R2-XS v1.0 Complete

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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