Agdros' R2 Builder blog

Blue Dome

2010-01-19T19:38:00.002-05:00

Nuff Said.

Dragon*Con 2009

2009-09-07T20:19:00.004-05:00

Had a really good time. We did have some problems with the con directors early on... Something about causing a fire hazard because we were drawing too many people to one area.
I was really happy to see R2-KT there. If you don't know the story about this droid, check out www.r2kt.com

Conooga 2009

2009-02-24T08:14:00.004-05:00

Just a few pictures from the event.

Long time No post

2008-08-06T18:06:00.004-05:00

Welcome to all who have recently visited this blog.
Sorry I have not posted much over the past year. I am trying to get excited about this project again as several of the parts that I was waiting on have finally arrived.

Parts received over the past few months:
ALU frame
ALU front and rear logic surround
slip ring
JAG motor mounts
Jedi Control system
Skin mounting blocks

Parts on order:
ALU battery harnesses
ALU Feet locks

Parts still needed:
ALU periscope and fittings
NPC2122 motors

I will try to get some pictures this weekend.
I have assembled the frame and stuck one of Ryan's ALU legs on it just to test the fit.

The rest is still as it was back in October last year.

Dragon Con is coming up. I will not be attending but many of the builders from the east coast appear to be busy making plans to attend.

more soon.

It is time to get back to R2

2008-04-04T15:23:00.002-05:00

Well, its been a while now since I posted. After the trip to Ireland, holiday season demanded a large amount of my time. The room I was working in to build R2, was converted into a play room for my daughter, so I don't really have anywhere to work at the moment.

In December I started working on my basement workshop. I have not made too much progress there, but its coming along. I will probably start working on this again when my new ALU frame arrives.

In February I took R2(still R3 head) to 2 different parties. Issues with front foot caster continue to limited mobility, but he was still a great success.

Parts that arrived over the past 5 months includes:
front and rear logic bezels
ALU coin slots
ALU knurled fittings
Leon's rear logic board
108 multi color 3mm leds

Parts expected to arrive soon:
ALU frame
ALU rear logic surround
slip ring
JAG motor mounts

Parts still needed:
ALU periscope and fittings
ALU battery harnesses
NPC2122 motors
24ah Batteries
other electronics

Parts wanted, but not needed:
Jedi Control system
Dan's power distribution board

Hello from Ireland!!

2007-10-30T16:23:00.000-05:00

Hey guys. I am in Ireland this week. Hanging out with family and having a good time.
I will be back in the states sometime next week. Keep building and have fun folks.!

SPDT idea

2007-10-23T22:27:00.001-05:00

Jerry Chevalier asked:

Has anyone ever come up with a board or a way to handle an auto switching source of power?

For example: I am plugged into a AC outlet. If I unplug the AC and the master switch is on then it reverts to battery power?

If I am on battery and I connect back up to AC then it shuts off the battery source. A UPS board sounded like it would work but I haven’t had too much success with that

I decided to take on this challenge and came up with the following wiring design.

I am not sure this will work, and I am looking for validation. There are a few versions of this on the message board, but this is the final version.

Southern Builders Meeting

2007-10-15T20:24:00.001-05:00

Dan, Steele, and I got on the road around 6am on Saturday morning 10/13. We made it to Jacksonville, FL just a few minutes after noon. It was a long drive but worth the effort.

My droid is still having some issues with my center foot casters. They are binding up pretty bad.

Still have lots of things going on, so build time has been reduced drastically. I hope to get back to working on things in November.

Feet work

2007-09-29T08:43:00.001-05:00

Needed to work on my feet a bit. Started with the center foot. I was not happy with the omni ball casters that I was using so I modified my JAG center foot to hold 2 3" casters.

These casters have the Brake.. which I really didn't want but I found them pretty cheap at Lowes...will see how they do.

hope to paint my outer feet today and then get my droid standing again within the next few days.

OFF topic -- Videos

2007-09-21T23:58:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to post this. I like Ben Folds. Enjoy.

This is a cover of The Postal Service "Such Great Heights". Look it up on youtube to see the original version.

This next one is sort of on topic.. but not really.

DragonCon 2007

2007-09-03T12:40:00.001-05:00

Just posting pics at the moment. I'll come back and give some context after I get some sleep.

I also have this short video from my phone... Not the greatest, but will give you an idea of how busy the con was.

Tools down

2007-08-26T20:18:00.001-05:00

No more building until after Dragon Con.
This is what R3-T2 will look like. The wife and I have figured out how to get him in and out of our Ford Escape. Its a very tight fit, but when the dome is off, the posts that stick up from the Rockler bearing are just a bit over 32" off the ground... and the clearance for getting him into the Ford is 33".

These were some of the last minute things I got done. Ankle Details, cylinder and wedge, battery boxes, and khf + brass hoses.
Another shot of the feet. I am still missing battery harnesses, but those will eventually turn up.

Side shot to show the leg.
And the dome is still looking OK. There is no clear coat on this dome, so it has taken a bit of damage over the past 6 months, but it will be functional until I can complete my other dome.
I have been having some issues with the shoulders not staying in the position that I want. This is causing some clearance issues with the feet. I will probably spend some time on that the next 2 days to have that all figured out before the convention.

Crunch Time!

2007-08-22T19:02:00.000-05:00

Getting down to the wire now for DragonCon!

A few weeks ago my Outer Feet and Skirt Showed up. Amazing work on these parts!

I came across similar problems with the skirt that have been described by others in the past. The bottom ring of the A&A frame does not fit into the JAG skirt. My solution was to cut up the A&A bottom ring and then modify the frame to accept the bolts that are in the Skirt.

I managed to get the skirt mounted, but there is still a ton of work to do to make this complete.
Last weekend, my brother came over to help me out with the feet. I have the A&A motor mounts, and I also have Darryls mounts. I decided to use Darryls mounts, but had to do some minor modifications.
One of the things that has become difficult is getting this dude upside down... My brother helped me get him into this position so we could work on the feet.
I made a few cuts to the outer feet to accommodate the motor mount.
I also modified the battery boxes to match the openings from the feet.
I found some brass hoses at Lowes... I had keith's knurled fittings and put this together to work until I get the khf from the current run.
Here I have the foot mounted. Notice I am missing my cylinders, ankle detail and a few other things.. I hope to get those all finished up this week.
Paint pen tests.. This picture is terrible, but I wanted to have a few paint pens available for any touchup work that needed to be done to the paint. The winners are:
Blue: Elmers
Red: Elmers again
White: Crafts Etc.
Black: Sharpie
Sharpie does sell paint pens and the black used here is not just a regular sharpie marker.

The Wife and I plan to work on logistics this week and early next week. We need to figure out things like:
How do we get R3-T2 out of the house?
How do we get him into the Car?
How do we get him out of the Car?
How well does he drive on industrial carpet?
How well does he drive on shag carpet?
Does he handle bumps well?
Whats exactly is the battery lifespan?
Can I drive him without putting others or himself in danger?
Can my wife drive him without putting others in danger?
and so on and so forth....

3 legs again

2007-08-04T22:19:00.000-05:00

Got the center ankle into an acceptable status and we are now back on 3 legs.

worked on some vex programming tonight, and plan to spend another day or so working on the code.

If you missed my post on the r2builders... below is a copy of the instructions to correct the turning problem.

Most vex users probably know about this, but since it wasn't completely obvious I thought I would post.

If your using Arcade2 mode for driving you should have this line of code:

Arcade2(0,1,2,1,2,0,1);

This makes forward and reverse work with the right stick.
The only problem with this is that turning left and right is reversed.
stick left he goes right and stick right he goes left.

To fix this:
press mode+select till you get into the config mode on the remote.
Hit the mode button again to get into the reverse menu.
Press select channel to change to channel 2
press the Data Input button down to reverse the second channel.

done.

right stick forward, reverse, left, and right all respond correctly.

Happy driving!

Will probably spend some time fixing up the Aspects dome. Getting some lights to work and other stuff.

Skirt, and Feet still not here, but I am still very happy with my progress.

waiting for parts

2007-08-02T17:21:00.001-05:00

not much to report.
waiting on skirt, feet, and other minor things.

did some work on the alu dome but not enough progress to show.
working on center ankle at the moment.

Going to be cutting a few corners to get my droid in shape for DragonCon. So any major noticeable flaws will be fixed as I have time.

R3-T2

2007-07-18T22:35:00.001-05:00

Another shot ... This picture provides a view of the area that I have been using to build. Its my Dinning room.

So what is left:
Dome electronics
Feet
Battery Boxes
Hoses & Knurled fittings
Skirt
minor Tweaks to back door
Center Ankle
Paint Cylinders and Wedges

Its been raining for a few days so no Painting. I don't have feet, or skirt... and so moving on to 300mm Dome.

I marked the inside of the panels and dome, then used a hacksaw blade to remove the panels. I got about half of the tabs filed down, and need to scrape the slag off still.

All the panels cut out. Need to file the tabs and scrape the slag.

This dome shouldn't take too long to get it looking right. Just need to spend a few more days cleaning up the parts, and hope to get some painting done within the next week. After that, cut a few holes and assemble.

updates

2007-07-16T19:02:00.000-05:00

I didn't want to be one of those people that stopped posting regularly when I started getting close to the end.. but finding time to post, or work on my droid has been difficult.

So, this past week I spent plenty of time working on the Ankles and legs. This is the results. Some things are not perfect, and others are pretty darn close.

