Shoulder hubs are in, radar eye is mounted for now

Well the deadline I set for myself, rolling and lit up by Halloween, is going well! Technically, I have met that goal...but there are several detail pieces I need to mount.

The shoulder hubs lay in the leg tray nicely. I was going to velcro them into place but there's about a 1/4" inch of distance between where the shoulder hub sits and where it meets the leg. Recalling how much fun I have had with magnets, I found some thick washers I had and siliconed them inside the leg. Since you don't want the washers to fall and clank around inside the leg/ankle, I taped them after applying silicone to the washer.



With that drying, I siliconed the detail pieces into the shoulder hub. Once dry, I flipped the shoulder hubs over and used Super Glue to glue the round magnets to the back of the shoulder hubs. I was amazed how fast the bond took between the magnets and aluminum hub.

A few hours later, I lined the hubs up and the magnets have more than enough power to grip the steel washers...

Finally, after much debate, I used double-sided foam tape to hold the old radar eye into place. Since its just tape, cleanup will be a cinch later. I fussed for a long time over the eye position and think I came up with the proper location based on the Empire Strikes Back movie.

Next on my to-do list is the center vents, then a few smaller tasks.

Those would be covering up a panel in the dome, installing a sheet metal cover behind the utility arms and adding a small shim to the center foot casters. That will lift them up about a 1/2 inch, leveling out the outer feet a bit more.

Installing the bronze hose into the feet & battery boxes

Installing the bronze hose was a relatively quick job.

Mike Velcheck offers a long strand of bronze hose for this. However, with a bronze hose, it can be flattened out if not filled with some tubing. How do I know? My previous length of hose was chewed flat by my cats!

Cutting bronze hose can be prickly work, so have the electrical tape handy.

First, I bought some 1/2 inch diameter plastic tubing to be the insert. I cut each length of tubing to 12 inches long. I marked off the bronze hose every 15 minches, wrapped in electrical tape then cut. The hose are supposed to be 12 inches long, so that gives me some leeway in fitting the ends into the fittings on each foot & battery box.



For now, my hose is just staying put by friction. I need to install some nut plates in the battery boxes to hold the fittings straight. Since there isn't a lot of space for the hose in the foot, the only end I will have glued/attached is the battery box side. (The drive wheel is very close to where the hose enters the foot).

Wiring up the dome

It took me a few days to sort out how I wanted to power the dome electronics.

One idea I would liketo have in the future is a slip ring, which allows power to be routed into a spinning surface like the dome. However, I can't afford one of those right now.

So, the best option is to put a battery on the dome plate, which rotates with the dome.

The complicated thing I kept pondering was how to simply plug and unplug the electronics from the dome when the dome needs to come off.

What I decided to do was use a 2-pin coupler between the battery and fuse block. The fuse block would be held in place with two wingnuts, so the entire electrical system can be removed with the dome. The battery is zip-tied to the dome ring and the fuse block is attached to a L bracket onto the dome plate.


I also made extra heavy use of wire covering, the plastic that wraps around to keep the wires organized. I made the negative wires good and long while I need to make longer wiring for the positive leads. I wind up with a fair amount of cable being stuffed into the dome....but I am able to access that via the electronics panel and make sure its not in the way of anything. (This is how a slip ring will really save a lot of hiring headache!

I cheated and taped my old resin eye onto the dome. But, with two rocker switches wired up for dome bumps (PSIs and JEDIs respectively), we were set to power on!

The PSIs, despite being behind 2 layers of plexi, are still very bright! The Logic Displays look outstanding but will really benefit from being behind some fiber optic cable that diffuses them better.

(After I took these pictures, I added another layer of plexi behind the PSI lights in an effort to tone down the brightness a smidge)

To see a YouTube clip, click on the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEJeqQvMpKc

Mounting the Velcheck PSIs into the 300mm dome

Once again, when stumped on how to do something, I hit the aisles of Lowe's looking for a way to make a piece fit.

Tom Doucet (Waterset Parts) gave me a prototype set of his plastic mounting pieces. They are a convenient way to mount the PSIs onto a flat surface. What I really needed was a plastic tube to mount it in. The PSI flasher kit I bought from ResinParts was a bit too small.

After some exploring, I found a PVC 2" coupler that would fit perfectly...and for less than $2 !

What was really sweet was that the tabs of Tom's piece allows you the THREAD the PSI into position. No crazy glue, velcro or what have you. Good ole friction!

With the 300mm dome, the plastic base takes up some space the R&J dome does not. Also, clamping the piece with a pipe bracket will not work as the holographic project is right beside it.

What I decided to do was light up the PSIs and make sure that they lined up alright. My rear PSI lense was too thin, I could see the LEDs, so I added another layer. The front was fine. I drilled a hole thru the plastic dome ring and then held the PSI mount in place and drill thru into that.

Now I couldn't find an easy way to screw and nut them together. I did decide to pass the bolt, a flat head 1.5 inch, from the PSI into the dome ring to see how that would work. It looked good when I powered on the lights again. I decided to coat the bolt in silicon adhesive, slide it into the hole in the dome ring and clap in place.

