Steve's R2 Chronicles

Painting Skins & Weathering

2010-04-09T22:46:00.001-07:00

Today I finished painting the front skins and most of the back. I didn't want to wait too long before weathering, partially because I didn't want to get used to him clean and partially because I needed something else to do.

I approached this new step the only way I know how. As a miniature painter. I got out the Citadel Paints from my cabinet and proceeded to mix inks until I had an acceptable color (at least IMO). Then I got out a small brush and started to work, edging various areas and wiping excess off with a wet rag.

I was surprisingly excited to go through this process and was having a great time at it until my youngest daughter told me that I ruined R2 and it looked terrible. After that, every stroke of paint weighed heavy on my heart and I considered returning to the garage to start spraying white all over again.

There's the picture of the finished product (click for larger version). You can see that in some areas, even though the parts are not sticking through the skins, I tried to paint as if they were and get the proper drips.

Any feedback on this paint job would be welcome. Tell me it sucks so I can go back and fix it now, or tell me you like it so I don't continue to second guess myself.

WonderCon 2010 Day 2

2010-04-04T19:28:00.000-07:00

Today we started off the day with our Droid Builders Panel at 1:30. I had an interesting time getting R2 loaded and unloaded because of the rain. I had to put a trash bag on him to keep him dry.

Despite it being Easter Sunday we still had a full room and the presentation went well. Thanks go to Matt McCormick for doing the slide presentation and MCing the event.

Droid Panelists, Matt, Chris and myself.

As usual, R2 had his share of fans come out. This little guy was in awe, but he was afraid to stand beside R2 for a picture. The next little girl was R2's greatest fan. She frolicked around him, touched his dome a lot and even rolled around on the floor behind him. After following us for quite a while he parents decided it was time to head another direction.

Because the Sunday crowd was a little more sparse than Saturday, I was able to take R2 through the main exhibit hall and run him up and down the isles. He stopped at several booths and took pictures with people.

The Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal guys were the best and drew this robot for R2.

Finally, what would convention be like without Star Trek? R2 and I stopped off for a little cross over blasphemy. Warp Speed Mr. Sulu!

WonderCon 2010 Day 1

2010-04-03T23:35:00.000-07:00

Well, R2-XS made it through day one with no major problems. At the beginning of the day his dome wasn't responding well and he had a short in the dome lights but I got him up and running quickly.

There were some new builders that stopped in this year. Matt McCormic was the newest to bring a droid. If you haven't seen his wood and styrene droid, you should. Its a weathered work of art.

Here are a few pics from my flickr:

R2-XS is Back!

We did a few interviews including this one with Fox news and one with Verizon's Droid team.

Mutual awe. The kids love R2 and can't believe their eyes when he rolls up. Equally R2 can't imagine the craftsmanship that goes into each little child.

Its a trap! Your mouth can't repel taste of that magnitude! I couldn't resist this pic when one of the guys showed up as Admiral Ackbar with the cereal in his hand.

Getting Ready for WonderCon

2010-04-02T22:23:00.000-07:00

So much has happened in the last few weeks that has enabled me to do WonderCon with XS. Here is the simple breakdown:

After a year of electrical frustrations and XS being renamed "Twitch" I had all but given up on getting him fixed. I even replaced everything and still had the problem. I took him in his humbled state to the R2 Builders gathering in Davis and let the guys take a look at him, but most were baffled by the issue. Gerard tried his hand at debugging to no avail, but after we reconstructed all the wiring from square one he just suddenly worked again. Thanks "Droid Whisperer"!

Since that day I have been working hard to get my skins on and install all the various bits that were laying around. I suffered a lot of setbacks including holes that were stripped and screws breaking off in them. Also, due to all the bad weather, I wasn't able to paint everything. Either way I did get him together and we are ready to roll.

I have to finish up this post with thanks to a few people who helped me in my time of need.

First to my neighbor who let me use his Dremel tool. Mine went missing after working on sets for theatre.

Second, thanks my friend Justin from K-119 in San Bruno for hooking me up with some great tools (one I didn't even know existed) and saving me a lot of money.

Also to my friend Ron from Revive Customs auto shop for letting me borrow stuff from his shop. This is my second big thanks to him. He was the one who volunteered to bondo my crappy legs.

I would have posted pictures but I don't want to put out any spoilers before tomorrow's con. See you there.

Wired Magazine Interview

2009-06-02T00:11:00.001-07:00

This weekend the R2 Builders group had a great presence at Maker Faire. The usual suspects from the Bay Area builders added a new droid made by Grant Mckinney and were joined by Guy Vardaman, Chris Ellerby from SoCal.

On Saturday our members were interviewed for G4TV's Attack of the Show, and for Wired Magazine. There was also a photo shoot for Make Magazine's upcoming robot issue.

Here is the Wired Interview.

Chris has a lot of pics on Flickr.

Afternoon at the Ranch

2009-03-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon Gerard and I took his R2 up to the Ranch where the Clone Wars cartoon is created. Dave Filoni was being given honors from his Alma Mater via video conference and wanted to add a little Star Wars magic to his acceptance speech.

The site was beautiful with a large lake and rolling hills. The interior walls were decorated with George's classic movie poster collection and original art from the star wars universe. It was an amazing place to visit and seemed more of a mountain vacation spot than an office.

While we were there, Dave also decided to use R2 to announce the season finale ratings in the Friday staff meeting. We stashed the droid behind a curtain until Dave went up to make his presentation. R2 drove out and surprised everyone, had some dialogue with Dave which he announced to the group. Clone Wars beat out Battle Star Galactica by a wide margin which means that it also beat everything else on TV that night.

When all of the events were done, we went down to the building entrance and had a photo op with the show's production crew.

Naturally R2 got lots of love while he was there.

