Joe wins a cigar for hitting the bulls-eye. The minimal "starter" kit
for our hobby would be:
1) Pre-cut, easily assembled lower hull/chassis - you've got that
2) Set of easily assembled road-wheel axles and wheels - you've got that
3) Durable tracks that aren't too expensive - you've almost got that
4) Pair of scooter motors, drive axle and gears - you've got that
With that starter kit, someone could be at the "rolling chassis" point
in a weekend or two. After that, they could decide to purchase
additional sub-systems or finish the vehicle on their own based on
existing construction articles.
Personally, I believe the key to long-term success is ridding yourself
of overly "scaled" parts and designing a more generic (but nice looking)
set of parts that can be used on lots of different vehicles. For
example, most vehicles that have battled use 3/4" thick road-wheels in
only a couple basic diameters. Nobody really cares that tank XYZ
actually had 1/2" thick wheels in scale or that they should be 2.84"
diameter instead of 3", so standard caster wheels are used. Members
need to be able to pick and choose from your parts to build lots of
different lower hull configurations. For example, suppose you offered
the following parts:
1) Road Wheels - resell standard caster wheels in a couple sizes
2) Swing Arms - 3", 4", 5" - all 3/8" axles (1/2" with bushing)
3) Track Links - 3", 4" wide - same spacing and teeth
4) Drive Sprocket - 4"
5) Idler Sprocket - 3", 4"
6) Suspension Mounting Plate - 3, 4, 5 holes for swing arms
With those basic parts, members could build lower hulls for a very large
number of vehicles. Not all, of course, but enough of the popular hulls
to jump-start someone into the hobby.
Other robot sites are starting to sell basic parts for rolling
assemblies, but they are primarily focused on "toy" size vehicles
popular with "in-house" hobbyists. They are either not large enough or
robust enough for "outdoor" hobbyists, which includes way more people
than just our hobby.
On 3/7/2013 10:02 AM, Joe Sommer wrote:
The biggest issue for our tanks is track. It is very difficult
to fabricate track that will survive our battlefields.
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