Tom's cylinders and wedges came in today. These are just dry fit in place. I will paint them when it stops raining.

I managed to get the back door mounted. It is not right. I will spend some more time on this after I finish the other leg.

Shoulder to leg hub. I am using the A&A leg kit so I had to skin the shoulder hub with some aluminum. I found a sheet metal pipe at the hardware store... and after a few hours of cutting/test fitting, I came up with these. It will work till my ALU hubs come in.

Got a little over a month left to go for Dragon Con. I hope to get a skirt and feet shells before then, but am considering alternatives at the moment.

Things completed:
mounted rear door
mount under shoulder details
designed shoulder hub cover
attached shoulder hub cover
assembled leg

Magnum or William Shatner

2007-07-10T20:28:00.000-05:00

My r3t2 decided to strike a pose. Not sure if this is his magnum face, or his impersonation of William Shatner. Its hard to tell.

Stuff done:
mounted front coin return
mounted second side vent
mounted side plates
mounted second octagon port
mounted skins
painted power coupler
partially mounted power coupler
adjusted dome ring and Rockler bearing to fix alignment issues

Some ALU frames are now available. I want one, but they are fairly expensive, and switching out frames is not a simple overnight job. At this point if I purchased the frame, I would be setting myself up to build a second droid.
In other words, I have not decided if I want to purchase the frame.

This next statement is not meant to offend the r2builders. Building an R2D2 is not only about owning a custom build robot that shares the likeness of a childhood hero of mine... for me it has been a learning experience, a bridge to mechanical engineering, and a chance for me to use some of my artistic skills which have been neglected for several years.

It has never been my intention to just build an R2D2. I hope to build/modify/invent new things with the skills and knowledge I have gained.

not sure where all that came from... I'm not even close to being done with this project so I better stay focused... back to building!

Octagons, Doors, and Vents... Oh my!

2007-07-08T21:40:00.000-05:00

Got a few things done.
mounted coin slots
mounted 2 of 3 coin returns
mounted center vents
designed Side vent attachment scheme
mounted side vents
cut out Side panels
mounted Side panels
mounted 1 of 2 octagon ports
put body filer on legs/ankles
some sanding done

Not all items listed above are pictured.

Rear Octagon Port installed. I also got both of the rear side doors installed. I used a method which I will describe later in this post.

This picture is from inside. I just decided to drill through the entire octagon port and use some longer screws to mount. I had been trying to figure out what size screws to use, and ended up just using 8/32 after a fair amount of drilling.

Side vent mounted. Some people are probably looking at this and saying... um... why is only half the skin mounted?. And how is it staying on?

Here is the first part of the answer to the mounting question. I am using a cabinet door magnet. I used a few nylon spacers to get it positioned correctly... and oh don't you like my zip ties holding my battery in place =D

This is the back of the vent. I know it looks messy but nobody should see this. The plate that attaches to the magnet is on the left and on the right I used some scrap from the skins to add a lip to the bottom inside of the vent.

I then used some styrene to fill the gap so that it was a nice tight fit. You can see the styrene sticking out on the left.

OK... got to get the other side vent fixed up and the other octagon. I hope to get those done tomorrow.
Running out of time. Setting a goal of 6 weeks. Wish me luck.

electrical work & Task List

2007-07-03T22:22:00.000-05:00

No pictures today. I have reached a stopping point on the electronics in the body of R2. His charging system, is completed.

I also got the dome drive wired, and speakers connected.

Things I need to finish up the body:
mount coin slots
complete the construction of Coin returns
mount coin returns
paint Power couplers
mount power couplers
drill holes in Center vents
mount center vents
design Side vent attachment scheme
mount side vents
cut out Side panels
mount Side panels
mount octagon ports
get Skirt (on order at the moment)
do all work regarding skirt and mount

Leg work needed:
put body filer on legs/ankles
sand
prime and paint
mount under shoulder details
mount ankle details
mount cylinder holders
mount cylinder with wedges (on order)
glue parts for shoulder hub
Assemble leg and attach to body

Feet work needed:
get feet.. and do all the work needed (on order)
get battery boxes.. and do all the work needed (on order)
get knurled fittings and hoses.. and do all the work needed (on order)
paint resin battery harnesses and mount
assemble motor mount and attach to foot.

Aspects dome work needed:
fix pic flashers
swap out leds on psi flasher
mount psi housing and electronics
mount pic flashers
re-drill holes to align dome ring with rocklear bearing
put felt pads in holo projectors

300mm dome work needed:
all

That's the short list of things I want to get done asap. I need this droid project to be completed within the next 6 weeks or he will be missing parts at DragonCon.

I doubt that I will get much of the 300mm dome work done, but if some of the parts I need are not available, then there will be time.

Two Legs! -- steps back and forward

2007-07-02T21:07:00.000-05:00

This past week, I tried to stay busy but was still a bit distracted. You will notice a few new links in the "Other" category. I have started looking at the possibility of converting a car from gas to electric. Research has begun.

OK, 2 Legs this time. This was actually around last Tuesday night, but it didn't last long. I had planned to build the ankles separate but the more I worked with them, the less confident I was in being able to attach everything securely. Will get into more of this later...

Acetone bath for my power couplers. If you followed the message boards this week you will see a nice thread about painting power couplers. Anyway, these are almost back to the start. Some of the primer is still on and I will need to sand them just a touch before starting to repaint.

Stepping back. After making decisions about the ankle, I jammed it all together with a ton of screws... glued on the styrene pieces.. and then picked super glue off my fingers for a few hours.

As I was saying earlier, I just didn't trust the strength of the ankle as a completely separate component. I also had to deal with Keith's resin "beefy part." I didn't want that thing flying off... so its held in place by 4 screws. 6 Bolts, and 6 screws hold the ankle parts to the leg. This had better work.

Not sure if I mentioned my distaste for Bondo. I was never able to get consistency that I liked, which would last more than about a minute. So after some research, I found this stuff. Its pretty much the same stuff, but its already pre-mixed and in a squeeze tube! I'll use this to fill the gaps in the ankle and a few other places on the legs.
...and on another note, because I made the ankle decision after I painted my legs white, I will be doing a fair amount of sanding. The entire legs will probably get a fresh coat of paint.

I have JAG's outer feet on order so I picked up a few of Darryl's mounts. These are drive wheel only mounts, so no stem casters. 3 legged only motor mounts.

Last, I did some more electrical work.
Its getting a bit messy, but on the right side you can see my battery chargers are mounted. These chargers are plugged into the power strip, and connected the batteries. I held off on these for a long time, because I was concerned about space issues.

more soon!

A Leg!

2007-06-25T20:16:00.000-05:00

And the efforts of this past weekend are starting to come together. I am still working on the other leg, and I need to get the under shoulder details attached.

oh.. and here is some more random work.

Yes that is an AC power strip. I am mounting my chargers inside my droid, and have a few other things I want to be able to plug in.. This strip will only be functional when he is in a charging situation.

progress again

2007-06-24T12:47:00.001-05:00

From my past posts, it is probably very noticeable that I can not keep focus on one aspect of my droid at a time. This post is not unlike the rest. I have been working on things all over my droid. You name it, I worked on it.

This post represents several days work, and I will probably have another post for the stuff I get done today.

A week ago I ordered a nibbler from radio shack. My goal with this item is to complete coin returns using the tried and true method provided by Chris Lee.

Chris Lee's Coin Return Tutorial

This picture is my first steps to completing my coin returns. I will have more pictures in my next post about these.

Legs. I did some bondo work on my legs a few days ago. Although they are not 100% smooth, I am fairly satisfied with the results. Some people seem to like bondo. I will pass on it the next time I am in a situation where I can use something else.

ah.. more coin return stuff. I was apparently working on these while I was waiting for bondo to dry and or just getting out of the heat.

Legs primed. Used an old ladder and some coat hangers to suspend these while painting.

And white paint. Got 3 good coats on these and they are looking very good.

ALU horseshoes from Daniel were very easy to work with. Just ran a 600 grit sandpaper over it, cleaned it with ALU-prep, primed and painted.

This is stuff I am actually working on right now. I am doing this post while waiting for this coat to dry. This represents the bulk of the blue paint I need to get done before Dragon Con. I still need to do my 300mm dome work, but I am thinking that will wait till this fall.

OK, more tonight probably... and sorry for the delay on updating this site. My personal issues still continue. I have made contact with a lawyer and hope that I can get through this without her help.

parts and re-painting

2007-06-13T22:31:00.001-05:00

Just trying to get started again after not productively working on my droid for more than a week. I can't say that I didn't look at him at all during that time, but anything I started ended up not working out. I have been fairly distracted for a few weeks by some ongoing personal issues...but enough about that..

Parts!

Michaels Octagon came in and they are fantastic. Just need to figure out what size screws I need.

Holo's are here. Amazing work on these.

RE-Paint:
I was not satisfied with the metallic paint I used the first time I tried to get these resin parts in shape. This time around i didn't buy the fancy can and just got the most generic rattle can of Rustoleum metallic paint and they look much better.

Short Break

2007-06-10T22:33:00.000-05:00

This week, I didn't get much accomplished. I messed around with some bondo on the legs, and glued together a few other things. I hope to get back to it this week sometime, and will have another update with some pictures.

Things that need to be done include:
Bondo/Sand legs
Install battery chargers
Paint stuff (lots)

Spent most of this weekend messing with my cell phone. Managed to get it upgraded to windows mobile 6.
Anyway... more soon.

skins almost done

2007-06-03T20:19:00.000-05:00

Been working on the skins on and off the past few days. This set of pictures spans from last Thursday to today. I know it doesn't look like much, but this stuff took time.

