R2server

it's a live bwhaahahaahha

CrazyBillyBob,

I wanted to use my first post on this board to say thanks for all the great detail you're sharing with the rest of us on this project. I've learned so much reading through all the work logs on this site, and seeing what has already been done has inspired me to try my own.

R2 is one of my all time favorite robots, and it's amazing to see one being built step by step like this. And he's a functioning PC to boot. That's just awesome! 8)

Crow,
Thanks for the Praise :) I'm glad you like the worklog. I'm looking forward to showing everyone some of the new.....Budget building that will be going on soon. Lets say I've learned about a low cost source for ridge PVC and a simple low cost way to thermo form it. I think it should be fun for all.


CrazyBillybob

Heh, the day I finally decided to come back to TBCS, it's 2 days after you post! Good battery life, can't wait for the larger battery. I may be able to help you on the wheelie problem, but that's going to involve calculations and weighing the unit. But hey, I'm still here if you need help!

Well now that summer is drawing to an end I'm back working on R2-SRV, but before we get into that some pics from the 2nd annual Midwest builders meet held in Chicago on Aug. 5 this year. Target Practice drove up from Columbus, Ohio to attend with me. The Turn out was good, It was held at the Comfort Inn so we had a few of the kids staying the drop in to see why all the R2's were running around, (Just something about one of these little guys driving through the parking lot that draws a crowd).

There were some new Droids there, The purple one is quick! The beat up two legged Droid is made out of Cintra (PVC foam core boards), the dome is Resin (it weighs more then the body does!!), it's static display model but pretty :)

Everyone's favorite Little Mini R4 was back too.

And Of course we had Food, Good Droid Food :)

The Builders Meet Really got me fired up to finish R2 (plus I've got some Ideas for a new mod but one at a time....for now ) But a vacation, and boat load of work (work work ,and wife work) has keep me busy since then. But I finial got to work this weekend on R2.

I'm trying to make a set of stiff inserts for the front doors (on the right and left of R2's chest). I have the outer layer there in styrene, but the doors keep wanting to flatten out, and the body is round so it doesn't work so well. The doors are to be moveable (open close) so that I can put things in there.....not telling what yet don't want anyone hopes to get dashed :) This spring I get a set of battery boxes for R2 from one of the other builders (he makes then in his basement) and there made out of PVC pipe, heated, reshaped, with extra PVC parts glued on. He also showed a group of us how to reform PVC, it was easy. So I thought after my fiber glassing mistakes that I'd try the PVC path for these doors.

First thing to do was get some pipe......Off to Home Despot!

An 8 foot section of 3.5" thin wall PVC pipe....Perfect

After a meeting with the Chop saw....A more manageable 20" piece of pipe.

Next a trip to the table saw, to split one side of the pipe length wise (pic didn't turn out of this)

Then I heated the PVC with my heat gun...Spread it out (Make sure to wear gloves that plastic gets HOT!!!) Reheat and smash between two pieces of 3/4" plywood. You get some thing like this...

I know your thinking....That's not going to help make the doors curved....your right, but it makes it easier to remold it when it's flat.

So I broke out my handy dandy R2 Shaped form thingy

Heated the PVC and formed it over the plywood section.
Well the our come sucked, It's too deeply bent in the middle, too shallow on the edges and there's a big dimple in the center.... :(

Well I got looking at my form (cause every thing I pull off it is screwed up the same way.) there are high spots where the support members are, low spot where there not and the edges flex way to much....it's junk!

So I decide that I'll make a solid buck this time. After a bit of tracing (the out side edge of R2 where the doors will be) I came up with this Profile template.

So I know how high and wide the buck needs to be. If I glue up some 2x4" scrap it'll fit, after a quick dive in the scrap box I get the pieces I need. Then I realize that I don't own any bar clamps...and this thing is going to be 18" long and 12" wide....what to do??? Redneck Tech..I pulled out my ball of bailer twine (yes this really came off of hay/straw bales) and some scrap wood. The Twine goes around the pieces to be glued then into a hole at each end of the scrap wood. This way when you twist the scrap wood you tighten the string.....Being that this is a buck and not a finished work, I just dry wall screwed the scraps to the buck to keep them from loosening.

( No one's Questioning my Handle now are they :) )

The Gorilla glue dried over night, I'll scrap off the extra with a sharp chisel.

Then Run the ends through the table saw (so we know that there square) and we've got a 17" blank.

Now two more trips through the table saw to get as much extra wood off as we can before the profile is roughed in (the profile was drawn on the end of the blank to set the cuts)

With all the Wood removed that can be with the saw, the blank is clamped to the bench and Roughed in by hand (yeap, a jackplane , Chisel and rubber mallet).

Once it was roughed in (very close to perfect), the belt sander smoothed things up, I check the profile intermittently with the profile template, marked the hig spots and sanded them down, checked marked , sanded...repeat till perfect.

At this Point I heard the Announcer on the radio say "Good Wednesday morning, it's 12:07 here at " and realized I need ed to be going to work in a few hours.....sleep would be smart. So I'll see how this buck works and let you all know !

