Pairing the receiver

Once you've wired up your components, test if it responds to your transmitter. To do this, you will need to pair the transmitter to the receiver.
NOTE: You should've hopefully been testing your wiring as you went along using a voltmeter. However, if you followed our wiring diagram, that should also be good enough.

Pairing Instructions:

Ensure that all wires have the metal side facing up when plugging them in (black wire to the right). Otherwise the receiver will not power on. 

Channel 1 - LED, this should light up whenever your robot is turned on.
Channel 2 - Right ESC, controlled by the right stick up and down.
Channel 3 - Left ESC, controlled by the left stick up and down.

To pair, insert the provided jumper cable into the BAT slot. Turn on the robot using the switch. A red light should start blinking. Holding down the “Bind range test” button on the controller, slide the power switch on. The Receiver should then stop blinking to indicate successful pairing. Turn off the Controller then receiver and remove the jumper cable in BAT. Turn both on again and you should be able to successfully drive the robot. 

The robot is designed to be “tank drive” so the left stick powers the left wheel and the right stick powers the right wheel.

DESIGNING A ROBOT

Now that you've got your electronics working, its time to start thinking about robot designs! You can find plenty of images online of potential designs but you could create anything from a simple pushbot to a grabber to even a robot with a powerful weapon.

A typical design process involves the following steps:

1. Brainstorming

This is where you research potential designs, including shape, weapon type as well as potential material choices for the body. Try to find YouTube videos to see how different designs work during a match. Alternatively, feel free to make a totally unique design! Originality is always appreciated and we want to see think outside the box!

2. Sketching and Drawing

This process will allow you to logically work through taking a concept in your mind and putting it onto paper. Think broad. Focus on features. The design process is iterative, so you will make changes to this design. However, this doesn't mean that it's not worthwhile to come up with some rudimentary overall dimensions, such as the overall length, width, and height of the bot. 

1. Start with a sketch and work out how the structure would work.
2. Add in larger important things like the weapon and armor.
3. Add in smaller important things like the motors, wheels, and belts.
4. Add in the fine details like wires, electronics, and fasteners.

Drawings should be made that give details in areas of the bot that have complex assemblies and sections of the bot. Having these draw out ahead of time will expedite the process of translating the drawing into a CAD assembly. This step can be done simultaneously with Steps 1 and 3, as you draw and dimension parts as you need them during the early meetings.

3. Detailed Planning

Detailed design usually involved CAD or detailed drawings. If you decide to go down the CAD route we recommend TinkerCAD, an easy to use, free,  online CAD program. Alternatively you could use a higher level program like Autodesk Fusion360, another free piece of software. It has a much higher learning curve but is much more powerful. There are hundreds of online resources on how to learn CAD programs so that won’t be covered here. But basically the CAD should give you overall Dimensions, specific part dimensions and a parts list.

4. Construction

Once you've got a good idea of what your robot will look like, you can start building! Get your materials and create the body of your robot. Once you've done that, mount your electronics inside the body and finish off the robot. 

Make sure your robot meets the following rules:

1. Is under 1.36kg
2. Battery is safely stored and shielded
3. Power Switch is easily accessible from outside
4. Power LED is easily viewed from outside

5. Test and Compete

Time for the fun part! Once you're happy with your robot, test it out in an open space! This will mean that if anything goes wrong, minimal damage will occur. If everything works well, then read the rules and go through our checklist to make sure your robot doesn't fail our safety inspection! If everything is great, then it means your robot is competition ready!

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