On Friday I got my panels all taped into place. I used silicone to glue everything that was going to be semi-permanent.

I did the same with the arm sections of the skins.

Saturday, I started messing around with the Robart Hinges. I tried a few different setups to see how to make these things work. Using silicone made this testing process easy to tear apart and start over.

While I was waiting for the silicone to dry, I managed to get a few things painted. I still need to paint the power couplers and coin slots.

Skins on. Dome set on top just for effect. You will notice that I have one door open. This is my problem door. I will need to solve a few problems...specifically the threaded rod that is right in the way.

All the doors open.
This is looking better, but several tweaks need to be done.

Resin Parts

2007-05-30T23:24:00.001-05:00

Took a detour today from the work I was doing yesterday.

I ordered these parts a while back, and just kept them off to the side in the event that I didn't get an ALU replacement part. Today I followed the instructions provided on www.resinparts.com

I started by wiping each piece down with a cotton ball I then used a tooth brush with soapy water to scrub each piece.

This took a bit of time, and then there was the light sanding and cleanup work that needed to be done on each component.
I managed to get the dust coat, and a coat of primer on these parts. I will inspect each one for defects. Using superglue and sandpaper, I should be able to cleanup any pin holes or other issues fairly quickly.

Only other thing I managed today was to get the top panel glued on for the back door.

First Blues

2007-05-29T21:59:00.000-05:00

Taking a few days off work. This first day, I wanted to make a dent in some things that have been dragging on for a while.

Frank's feet strips showed up. Good timing. This was the start of the 7th week from the time that Frank said he was shipping the parts. The must have taken the boat across the Atlantic.

I decided to get started on some Blue stuff. So I grabbed up a few of the body parts that needed to be painted, lightly sanded them, cleaned with Alu-prep, and primed.

Same steps for arms and ldp. Setup an old ladder and used some pieces of a wire coat hanger to hang these pieces.

While I waited for the primer to dry, I assembled my center foot. This will all need to be taken apart again, but I needed to make sure that my bolt/nylon spacer setup was going to function.

I must have missed taking the setup picture for this, but between trips running outside to primer and paint, I taped the back door panels on and glued them in place with silicone.

Pictures of Blue are coming... The paint still needs a few more coats. In the mean time I worked on mount the skins. I was already pretty nervous about my painting skills so it didn't take too much more stress to get the courage to drill holes in the skins.

Finally. For those wondering this is Krider method. Better pictures below.

Arms and LDP came out nice.

So there is this rule that your not supposed to work with freshly painted stuff... um.. yea sure.

I thought I had the arms all worked out, but I had actually never tested the mounting setup. This is the first guess and getting stuff lined up. Both arms are sagging quite a bit here.

Pulled the tape off the panels and the back door is starting to look much better. I will glue on the top panel tomorrow.

This is starting to look better. The bottom arm is still in trouble, but should be easy to fix.

Big day. It is a nice feeling to be able to make a bunch of progress.
(spell checker wasn't working. I'll fix stuff later)

Memorial Day weekend

2007-05-28T22:00:00.000-05:00

Star Wars is 30 years old. There are tons of specials on TV, and the Celebration IV convention is wrapping up in LA. For me it was the same as previous holiday weekends. I anticipate being able to get tons of work on R2 accomplished... and then not find the extra time to actually get stuff done.

I taped the skins on and started to line everything up only to chicken out... drilling holes in the skin is not easy. I may get the courage tomorrow.

I again wimped out on the back door. I have seen lots of people use JB weld here, but I decided that a 4 hour cleanup process was not in my schedule. I used silicone instead and was able to get this put together in about 30 minutes. I hope it holds and will attempt to glue on the panels tomorrow.

It probably looks fine from the photo, but the clips I used put tiny marks on the surface of the door. Not sure how I am going to fix this... but I will do some research. At worst case sanding down then entire surface and repainting. That will mean that I will loose the ALU in the gaps similar to a process that several other builders have had to go through.

I got the hardware for my center foot all figured out. The stem ball casters installed.

It was only after I had been to the hardware store that I remembered Jerry had a tutorial for this stuff. I was pretty close... I am using 2" screws and nylon spacers instead of what Jerry recommends. Will see how that works out.

Just the parts stacked...Waiting on the foot.

Finished painting the foot tonight. I'll put it together tomorrow.

Back Door, Center Foot, Half moons

2007-05-26T23:47:00.001-05:00

Last night I got the back door cut out. Most builders end up doing this step, and I am sure they had the same rush I felt when I got it completed. Very scary cut, with only about 1/8" play room on the line.

Today I started the weekend with my daughter. At one point she got into her toy box.

I got clear coats on most of the stuff I painted the other day. This was just a test fit of all the parts that are ready to be glued together. I hope to get that done tomorrow.

Center foot. This picture is actually the second attempt. I started pretty early with this foot and thought it was ready for auto body grey primer. It didn't take 5 mins after the first coat to see lots of cracks and pits starting to form in the primer. I spent the rest of the day striping and sanding the foot to get it back to this point.

I thought I might be able to finish up the center foot today, so I worked on Tom's half moons. They turned out very nice.

my predictions never come through... but tomorrow I hope to get the inner skin mounting to the frame figured out, complete the painting on the Center foot, and assemble the back door. You can see that I have my pile of clamps ready to go in the picture above.

I also have a copy of the C4 show that G4 broadcast. A link from the group website is available, or send me an email for the link.

Paint, Center Foot, and more!

2007-05-23T22:21:00.000-05:00

I have been putting this off for a while, because I am a bit nervous about my rattle-can skills. I dove in head first today. The next few pictures were taken when I took a break to let the last coat of primer dry.

I didn't take too many other pictures while I was painting so I took this one after I had applied several coats of white. I brought the panels inside to let them finish drying. The painting process went well, but not perfect so I didn't put clear coats on anything. I am going to wait a week and make sure that this stuff looks good before I spray on the clear. There is definitely one panel that I will need to redo... it got a bug or something on in while I was painting, and in an attempt to get it off I think I touched the panel. A nice big fish eye marks the spot.

The steel center foot from Jerry Greene arrived today. Absolutely amazing. I messed around with it for a few minutes to mount the half moons that I got from Tom. They are a perfect fit.

While paint was drying, I spent some time considering how to mount the center vents. I decided to use a couple of flat bars. I will put a few holes in each bar and in the wall of each center vent using screws to secure the vents in place.

I also had time to trim the front skin for the power coupler. I plan to use another flat bar to secure this component to the frame (or skin).

lots done today, I also messed around with the arms a bit. I took some notes from Calvin and got most of the mounting components together.

If all goes well, I should be working on painting a few things blue (Krider method) sometime this week. I am also planning on taking some time off next week. I hope to take that time to make some serious progress on the legs.

speakers -- legs off again

2007-05-22T22:26:00.000-05:00

Speakers installed.

Not much else to show for over the past few days. I took the legs off again, and plan to finish mounting the skins and a few other items, and then its on to painting/sanding/painting/sanding/painting/sanding... and so on.

If the above process goes well.. the majority of the body/electrical work except for feet and battery boxes should be done within the next few weeks.

Celebration 4 starts in 4 days

2007-05-19T20:31:00.001-05:00

Lots of people are on the road or about to get started. They are traveling from every corner of the world to Los Angeles, California to attend the convention "Celebration IV".

An exclusive Star Wars convention, that will probably have 20k or more people in attendance. The R2 builders club will have an exhibition room where all the R-series droids will be on display for everyone to see.

Watch the news for information coming out of LA about this convention, and keep an eye out for any R-series droids. They are all my friends. I wish them a safe journey.

(I changed the font, because I had a few people notify me about having difficulty reading the small text.)

JB weld and Center vents

2007-05-19T20:20:00.000-05:00

On and off this week I have been working on the skins. Yesterday and today I spent some time JB welding the panels together. This picture is the doors on the back.

This pic is a few of the doors on the front.

I also got out Tom's center vent kit and put that together. Spent a bunch of time sanding the surrounds, and filling the inserts to get everything to fit together. This pic shows it just set in place in the skins.

I also pulled out my bag full of robart hinges, and figured out how they work. On the body, I plan to have at least 5 or 6 doors that open.

Been having some back problems, so that is delaying me from taking the legs and feet off again. I will need to do that to properly mount the skins, and allow me to start working on the legs.

Bad week

2007-05-16T22:11:00.000-05:00

There was a very serious incident at work this week. The event itself I cannot go into detail, but I can say that I am an emotional wreck. There are definitely worse things to go through in life than the situation I am having to live through, but at this moment I am questioning everything I have been working toward for the past 8 years.

My R2 is helping me to pass the moments when my wife and daughter are not around. I have been slowly working on filling down the tabs on the skins. I have a bit more to do, and then I can start sanding. Unfortunately, my lack of attention span has resulted in a few pieces of the skin getting bent. I hope I can smooth the ripples out .

Anyway... thought I would post for those who check this site regularly. My plan at the moment is to get the skins mounted and start some jb welding on panels. I want to figure out how to get all the parts I have mounted to either the frame or the skins before I start painting.

Dome drive, LDP, front skins

2007-05-12T22:59:00.000-05:00

I know this is not how the dome drive is supposed to be mounted. I played around with a few other ways to get this on, and this was a short cut that I came up with.
I turned the motor around, cut this piece of plywood and 20 minutes later it was done.