Big thanks to Megan for taking care of us while we were on site and thanks to Dave Filoni and the team for being a very laid back welcoming group.

Additional pictures can be found on my flickr page.

Covered on the Make Blog

2009-03-18T00:12:00.000-07:00

XS was featured on the Make Blog after they saw Bonnie's post on Star Wars blog.

R2-XS on Make Blog

Rear Logic Soldering

2009-03-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

I have begun soldering my own Rear Logics primarily to keep costs down, but its pretty hectic trying to emulate the 8 circuits on a project board.

Here is a pic of the first 5 rows soldered in place.

Here is a pic of whats going on on the reverse side.

The crossing and soldering of these wires to create the circuits has become a nightmare. Every row I complete leaves a greater mass of wires that end up covering leads where other wires need to be soldered.

When I started I was under no illusion about how difficult this could be, but I'm concerned that I will get done or half way done only to find that there was something else/better that I should have been doing. I really don't want to get to the end to find out that they don't work.

If anyone out there has any advice on how to do this better please let me know. I'm very interested in lessons learned by someone else who has been down this road.

*EDIT* Since the posting of this entry several people have given me help on sorting this mess out. I have since removed the wiring and started over. More to come in future posts. */EDIT*

Rear Logics

2009-03-05T15:51:00.000-08:00

Now that WonderCon is behind us, its time to set new goals and press forward with new things.

Previously all the goals were set based giving XS basic functionality. Now I'm back to figuring out what I can accomplish that will show the most change with the least amount of money.

I decided to start by wiring my own logics using Leon's layouts on project boards, but not without a few snags.

I started by trying to match a project board up to my logis to see if everything would fit. After looking a this pic on Chris James blog: Rear Logic Electronics it was apparent to me that the board had to be twisted 45deg to fit. So I gave it a shot and my board came up 6mm too wide, leaving 2 LED's off of each row.

Maybe someone out there can help me out with this, but I don't know if the problem is with the hole spacing on my board or if the rear logic surround needs to be filed out 6mm. Do project boards come with different hole spacing? I sure don't want to file down Dave Shaw's fine work on the surrounds. Actually if it comes to that, then I'll just go with rows of 4x25 rather than being screen accurate.

WonderCon 2009

2009-03-05T13:11:00.000-08:00

WonderCon this year was a blast! Friday afternoon Chris and I went to get our pro badges for the team and looked around the hall a bit. After we had seen everything we wanted to, we headed over to the 501st/Rebel Legion Dinner.

The dinner was well attended with people from LFL, especially staff of the Clone Wars series. Mary Franklin and Steve Sansweet were among the crew as well as Dave Filoni, Matt Wood and Daniel Logan.

On Saturday we showed up at 8:00 so that we could get the droids unloaded but were turned away at the curb. Chris and I unloaded across the street while Tiny (from AZ) and Gerard went to the parking garage and drove their droids over.

The morning went well entertaining the crowds. We were asked a few times to move further from the entrance because the flow of traffic stopped when they saw our droids.

Our Droid Building Basics panel with Don Bies was at 12:30 and went far better than I had imagined. The room was packed and a lot of people turned away because they couldn't even see in. The whole session was lively and had some great questions as well as some humor to keep us from geeking out too completely.

Bonnie Burton from StarWars Blog and Terri Hodges were around on Friday and Saturday enjoying the con and taking pictures. We spent some time talking and they gave the droids some love.

Of course XS was a hit with kids and adults alike, but I especially love pics like this one below.

Throughout the day there were quite a few interviews for the droids. The pic below was a crew from a Canadian TV station, but we were also featured on G4 TV and had numerous write ups, in the SF Chronicle, 1up.com and KPBS. There are even a few MySpace and YouTube Videos.

KBPS.org Article
Quick Quote in the Chronicle
1up.com Blog
MySpace Video
Edit: Official Star Wars Blog

Of course the day wouldn't have been the same without my Padawan (shown in the interview pic) and my Jawa who worked hard the week before the con to get their costumes together.

They added some nice atmosphere to the droids and with the help of XS won the LFL costume award at the masquerade.

On a technical note, XS did a 14 hour day on the Optima Battery without a recharge. He took two 20 min breaks to recharge the Zune which gave us an initial 7 hrs and I replaced the RC battery when it started complaining loudly at the 12 hour mark.

Special thanks for a great day go out to Chris James, Tiny, Gerard and Don Bies.

Now get ready for Maker Faire SF!

More Pics can be found on my FLickr Page as well as Chris James' and the Star Wars Blog's.

Last Test Drive

2009-02-27T00:35:00.000-08:00

Today R2-XS was tested by taking a trip to 4th Grade Science Class. The kids loved him and he performed extremely well on the door jams and carpet in the school entry.

Afterward Chris and I did some last minute tuning. Chris took this video before he was loaded into the van for WonderCon.

Hopefully the next post will be about how awesome he performed at the convention.

Until then, I have work to do on my friend's Jawa costume, so that he can accompany us on Saturday.

Caster Cleaning

2009-02-23T23:05:00.001-08:00

My other item for today's work was to degrease and clean the bearings in my casters and grease them up again. After the first day out they had been dragging and sticking.

I soaked the casters in an inch of Simple Green. After 20 min the tub had a layer of silt and chunks in the bottom. After drying everything off I put fresh grease back in and figured I was done.

Once I had everything assembled again I noticed that things didn't go back exactly the way they came out. My rear caster was now rubbing the sides in two spots. I had to take everything out again and deepen the cuts in the foot shell before calling the job done.

Thankfully XS is now turning smooth.