Once I was happy with that, I did the same to the front PSI. Below is a close up of how I passed the bolt through the mount, put a small nut on top to hold it in place, then into the dome ring.

More dome progress

I had today off so I dedicated some more time to getting the dome finished.

As luck would have it, I misplaced one of the dome panelpices, the one that goes between the lights! I am sure it will turn up...someday. Thankfully, its a simple piece to make using some left over aluminum skin scraps.


I want to hinge my pie panels but at a later time. So for now, I just taped the panels into place, then from inside, with the dome sitting upside down on a pile of bubble wrap, I applied blobs of silicone to the edges. I used a popsickle stick to spread it around. Silicone is easy to remove and for now, keeps the panels from clanking around.

The pieces near the rear logic display were a bit of a puzzle for me. In some R2 photos, they are all touching, in others, slightly spaced apart. I went for something in the middle, siliconed then taped them into place.

More rear pieces are glued into position. I plan to have a silver plastic piece covering that opening with a red light behind it (as seen in Return of the Jedi).

After drying for a few hours, I mounted the dome. With all the panels in place, its a lot trickier to ount the dome onto the rockler! I need to buy a new style radar eye which is available in resin from one of the other builders. Once I have that painted, I can agonize over mounting the eye to the dome!

Its getting there! The To-Do List is getting shorter!

Siliconing panels into place

This evening I worked on siliconing the various panels into position.

Before I did this, I finished installing the holographic projectors. Now the only thing wiggling around the dome is the dome ring, which is a smidge large.

Next, I'll work on siliconing the top panels into place for now. I also intend to get the PSI lights installed too. Then...the really scary task...installing the radar eye!

Getting the JEDI Light system mounted into the dome

This is the phase of the build I haven't looked forward to. Lighting, electronics and mounting things in the dome

Why?

Because there is little room for forgiveness and misplaced holes!

As you can see here, the cutout required for the one-piece front logic display is huge. It also makes mounting it a real challenge. I toyed with making braces or some sort of way to clamp them into place. However, none of those ideas would work. So, I went with something I have used with great success....silicone.

Silicone has several things in its favor. Inexpensive. Dries quickly. Easy to trim if too much is used. Removable, should you want to remove the part someday. And...can handle being bounced around, which all droids do. I have busted and broken more JB Weld over the past few years than epoxy.





While that dried over night, I worked on a way to mount the JEDI electronics into the dome. Thankfully I kept all the scrap aluminum from the skins and found that what was in the pocket vent location would work perfect. It also had the curvature that would work inside the dome ring.

I needed to be careful to use spacers so that the boards would not short out. I also needed something simple and easy for cable/wire access. I think this came out rather nice!

The next night, with the silicone dried, I mounted things into place...

Mounting the lighting into the metal surrounds was a real trick.

The first thing I had to do was drill and tap holes to match the LED templates. The rear logic display was a bit trickier. Since the lights do not completely fill the surround piece opening with lights, I had to center it a bit for the best result.

After I drilled and tapped holes for 4-40 screws, I took several 1 inch long 4-40 screws and used the dremel to cut off the heads. Here's the order in which I placed them into place...

1) Loosely screw in the 1 inch screws into the metal surround.

2) Slide the lense into place. With the screws only in loosely, you can manuever them around to fit the lense in. Do this for the rest of the pieces, have a small screwdriver handy to fit the screw to the alignment holes.

3) Slide the LED template on, taking note that they are marked "back piece".

4) Slide the round spacers into position

5) Slide the logic surround piece into position.

6) Using some needle-nose pliers, very carefully tighten the screws into the metal surround.

7) Once those are snug/tight, use the plastic nuts on the front logic displays. I then used a split washer and nut on top of them. For the rear logic display, since I had no more plastic spacers, I used a split washer in nut for that.

Next I used two wood screws and mounted the JEDI control panel into position.

I then used 16 guage speaker wire from Radio Shack, since it was the only ZIP type wire I could find locally (positive and negative wires together, less "spaghetti" mess).

After the JEDI was re-wired up, here's the result...

Mounting the JEDI lights into the one piece Front Logic Surround

This evening I dedicated a few hours on figuring out how to mount the JEDI lights. I have the first version of the one piece front logic surrounds. One thing I noticed while lining up the holes in the JEDI lights was....well, they don't line up! And to make it even more fun, almost all of the holes sit right next to where I need to drill and tap new ones. Woohoo! Tricky drilling means more chances to screw up! =)

I used a Sharpee and with the JEDI lights snugly fit inside the opening, marked off the holes I would have to drill.


With the holes drilled and tapped only a few turns, I used some one inch 4-40 thread screws to carefully mount them lights in. First, using the supplied plastic pieces from the JEDI kit, I threaded the plastic nut all the way down the 4-40 screw. Then it was a careful job of, from the metal piece, lining up the clear lense, LED template, the screw spacers on into the screw. Once the screw was a few turns snug and tight into the surround, I rotated the plastic nut down until it was pressing on the PCB. Now the JEDI lights are held firmly in place.