The spring is just attached to the top ring of the A&A frame. There is a bit of sag here, which will be more visible in shots lower in this post. I plan to beef up this entire area anyway because of the ALU arms and LDP.

I got the LDP installed. Just pushed a few holes through the top of the arm carriage and this was done.

I just used 3 screws. This made it easier to center and will leave me room on the sides to handle the arms.

I also spent a few more minutes cutting out some of the front skin doors. Will probably spend a fair amount of time on these tomorrow, filling & sanding.

dome drive, shoulder shim, and skins

2007-05-10T22:23:00.000-05:00

Got the Dome drive the other day, and started to figure out how to attach it to my A&A frame. I reconfigured the mounting plates to see if that would help me figure out where to put it.

I have a ton of stuff in the back of my R2, so its got to go in the front, but I will need to stay away from the arm carriage as much as possible. Looks like I will need to modify my A&A frame a bit to get this thing installed.

After not making progress on the dome drive, I decided to try and get something done, so I counter sunk the holes on my shoulder shim and mounted it to them to the legs.

After that, I decided to start cutting out the panels on the front skins. I cut out the back panels way back, but put the skins down when I was headed to the Southern Builders meeting. After the meeting my focus was diverted from the skins.

If you havn't noticed before... I am a very messy builder. This picture is proof.

Got to pickup some screws to mount the shoulders, booster covers, and a few other parts. I will try to do that tomorrow or saturday.

The new plan

2007-05-09T22:52:00.000-05:00

The new plan is to strip out the excess 2-3-2 junk and just start putting all the parts I own together and make some progress. My droid has looked similar to this for the past 3 months, and I am fairly sick of it.

Going to focus on the body for a while, and let some of the other builders work on their 300mm Domes. I can then read their blogs to get the info to put it together.

Want to get the skins mounted by this weekend, and then start attaching all the other greeblies. Also need to finish up the electrical, which should be a snap now that I have truckloads of space inside the body.

I started Monday night. It took maybe 2 hours to rip all of the 2-3-2 parts out of my droid. This picture shows all 3 satellite motors removed.

Tuesday, I spent some time with all the extra A&A parts that I almost threw away a long time ago. These parts are essential for a non-satellite motor setup and helped me determine what bolts, nuts, washers, and bushings were needed to reassemble the shoulders. I didn't get any pictures, but I will try to remember to get some and post how I put my shoulders back together.

Wednesday, I went to the hardware store and picked up the parts I needed. I looked around for a few minutes at galvanized steel pipes. Trying to find a 1" and 3/4" pipes that fit together is a real pain. I have opted to just pass on the pipe stuff until I really run into a situation where I need it.

I brought the parts home, assembled the shoulders... put the legs on... turned the feet around (wheels in the back)...wired him up.. and he is rolling.

watch the video.
here is the direct URL:
http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~jhiggins/images/r2pics/r2pics%20247.MOV
Its a large file. About 10 meg, so give it a few minutes to load.
The lighting isn't so good, so I will get some more footage later this week.

OK, now for a question. Um... Did R2 ever pop a wheelie in the movies? Cause mine will if I give him full power from a dead stop. Will need to work on that a bit. He seems a tad fast.

progress and disappointment

2007-05-06T23:05:00.000-05:00

finished most of the wiring. Only connections left are the charging systems.

Which leads me to my conclusions about 2-3-2.

Can it be done? Absolutely.

Will I do 2-3-2 with this droid? Probably not... at least not the way I am attempting to do it now.

My R2 fell over twice today. I broke a few pieces on the back door on the first fall, and then I broke the front arm carriage on the second. These events pretty much put a stop to building today.

I goofed around with some C code for vex thinking that I could just code my way around the problems. As I sat there and typed out a block of code I realized that the design I was using for 2-3-2 would not work.

The single most blatant flaw in my 2-3-2 design is the shoulder satellite motors. Not because the the teeth could break, but because in my design I am attempting to control both motors with a single controller. The legs would sometimes get out of sync with each other during my testing. It had been a minor issue that I didn't realize would be such a big problem.
If I used two controllers and built completely separate sensor packs for each leg to help keep everything in sync.. I still would face my ongoing challenges with my tilt rod setup, and feet.

At this point, I plan to pull most of the 2-3-2 components out of my droid. I am reviewing some of the information that Victor and Mike have available to change my shoulder setup to a static configuration. I am hoping that it will not take very long which will allow me to move on to some fun stuff.

Do not be afraid to try 2-3-2. I have a decent amount of info in this blog describing my attempt, but now I must leave it to those that are more mechanically inclined than myself.

Dome Ring and new Dome fit together!

2007-05-05T14:56:00.000-05:00

Another big box of parts came in today.
In chat last night, I was talking with Daren to see if he knew if Daniels dome base plate would fit into the new Domes. Until now it was unknown.

The plastic ring and the dome base plate both have the holes pre-drilled to match the rockler bearing. I started by just placing the Dome ring on top of the plastic and screwing it all together.

A few quick test fit of the dome ring and periscope lifter quickly ruled out the possibility that the ring could sit on top of the plastic. I turned it over and was about to unscrew everything, and I wondered would the ring fit on the bottom of the plastic? When I set it down.. It only took a fraction of a second to realize that this was going to work!

I flipped over the dome ring and the plastic ring to take a look and see how the dome base plate fit.... its perfect!

Other parts that came in today included Shoulder Hubs, Restraining bolt...

Booster Covers, Shoulders, Shoulder shims, Periscope Lifter

Still rushing on the perfect fit of the dome base plate and dome ring, I had to stick it on the frame and give it a spin! This guy looks familiar.

pics and progress

2007-05-04T23:18:00.000-05:00

Parts:
300mm ALU Dome!!!!!
All the way back in my second or third post to this blog I considered my options for Domes. I played with an Aspects Super dome to create my R3-T2 red head...but this is the real deal!

Picked up a few resin parts from Keith. I lack Battery Boxes, braided hose, and a few other smaller odds and ends. Would like to get another set of feet also, but the resin ones will work for a while.

ALU parts from Daniel and Michael! Arms, LDP, and Leg struts.

Progress:

During the wiring progress, I had to take off the top ring of my A&A frame. This is starting to look pretty messy in here. And it wasn't until later that I realized I had a fairly serious problem. Circled in Red is where the 2 motors are actually in contact with each other... this is bad. I sort of fixed this by shimming the center motor a bit and there is about a millimeter of clearance at the moment.

Installed a few switches which will be accessible via a front door panel.

This is the backside of these switches. They are DPDT with center off.
Also for anyone who has been keeping up, you probably notice that my center leg arm changed from black pvc+alu to plywood+alu. I had to make some modifications to the center leg because it wasn't traveling far enough. There isn't a ton of information out there, but some guesses at the center foot movement is between 9.5 inches and 11 inches. With this change I managed to get my center foot traveling about 10.5 inches. The center wheel may be just slightly visible when standing in 2 leg mode just below the edge of the skirt.

OK, this is the wiring about 70% done. Some wires are hanging loose at the moment so it looks fairly busy. Controllers, batteries, Sound, and other things are all wired up and ready.

Here is another shot of the back panel. Volt meters on the left tell me the status of my batteries. (the power is off at the moment)

These are the parts I still need to find a home for inside my droid. (Not pictured are the speakers that also need to be installed... somewhere.)

This is the space I am looking at to put the rest of this gear. Its going to be a very tight fit.. and I need to make sure there is enough clearance for the center foot arm. I also need to conserve space for my dome drive kit which should be in next week. That has to fit somewhere up front...I hope.

I ran out of wire.. and need to pick up some more disconnects. Plan to stop by radio shack and the post office tommorow.

more wires

2007-05-02T23:31:00.000-05:00

lots of wires.
Now that I have my diagram, I have been working on actually implementing it.
No pictures to show, but its been slow going. I have some serious space issues to overcome.

I won't know for sure where I can mount the battery chargers until I get my dome and dome base plate. I need to know how much room will exist between the frame and the base plate. If there isn't enough there for at least a few things, then I will need to abscond some of the front door areas.

more soon

wiring design

2007-04-30T22:49:00.000-05:00

I sat down at my PC and worked up this design using Microsoft paint.
I know for a fact that this is a fairly silly design, but I wanted to get the most out of my power sources... which is why there are 4 different power setups.
Click on the image to get a better view of the design.

The Vex is maxed on motor/servo ports in this design, so if I want to add more servos I will need another Vex controller.

No pictures of the AA frame and wires tonight. I'll try to get something different posted by the end of the week.

frustration

2007-04-29T20:35:00.000-05:00

I am not sure if every builder goes through this or not, but I started noticing small problems the other day, and decided to take a step back and fix them. While I was fixing those problems, I found more ... and more.. until my droid is back to the state he was about a month ago.

The only difference between now and then.. is that I know a lot more about how to put this guy together.

*sigh*

I will hopefully have r2 mostly back together by the end of this week, with many of the flaws fixed.

must fix things before I go much further

2007-04-28T23:47:00.000-05:00

OK I'm sure you guys are getting tired of seeing the same old pictures, but I had to take a step back today. While I was working on wires yesterday It occurred to me that I had several details that need to be addressed before I could really feel comfortable with R2 rolling around. So I pulled the batteries and flopped him over on his head.

One of the first things I worked on was the feet. You will notice that the wheel axle is sitting in the lowest slot.. This puts the wheel a bit lower than the ball caster which makes the foot tilt. I decided this was not what I wanted. This also impacts my leg rod setup and a cascade of other things.

so I took everything apart...
Legs, Feet, and a portion of the leg rod system all in a pile.