Optima Battery Mounting

2009-02-23T22:46:00.001-08:00

Today I set out to mount the Optima Blue Top battery in XS. My current wiring is designed to use 2 batteries, one for the electronics and the other for the foot motors. The primary reason was that the AX3500 Speed Controller cuts the foot motors if the battery drops below 10V causing the droid to jitter across the floor. By having its own battery it never knows when the primary battery is low so things stay smooth.

Of course all of that changes when you go to one large battery. The Optima should give me 8hrs or so of drive time without getting the jitters. Either way there is no room to put another battery.

So my goal was to make my system able to handle both my 18ah batteries and the Optima with the least amount of work if switching on the fly.

First thing I did was remove the plugs I had installed on my other batteries and wired screwed them together with the post from the big battery. I also wrapped the joint in electrical tape to prevent any potential disasters.

Next I removed my battery harness and strapped the Optima in with cargo straps. I put the hooks around the spacers holding the skirt on and criss-crossed them over the battery.

Once that was done I was able to put the post connections back on and plug both systems into the battery at the same time. With that done XS was running smooth. The battery slowed him down a little but not too bad.

As for making it an easy transition to the other batteries, I think I failed. If I start a day with the Optima in place, I can transition to the other batteries, but it would take about 10 minutes of screwing in the battery harness and putting the terminal plugs back.

Recycled Bits

2009-02-19T20:41:00.001-08:00

I thought it would be fun to catalog all of the random items that I have "recycled" from other places to create cheap or quick solutions for R2. Below is the current list of odd items.

Clear plastic, Washington Apples carton from CostCo, painted up becomes a nicely shaped Radar Eye. Unfortunately, if poked too hard its done for.

Milk jug cut and layered to make PSI lenses. Mike Velcheck's PSI's are so bright that I have 2 layers of milk jug hot glued together for one lense, and a third layer further up in the PVC tube.

I needed a quick, temporary fix for my lack of Logic LED's. These are a temporary WIP, made from Light Saber packaging. I have blue for the front.

My Zune dock need to connect to the amp via its Audio/Video cable, so I desoldered this one from a cable box.

The USB port, Headphone Jack and Speakers below were taken from an old PC, along with a number of connectors for various uses.

Last but not least, I needed something to keep the slip ring wires from falling into the dome drive motor. A quick scan of the garage revealed a slip 'n slide that my daughter had recently destroyed. I took the liberty of relieving it of this tube, which has done the job well.

Shaky Legs

2009-02-19T19:57:00.000-08:00

One of the problems that I ran into during my test outing Tuesday was that the legs had worked loose and would fold forward during acceleration causing the wheels to slip or the front casters to bind up.

I tried to tighten the bolts by hand to no avail. I took advice given and put a hex like tip in a ratchet, which I quickly broke (leaving about 1.5" of broken tool down in the leg).

I found myself wishing I had an aluminum plate to make some sort of bracket, but since that wasn't an option, I resorted to more creative means.

I reached for the trusty cutting board used for the foot wedges and created inserts for the inside of the frame where the 2-3-2 motion would be (pictured below).

With the cutting board inserts in place, there is very little play in the legs and now R2 does a little wheely when he accelerates fast.

Fresh Batteries

2009-02-18T23:35:00.001-08:00

After the game yesterday, when R2 was limping to the car one of the Dads told me he had a battery that came with his trailer that he didn't need and he offered it to me. He said it was a blue top and that it was 55Ah.

I wasn't sure if he was really serious, but tonight he brought it and dropped it off.

Its an Optima 8016-103 D34M BlueTop Dual Purpose Battery which retails around $200.

With a battery like this I should be able to drive R2 all day without a recharge. The only catch is that it weighs 43lbs and its larger than the ankle base plate in some dimensions. To use it I will have to remove my battery harness and come up with some other way to secure this thing.

Ironically, the long lost batteries that Chris and I ordered on line, showed up last night too. At least I wont have to order a second set.

1st Outing

2009-02-17T23:17:00.000-08:00

Today XS made his way to our grade school campus for a test on carpet, then to the High School for a few hours before heading to the Girls B-Ball playoffs.

The carpet was a little too thick and killed his batteries fast so as soon as I got him to the high school I started charging him in the hall.

Everyone enjoyed seeing him and there were lots of pics taken. Even the teachers were ok with the loud interruption.

We got him charged and loaded in time to make the game, which our team won. I think it was because R2 was there to cheer for them. I did find myself wishing he made a sound something like, "What are you BLIND, REF?"

In the end R2 got his pic with the victorious Lady Falcons.

edit: I had some issues with my center foot. Now that its been used and loosened up, I need to at some wedges to keep it from tipping when I turn or accelerate.

R2-XS v1.0 Complete

2009-02-16T22:24:00.001-08:00

With 1 Week and 3 Days left to go before WonderCon XS has reached the goal of being ready. This is just version 1.0 and he has a little tweaking that has to be done to the speed controller settings, but there is nothing left to construct or add for this version.

My kids squealed with delight, jumped up and down and even hugged him. Their response was better than Christmas morning.

Tomorrow I will attempt taking him to the school for some road tests. If it works out, I will get some pics to post.

Peace.

Sound System

2009-02-16T21:53:00.001-08:00

Getting ready for WonderCon I needed sound in XS. Since I couldnt afford a CF III Reader yet, I went the cheaper route. I spent a few $ on a single channel amp and wired it to my Zune.

I'm using the Zune Dock v1.0 which is powered with a USB cord and has an audio/video output cable on it.

In the picture below you can see the USB plugged in to a 5v adapter that I soldered on a project board. The Zune is placed in the dock which is then connected to the audio/video input that I pillaged from an old cable box.

The Audio/Video input is connected to the 20W amp through a connector taken out of an old PC.

There are no speakers in the picture, but they are mounted in the droid. I had 2 HP speakers from an old PC. They ran off of a headphone jack, so I pillaged a headphone input from that same poor old PC and connected it via the same connector as the audio in.

