New guy on the block

[Maverick_Hunter_X]

I read about mech warfare in Robot Mag and I just had to check it out. I have always been a techie and I always got in trouble because I would take things apart and mod them or create something new. This mech war concept is a lifelong dream of mine and this makes me so happy to see this thing become reality. Whoever made this happen, I thank you.

I am a Computer Networking student from Indianapolis. I dont have much robotics experience other than Lego Mindstorms and a few small things that I have built. However, I am ready to learn everything that I can. I am wanting to order some books and maybe a kit like RoboBuilder.

I have tons of experience with homemade ballistics such as aircannons and homemade bb guns. I also have several airsoft guns around here somewhere. So weapon systems are no prob for me.

I just wanted to introduce myself and give a brief background. I will be on the forums as much as I can and if you have any weapons questions, please shoot them by me.

[Tyberius]

Greetings! Glad you liked the article. :)

There is a lot of content here, so starting out can be a bit daunting at first. Read over the website, read through the stickies (at least the first posts in them) and then just start looking around. Check out what other people are doing, what is working for them. If you plan on competing this year, I wont lie to you, you have a LOT of work to do and not much time to do it.

As far as platforms to start out with, first of all the choice between a biped and quad must be made. From there I would look into what is popular amongst other mech builders. The Bioloid kit is a prime choice, as would be a modified Robonova. Lynxmotion makes a biped that with the right servos can be constructed into a very easy to build and program platform. I'm not sure on the feasibility of the Robobuilder in this particular competition due to the lesser payload and the fact that its still a pretty new kit on the market. Not a lot of work has been done to 3rd party modifications and whatnot, where something like the Bioloid or Robonova has a wealth of tried and true projects backing it.

Please by all means ask questions, and feel free to hit me up via PM if you'd like. We've also been having nightly discussions via our Chat room on the left, so drop on by.

[jes1510]

Just an FYI, Tyberius here is the one that wrote the article and got the ball rolling on the competition.

[Maverick_Hunter_X]

Awesome! That was the most interesting article that I have read in a awhile. I was like "Aww yeah, I gotta do this."

I like the design of that Hagetaka, it looks like a madcat from mechwarrior. I still play MW4 to this day, lol.

I already have my design drawn on some paper and I made a small spring powered nerf dart launcher using a cheap airsoft pistol. I am in this hook, line and sinker, I just wish I had the time to complete my robot for the 2009 games.

[Adrenalynn]

There's still time. I'll be starting again from scratch on a different design with more payload at the beginning of March. Still plenty of time. ;)