My A&A frame with just a few bits of wiring. I spent some time on the frame going through my threaded rod setup. There were a few places that needed to be tightened down and others rods needed some adjustments.

One thing that has been in the back of my head this past week is how cramped the space is getting inside the frame. These are my battery chargers, and I am really curious to see where I can jam these into my droid.

My plan was to have a power strip somewhere inside r2 that provides power to both of these chargers, my Vex charger, and a few AA battery chargers. That power strip would terminate to this C13 outlet. A computer cable could be used to plug him into an AC outlet.

There is some space between the center vents and the arm for the center foot, but I will need to build something to hold them in place. This also throws out the idea of having speakers sit behind these center vents... so I am still not sure about it.

more tomorrow I hope.

wires

2007-04-27T22:11:00.000-05:00

Did a bit of wiring tonight. This is not my strong point so this may look messy, but I am happy with my progress.

2 legs - leg rods 95% completed

2007-04-26T22:11:00.000-05:00

Standing on 2 legs again. No duct tape this time. Leg rods almost completed. There is still a fair amount of slop in the leg rod system at the feet and just the smallest amount of slop in the shoulder. I plan to replace the screw in the shoulder to fix that part, but the slop in the feet will need another day to think about how to solve.
Front shot.

Oh.. didn't realize you could see the electronics on the above picture. The connection bar, and the blue box are on the backside of the electronics that are shown below. I actually have the Vex power charger connected to the battery and the vex controller. The switch shown below is the toggle to put him into a charging position. Its a 3 position switch on, off, charge is the current setup.
Back shot.

Head on backwards.

This picture didn't turn out very well, but this was how I solved my rod to frame problems. I actually cut my 1/2 tube and then used 2 collars and some aluminum bars.
This gives me better access to wiring, and I can individually adjust each leg right here without having to disassemble the shoulder cam components.

While I was cutting aluminum, I cut some pieces to mount a few batteries.

And here the battery is in place.

I should be working on wiring for the next day or two. After that I will be programming my vex for several days.

slow week again

2007-04-22T22:05:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. I didn't get much time this week to work on R2.
I am still trying to solve my leg rod problem, but decided to take a break from it until I get a few other things completed.

I started to work on some electronics. In this picture I have pulled the wire through the legs. I also did this because I needed to find out if there was enough room for the legrod and the wire.

I picked up some sheet metal, and mounted several of the electronic parts. R2 is upside down.

new suspect...

2007-04-16T22:17:00.000-05:00

I didn't get much work done on Sunday, but today I decided to take on these split clamps again. After drilling out one of the screws that had broken off in the clamp, I got everything back together and the clamps seem to be doing much better.

I was starting to get excited that I might actually make some progress. I decided I should test the system and it didn't take long to notice that the feet were moving way too much. I checked the clamps again.. and then raised the center leg and I saw my new nemesis...

My idea to use this flat bar and just a hole in the pipe is apparently not a good idea. I did my test again and the pipe was clearly moving.. not the clamps.

I pulled out the bolt and as you can see from this terrible picture.. the bolt is now bent. Its not bent by much, but its enough that the feet were flopping around a good inch or two. Any play down there at the pipe translates to a lot of movement at the feet.

I might have just used to much weight on everything, but this is actually why I was doing the tests... is this stuff going to hold up when my droid weighs ~130lbs?

I put my tools down after discovering this problem, and plan to take a day to think about how to lock the pipe to a fixed position relative to the frame.

some progress.. new problems

2007-04-14T22:53:00.000-05:00

Well I was pretty disappointed last night when the cams failed and R2 started to fall over.. but I gotta keep moving forward. I decided to stay away from the cams and leg rods till I made some progress on the center leg.

There is some question of how sturdy the front leg support plate is that holds the center leg motor. Andy had mentioned sending me the extra part, but not sure if that's actually going to happen, so I proceeded to make my own out of some spare PVC from the original frame.

I placed this panel over the top of the front leg support plate and ran a few screws through it. I wanted to make sure that this thing was secured to the right and left mid plates (review the A&A frame documentation to identify the mid plates)

lets see.. Electronics. I started wiring a few things together to get the shoulder motors and center leg motor working. Its a mess but everything seems to be working.

I used alligator clips to connect the motors temporarily since I need a way to quickly connect and disconnect.

hmm... that was actually pretty easy. Everything went together on this without too many issues. Watch the Video!

Well.. after all that I decided to go back to the cams and the tilt rods. No new insight. I managed to break a few screws trying to tighten stuff down. Those will pose a serious challenge to remove or repair. But when I put my tools down for the day I had managed a new milestone. R2 is on 3 legs. Doesn't appear to be the correct angles.. but he isn't falling over.

1 step forward - 3 steps back

2007-04-13T22:06:00.000-05:00

After spending alot of time doing math... I put my pencil down and decided to just hack off enough of the rod to put the parts together and see what was going on inside the foot.

I cut off about 5 inches on each flat bar, which puts them around 24" long. My math had told me to cut it to 22" but I was still not sure if that was right so I left myself some room.

Here is the first attempt. This was actually last night, and the feet are moved to the correct position. This gave me a good indication about how much more of the rod needed to be trimmed and where to drill the hole.

It was about this time that I threw away the paper that had all my math on it and started to eyeball this thing a bit closer..

This shot shows how the rod enters the foot. The red circle is the legrod.

and then... well I didn't get pictures but bad stuff happened.
This picture just shows you that I did get the distance, and the holes drilled.. but what it doesn't' show is that I had everything assembled and got my wife to help me stand him up.

At first he was OK.. and then he started to lean back on those leg rods.. and he kept leaning back.. and back.. until the foot was touching the leg. I thought something was bending but it turns out. The split clamps were failing.

I pulled everything apart and tried my best to get these as tight as possible, but no luck. They just wont tighten down enough on the rod. I must have taken off too much metal when I was sanding.

solution.. I'm going to try and key the rod and the clamp. Ill use a screw to lock the clamp to a specific location. If that doesn't work.. I have a few more clamps on the way... and the hunt for another rod begins tomorrow.

numbers

2007-04-11T22:49:00.000-05:00

no pictures today, but trust that I am working on my robot.

I have crunched a bunch of numbers and came up with some min/max values for rod length and min/max distance for leg rod to ankle from ankle bolt.

at this point the minimum length (from bolt to bolt) that my rod can be is 22.055 and the max is 22.0625... not much variance there so I am getting very close on the length.

the distance from the ankle bolt to connect the rod is (again bolt to bolt) .. min .5 and max 1.625 so about an inch of play there. I would really like to nail this space down to less than .25 of an inch so still a bit more math to do.

I did figure out that the cam I took the measurements from is sitting at 109 degrees which is why its looks like its pointing to somewhere just before 4 o'clock in the shoulder.

(btw, I wouldn't use these numbers on your robot until I provide the proof. Because of the length of the rod, and the very tiny angles.. a miscalculation will cause your droid to fall over.)

OK more soon

feet motor mounts

2007-04-09T22:29:00.000-05:00

When I got home from work today, there was a USPS box waiting for me. I still have a handful of parts that I am waiting on, so I wasn't sure what was in the box until I picked it up and I heard the loose pieces of PVC sloshing around.

It didn't take long to dry fit the parts together, figure out how many threaded rods, and bolts were needed.. and once that was done.. I jammed the motors and wheels in.

The center foot needs some work but I am pleased that I was able to get this stuff put together very quickly.

and another shot from the bottom.

tomorrow I would like to try and get the length of my leg rod figured out. Not much information coming from the builders group on the length needed.. so I will be doing the geometry. Ill try to do a quick writeup on how I calculate the length and the location of the hole that needs to be drilled in the motor mount this week.

Return of the builder

2007-04-08T22:08:00.000-05:00

The next post may be called revenge of the hacksaw since mine decided to take a chunk of flesh off my thumb. Every builder apparently suffers some damage while building. I guess that means my robot is not going to live by the Asimov laws.

moving on... There isn't too much here, but this is the little bits of stuff I have managed to work on over the past week. I hope to get back to posting regular updates now that my yard project has the major bits completed.

Paint tests. terrible picture. The white is over exposed, and the blue didn't like its picture being taken either. I think these came out alright. I actually did this work a week ago. I have been doing scratch tests to see how it is holding up. Definitely takes a week for this stuff to really harden up good.

OK 2-3-2 stuff.

This first shot shows the cam, pipe, and leg rod all assembled in the 2 leg position. (everything is upside down.) I have the cam just a bit lower than 3 o'clock right now and this may need to be adjusted more.

The pipe is secured to the frame using a flat bar that I bent and tapped a few holes. This is the inside of the A&A frame to the left of the center leg motor mount.

I haven't trimmed the bottom of my leg rods, because I am waiting on feet motor mounts. There is a red line right at the base of the leg on the rod.

Here the legs are rotated to the 3 leg position. Notice the cam stays in the same position relative to the frame.

Last.. the rods sticking out of the legs at the 3 leg position. Again notice the red line. (sorry this picture is terrible) It appears that the rod moves almost exactly 1.25 inches. I have no clue if this is good or bad right now. I am hoping that it is good.

stalled again

2007-03-29T20:19:00.000-05:00

going to have some work done in my back yard this next week. Pretty much everything is on hold until that project is completed. I am hoping it will not take too long.

Some more parts arrived, and I am trying to figure out what I still need.

