R2server

[crazybillybob]

Snow,
R2 will move around like the Real R2D2...In fact he (R2SRV) made a showing at last years MillionManLAn....

I've posted these before but Here you go again...R2SRV in action

The First one is a short demo of R2 Running.
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/c.../R2Dancing.avi
For fun R2SRV was entered into the MR. WSVG contest, here he is doing a dance.
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/c.../MRWSVG_R2.avi


CrazyBillyBob

Will this be a moving or non moving build CBB? What I mean is, will it move around like the real R2D2?

3 weeks with a robot and no wife, that almost sounds like a good thing. lol

[crazybillybob]

Ok, Little update on things here in the AstromechLab..

I worked on the center ankle cover, Not structural just hides all the load bearing members.
I skipped pics of the layout (figured you got the Idea by now )
Here is all the pieces laid out, The large one at the top will be folded into a rectangle, the flat area's on the curves at the bottom are just setting there to show what they should look like (test fit).

Then we fast forward through several hours of bending, welding, grinding to get this, still not done the flaps on the bottom need bent into place and welded. I'll use a series of tack welds to hold them into place while bending them from bottom to top. After there bent I'll finish the weld. The Mig welder makes this so much easier and faster then my torches.

With all the welds in place and cleaned up, it's time for a test fit.

You notice that it doesn't go all the way down, the corner of the load bearing member (alum plate in the middle) needs trimmed down... It will need to meet the grinder again. Other then that it looks good.

Next we'll move to the Fan Guard for the 40mm fan that will move air into the Processor protection System (little Alum box that the motherboard hides in). I had several designs that I had trouble picking from but finally settled on this one. Nice R2 Logo with 45degree connections to the screw mount holes (Thanks Grunts!!)

The drawing is spray glue mounted on a scrap piece left over from making the protection system, 1/8" alum taped to keep it from scratching. The quarter is there to show you how big a 40mm fan really is. After an hour or so meeting with the scroll saw, this lovely little thing emerges.

Needs some clean up with the needle files, and a bit of sand paper (yes I know the paper's still glued on...I'll get to that). Well there's a bit of a problem, see the idiot that drew the fan layout, mismeasured the screw mounting holes...

So they don't line up so well, It's useable but not perfect...So I'll be making a new one.....That's why the paper's still on, keep you all wondering how shinny is it really under there??? Well you'll have to wait till next time

From the deep bowels of a sand crawler, right next the scrap heap....
CrazyBillyBob

[crazybillybob]

I was out of town for a bit (work), so now I'm back and I'll show you what I've gotten done over the last week or so.
I started by mounting outer ankle covers (added just a little more metal to fill in some voids)

With those mounted I focused in on the Center ankle, for it to be mounted I had to cut a recess in the bottom of the frame (about 1/4" of wood was removed from the 3/4" plywood), also I filled the area around the perimeter full of expanding foam ( the .04" styrene was sagging allot, and any bump made it flex). Then the Ankle over was pop riveted into place.
Sorry, It was getting ready to rain when I did the cutting and mounting, so I was in a hurry and forgot to snap pics till I was done.

I also gave in and ordered a 24 contact Slipring (straight from China...that was fun). The Slip ring allows electrical connections to remain constant even when the parts are spinning. With 2Amps max per trace I'll end up using about 21 of the 24 contact straight out of the box, this and signal to noise ratio is why I gave up on building my own.

This thing has nice gold contacts inside, so I can run that USB web cam through it and some Serial communication to the logics up there. To make removing the dome less of an issue I attached a DB25 to one side of the slipring.

Getting all these wires hooked up and tested is an on going process so expect to see more of it soon.
I also recut that Fan guard that I messed up, took way less time this go. Still need to file the saw marks out and make it all purrdy but it's getting there.

While I was cutting stuff I took a few minutes to cut a lid out for the Motherboard protection system....Nothing fancy...

We all know that R2-D2 makes sounds, Well So will R2-SRV to do that we need Speakers, well the speakers need mounts that was the next task tackled. I got 1 cut out of 18gauge steel that I have...This stuff is tough to cut with a scroll saw (inside cut can't be done easily with tin snips).

Looks nice, Lets test fit it with the speaker.

