Sunday, October 21, 2012

Dome drive install and skin servos removed

Today I spent some time on R2-D2 #1  With Halloween 10 days away, its crunch time to get our little buddy back together to greet the kids!

As I mentioned last time, the skins had a minor problem.  The servo brackets I had worked so diligently to install into the skins were not going to work out.  They stick out inside the body but with the new frame, a large structural piece is now there where it was not on the old frame.

That meant I had to re-think how all the servos and linkages would pan out all over again.  And I think we'll come back to that a bit later, as time permits.  So, for now, I opted to disconnect all the servo linkages, servos and then cut free the servo brackets.

Due to the wider, and stronger, shoulders, the side mounted servo brackets won't work on this frame.

To prevent damage to the hinges and doors, I removed the linkages.

Linkages, and servos removed

Before the skins were bonded together, I had threaded the servo bracket holes and bolted them into the inner skin.  However, now that all has to go and there's no way to access the screw head inside the skin

I though of this ahead of time, using rubber spacers between the skin and bracket, just in case I had to use a hacksaw blade to cut them off...

Skins now have servo brackets removed
 I did a test fit and noticed another "Hmmm" item...

For some reason, the right side, the vent support piece is visible.  While the skins seem centered up fine, I'll probably have to re-align the vent surround piece to cure this
 Next up was installing the dome drive.  The dome drive is a 12v motor that contains a wheel hub and makes contact with the dome rockler bearing, causing it to move.  Placing it so its not in the way of other things, like R2's gadgets that come out the front door, a bit complicated.

Since the dome drive hangs under the top frame ring, the screws need to be countersunk, so the rockler bearing sits flush on the frame ring...


Kind of a confusing pic...Two flush mounted screw heads...next to a flush mount frame rod machine screw too.

After some fine tuning, the drive wheel is adjusted, a tension spring is added and the dome drive is installed and working