Time to take R2 apart again!

Well, the poor droid is all apart again!

The feet are being shipped off to my friend Jerry Greene down in Rhode Island. The shop he uses to produce the many parts of R2 will make the cutouts in the feet for me. With the cutouts made, I can then begin to install the foot drives in each foot.
Its quite the process to get R2 all apart. First, the skirt piece has to be attached, as it holds everything in place. It also fits perfectly on this wooden stool I use. With the legs off the ground, its just a matter of unbolting the legs from each shoulder motor and voila!

Now that the feet are removed and ready to be shipped out, I'm going to take apart each shoulder and replace the motors. The motors that are currently in place do not have a brake assembly, so R2's legs aren't locked in place.

Over the next few weeks, more electronics will arrive. The PCB-1 and PCB-2 controller boards will arrive. PCB-1 is similar to a computer motherboard in size and contains several motor controllers. PCB-2 connects to PCB-1, adding computer control to the system. A laptop computer with specialized software can send PCB-2 instructions, which commands PCB-1 to activate specific motors.

Clear as mud? Yeah, its geeky and technical. (Awesome, isn't it?)

That's all for now!