I have made a decision about how to charge my batteries. As it stands, my feet motors will be running at 24v and pretty much everything else will be at 12v. I had originally wanted to use a single battery charger to charge everything, but designing that electrical circuit was making my head hurt. What I will end up doing, is using multiple battery chargers. Makes it easier, but a bit more expensive.

I lack focus. It may be because I know I will not be able to attend CIV. The group message board reminds me of it every day.

I am waiting on the feet motor mounts to show up and know that they will inspire me to get back to work. I have a ton of finish work that I need to do, but I am really way more interested in the mechanical and functional parts of my droid.

The rest of this week and next will be slow going. Hopefully by April 9th I will be back into the project.

2-3-2 looks more like a reality

2007-03-25T17:09:00.000-05:00

I spent alot of time this week considering the ideas/opinions I got last week at the Southern Builders. The question: to go with a static 3 leg droid or the challenge of making a functional 2-3-2.

At this point I have decided to continue on with the plan for 2-3-2. He may not do the conversion very often, but the ability should be there if needed. I will probably incorporate several extra locking mechanisms to help insure against falling over.

OK new pictures.

Started working on the skins. Got the back panels cut out of the inner and outer skin. Ill start working on the front skins tonight.

at the meeting last week I got a few ideas about how to deal with the A&A ankle. This is a picture of my progress there..

Home made AP tilt rod cams. 1/8" alu rods that I cut up with a hacksaw and then used a dremel and file to get them sort of in shape. I need to drill out a few more holes and the bigger hole needs to be drilled out some more also.

I had ordered a pipe to fit through the satelite motors from Mcmaster Carr.. but It was too small, and it was aluminum. I was very afraid to use it. The pipe here.. I must have looked at it so many times while walking through Lowes. I usually said to myself, its way to big in diameter, it will never fit. Well.. it does fit.. perfectly and it steel not alu. Its actually alittle tight, but that's a good thing. Sandpaper can turn it down enough.

Last is just some alu that I cut off of some kind of sheet metal pipe. Ill use this to cover the shoulder hubs.

more later.

getting started again

2007-03-22T21:09:00.000-05:00

not much to report except that taking a week and a half off really slowed down my progress.
I spent some time tonight disasembling the legs and front arm carrage. I plan to focus on those areas for the next few days and see if I can get get those parts to the point of being primered.

I picked up some metal files, and have been doing research on working with the alu skins. I am a bit intimidated by these things. They are large and curved, and can probably be messed up quite easily. I think I will start working on them this weekend.

Really debating weither or not I will go with just a static 3 leg droid or continue down the path of 2-3-2. Everything I have heard indicates that a 2-3-2 droid will eventually fall on his face. I have way too much invested to see my droid fall down.

Anyway, still thinking about the problems and starting to come up with some ideas.

more later.

Southern Builders Meeting in Orlando

2007-03-18T17:18:00.000-05:00

Interesting experience to say the least. The drive from north georgia to orlando only took about 8 hours. Mileage for the trip was on the nose at 1000 miles.

I had a great time meeting some other r2builders. I wasn't sure if I would fit in or not, but everything went well.

Daniel was a fantastic host. Thanks for having us.

The Pictures! I am leaving the images (very)large, so they may take a few moments to load.

This is a picture of most of the builders that were present. Calvin and Christopher had already left when we got the group together for this shot.

Mark standing over a fiberglass R2, and we can also see the back of Chip's droid.

Another shot of the fiberglass R2, the Blue paint on this was fantastic.

Calvin's Dome. Mirror shine!

Mark's R2. A&A body and legs. Lots of good information about what I have infront of me in my build since I will be using the same materials.

Robart hinges at work. This droid is looking great!

Ok, Daniel had a few droids in his foyer, and I decided to take a few snapshots. This one was from something in Epcot.

Fry Bot!

Coke Bot!

A surprise guest. This is a "Special" droid.

I think someone said this was Scott's droid, but Im not sure. It looks great.

The special droid and the r2builders group ALU droid next to each other.

Doug's Droid

General shot of some of the stuff that Mark brought.

The front of Chip's Droid.

Mark brought the A&A drink tray. He wanted to try it out and since my droid was the only 2 leg at the meeting, we set it on top.

Pretty sure we all had a good time.

Stopping point

2007-03-12T00:17:00.000-05:00

This is what my droid will look like at the Southern Builders meeting. I spent the day trying to get everything tightened up and ready for travel. The little stool isn't really needed, but because I was working on the legs at some point today, I need to get him off the ground.

I hacked together some minor electronics so dome rotation will work.

I may post a few times this week, but not sure what the content will be. I have some paint tests I need to do to figure out the Kreider method. If it doesn't rain, I may do that.

Standing!!!

2007-03-11T00:19:00.000-05:00

Ok. didn't think this would happen today. I woke up this morning with the intention of doing more work on the legs and for some reason I picked up Kelly's resin feet, walked into my makeshift workshop and started to drill some holes.

To get my droid standing I did have to cheat a bit. There is a bit of duct tape here on some wedges cramed in between the ankle and the feet. This is to keep him from falling on his face because I don't have my legrods worked out yet.

Here is a shot of the holes I made, and the end of the bolt I used.

Sorry about the flash in this picture, but this is some of the hardware I have going on in the shoulder.

One of the legs has some styrene glued on which is why one is white and the other is not. I will get the styrene on the other leg tomorrow. Going to do a bit more work on the shoulder horseshoes and just a bit of cleanup work and it will be time to put my tools down. I won't have much time to work on my droid this week. I need to figure out what I will be taking to the Southern Builders meeting and how I can pack it all up in my car.

Leg day part 3

2007-03-08T23:53:00.000-05:00

Legs are on.. sort of anyway.
My local Lowes has yet to restock several types of screws and bolts which I cleared from thier shelves this past week. Some things are only held on with a single bolt/screw at this time.

Started working on horshoes, but the pvc glueing technique I used on the legs didn't work as well here. This will need to be completely redone, but with the Southern Builders meeting coming up, I may just do a few small tweaks and just let it go for a while.

New ALU skins arrived.

In my rush to get some of this guy put together, I am leaving a wake of debris and parts. what a mess...

Leg day part 2

2007-03-07T23:11:00.000-05:00

Not much to report today. I got the big 1/2 bolts installed, got the bushings installed for the shoulder motor screws, and messed around with the ankle a bit.

Got some news from Andy, that he will be doing scooter motor mounts. I will definitely be getting these, because fabricating my own has giving me nightmares... if the shoulders, ankles and motor mounts are not lined up just right one of 2 things happens:
1. The foot and leg wobble noticeably when the droid is in motion.
2. The leg breaks off.

Anyway, no new pictures.

I have managed to acquire a few spare parts during my rush to get in on part runs that do not appear to happen very often. I will be posting these for sale on r2builders to recoup some of the cost on these items.

with motor mounts pending, I am taking a hard look at these resin feet. I may go another route for feet shells.

ALU skins, and FLS should be in the mail.
Daren updated the website on the 300mm Domes on March 2nd. There was some kind of issue with the inner domes and he has taken steps to correct the problem. The target delivery date has moved up to 3/28/7. keeping my fingers crossed!

Leg day part 1

2007-03-07T01:09:00.000-05:00

Picking up the pace a bit. Started to focus on the outer legs.
Checked some of the documentation from the group.

This is a subset of some of the screws and bolts I will be using to assemble and attach the legs to the satelite motors.

Shoulder hubs. Screwed together and glued.

I modified the channel on the A&A legs which was originally intended to be used for wires. With this channel a bit wider, I hope that I will be able to get leg rods and wiring in this slot.

Legs mostly glued up. Still a few other pieces left to glue on, but I will get to those tommorow. Need to get everything screwed and bolted together, then I can start working on making them pretty.

Its ALIVE!!!

2007-03-04T20:00:00.000-05:00

Got the frame back together, and since the dome is coming along, I decided to throw in my vex stuff and get some movement.

Click Here to see the movie, or copy and paste this URL:

http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~jhiggins/images/r2pics/r2pics%20129.MOV

The movie is about 6mb so it will take a few minutes on dialup.

In other news, The center leg is still pretty bound up. Therefore, I will be moving straight to 3 leg stance to simplify the process and actually get this guy standing.

Center Leg, Motor Mount, and Chinese New Year

2007-03-04T01:16:00.000-05:00

Ok making some decent progress, but not as fast as needed. Errors and other issues seem to delay the completion of one component to the next.

Following up on disassembling.. I needed to rotate the shoulder motors to the top of the frame. This allows room for the drawer slides to fit properly.

Not having much mechanical engineering or construction experience led me through a process of trial and error to get these slides installed.

Getting all of this lined up and centered was a good challenge.

Saturday night, we went to a friends house for a Chinese new year party. My daughter was dressed for the occasion.

Finally finished up the paint job on the Dome ring. The dome is just resting on top in this picture. I will get this all buttoned up tomorrow.

I bought a cheap circle saw and some plywood. This is my attempt at a scratch built motor mount. This is going to take a bit more work than I anticipated, and hope it will work. I will be looking for motor mounts from the group, because I know these may not last.

Ok, back to the center leg. These pictures are actually a second run at trying to get this to work. The first attempt proved that my ability to measure stuff at 2am is a bit off. The rails were rubbing against the pvc, and the slides were so bound up that the leg would barely move.