Here you can see the Zune situated in the back of R2. All of the sounds I have are put into an Album and set to shuffle. The infrared remote from the dock is used to pause and play the random sounds.

Eventually, when I get the CF III system, I plan to put the Zune dock elsewhere in the droid with a mixer connecting the 2 systems. That way, all of the sounds can be played remotely through the CF reader and the Zune can be used to play music, simultaneously.

Hello World.

2009-02-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

Last night Chris came over and we worked together till 11:30 getting the electronics taken care of in XS. When he left we had the dome motor rotating and things were getting pretty close to done on the drive system.

Tonight I finished that wiring, chanced the AX3500 settings to mixed channels and then tested the system by laying the legs next to the frame and hooking them up. Since everything was in order, I mounted the legs and gave R2 his first spin around the garage.

I don't have video but here are a few pics.

His dome is mostly done, I have to tape on the pie panels since I wont have hinges installed for the convention. I also have to finish wiring the slip ring so that the PSI's will be working.

Here is the view of the back panel. I'm sure it looks familiar to many of you since I am using Chris' spare VEX until I can acquire my own.

I'd like to take this moment to thank Chris James for bringing me into this club and helping me along the way and Jerry Green (JAG) for being a huge help in getting may parts. If it wasn't for those guys I would just be a parts collector, and not a very good one at that.

Peace.

Casters and Plates for JAG Center Foot

2009-02-09T22:13:00.000-08:00

Today I needed to finish my center foot. I had the foot with the plates and 3" casters, but I didn't have any hardware.

Since its important to get the casters set in as far as possible, I got creative with my hardware set up.

I purchased all the screws I needed as well as a set of long nuts that can be threaded into on either end.

Since the nuts couldn't be found to the perfect size, I used a pipe cutter and tubing to create spacers.

The end result was nice. The caster plate sat flush against the bracket.

Once that was finished I fit my casters and got everything mounted. Of course things weren't perfect. I had to cut a little more off of my Foot shell to allow the casters to turn properly.

In the end I had to take it all apart again so that I could prime everything. I'll post pics again when I have the finished product attached to the ankle.

First Blood

2009-02-09T11:22:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to Chris' house to catch up after my vacation and to mount foot drives in my foot shells. We used his drill press to put the holes in the steel JAG feet that I have.

While cleaning up one of the holes I caught my finger on a burr and tore about a 3/4" long gash with a nice like deep spot at the end. Of course Chris was quick with a Pod Racer band aid for me, but not before I had bled on R2's white paint. Since this was the first time I had injured myself in the process of creating R2 I figured it was worth noting.

Beside bleeding on the paint, I did get something done. Both of my legs are now assembled, wired and tested electrically.

This is R2's geeky, weak in the knees pose.

Gifts from Above

2009-01-26T18:09:00.001-08:00

Tonight so far I have added the panels to R2's dome and they are being left to dry.

I was also able to get the back electronics panel laid out with everything mounted to it.

My Mom recently saw R2 and got really excited about it. She has offered to help me purchase parts from time to time and she started telling her friends about the project. The R2 bug is contagious so her friends got excited which lead up to a call I got this afternoon.

Hailani called me and told me she had a garage full of recycles to donate since I have funded about a third of R2 from recycling. She also said that her garage was full of screws and electronics stuff that she was never able to sell after a good friend of hers was gone. She said that she figured it was sitting there just for such a day as this and it was God's blessing for my project.

She wasn't kidding! There were tool boxes full of machine screws all organized like I was at Ace Hardware. She also had electrical connectors and spools of wire just right for the job.

Below is the stuff that I took away with me, but there is more at her house if I ever need it.

New Lessons Learned and a little progress.

2009-01-26T01:03:00.000-08:00

Saturday Chris came over with the plans to get my R2 wired and under the control of the Vex system.

We began by laying out my rear panel which did get the AX 3500 mounted on it by evening, but we ran in to quite a few snags along the way.

When the day was over, the only moving part completed was the dome drive system. Why didn't we get everything done? Because I had a lot of lessons to learn.

1st Lesson Learned - When you buy screws, don't just buy the amount required you will need extras eventually so get them in sets of 5 and 10 rather than 2 and 4.

When we got started Chris asked me for some screws, but I had only been buying the exact number needed, so we had to start a shopping list rather than starting work.

2nd Lesson Learned - Make sure you have all the required parts before you plan to get something done.

As it stands, I still need a Bus Bar for grounding everything and a fuse box to protect some of my electronics. So the shopping list got longer.

3rd Lesson Learned - When tapping a hole be gentle and don't push the tool, even if its just that last little bit.

"Its only a little bit further," I thought as I tapped a hole in my base plate. I was so close to being done with my battery holder and I rushed it. The result was that my cheap tap broke off in the hole, and I have NO IDEA how to get it out. I tried needle nose pliers but they just took more material off the tap.

Tonight I kept it simple and got a few extra things done. I was able to finish painting my ankles and got them mounted back onto the legs.

It should be interesting to see how things progress as we continue to count down to WonderCon.

Peace.

- Steve

Dome Top and Upper HP Mounting

2009-01-13T22:35:00.001-08:00

Tonight I set out to tackle two problems. First was mounting my upper HP and second was looking for an alternative way to finish top exterior of my dome.

My 300mm dome originally came with a brass ring and a Volvo upholstery fastener to complete the top of the dome exterior. The brass clashed with the aluminum color of the other dome parts and the upholstery plug seemed to be a tough part to get painted and in place.

The solution was found in a trip to Ace Hardware with my dome in hand. I tried various bolts in the top of the dome to plug the hole and came away with the pin pictured below (it now has the top painted to match my panels).

