More parts arrive! Power Couplers

Well the mailman brought some new parts over today. Aluminum Power Couplers with the surround plate...

There's a few logistical issues...the surround plates are larger then the hole in the skin panel. So I have to either replace the front skins and trim that portion or wait and see if anyone else comes up with a good idea.

Testing the PSI Lights

Tonight I figured I'd play with the "processor status lights", or PSI's as us R2 Building Geeks call em. These are on the front and back of R2's dome and are supposed to indicate that he's working. Or something.

The LED lights are something special I had made from Fiber Optic Products Inc. Usually they consist of 2 LEDs, one of each color. R2's front PSI is red/blue, his rear one is yellow/green. I noticed that it wasn't quite bright enough for my liking, so I asked him to add another LED of each color. The LEDs are very focused. So if you just point them forward, you'd be staring at a small colored dot.

Keith at ResinParts.Com offers a nice PSI Flasher Kit. That's what these white pieces are, essentially the "cup" and "cap". Made of white, highly reflective resin (or just ordinary white resin for all I know), it already has a raised surface for the PSI Board to attached to and a cut out groove for the wire to escape from behind.

Here we've hot-glued the PSI light board to the flasher cap...

Now here's the view inside the cap. The "flanges" at the top are what you would attach to R2's dome. As you can see, the LEDs are pointing to the side walls, so that the flasher fills with light.


Pardon my lousy camera but now you can see the green LEDs lit up. See how focused and bright the light emitted is on the right side?


Now, with the filter/lense cover. This is simply a "milkplex" material, the same stuff they use to view X-Ray films. Notice how the entire lense is full of light. I found with only one LED per color, the fill wasn't as strong. It takes a fair amount of tweaking and very gentle bending of the LEDs to get the perfect lighting.

Over the weekend, I'll get some velcro straps so that the PSIs can be secured together that way.

Anyways, another small step forward.

Hmm, what to tackle next

So today I decided to take a shot of my R2 as he's sitting here in my computer room...

Hmm, what to tackle next.

I think I'll start doing some work on the Processor Indicator Lights, that red/blue blink light that's on the front of his dome. I already have the light kit, its simply a matter of piecing it all together. I'd rather work on bigger things, like the foot motors....but that will have to wait until payday.

Frame trimming for the LDP

Over the weekend, I've been trying to sort out how to make the resin LDP (Large Data Port) fit into the aluminum frame. Just before Christmas I was able to borrow a coworkers jigsaw and trim out the top ring of the frame...

You'll notice some extreme "white out"...time for a new camera.

Anyways, as you see, the LDP doesn't fit perfectly. As I mentioned in the previous post, the resin LDP will have to be sanded smooth. Its moments like these I wish I had the aluminum version, those parts tend to simply click together!

(And yes...I'll clean up my DVD mess on the floor later!)

More later!

New Blog & Progress update

Hi everyone.

Well I have been using the MySpace blogs but that's proven to be problematic. Sometimes I'd loose everything I had typed once I hit "submit".

Plus, I thought it would be more fun to have a dedicated site for my progress.

So with that said...here's the latest:

I trimmed out the frame a bit to acomodate the large data port (LDP). The LDP I have is resin and will require some more sanding to get a decent fit. Based on what I've heard from other R2 Builders, getting this to fit within the frame requires a bit of creativity. Victor suggested doubled sided foam tape. Based on the pictures from his blog, that looks like the most practical thing to do.

Beyond that, time and resources have been stacked against me. I'd love to work on R2's feet and installing the motors....but I don't have the resources to buy those yet! Ugh! And, since its winter, I can't paint outside so the things I'd like to do to the body skins will have to wait. I have some friends that have a paint shop...I just need to dismantle R2 and get the parts out to them.

Again, time time time!

Well, that's all for this post...more soon!