It’s Great to be back !!!!

CrazyBillyBob

Glad to see you were able to move forward on this again.
The creativity in making the forms and jigs is great. By the time you're done with this, you'll have all the tooling to make more really easily if you wanted to.

Man that just too cool.

After much delay and deliberation, I've started on the Dome Electronics...Yeap some of the R2 Bling will be going in.

I'm starting first with the front logics. These were Designed by the founder of the R2 builders club, with this run being made by Ben and Jason (ok, I helped in the Prototype stage and finding the PCB fab shop).
The Displays, randomly flash and fade 40 3mm Ultra Bright LEDs (mix of Blue and white) It also has the ability to scroll a message across like a marquee, when triggered. The Message is programmed by a serial connection. (think a little adapter and hyperterm), and trigger by dropping the trigger line to Gnd.

This is what I started with....Looks like fun :)

After some work and a bit of time (about 45min to an hour each) I ended up with these things.

The LEDs a packed very tightly so soldering them is painful!

But the Results they are worth it!

You'll not that it looks like the lights are turned off in the room in this picture. They are not, in fact it's as brightly lite as is was in the previous two pics. The LEDs are so Bright the camera darkened everything around them.

The next step is to be able to trigger that scrolling message remotely. To do that I need a remote switch..... Well I've got less channels on my 7channel remote then I've got thing to switch (ok or planed things :) )
So I'm going to start making a multiplexer....sort of.
I'm going to make a plate that will allow a servo ti sit in the middle and toggle diffrent switches on and off based on how far the servo wheel spins.

I'm starting with a piece of that flattened PVC I have left over from the door panels gone bad.

Then I'll cut out a square the size of the top of the servo, and mark and drill 4 pilot hole for the screws to hold the servo to the PVC. Then mount the Servo.

I also had to use a bit of scrap PVC to raise the roller switch to the correct height. As I add more devices I'll be adding more roller switches. In the above pic the switch is in the off position.

In this pic you can see that the roller has fallen into the notch that is cut into the servo's wheel, this is the on position. The great thing about the roller switches is that they have both normally open (when no pressure is on the switch there's no connection) and normally closed (when no pressure is on the switch there is a connection). What this feature allows me to do is depress the switch when I want it off and turn it on when I release the switch.

Now I need to work on mounting the Logics....That will be next time on this old Droid!


CrazyBillybob

once mounted I'll get some video of the scrolling message.

I love this worklog. It's one of the best here at TBCS.

-Dave

Part of today's update will be off on a tangent.
Over the weekend I setup R2 to be a Mechwarrior 4 Mercs Online Server, with the MekTek Mech Packs ( Downlaodable here). He's up 24/7 come and join in (Redneck Games). So I've been playing a bit of Mechwarrior lately! I've got these cool joysticks for it (Saitek X45's) and found out they work in BF2, and BF2142 (they didn't work in BF1942 that's why I stopped using them) Well Sitting back in my Desk chair my lap was getting crowded and I was getting my butt kick because I had to fish the track ball up off the floor, or one of the joysticks, or I'd hit some keys with the joys it was just bad.... So I built a couple of little shelves for my Chair and mounted my Joysticks there (think Rocket Man!!!)

Now everything is Right at hand and mounted solidly (makes flying in Bf so much easier :) )

Close up of Joy

The Saitek Joysticks have mounting slots built into the base, so I just bolted them to the little shelves, a bit of self adhesive Velcro under the TrackBall so it stays where I want it! Very happy with this Rig!

Ok, now to the small R2 update.

To allow the Dome to spin there is a bearing mounted under the dome like so:

So far I've had the bearing only attached to the body frame by 2 screws into this temp Spacer across the middle of the top frame ring.

It worked ok, but over time the weight of the dome bouncing as R2 drives around has started to deform the mounting area on the bearing, as well as letting the Dome bounce back and forth about 1/2" not good! To fix this I'm making a new spacing ring that is .9" thick and 18" in Dia. With a 6" hole in the center. I'll be making it in a similar fashion as the rings for the frame were made...but I've learned a bit so I'm going to apply that new knowledge to make thins go smoother :)

Here we've got the 1/4" birch Plywood and the 3/4" birch plywood, you can see that I have the lines laid out for the 18" circle and the 6" hole. You will also note that there is a circle in between the two, this is where the screws that hold the bearing will go, it will be very helpful in lining up my screw placing template that I made up in CAD.
That's where we're at now... I'll get the rings cut and trued up this week and mounted. I know your thinking is that ALL? nope I've been working on a bunch of stuff for in the dome, but it's not real exciting or photo able yet. I'm working on how to mount the LED matrixes, and the PSI lights...Trebly boring stuff but it must be done... Their also calling for snow here starting tomorrow...So My thoughts of painting this weekend are shot! maybe I'll make the LDP (large data port....It's the blue curved rectangle on the front of R2 just below his dome) not sure yet. Oh, I almost forgot R2SRV is Folding (I'm trying to find the cure Are you?). Till next Time!!

CrazyBillyBob