After moving the slides, and doing a better job measuring, I managed to get this working...sort of anyway. Still alot of binding, and I am pretty sure that I will need to cut down the center leg a bit to make this fit properly. I need to find about 1/8 of an inch somewhere in there and get rid of it to get this thing gliding.

Disassemble

2007-03-02T00:33:00.000-05:00

Well it was raining today, so no painting. I haven't gone to hardware store for materials to build the feet, so It was on to the legs.
After a few quick notes from Andy again, It was clear that I needed to take apart my A&A frame.

The 2 large support pieces that run the length of the frame is where I will be mounting the drawer slides to guide the center foot. I cut these drawer slides following Alex Kung's tutorial. I thought I would only need 2 but it turns out I will need 4. Mounting 2 on each side. You will notice that the motor cutouts are also in the way, so I will be modifing the frame a bit to rotate the motors to the top center.

Alex mentioned that he would explain how he modified his drawer slides to stop the bearings from falling out, but I couldn't find it in his tutorial. Here is my solution circled in red, you can see that I made a few small cuts on the slide and then bent the stub down to block the bearings from falling out.

cheating...

2007-02-28T21:33:00.000-05:00

ok, It has sunk in how much time I have left to get something working if I want to get to CIV...so commence the cheating.

Dome is looking good. From this distance atleast.

Nothing is going to fall off under normal conditions, but there is a few pieces of tape and superglue in use here.

Darth Will, and Victor provided a few files to fake led solutions for logic displays. I grabbed up some transparencies and made a few.

Oh, here is a closer look at my dome which hasn't been seen before. You won't be able to count the imperfections that I have been ignoring. Again, anyone that etches a dome and makes it look really nice.. has my respect.

in other news.. dome electronics are coming along. I need to come up with a few PSI housings, and get a few more LED's. I have a pretty good blue, but my red, yellow, and green are really dim and not acceptable.

I also spent some time on the Carl's electronics pic flashers just to find out that the crystal is probably bad. Waiting on some information from the group before I seek an alternate solution.

Dome ring sanded and primered. Tape and Paint tommorow.. and repeat on Friday to finish dome.

no progress

2007-02-25T20:48:00.000-05:00

Wife had to work most of the day. I managed to drill holes and get a bit of work done on the radar eye, but not enough to post a picture.
Bondo on the dome ring didn't happen either. Im cheating a bit and just trying to fill a few cracks with gorilla glue. That stuff expands well, but lots of air pockets so will see tomorrow.

I still need to drill holes for the dome bumps. I plan put radio shack switches where the dome bumps are to control the lights.

I may try to spend some time on designing the wiring diagram for the electronics tonight.

Dome Work

2007-02-24T23:14:00.000-05:00

Lots of work on this R3-T2 dome today. I managed to get the resin radar eye sanded, still needs a bit of work but I hope to have this done tomorrow.
The alu version will go on my R2-D2 dome.

I got my dome ring coming along. It needs some bondo and sanding before I paint.

Rockler bearing mounted. Thanks Andy for answering my questions last night in chat. The answers cleared up several questions I had about mounting this to the A&A frame.

Dome ring on rockler bearing.

Holo projectors. Got them painted and mounted.

Would like to finish up this dome tomorrow, but I know that the dome ring is going to take another day or 2 because of bondo+sanding+painting. I also have a fair amount of electronics to work on for this dome. It will hopefully be completed by the end of this week, and then I can start focusing on other tasks.

Paint it Red

2007-02-22T23:58:00.000-05:00

Dome is painted. Again the camera gives this dome way more credit. I know I could have done a better job, but I am satisfied with my efforts.

I plan to finish this dome completely before I move on. ...And the fact that my basement workshop still isn't completed could be another reason.. more later. Enjoy the pics

This is an image that I grabbed from astromech.net. This is what R3-T2 looks like.

My little girl is 1 year old

2007-02-19T22:43:00.000-05:00

My Daughters first birthday went really well. This picture is just before she got real messy.

I am itching to get back to building. Hope to get the basement cleaned up a bit more this week, and start bringing tools in this weekend.

Going to focus on finishing up the R3-T2 dome and get that out of the way. I am really using it as a teaching tool, to become comfortable with some of the electronics, painting, and detail work.

Parts stacking and Salmonella

2007-02-17T15:12:00.000-05:00

My daughter will be one year old tommorow. I did some parts stacking to show my progress to my family.

In other news.. if you have been following my blog, I had an entry saying that we were all pretty sick for a week.. not sure if this is the cause but if you have a Jar of Peter Pan peanut butter.. check the stock number.. if it matches the first four digits on mine, you should throw it out.

My Daughter, My Dome, and Me

2007-02-11T22:57:00.000-05:00

dome shot.. still need to pickup the red paint. This dome will be an R3-T2 dome. My aluminum dome should arrive sometime in March.

some pics

2007-02-11T22:41:00.000-05:00

Just a few pictures that I never got around to posting. Most of this work was done last week.

the etching is done and the Holoprojectors and logic display parts are taped into place. The discoloring is from sanding the clear aspects dome.

Dome is primed up again.

Primed a bunch of little parts at the same time.

silver metal spray paint.. not sure how I feel about these at the moment. I may try a coat of the spray crome to get these to shine a bit more.

sneaking in some work on electronics

2007-02-10T20:24:00.001-05:00

I picked up a victor 884 and a few parts from IFI. Just finished a few quick tests.

Used the arcade mode 2 motor, hooked up the Victor 884 (which has a blinky light.. which will continue to blink until it is connected properly) to motor port 1. Have to have the signal driver cable, and it must be connected in the proper direction.

connected 12v to the v884, and then connected a meci saturn motor.(it gave a little click when I was hooking it up) I pressed up on the channel one stick on the remote, and the motor started to spin.

One drawback I can see so far is the connectors that Vex and IFI products use, they are intentionally backwards apparently. I am talking about the connectors not the wires themselves. This is by no means a road block, but I was expecting everything to just plug right in, but that wasnt the case.

I got the programming kit and just ordered all the rest of the motor controllers that I will need... it was kinda pricey, but I think Calvin was right, the RC/autonomus ability of the Vex system is going to really add that extra touch.

I will probably mockup all of the controllers and sensors when they all come in, and start working on my code. 2-3-2 control just got super easy...as far as electronics. Fabrication is a completely different situation, although I think I am getting closer to figuring out what I want to do with the leg rods.

out of time

2007-02-09T17:19:00.000-05:00

Looks like I will need to put my R2 on the shelf for about 2 weeks. This weekend we are remodeling the basement. This is going to open up a larger area for me to use as a work space. Next week, we have guests coming into town, and my daughter will have her 1st Birthday party. After that I will be aquiring several tools from a buddy that is going to loan me a table saw, drill press, router, and other things. These tools will stop me from scratching my head so much, but at the same time allow me to destroy things in a much more efficient way.

I do have some recent pictures, and If I find time within the next few days, I will post. I have gotten a ton of parts, and made some serious progress on my Aspects Dome.

learning to be patient

2007-02-03T01:06:00.000-05:00

During the week, I am finding it difficult to get much work done. In the evenings I usually have less than an hour to use power tools of any type. This includes my dremel. The main reason is that I do not want to disturb my daughter who is about to be 1 year old. She is getting use to the noises, but I don't want to wake her up if she falls asleep.

Over the course of the week, I have managed to get more etching done on the aspects dome. I am not really happy with the way the etching is coming out. I have managed to gouge it up alot, but I picked up some bondo... I figure I could try and patch the places that I messed up and then primer the dome again. I test fitted one of the holoprojectors tonight, using tape to hold it in place, It was very cool to see the two parts together. I would like to have the dome ready to paint by Tuesday night.

I also worked on my frame and dome ring. I pretty much destroyed the dome ring trying to decrease the diameter. I think I will follow some of the instructions that Mike Senea provided on one of the R2LA videos and use sentra or styrene to create a dome ring. He made it look so easy.

I took the frame apart to install a few rings on the satelite motors. My frame is still in pieces, but I should have it back together soon.

more parts came in.
The led blinking kits from Carl's electronics
Holoprojectors from Azman.

Mike's DVDs arrived. They are fantastic. Highly recommend any R2 builder to head over to his website and get these videos.

I'll post pictures again sometime this weekend to show my progress on the dome.

Pics and Parts

2007-01-27T22:11:00.000-05:00

Ok I promised more pictures, and here they are.

Parts and Parts.
Resin Outter Feet.

Box of resin parts from a member on the list. I think I have ordered some of these from Keith. Will probably have a few spare parts.

Oh here is the rear logic display parts. This is the before picture... I did mention that I pretty much destroyed this stuff. So much for learning to solder.

Ok so on to actually doing something!
I made the decision that some progress somewhere was absolutely necessary. I spent all night working on marking up the dome. This morning I picked up my dremel and just started goin at those top pie panels.

Using the top screw as a pivot point made the circles really easy. The straight lines were really hard in comparison. The discoloration is from the primer getting sanded off. If you recall the aspects dome started out clear.
This needs a bit more sanding, but I am satisfied with my efforts.

little bits

2007-01-26T00:10:00.000-05:00

Not much to show for in the past day or 2.

My outter feet came in. Ill post a pic tomorrow.

Some parts for the rear logic display came in, and I spent some time destroying them while trying to learn how to solder.

Bought some more super glue, and some paint. If it warms up this weekend, I'll try to do some paint tests.

Getting lots of parts, and not making too much progress with any of them. I'll need to prioritize and then stick with a component until I destroy it, or finish it.