Now that I know it really fits, I'll drill the holes in the corners for mounting screws and cut out the second one.

I've got a bit more fab to finish up, I think I'm down to 6-10 parts left to make, and mount the front doors and we're ready for paint (ok,I know I still need to make the Mp3 player work, and mount the projector, and make the 12V battery charger but this can be worked on when the paints wet....I'm trying to schedule it all) Plus with g00se's I7 threating to be at MML too, I need to kick it up a notch ( what, I love the idea of I7 and R2 Racing at MML....any betters out there???) (G00se's work log is @ Gruntville.com)

Please let me know what you think. I also know it's been a long time since I posted a pic of the complete R2 (or at least everything I've got done)... That's coming, I'll post one before paint, then I'll post one after we get to MML when the paint's done...what can't reveal everything too early.

CrazyBillyBob

[crazybillybob]

Welcome once again to This old Droid.....
This week we'll get a glimpse of one of the last steel details as it's starting. We'll also make an astablemultivibrator.... Fun! Also there will be a revisit to the motherboard protection system.. Now lets go to the shop.

I've been working on finishing up the fab of all the steel details (so the welder can be switched over to Aluminum welding), I'm down to the last 4 it's really just 4 of the same part, It's a detail on the side of the foot. Here's what I've got done (still more work needed) It's just the face plate.

There will be more work completed on this part this week.
Most of my time was spent working on the more "Fun" part, the lighting.
Their is a yellow/ green oscillating light on the back of the dome. For that I made an astablemultivibrator circuit (big name little circuit, has 2 transistors, 2 capacitors, and 4 resistors in it) a home made PCB makes it a nice little package (the LEDs in the picture are 3mm in Dia)

With the board made and soldered up, I needed some thing to house it.

The white PVC plumbing fittings help space the lights away from the plexi lens in the dome (just a piece of lexan lightly wet sanded 800grit inside and out) so that there are no hot (bright) spots on the lens. Here's what this crazy thing looks like assembled.

When mounted in the dome you get an effect like this Video of Lights running in the dome! (file is about 17Mb)
Now I know that you've seen the front logic displays but here's a video of them in action Video of Front Logics running in the dome!

Now that I'm done showing off the eye candy, lets see what’s up with the Motherboard protection system.
The power / reset switches are test fitted in the enclosure (you can also see the holes for the Wireless network adapters antenna near the bottom right corner).

Also the Fan hole has been drilled.

I know I know you want to see that Sweet R2 Fan guard mounted over that hole..... OK, stop twisting my arm!

That's where I'm at currently, got allot of work to complete and no time to do it! so keep watching I think it's going to get fun around here!


CrazyBillyBob

[crazybillybob]

Spurred along by G00se's I7W7 progress, and the impending Droid Race at MML, It's time for a little update
The Half-moon details for the feet are finally fully welded.

The half-moon details will be mounted on the sides of the feet Like this (minus the hand )

Just need to drill a couple holes in the foot for mounting.

With that done all of the large pieces are fabbed... I can finish mounting things and start the painting process.

For Painting all of the wood parts get a thin coat of bondo, and/or glazing putty, This hides the wood grain and gives me a smooth surface to paint on.

Here you can see one arm coated in putty the other has been primed and sanded, a few spots have been filled in again....Rinse and repeat!

The booster covers here have been puttied, sanded and primed. The one on the left is all ready for paint, the one on the right needs a few last details glued on and some spots fixed and a few more coats of primer.

While the paint was drying (no I didn't watch it much this time!) The Slip ring was mounted into the frame.

I also started getting the Dome Motor ready to install, It's out of the automatic seat belt that was in my wife's car. Don't worry she doesn't drive it anymore......My Mother in law does

I've also been working on some more of the Electronics, no fun pics just designs and what not. Also a few projects around the house, and the fact that I've gotten a new job, back in Ohio that I start soon (about 5.5 hours from home) have kept me busy. I'll be hitting R2 hard for the next few weeks as I have some time off coming...
As always let me know what you think.

CrazyBillyBob

[crazybillybob]

What??? An Update..... About Time!!!

It's been a while since I got around to posting an update so some of this is a bit dated, but you all have stuck with me this far I'll not start skimping out now!

The first group here is the end of the mad dash to MML this year.

