Hi, my name is will,
About a year ago I bought an arduino mega and have built a few small robots. Recently I was browsing YouTube when I saw that battle bots is back on abc. I then decided to try and build a small scale one. I have not finalized the design, but I think it will have two 12v motors to drive treads, and one 27v motor for a weapon. I have a seeed studio motorsheild and hc-06 Bluetooth "chip". I'm good when it comes to designing and building, but just ok for wiring and coding. So I have a few questions;
Since the arduino-motorsheild will not put out 27v I believe I could use transistors and battery packs, right?
The Bluetooth is the most frustrating part; my first build was a toy tank That used Bluetooth, but the app was not designed for arduino. Does anybody know a good remote Bluetooth controller for arduino on the google play store? Also my second build, a car of sorts, worked wired but when I tried to convert it to Bluetooth it just wouldn't work. I tried just about everything. So I might post on the forums about coding with Bluetooth.
Also what type of batteries would you recommend? I'm looking to spend less than 30$ total on batteries.
Any comments on anything apricateted.
Thank you. ^cant spell that word for my life
Since the arduino-motorsheild will not put out 27v I believe I could use transistors and battery packs, right?
The motor shield does not "put out" voltage. It controls the input voltage source. The official shield is not designed to control more than 12V. The limitation really isn't the voltage. It's the current.
Any comments on anything apricateted.
Thank you. ^cant spell that word for my life
Use FireFox. Right-click on the words with the red squiggles. The correct spelling appears, if you haven't butchered it too badly. Which you did. The correct spelling is "appreciated".
The Sparkfun Monster Moto shield is good for really big currents and (if you remove the silly 'power' LED) big voltages. The Adafruit motor shield is excellent but it may not have the current capability you are looking for. Polou.com is really good for robotics supplies.
Does a battle bot normally have a "brain"? I would have assumed they were just straight RC control under human control with no memory & programming.
DVDdoug:
Does a battle bot normally have a "brain"? I would have assumed they were just straight RC control under human control with no memory & programming.
Normally they are, but I would think that by now (unless this is a limitation of the rules, of which I know nothing about) competitors would incorporate microcontrollers and other sensors to allow for a level of automated and semi-automated control (macro recording and playback, for instance).
If this isn't being done yet, then it's likely that current rules forbid it (perhaps for obvious reasons).
Anyhow - the OP doesn't seem to be building a real combat-ready robot, but rather something smaller.
@WILL_STEF - I would encourage you to look into the world of sumo-bots, which is a form of small-scale competition robotics. They also tend to be fully autonomous, IIRC. I think there is also a form of robot martial art fighting using humanoid chassis - also fully autonomous (though this is likely to be a Japanese thing only).
Flyweight combat robotics is a thing - but you would have to step up your game and knowledge quite a bit before stepping into the ring. Combat robotics is a mature sport - as such, it has attained a level of competition that demands a newbie to have more than a bit of experience outside the arena. I'm not saying this to dissuade you - newbies are always welcome - just to prepare you if you go this route.
Controllers are typically 2.4 GHz spread-spectrum, too - just like all current radio-control hobbies today.
I would also suggest getting a subscription to Servo Magazine, and checking out the past several years of back-issue articles on combat robotics; there's a treasure-trove of knowledge well worth looking into if you are serious about the hobby.
Good luck, have fun, stay safe! 
hi,
I have a hobby grade rc truck, so i know about the transmitter and receiver. however since, starting small, i did not want to spend about $50-60 yet(Im in high school). So I thought i could make do with and arduino, but i will look more seriously into an "non micro-controller route".
thanks
will
hi,
I am making a small scale battle bot after the show came on tv. I have an arduino mega with a seeed studio motor shield and a hc-06 bluetooth "chip". I programmed and wired everything but there is no output from the motor shield. I am a noob when it comes to programming so i would like your help. also I can connect my android phone to the blue tooth and the app I used worked before. The input in the app is 1,2,3,4 on a keyboard
thanks,
Will