“Brix Bots” are available for rent and competition at most of our events. Please check the event description to ensure that we intend to include them.

Getting Started

After you check in with our team, you’ll be given a few items to start your bot building.

• A tray with your team number on it

• A bot chassis - like the one on the Right —————->>>>>

• Your choice of Lego wheels

• A selection of Lego parts to begin your build

Your bot is set up with a pair of drive motors in back with Lego axles. You can certainly do something more advanced, but most people will mount their wheels directly to the shafts.

The point of this game is to build a bot and crush the competition. But, its a little more complicated than that:

-Your bot has to weigh AT MOST 16 oz - (the maximum Plastic Ant class weight of 1 lb (16 oz))

-Your bot has to weigh AT LEAST 15 oz - because its more fun with more stuff to fly off

- You won’t have much time to get ready, so build fast!

- The battle can end in a few ways:

• Your bot becomes incapacitated - it gets flipped, stuck or otherwise can’t move. You’ll get a 10 count to try to recover - then you’re out

• Your bot gets trapped in “the pit” - again, you get a 10 count to try to get out

• You tap out - when all hope is lost, tell the judge and we’ll put you out of your misery

• Judges decision - our judges will be judging based on the following criteria:

  • Damage - how much of your starting 16 oz’s do you still have? We’ll weigh your bot after if its too close to call

  • Aggressiveness - Do your opponents fear you?

  • Driving Skill/Showmanship - Give the people what they want.

• Note: We try to keep our bots in good repair, but they don’t have easy lives. There is a (low) possibility of a mechanical failure or other issue that may take your bot out of the fight. This is part of the game unfortunately. We’ll try to get you fixed back up and in the game if possible.

Your Bot

At this point your bot is pretty basic - but let’s go over the parts:

• Microcontroller/Radio: Your bot gets its smarts from a Micro:bit Microcontroller. You can see a little bit of this gadget - the small LED array. In addition to the LEDs, it controls your motors and has a radio that lets it talk to the controller you’ll be using to drive.

• Drive Wheels: The wheels will be added by you - or maybe you’ll come up with something surprising

• Lego Plate: This is the big Lego part to which other Legos will snap.

• Lego Pegs: These can be inserted into the chassis of your bot which will allow Lego Technic parts to connect

• Servo Port: We’ll talk about this more later, but this port allows a Servo motor and other accessories to be connected to the bot to allow "weapon” functions like flipping.

Control

You will be driving your bot with a controller that should look familiar to anyone who has played video games.

Directional control is via the Joystick/Thumbstick on the left side. The buttons on the right control any accessory functions (from the servo port)

We’ll hold on to your controller (and your batteries) until you’re ready to test your bot. When you’re notified that you’re on-deck, one of our staff will hook you up with both.