This evening I made a servo bracket and mounted it inside the frame...
After a lot of careful experimentation, I hooked up what seems to be the best location for the servo horn. Again I have opted to use an aluminum one that is longer than a standard servo horn. Better leverage and works really well.
With that installed, I moved on to the next task, replacing the receiver.
The Spektrum radio I have is the 6DXi. The receiver is the BR6000 robot receiver, which features failsafes. Mine is an early edition and there was a problem with how the radio and receiver talk to each other. It would take 5-9 minutes for my receiver to light up and "lock on" to the radio's digital signal. In my research, I found that this is because the receiver is scanning so many channels.
I had a chance to speak to someone from Spektrum technical support and they suggested moving up to a AR7600 receiver, which supports 7 channels. This receiver will not only lock onto the transmitter right away, but work with my existing radio. No need to ditch my 6 channel radio and buy a new one. I just have one channel I can't use.
Following the instructions, I quickly went thru the binding process and had the new receiver working in under 5 minutes. Now, no more long wait. The connection is made right away.
The last thing I did this evening was get the center vents re-installed.
It didn't go very smoothly as it was very slow work. I had to file down portions of the surround plate before each fit into position. I have the set screws set and they are clamped into position.
The center surround plate still irks me.
On one hand, R2-D2 has been thru many space battles and does look a little worse for wear in the movies. So, a dinged up piece probably fits right in.
And, on another, I would like to have some plastic material laser cut to the dimensions of this piece, paint and replace. Plastic would be much more forgiving.
So...we'll see!
Here's where I am at now with R2...