By adding the appropriate pin to go with it, I also became the top fastener for my HP bracket made from ABS plastic.

Once I had the bracket placed with the pin, I drilled out a hole in the dome and used Chris James' "shoulder puller" to create a countersink dimple the same as on my other panels.

With the screw JB welded in place the bracket was tested out and seemed to work well. In the picture below there is a bit of a gap between the bracket and the HP due to there not being enough relief in one of the holes. Once I expanded the hole to allow a little play it fell into place.

Having completed that I just had to find a replacement for the brass ring. Ace didnt have any washers that fit the description, so I used the center tab that was on the outer dome when I got it. Originally, the tab was meant to be thrown away. It was scarred up from the lathe and was not punched exactly in the center.

My solution was to hold it with channel locks and drill it out with my largest bit and then expand the rest by hand with my Dremel tool.
Here is a pic of the final product with the HP, small ring and center plug (pin) in place. (Its not a bad shot of my color change paint either).

Dave Shaw's HP's

2009-01-12T18:29:00.001-08:00

As the work on my dome nears completion, I wanted to take time to show off the HP's that I got from Dave Shaw in the fall.

It was interesting to get a pretty package with each part in its own little box with a silver Builders Logo on it, but the parts inside were definitely a work of art deserving of such a presentation.

The parts looked great and came with the clear cabochons already installed.

When broken down, the outer rings revealed that they had been lined with felt tabs for smoother rotation.

There was also an optional spacer ring added to help set the movement to "hand tight" or loose for servo movement.

The back plate was well put together and has the center punched with a dimple for later servo placement.

The best part was that when opened there was a lining tube that helped add reflection of the lights. The tube was needed because the entire inside of the HP was hollowed out. I dont have an exact weight comparison, but these HP's definitely qualify for the "Diet" Label.

I'm really pleased with the craftsmanship on these and I cant wait to be sporting them on my completed dome soon.

Cutting Casters

2009-01-10T21:36:00.000-08:00

Today I paid a visit to Chris. We used his band saw and cut my casters down so that they will be ready to install once I have my center foot plates.

First I taped the space over the bearings. It kept them clean and kept the wheel locked in place so that it didn't get in the way.

Once they were marked with a straight edge and sharpie it was time to get to work.

When I finished that, we talked about electronics and the wiring that I will soon be doing.

Thanks to some Christmas gifts from my in-laws I was able to get my NPC motors ordered and my Robteq Speed Controller.

My list of things to do before WonderCon is getting much shorter. I'm almost done mounting the Logic Surrounds and PSI's on my dome plates. I have a few items left to paint and then I have the feet and electronics to conquer.

I think I'm going to make it on time!

Beautiful Legs

2008-11-19T22:07:00.000-08:00

Today was a better day than Monday. Thanks to those who gave their encouragement during my frustrations.

Earlier in the year I was on the leg run from Ryan. The legs had a lot of heavy grind marks from the welder not taking pride in his work. When a friend of mine saw them he really wanted to take them and clean them up for me.

He took them to "Revive Customs", his muscle car restoration shop in San Bruno where he used red finishing putty and a heavy dose of filler primer on them. Below is the result:

Now they just need a wet sand with 400 and a few coats of white paint!

Special thanks to Ron Gomez of Revive Customs in San Bruno, CA.

Frustrations

2008-11-17T21:09:00.000-08:00

Most of the time people post about all their successes and the great work that is being done. Its great to share those things, but why doesn't anyone share their failures and frustrations?

R2 Building is not easy. It takes a lot of time and it takes some failures along the way. Today was one of those days. It was the single most frustrating day in my build so far.

Lets start with this crappy rust bucket car in my garage. Its not mine, its for a "Youth project" which is never going to happen. It crowds my workspace so that I have less than 2.5x3 feet of space in front of my work bench, and I have to crawl over the hood to get there. Just tonight it has been responsible for the loss of 3 screws and a small wrench. It has also torn some of my better jeans with its rusty snags.

As I continued work on my dome plates, I blew out one of the JB welded screws (one of the lost) and had a heck of a time getting the dome plates in place once the HP's and logics were involved.

So, I tried a hand at getting the PSI's set up. I couldn't get the PVC assembly right for holding the lenses and attaching to the plate. I guess I just realized how little I know on the subject, which left me throwing my hands in the air with resignation.

If all that wasn't enough, I found out that my green LED's on my rear PSI have a short and like to go out on me.

Dome Ring and Component Plates

2008-11-13T22:37:00.000-08:00

I have been working on R2 in the evenings over the last few days and I was finally able to get the HDPE ring and lower ring installed on my 300mm dome.

I also continued work on my "Component Plates" that will be mounted inside the dome. Each plate holds the components for the dome (HP's, Logics, PSIs ,etc.) in either the front or the back. Theoretically this makes it easier to install and remove things for working on them and maintaining them later.

Below you can see the various component holes cut from the plates and how the plates fit in the dome.

Dome Electronics Mounting

2008-11-04T21:41:00.000-08:00

As I looked at the various methods that people have used to mount their HP's, Logics and various electronic boards into their domes, I found that I prefer to give Chris James' method a try.

First thing I did was put my HDPE ring in the dome and mark the upper edge with a marker so that I would know where my panel was supposed to sit.

I bought 2 pieces of 1/4" ABS that were 6"x20". These dimensions were greater than Chris' recommendation, but I wanted to be sure there was plenty of extra plastic hanging out the sides. This gives me a place to mount some servos and boards as needed.

The heat gun wasn't working well because of the volume of plastic, so I had to heat it in the oven.

My broiler wasn't working well (top heating) so I turned the oven on bake. Also the sheets were too long for my cookie sheets so I had to put two side by side. I also had to set the temp to 350 to get much of a result.