Legs

2007-01-23T23:27:00.000-05:00

Dry fit the legs together to see what hardware I would need to pickup to get these assembled.

The A&A kits are really nice, but the laser cutter doesn't leave them all neat and clean. Between the frame and the legs, I probably spent the better part of 3 hours washing these parts to get them cleaned up. Tip from Andy is to toss them into the dishwasher, but dont use heat to dry them.

lots of pictures

2007-01-22T23:45:00.000-05:00

gonna just slam a bunch of pictures up here.. ill try to comment on each one..

I mentioned earlier that I was unhappy about my line work on my dome, and had re-primered. This is some new line work, and I'm still fairly disappointed with my efforts. Getting this right is not easy at all!

I have started to question my dome ring. I was pretty excited about it a week ago, but now that I have my frame (pictures lower in this post) I find that it is just a bit larger than it needs to be. I will be coming up with a way to cut down the diameter later this week.

Styrene parts. From the skins kit that I got from Andy, I was surprised to finally figure out what the "extras" included. I managed to get a few of the parts assembled, and am using sandwich bags to keep the pieces of each part separated.

And here is the A&A frame. Just threw the aspects dome and ring on top to try it out.

Frame by itself.

I mounted the satelite motors while I was building the frame. From other tutorials this seemed to be the best practice.

sick most of the week

2007-01-21T15:33:00.000-05:00

family came down with some bug so I have been taking it easy this week.

Lots of parts came in. I will post again later with pictures.

A&A frame arrived
A&A leg kit arrived
A&A skins + extras arrived
Resin front and rear logic display surrounds
Radar eye lens

I worked alot on the frame. It is assembled but there were a few problems. I am waiting on a few replacement parts before that is completed.

I left the leg kit in the box, I needed to understand how the frame went together with the satelite motors.

I have been playing with the skin extras. It looks like about 11 or 12 parts can be completed using the styrene kit. These parts include:

3 coin returns
2 side vents
2 pocket vents
1 front upper vent internals
1 front lower vent internals
2 octagonal ports
and a few others..

Notes on dome: I hated my markup of the dome so I washed it off and reprimered it. I have since put in on the floor under the table. I may start working on it again soon.

finding my pace

2007-01-14T22:29:00.000-05:00

Today was a little better, although I find it hard to understand why I am not making more progress.

I worked on marking up my dome a bit. I will probably be washing this off and starting over... maybe use a pencil.

I also worked on my dome ring. I am pretty happy with how this is coming together. These are the crochet hoops. I glued 2 of the inner rings stacked. They are 18.25" in diameter. I then shortend the length on another hoop and made it 18" which is the diameter of the Aspects dome. I then cut a piece of plywood to use as a support, and also as a way to attach the ring to the bearing. Here are a few shots.

I need sand down the outer ring at the top to hide the diameter change. I also plan to cover the ring with a few strips of lexan. It may make the ring a bit wider than it needs to be, but I plan to sand on it quite a bit before I get to that part.

The height is correct, and you can see the bearing underneath it on the second picture. I probably wont glue this completely together until I get my body. I want to make sure its going to fit properly.

Tommorow I will be working on marking up the dome some more I think. Still trying to decide if I am going to etch the dome or just do the most basic cutouts.

not much accomplished...

2007-01-14T01:10:00.000-05:00

today was a bust.. i hopped to make some progress this long weekend. When I woke up, I found out that my daughter was sick with a low grade fever, and that my mother was coming over. This was not a great start but I decided to try and get something done before it got to late in the morning. I headed to the hardware store, to picked up the items I thought I would need to get started on the dome.

Many interruptions later, I was still scratching my head about how to proceed. I tried to mark up some plywood that I planned to cut a circle to support my dome ring, but I guess my head wasn't quite into it. The circle didn't come out so good, but I was still wanting to do something so I grabbed my jigsaw and was starting to cut the plywood towards the circle I had created... and the battery died. I went searching for another battery, and it was dead also.

At this point I was interrupted again, and didn't get back till around 7pm... I took my dome outside and sprayed on a coat of primer. I hope to try and just mark up the dome tommorow. The dome ring has me stumped at the moment.

I keep looking at Norby's dome ring and wondering how he pulled that off.

I should probably just throw all this stuff in a box, and wait for my body and legs to show up. The dome ring will make more sense when I see how it will need to be attached to the bearing.

I need to pickup a new drill, sander, and jigsaw.

just a bit frustrated at my lack of progress considering the mess I am making...

rings

2007-01-12T21:45:00.000-05:00

ok this isn't what i expected. Should be easy to work with, but how well will it hold up.

ah well.. printed out some info.. got out the duct tape and started to see what I could put together..

Going to try to do what Norby did, so its off to the hardware store in the morning to pickup some plywood or lexan.. cut a circle and fit it inside to help support the ring.. then cover it with styrene.

Was having a problem with the flash so this picture is a bit darker. It is 3 rings fitted together.. only using duct tape.. I will glue all the pieces together when I think I have all the parts sized and cut.

More parts!!

2007-01-11T21:08:00.000-05:00

got home and found 2 more boxes at my door.

my rockler bearing:

And my vex robotics kit... which I couldn't help but break open and build the square bot . a design that is provided for the vex beginner.

didn't get to testdrive the bot, because it apparently needs 14AA batteries... I'll pick those up tommorow.

Did some research on Dome templates and stuff.. trying to remember some of my geometry, trig, and calculus.

and then there were parts...

2007-01-10T20:53:00.000-05:00

Got home from work today and found a few boxes waiting for me.

My Satelite Motors:

and my Aspects Dome:

I immediately got to sanding off the embossed lettering at the top of the dome.

The motors will probably get to sit around for a bit but thats ok.

and now im headed over to the r2builders to look for info on the aspects dome.. I need to find a panel template, get some answers about the top screw and if/how that should be sanded or cut off... and also to get some painting tips.

If I find some good information I may get back in there and keep working on that dome.

ordered Apsects dome and other stuff

2007-01-07T23:58:00.000-05:00

found a post from norby about how he did his dome ring for an aspects dome. I will order an Alu dome when they become available. For now a clear dome will be fine to start.

Been doing plenty of reading and research. Two areas that currently concern me are the feet and dome rotation. I found several websites that have different ways to handle the A&A gearset that I will be using. I am hoping that most of my questions will clear up when the kit arrives.

As for feet... I have found a ton of different ways to do them. I keep looking back at the setup that Alex is using, and wonder how he fits all of that into the battery boxes.

ordered satelite motors

2007-01-04T21:33:00.000-05:00

doing the research on an individual part and then making the purchase...
I bought 3 satelite motors today, and im sure they will sit in thier box for a while, but its another part I can scratch off the list.

Got a tracking number for something I ordered.. The persons real name is on the post so I really have no clue what is about to arrive. It weighs 15lb's and should be here on the 9th.

Vex ordered.. R2LA DVD's

2007-01-02T19:05:00.000-05:00

Paid a few extra dollars for a Vex starter Kit, I couldn't find a Radio Shack in GA that still had one available. After looking at Thomas' R2D2 Vex setup, it lookled like a great way to get some of the electronics worked out.

Talked with Michael McMaster and plan to purchase all the DVD's that he has available.

As soon as stuff starts to arrive.. there will be pictures.

ordered bearing

2006-12-31T00:51:00.000-05:00

Did not accomplish much today. I ordered a Rockler bearing.

Spent a few hours putting together a spreadsheet to determine what parts I need and indicate if there is a current run or parts are currently available vs unavailable.

It looks like alot of builders lean toward resin parts at the begining of thier build to lower the costs, but eventually switch to alu parts. I plan to work up another spreadsheet to compare the cost difference. Im sure the difference will be significant.

Nothing new on the Dome front...

Dome Research

2006-12-30T00:03:00.000-05:00

I spent a bunch of time today digging through some of the messages in the builders group and other sites.

R&J Dome -- no new domes till after new year
C&J Dome -- only 50 made? unknown availablilty
300mm Dome -- Tooling still in progress
C Dome -- non-aluminum? unknow status
Aspects Superdome -- non-aluminum .. but cheap
Webber Grill -- Steel.. cheaper but probably difficult to work with
D&D Dome -- older dome, not screen accurate.

I havn't made a decision on which one..

If I want it next week, it will be an Aspects dome, but I know that is not what I really want... so that means it will probably be into or after Febuary before I see a Dome.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Parts ordered

2006-12-28T23:02:00.000-05:00

Placed my first part orders with Andy. I have ordered:

A&A Skins with extras
A&A Frame with Rocklear Gearset
A&A Leg set (all three legs with layered shoulders)
A&A PSI Lenses

I also sent an email to Ron about getting a dome.

I went by wallgreens looking for the LED lites that everyone has been talking about, but had no luck here in Georgia. I will be considering several other options since I am planning on using a computer to control my R2.

First Post

2006-12-17T18:06:00.000-05:00

This blog will follow my R2D2 build. I am in the earliest stages of research on how to build an R2D2.

Aquiring parts and tools shouldn't be too difficult after the begining of the year. I will make every effort to provide picutres and some descriptions as I make progress on this project.

I have been studing the information on the following links.
http://www.astromech.net/
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/r2builders/
http://www.starfleetmodeler.com/Astromechdroid/Updates/default.htm
http://my.astromech.net/index.html
http://www.f1m.com/ask/Scale/r2d2/page01.htm
http://vfranco.blogspot.com/
http://www.starwarstoycollector.com/R2Frame1page.html
http://www.r2-g4.com/r2-g4/