How large polycarb sheet for kitbot bellypan

[cerealbird]

I’m trying to plan our bellypan for our kitbot. We’ve decided on 1/8" polycarb, and I wondering how big teams usually make it. Does it cover the whole bottom? I was also wondering what the best way to mount it is. Personally, I was thinking of mounting from the bottom of the kitbot, and using rivets around the border to secure it.

[connor.worley]

That’s how I would do it

[Zook]

Sounds good to me. Rivets or button cap screws/bolts. Something with a low profile.
We’ve done 1/8" PC, 0.1" aluminum, and probably something else as well, in the past. PC is easiest to modify later if needed.

[ngreen]

For 2021 we put the plate at mid height using some 3d printed risers (2") along the sides and so we placed the pdp and some motor controllers on the bottom and the Rio on top. We had a little thicker material, 3/16" at least.

The risers had threaded inserts to attach to the rail from the bottom also for the plate from the top. I had cutouts for the wheel bolt holes but thinking just now it makes a lot of sense to just capture that it the rail.

Also placed inserts into the polycarb plate for mounting electronics. Only did half the robot this way because the other side was a battery box underneath.

Edit: We had a second cover plate on the bottom that retained and protected the electronics which had 4 bolts with rivnuts on the frame.

[Lexeo]

That’s a good method.

Be careful mounting heavy things to it (like the battery) because you may have some significant flex.

I’d also encourage you to look at this product from Andymark to keep your wiring tidy (if you do not already have a better method)

[Nate_Laverdure]

We like that stuff so much, we just special-ordered a pallet of it. Came in yesterday. Thanks Andy!

[Billfred]

Generally speaking, our bellypans don’t cover the full bottom. In the case of 2019 and 2020, we had open fronts to accept game pieces. Even in our 2021 rebuild, we left space in between the motors (though some of that was because we were saving 2020 parts where we didn’t have a good reason to change them).

I wouldn’t commit to a size until I did some thinking on the game, but if I had to order materials now I’d order at least 2’x3’ and bet on leftovers finding their way to other parts of your robot.

[pfreivald]

We typically mount our belly pan with nutserts and button-head screws, so that we can pull the whole thing off if need’s be.

I don’t think we’ve ever had a situation where we had to do that, like, ever, but it’s nice to have the option if things go drastically awry during competition.

[nuclearnerd]

FYI, 1/8 polycarb is going to be pretty floppy. That might be fine for your purposes, but if not you might consider riveting some angle iron across half way. Alternatively switch to something with a higher stiffness to weight ratio like Baltic Birch plywood or Euroboard.