G’day! Following on from my antweight design philosophy of having the most unusual bot in the arena and having screwed the chassis together, today I will go over my electrics.

The first thing was sourcing the right components. Thankfully I have a Chris to rely on for advice. This included everything except for the wiring and the batteries. I sourced a AAA battery holder from a small torch and the wires lying around the workshop and my Dad’s offcuts of equipment wire (thanks Dad!), which are a good length (he deals in security systems, so LOTS of wire offcuts). This was followed by purchasing the AWESC and transmitter from this very respectable website that you are currently viewing. The motors came from HobbyKing, also at Chris’s recommendation. They work like a charm, although I have some spares from the local hobby shop that aren’t the same design. I also found a cheap soldering gun from a well known German shop that starts with L, ends in L and has a primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories in the middle.

However Chris doesn’t necessarily think that my AAA batteries will be powerful enough and recommends a LiPo alternative, which to be fair is lighter and smaller, but this is my first antweight and I want something ubiquitous that will be easily replaceable.

The electrics weigh quite a lot, which I wasn’t expecting when I was designing the antweight! The overall total is 65 grams, so that is just under half the bot’s allocated weight. The electrics have also compromised the chassis slightly – the portion holding the batteries has to now be slightly widened to accommodate the size of the battery holder. Otherwise the rest just about fits inside the chassis!!!

The last thing is to test the electrics. However, I suffered a major setback – Chris’s predictions about the AAA batteries appears to be correct and there isn’t enough power to drive the motors through the ESC! I may have to source those LiPo’s after all. Additionally I found that playing with the wires too much causes them to break, so I will have to re-solder some of my wires, which is going to be a heck of a job as the parts are so small!

Tune in next time for more antweight shenanigans!