Monday, April 28, 2014

Repairing the body to dome power connection

A couple weeks ago, R2-D2 and I were invited to the University of Maine Advanced Manufacturing Center, where we had a private tour of their facilities.  We had a fantastic time seeing all the amazing equipment they have.  I mean, a room full for CNC machines, fabrication equipment and advanced 3D printers?  Amazing!  Plus we got to meet some of the humanoid and advanced surgical robot designs they are prototyping.  


As you can see from the picture above...where's R2's dome lights?  Well, R2 and I drove around campus, building to building.  The sidewalks were pretty rough and all the bouncing around took out the power connection.  I didn't have a chance to get inside R2 to find the source of the problem.  I thought a fuse took the hit or perhaps a wire popped out of the many crimp down connections that the lighting system uses.

Fast forward to now, a few weeks later...and I finally have a chance to investigate.  

Turns out the slip right connection simply popped off.  The DB25 connection used to stay together with friction but, well, we proved that's a bad idea!

Disconnected!  That's why the dome has no power.  The dome power cable (female DB25 on left) popped off the slip ring connector (right, male DB25)

Put back together, now a 0.50 inch hex head screw has been threaded into each side so it stays put now!
Using two 0.50 inch he head screws, the connectors are now bolted together.

A quick test with the multi meter shows the dome fuse block now has power.  I attached the dome and the power cord into the dome fuse block.  Viola!  We have lighting again!