tank style robot

[jshalcott]

When i thought of a tank style robot,  i knew it was about driving but I thought about making a replica of one on a robot using a paintball gun as the gun. well i was going to configure the gun for the robot. but what i was thinking is use a servo to pull the trigger, well how would i put the servo arm back in place instead of having to go back and forth manually every single time. you know what i mean like you push the button and the servo pulls the trigger and automaticlly goes back to the first position

[Somchaya]

Hmm.. from what I imagine from your description, the servo will control a finger-like device that'll actually pull the trigger. So if that's the case, firing and resetting would just be moving the servo/finger so it pulls the trigger, holding it for a second or less, then returning to another position, where the finger is off the trigger, so the regular paintball gun will reset the trigger on its own?

[jshalcott]

Are you really sure the spring pushing the trigger back will have enough force to move all those gears back in place

[Somchaya]

All the gears? What do u mean? The trigger of the gun should be able to reset on its own, since you can fire a paintball gun repeatedly on your own normally..

Regarding the robotic part, if you use the servo to reset the finger-device, then it wouldn't need the springs of the gun to swing back?

I may not be understanding what you mean exactly, so please tell me if I'm not making sense

[mhalavo]

Here's how someone physically attached the servo.. it might help:


http://rctankcombat.com/tanks/T005/Page9.html

[Somchaya]

Here's how someone physically attached the servo.. it might help:


http://rctankcombat.com/tanks/T005/Page9.html

Ooh that website looks really great! The author went into a lot of detail into his whole building process, makes me wish I had one of those to play around with too hehe..

[jshalcott]

thanks guys you really helped

[Tsukubadaisei]

Let me ask you, what are you doing to drive the robot? How can you turn it? What kind of tracks do you use? Please tell anything you can about moving a tank style robot? I think I will need one soon so I beg for help. I have never used tracks before because they are more difficult to control (at least over a rigid floor) than wheels or legs.

Thanks in advance.

[jshalcott]

it uses differental driving, just instead of wheels, they are tracks

[ed1380]

on dirt and low traction places tracks are good. on carpet, bad

[Tsukubadaisei]

on dirt and low traction places tracks are good. on carpet, bad

On carpet I think it is good. Depends on the carpet of course. I would like to know about asphault. Specifically irregular(not plane) asphault.

it uses differental driving, just instead of wheels, they are tracks

Yes I know. But when I see real tanks moving, It doesn`t seem to be the same kind of differential steering. I don't know it looks like different from diff. steering using wheels. Sorry if I am too vague. I am not very good with tracks at all.

[Admin]

I have never used tracks before because they are more difficult to control (at least over a rigid floor) than wheels or legs.

incredibly easy to control . . . but incredibly hard to build . . .

[Ro-Bot-X]

Not an expert at tank treads, but here's what I have found about them:
con:

• hard to build from scratch, because of problems finding good material for treads
• fairly easy to drive and turn on smooth surface, hard to turn on carpet
• depending on material used for treads you lose efficiency compared to regular wheels

pro:

• possibility to drive over bigger obstacles
• possibility to make a shape shifter

Ready to use treads or kits:

• Lego rubber treads - a little stiff, you loose a lot of efficiency
• Lego tread links - a little too fragile, not enough adherence
• Tamiya track and wheel set - pretty good, easy to use with a Tamiya Double Gearbox
• Pololu miniature tank tracks - hard surface tracks, will drive easy on carpet
• Lynxmotion traks - good engineered product, easy to use, however expensive

Enjoy!

[TravelingPencil]

Not an expert at tank treads, but here's what I have found about them:
con:
hard to build from scratch, because of problems finding good material for treads

i have made tank treads out of wetsuit material, and empty thread spools. it is easier to make them if you live near the beach because surf shops often have strips and scraps of the material that they might give/sell you.

[Brandon121233]

A bit late here, but before I got into autonomous robots, I did Battlebots. I "made" (it never was fully completed because of lack of funding)  a battle bot with tank treads using the flat part of a regular car tire. I used a sawzaw to cut out the middle flat section, then I turned it inside out and drilled two rows of sprocket holes to accommodate two bike sprockets with a custom turned convex wood wheel. The resulting structure worked very well and only once or twice detracted, and that was because I turned on a hill. Here's a general pic

[cppdungeon]

Woo!  a fellow paintballer.  As you problably know, there are 2 kinds of triggers for guns:  mechanical, or electrical.  possible steups are:
Mechanical:
hook a motor/servo up to a cam (http://www.malcams.com/admin/assetmanager/images/cam_animation.gif  is a good gif) and just have the cam hit the trigger of the gun, spin around, and hit it again.

electric guns are triggered electronically, so you could just hook you controller up to the firing cicuit directly, and make it shoot whenever you want.

[jshalcott]

i'm making my tank treads out of maple glued and nailed on to treadmill belt with the drive wheel just using friction to pull it. i've heard from those guys at rctankcombat that it works really well and i can make it since i already have a table saw, to cut everything exact