After minute I could see the plastic sagging and tried to move it. I found it sticking to one cookie sheet and that the side over the other sheet was still firm. I flipped it around to even out the heat and that did the trick.

Once I got it heated it formed in the dome really well. Results did vary though. The second sheet was problematic and burnt a little on one side. It also got a little deformed, but nothing that I cant fix with a heat gun applied to small areas.

The next step is drilling and countersinking holes so that the plastic can be mounted. With it firmly in place, I can mark the ares where it will need to be cut to allow pass through, such as the PSI's, Logics and the back end of the HP's.

I will continue to post progress as I make the remaining modifications.

Cutting the Dome

2008-10-27T23:22:00.001-07:00

Today I did some of the final cutting on my dome. Its been a while since I started the task. You can see me cutting my HP and PSI holes in a previous post. Cutting panels has been a completely different task. The previous work was done with Chris James hole cutter but for the panels I used my dremel tool.

Being nervous about cutting the curves of the pie panels and taking too much material off by accident, I hated the thought of attacking the job with a thick dremel in hand. I had also added a personal requirement that the scrap cut out be in one usable piece that I could attach to the bottom of the opening panels. So I tackled the problem in 2 ways.

First, I put the etching cable attachment on the tool but with the rotary blade. The cable slows things down a bit but that was ok because I did not want to witness the firepower of this fully operational tool.

After tracing my panels on to the dome and masking off the areas with some blue tape for a clearer guide line, I etched the lines on the dome at an extremely slow speed. Then I took another pass at slightly higher speed to form a groove.

Once I had the groove at a comfortable depth I turned the tool up near high and carved about a 1.5mm deep line that could be followed easily with a hack saw. After that I kept the dremel in one place long enough to create a starter hole for the other saw.

You can see the final dremel cuts in the pic below. I know my dome has several scratches and nicks that have come with constantly taking the outer dome on and off, but most of that wont matter once I clean it up with some sand paper.

With the lines nicely etched and the starter holes in place, cutting the panels out is super easy and clean. There is very little filing or sanding to do. I was confident enough with the ease of this last step that I even let my little apprentice to take a hand at it. Since she is interested in robotics and all things Star Wars she is very excited about this droid building process and is learning a great deal by helping out. So far, she has helped me mount the ankles and has cut several pie panels out of the dome.

For those wondering, she isn't leaning on the dome. I thought so at first, but she showed me that she was simply holding it in place. She already knows better than to mess with a delicate dome top. :)

Radar Eye and Lens

2008-10-26T23:17:00.001-07:00

I know that my previous post showed the Radar Eye attached to the dome, but it was just held there with tape. This week I have been working with the resin eye to get the curve just right for the 300mm dome.

In the process of working on that, my wife suddenly got up with an exclamation and went to the kitchen. I heard some terrible plastic noises and she returned with a clear radar eye lens for me to try out.

She had cut the lens from a Washington Apples carton from Costco. pictured below.

I tested the fit and it was pretty good. Im not an expert on the lens curve but this seems really close to perfect. It slightly protrudes from the front.

After a number of tests trying to heat the plastic with a hair dryer and mold a lip around the back I gave up on the idea. The plastic was too thin and warped badly. So I decided that I will have to cut the whole thing down once the resin piece is properly shaped.

To add strength to the eye I cut 2 pieces. I plan to paint the inner piece with black paint and then place the outer one on top to add the gloss. I have also considered filling the inner piece with some bondo to give it slightly more durability.

This is just a cheap fix for now. Later I will probably replace it with something better, but its one less thing I have to spend money on before WonderCOn.

Standing Droid

2008-10-18T13:03:00.000-07:00

This week Chris came over and we talked through a few of the problems that I was trying to work through on R2. He has challenged me to get the droid up and running for WonderCon at the end of Feb 09 which will be one year since I met him and discovered the group.

When he looked at my parts collection he recommended that I get everything that I have put together so that I know what I really need to deal with before the goal date.

I took his advice to heart, but it left me with some work to do.

First, I had to unpack all my feet that were still in grease and get them cleaned up. I filed down the area where the ankle connects until I got a decent fit and then put a few coats of primer on them.

Then I began the assembly of the legs-feet, finding out that I needed a run to Ace for some hardware. It turned out that the screws required by the threads in Ryan's legs were larger than the holes in the ankles so I had to drill the ankles out a bit.

All of that done, I was ready to mount the legs, but the bushings that I had for connecting to the frame were the wrong size. Rather than spending money for different ones (not even sure where they came from) I just used the grinding wheel and whittled them down to size.

Here is the result of all that work:

So now we have R2 standing in the living room. His center ankle is not attached to the base plate, nor is the center foot attached to the ankle. I don't have any of that hardware yet. Either way, he looks good standing there and my family was very excited to have something to see for all the work that has been put in this far.

Front Logics

2008-10-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I have posted any progress. That's mostly due to a very slow collecting of parts and the need to replace some tools.

Now that I'm back to work on my dome, I finished sanding the HP holes and went to work on the Logic panels. When I finished cutting the front logic area, I put the surrounds in place only to find that they were not well adjusted to the thickness of my dome.

Apparently the thickness of the 300mm dome is greater than that of the C&J domes and others. Its a positive thing because the dome is more sturdy but when both inner and outer dome are put together, the thickness is great enough that the logic panel is recessed.

Not all of the pictures taken came out, but here is one that shows the logics looking perfectly placed. The problem is that what you are seeing is only the inner dome. The outer thickness hasnt been added yet. All in all I think its a couple of mm short.

I'm not sure how to handle the problem yet. I considered filing down the outside of the logics so that they would sit flush, but that runs the risk of messing up the perfect curve on the face. Another option would be to take a little off of the inner dome.