The Big thing was the Paint Job on the body, Legs, and feet.
To start it off I masked off the inside of the droid shell.

Once everything was masked off the painting started... After 2 and 1/2 cans of Krylon fusion (and a few hours of drying time) R2's body looks...well white (it's not really white, it's a bit offwhite but the camera adjusts to make it look white)

I also found some Great stuff for cases, It's Cheap, looks good and holds paint well... What is this miracle stuff?

That's right Aluminum window screen.

This one layer painted and cut to size.

Here's 2 layers of screen glued to the back of the aluminum grill cover. My two Speakers are mounted behind the grills one on each side of the droid's body. I can see this stuff showing up in some of my other mods where I would have used modders mesh before.

Then there's the night before MML (we took off @ 3am Thursday...I didn't sleep at all that night)

This was what the inside of my friend Cytog's garage looked like till about 2:59am

There was also some work completed at MML (some Wiring finished..and some repairs from shipping damage)

Target Practice Is lending a helping hand here too.

At this point your thinking WHY!!!
Well here's a few pics from MML6, all I can say is that Running R2 around in a crowd is FUN!!

R2's first kiss.

Some Jedi younglings and their Masters.

Then there's always the Grunts

There's also the Droid Races too!

(a special thanks to Cytog... the last few pics were taken by him)

Well after recovering from MML6 I started the push to Finish the last remaining things on R2-SRV In preparation for Showdown LAN 2007 - Indy . Sept. 14-16 2007. The biggest thing not done now is the Dome Rotation.
The first step to getting the dome to rotate is to get the drive wheel mounted on the motor shaft.....

For that you need a shaft adapter (a chunk of metal that is as big around as the hole in the middle of the drive wheel and has a hole in it as big as the motor shaft) how do you get one of these? Well I took a Brass Blank about 1.5 inches around

Added a little Lathe (8x12" model)

Then add in a bored 55 year old father (recovering from a kidney removal) .... Sorry the Old guy is camera shy
Mix all that up and leave for work one morning.... When you get home some 8-9 hours later... you have a bored 55 year old guy with this in his hands

With a little work (drilling and taping a setscrew hole) and mounting the wheel you get this ...

Then your company sends you to Texas for 10 days....30 days later I'm still here So I've gotten nothing more done But the up side you all will get more R2-Srv updates in the future! (hay, act more excited!!)


Time to pack and hope my flight home is not delayed!! (Edit:....Made It home!!!)

CrazyBillyBob

[crazybillybob]

I'm glad to be back cernn!!

The things left to do on R2:
Rewire the 12V Electrical system
Install Dome Rotation motor
Install projector
Install resin Front vents
Install Aluminum Coin returns (3 total )
Install Pocket vents
Repair some damage that happen when I Drove R2 to MML (had some screws shear off and big parts bounced around for at least 100 miles in the crate
This will include some more painting

Try very hard to get the second... "Special Edition" Feature in place.

Also get the weathering done.

A much smaller list then before

CrazyBillyBob
A mu

[crazybillybob]

Small Update.... R2SRV is on Hold for a bit... As it's in Ohio and well I spend most of my time in Tx or MI....Work N Wife. I'll be putting up some Higher res images of him currently after the Holidays (I get to visit him for a couple of days )


CrazyBillyBob

[crazybillybob]

Not really an Update but more of a pimpage

Check out the cover of this Months Servo Mag!

Also check out A Dorid of your own in this months Nuts and Volts


I've not got much more on R2. I'm in the process of moving (again) and still working in a different state from R2.... Soon He will be complete and I'll be able to start on the next one (mod that is... It will be a bit before the next bot...maybe )



Still Alive
CrazyBillyBob

[crazybillybob]

What :o More pics! I know it's been a bit since the last update! The new Job keeps me on the road, away from home Alot! So What I've got today is Pics of R2 in his current state.... I've got a few minor things to do to finish him up (a little paint, and some hoses to hook up) I'm planning to have him Complete For Showdown LAN IL the end of Sept.
So with out further lip flapping The Pic's


Close up of the Dome:

Close up of the lower Front section:

The Whole Front of R2-SRV:

Whole Front Angle shot!

Hope You like them !!!
BillyBob