Now here's the finished result...and sadly, my obvious boo-boo.

Yes, when drilling holes in delicate parts, be very very careful. I needed to make one hole a little bit deeper to accomodate the tap. Opps. I went all the way through. I'll patch this up with some solder and hope no one notices!

Next up, trying to mount it in the dome...since the piece is so large, there really isn't any way to bolt it into the inner dome. However, I have an idea for a bracket...which I'll try next time!

Re-aseembled for more electronics work!

Tonight I put R2 back together now that the door repairs had been completed.

I got the door servos wired in using the FLAP and GEAR channels on my receiver. These have to be set at 125% throw for the doors to fully open and close snugly. However, this leaves the motors running, which seems to be throwing off my receiver. When I power on the foot motors, R2 is rather jittery. Once the FLAP and GEAR channels have been unplugged, everything returns to normal.

Asides that, I drove R2 around to see how the new batteries are working out. In a nutshell, FAST. Previously, I had little to no leg/ankle movement when moving around. Now I do, so I'll have to lock those into place.

The calibration I ran seemed to help with the controller, R2 isn't pulling to the right as bad now...but there is still somethings I can check out. It could be the drive belt needing some tightening. or perhaps a misaligned wheel.

Anyways, work on the dome continues, more later!

Door repairs!

Tonight I took yet another crack at repairing the tall doors that snapped off during the recent trip to New Hampshire.

The first time around, some JB Weld managed to seep between where the doors meet, near the hinge. The top of the door would open find but lower, it would bind. When you applied some light force to open the door, the JB failed, causing the door to break free of the hinge.

THIS time I taped the door into position and applied the JB carefully on the hinge piece, careful for seepage.


On the front door, as you can see from the photo, the JB simply fell off the inner door. Despite having sanded and wiped the surface down, looking at the JB, it doesn't appear to have really gripped into the aluminum. I cleaned all his off with he Dremel sanding wheel and wire brush accessory.

The spot where the mount attaches to the inner skin is thoroughly sanded again.

Here the JB is applied to the mounting block and skin, then clamped in. I then used the little bit extra JB Weld I had around the mount to reinforce it.

Center lift battery tray completed.

I finally have the battery plate/center lift plate setup the way I like it.

I had plently of front/back support so it will not move around much. But I also wanted to prevent any lateral/side-side movement. I really didn't want to add to much more metal to an already heavy droid. So, I went for simple and practical....bungee cord!

I measured the distance as 23 inches to go from the plate, over the batteries and to the other side. At the hardware store, I found the industrial strength bungee section and found a 20 inch one that would work perfect.

With the large hooks, the bungee winds up being a loose fit since it measures 25 inches long. Simply tying a knot in the bungee cord brought it down to 22 inches, making for a very snug fit!

With that stablized and done, I can work on charging the batteries and finishing up the remaining body work, such as the center vents.

Making room for more battery capacity

As mentioned previously, the Lambert 2-3-2 system was removed since I was completely out of space for the larger batteries I had purchased.

One option I had pondered was going back to the static center leg plate, which bolts into place in the frame. However, I would need to craft a way to fit the batteries on top of it.


As usual, I wandered around Lowe's looking for something to create a simple battery tray out of. After some looking, I found the angled plates that are used on the frame work of homes. It was pre-bent and large enough to handle the weight plus bracket the batteries into place.

On my first try, the problem I encountered was simply mounted straight on the plate, the electronics tray winds up flush onto the batteries, which cause the power leads into the AX3500 to bend. Not good!

One option was to move the location of the AX3500 on the electronics tray. However, doing so leaves less room on an already small tray to mount things.

I decided to try something else...move the position of the battery tray a few inches forward. This worked out really well! The bracket pieces are bolted into the thick, aluminum mounting plate. I drilled and tapped some 4-40 holes into it. I then used 4-40 screws that extended beyond the plate, so they would be secured by a lock washer and nut. I figured that would hold everything in place!

Now the wires on the AX3500 do not bend nearly as bad as before.

With that obstacle out of the way, I need to come up with a means to secure the batteries so that they do not move around side-to-side. I am thinking something as simple as a car battery strap or similar would work.

Once this was done, I did some work on the rear skins. The door for the control panel had busted off on the trip home last week. I have replaced the Hobart hinges with a tall door hinge made by Jerry Greene.

More tomorrow!

Removed the 2-3-2 lift system...need the space!

Here's how my 'bachelor pad' looked last Friday night! R2-D2 was taken apart yet again for more upgrades.


I really wanted to leave the Lambert 2-3-2 system installed but since buying the larger batteries, space has become scarce! Below, you can see the space I got back just removing the lift motor and swing arm.

Below, the lift plate has been removed and all that remains in the lift rods and the mountings that go into the skirt.

The Lambert 2-3-2 had a metal piece that allowed the slider assembly to be mounted on the skirt mounting bolts. As a result, it also used small frame rods than the stock T&J frame had. (Thankfully I had saved the old ones!)

Here's the frame with the 2-3-2 system completely removed. The side vent brackets were also reinforced with C-brackets.

....continued on next post!