I'll post the results when I know what I'm going to do.

First Cuts

2008-07-03T18:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Chris James came over and helped me with the first cuts to the inner dome.

I had to learn the ways of the force, such as, finding the center of a circle and how to use a hole cutter.

We had some laughs as I got started, but all was well in the end.

I confess that I wasnn't very nervous cutting the holes for the PSIs or the HPs, but when I started on the pie panels I definitely felt the fear.

I still have pie panels left to cut, as well as the fire extinguisher door. I also need to cut the logic holes but there isn't any use for that until I have the logic surrounds.

Maker Faire Interview

2008-05-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

While at Maker Faire last weekend we did a lot of talking with people about how to build droids. It stands mentioning because usually at Con's people just love R2 for who he is, they get their pics and move on. They don't really consider what it takes to make him work, or anything.

While Chris was on break I did this interview in his place. Gerard didn't want to get in front of the camera, so he just pointed them to me (I guess he already has my personality nailed). I just thought I would share my moment in the sun with my readers (all 2 of you). Please forgive the sound levels. It was a noisy warehouse and required talking loudly to be heard, which would have been fine if they had done some editing for the final product.

Here is another one from Education Day.

Attaching the Rockler Bearing

2008-05-06T20:18:00.001-07:00

It was a good weekend at Maker Faire. We won 4 "Editor's Choice" awards, and they can't wait to have us back again next year. We also made it into the NY Times and the Official Star Wars Blog.

Monday was like Christmas. My Rockler Bearing and my center foot arrived. The center foot box had been cut open for inspection. I guess Homeland Security doesn't like small, heavy packages that contain large amounts of steel.

So, tonight I finally had time to head to the garage and work on mounting my bearing.

First, I removed all of the little rubber feet that are inserted into the rings. I tapped up the bearing with masking tape to prevent metal flakes from ruining it, and marked out the areas on the outer ring where the rubber feet had been removed.

The v4 Frame is tapped in 4 places for a 1/4" screw, so I marked off 4 of the 8 partial holes for drilling out. Once the holes were drilled and the tape CAREFULLY removed I checked the holes to be sure that everything fit well.

With that done, I added the 3 screws to the inner ring that will be used to hold the dome and dome plate in place.

All that was left after that was bolting the bearing into place with the 4 screws. I used a split lock washer and a lock nut on each one.

Now that I have that done, its back to the waiting game again. I am currently waiting on my PSI's and my 300mm Dome to arrive.

I'm also trying to find a way to get in on both of the current runs of aluminum legs and steel outer feet which is difficult when you are on a budget.

I think that budget and run timing will continue to be a problem for me. I was introduced to the group by Chris, who has built an impeccable droid, with all aluminum. After seeing such an amazing piece of work, I have a hard time compromising on other materials for parts.

Having said that, I will probably be using resin for any of the blue parts and also for the half moon foot details. That will save me some money (and weight) without compromising the look in any way.

Frame Complete

2008-04-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

Today I received and assembled my v4 JAG frame.

This weekend it will be on display at Maker Faire in the San Mateo Fair Grounds. The Bay Area R2 Builders will be exhibiting 2 (Chris James' and Gerard's) R2-D2's. My frame will be there to show the early steps to getting started.

I am currently waiting on my 300mm Dome, Steel Center Foot, PSI's and Rockler Bearing.

Complete part layout (below)

Assembled Frame (below)

First Paint Tests

2008-04-07T20:51:00.000-07:00

Today I started testing the paint that I picked up over the weekend. It comes in three cans. A base coat, a color coat and a clear top coat.

To test these out, I cut apart an aluminum can and started spraying. After adding the minimum number of secondary coats and no clear coat, this is what my torn up can looks like:

Single overhead light and flash (above)

Light from all sides and flash. Shows the full range of color shift.(above)

Light from all sides, no flash and extreme angle (above)

The pics with the multiple light sources resemble what the paint looks like outside. I still need to test it a little more in areas with a lot of overhead florescent lights to be sure that it will look good on a convention floor.

Note: I did the base coat in my garage last night and the limited lighting was tricky on the eyes. The large piece of aluminum was not well covered with the base paint and it shows (at least to me).

So, for anyone reading this let me know what you think of the color scheme. If you know anything about lighting and this sort of paint, give me feedback on the pitfalls or benefits of going this route.

Peace.

The Road Less Traveled

2008-04-05T23:27:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I started on this process and I have learned a few things. If you don't have access to a machine shop, building a solid droid will be a long and expensive process.

As a result, I have become a parts collector. As people with certain skills pump out a set of parts I need, I have to get in on it or wait a long time until the event occurs again (like waiting for Haley's Comet as far as I'm concerned).

Being a parts collector is not too bad, but keeping the available cash to purchase things when they are available is the tough part. Most people are like me, living on the edge. With a clergy salary that only pays the mortgage (literally) and living off of the second income of my wife/secretary, I have turned to collecting recyclables from everyone I can so that I can redeem them for droid money.

Its a bit ironic I guess, recycling all that aluminum so that I can purchase more aluminum. My friends hear me constantly say, "If you throw that can away, you are stealing from R2! Hes crippled and needs feet you barbarian!"

So on to the actual meaning of my post title...

I have decided that I don't want to make just another R2-D2. There are several of those out there (at least 2 completed here in the SF Bay). I want to do a custom job, providing the paint that I want comes out correctly when applied.

My wife had the idea of using color change auto paint to replace just the blue parts of R2. I wasn't sure what it would take to do that but found that the paint was readily available at Kragen Auto Parts. (Photoshopped concept to the left)

Providing it all works out and he looks good that way, I figured on calling him R2-XS since his colorful bling looks to be a little bit in excess.

It is also worth noting here that I have started using the Droid Cost Summary sheet. I uploaded it to Google Documents so that I can share it with my wife.

I went through and populated it with all of the parts I can name and added URLs or names of people where the parts can be purchased. It helped me create a comprehensive checklist as well as organize all of the URLs to various hobby stores that were beginning to clutter my favorites list.

My first R2

2008-03-07T17:48:00.000-08:00

On a nostalgic note, my dreams of building an R2 were first realised back when I was 8 or 9 years old. Our family visited the Estes Rocket factory in Colorado and I came away with an R2 Rocket kit that I put together and launched.

I tried to locate one today but they don't really exist any more. I think the basic reason for it is that R2 doesn't fly well when launched from a center rocket. Here is someone else's YouTube version of what happened to mine.

After mine hit the ground the legs broke off and the chute was burned up due to engineering problems.

Back to the progress of building a life size droid...

I have been reading about 12v vs 24v systems and looking at wiring diagrams and all of that stuff. Its a bit difficult building a context for some of what I am looking at since I have never done any of this before. It can be overwhelming at times.

Also, I have been struggling over the idea of people purchasing parts, vs. making them yourself. Obviously if your budget is severely limited (like mine) then you cant afford to purchase thousands of dollars in aluminum parts, which may force you to build your own out of other materials.

The result is that you sacrifice realism and a certain amount of quality for cost effectiveness. On the other hand, you have the pride of crafting your own droid, rather than just building one (as one would a model plane).

I know that I will have to purchase some parts that I just can't make look good enough, but it may take me years to nickel and dime them as part runs come out. I'm also trying to find ways to machine some of my own aluminum parts so that I can have the quality without the cost, but my machining resources are limited and sketchy at best.

So in the mean time, as I continue to read and plan, I have also designated the family change box as the "Droid Fund". When I cleared it out last time it had almost enough for my Dome down payment.

In the beginning...

2008-03-06T23:55:00.000-08:00

Back before Episode III I started prop building and costuming. I ended up focused on Light sabers and leather working for Jedi Belts, all of which landed me in the Rebel Legion.

Fast forward several years I'm in a new town and needing new challenges. So I went to San Francisco's WonderCon hoping to make some connections with Star Wars geeks of like mind, which is where I was introduced to the R2 Builders.

I have always loved R2-D2 and like every kid of the 70's dreamed of having one of my own. So when I saw the R2 units driving around WonderCon I had to stop and talk with the builders. It was there I met Chris James and found out that he was virtually a neighbor.

After meeting him and joining the R2 Builders Group at Yahoo, I decided that it was time for me to take on new challenges and give this a go. So, I started reading the boards as much as possible. I took the advice of starting a folder of print outs and images and I took the leap of faith to order a dome (since there was a run happening with a few extras available).

I know that most people advise months of research before starting on this project. I didn't fully take that advice for several reasons:

1. I'm basically adult ADD. I cant process that much technical crap without starting somewhere and just getting things done.
2. The information is overwhelming and I just needed to start something in order to get my head around things.
3. If I took too much time theorizing about things then I would just end up being a talker rather than being a doer.

I have taken the leap of faith and started this thing off. Let me say off hand that I could not have taken this leap of faith without the support of family. Many people have spouses and children with varying needs and ideas about the coolness (or lack) of Star Wars replica building.

In my situation, I have a wife that is highly supportive and looks forward to having an R2 that we can be proud of. My kids think Star Wars is the coolest thing in the world and are frustrated that they aren't old enough to be Rebel Legion members themselves. :) What that means is that this is at least starting off as a family project. The beauty of all that is that my wife approves of spending money on parts and my family won't feel like they have been widowed by R2.

Like me you may be wanting to start a droid, but you are worried about taking it on because you have "no skills". As I start this off, I want to let you know about me and my skills that I have coming into the project...

MY SKILLS (Or lack of)

I have worked on prop building in a few areas:
1. Taking Bondo/Resin parts and modifying them with a dremel tool, prepping and painting them to look real.
2. Dremeling aluminum parts to create light saber pieces.
3. Taping aluminum with threads (for blade length adjusters that hold in removable blades)
4. Soldering minor electrical parts together for lighting and power sources. I have never created any special kind of circuit and have no idea what most of the electrical components on a board are called (much less how they function).
5. I have done some mechanical work on cars and have a basic understanding of tools and gears.
6. I spent time in Wood Shop, Auto Shop and Welding Shop in school, but never completed a semester in either. I have also spent time in Machine shops watching other people work, but have no skills in the craft.

WHERE I STARTED...

I began by looking at an old version of a frame that looked like I could cut by hand. I started creating a styrene prototype with basic styrene boards from Office Depot. It helped me see some details missing in the frame and made me think about what I would need in order to accomplish the droid that I want to build.

Here are the current specs of the droid that I would like to create. I'm sure that later I will look back and realise how much I failed to take into account, but never the less, here it is:

1. Authentic looking droid - I don't want to have to paint wood or resin parts to look aluminum. If its a raw aluminum part, I want it to be made of aluminum.
2. Hatches in the dome and in the body to open and close. In the future maybe those can be automated.
3. Periscope, fire extinguisher and life form scanner functions in the dome.
4. I would like to explore sound and motion sensors in the dome to see if some automation is possible. As well as the possibility of web cam functions in the radar eye.
5. Radio controlled with the possibility of the feet becoming 2-3-2 in the future.
6. The Droid should be sound enabled so that he sounds like R2 and has options for playing a range of beeps and whistles.

So, there it is. I am waiting for my dome (still paying for it) and searching for framing options.
I'm also clearing a work space in my garage so that I will be able to work freely. In the meantime, I keep reading the boards and blogs to find out what I don't know.

Peace.