R2server

[crazybillybob]

I've came up with this design for the Gear if I use slip rings. If the gear comes out nice I'll use it for any setup. As with most of the rest of R2 I'm trying to save money so I'm going to make these gears myself, at home with my small collection of power tools and hand tools(I think the Router and Jigsaw will be getting a work out this weekend) . Don't worry I'll take pics good or bad just so you all can join in the fun!

I went with the gear close to the outside of the dome for one reason clearance between the Bearing (12" OD) and the Motor Gear (about 2"-2.5"). There was no other setup where they wouldn't hit or rub one another.

I still don't have the motor to drive this, but I'm thinking about it. Most likely it will be a small 12Vdc gear motor running about 300-600RPM max. I'll have to see what some of the surplus stores have cheap.

Let Me know what you think, or if there is something really wrong that I missed Let me know that too!

Crazybillybob




Yes, Chris it looks like your drawing! Just not mounted to the dome...The dome is egg shaped and this flat gear was hard enough for me to draw I don't want to make it a 3D complex curve.

[crazybillybob]

Well I had a weekend full of fun and building....I blew most of Saturday playing BF2 online (first time in 2 months!) so Sunday I worked on the dome disk and the gears....

First thing was to cut out some rough disks they were about 19"(48.26cm) in diameter I just whipped them out with my jigsaw (no where near round!!!)

Now to make them round. I whipped up a jig for my router table. Not much just a piece of 1/4" plywood bolted to the top. then I measured 9 1/16" from the inside of the 1/4" straight cut bit in the router and set a hole (for a screw). I drilled a slightly bigger hole in the center of each disk (made the screw snug but would let the disk still turn).

Once the disk was screwed on I just had to turn the disk and it would be perfectly round. Action Shot!

Making the jig and pushing out two perfect disks took less then an hour...I may get more done then I thought.....

Next I moved on to the spur gear, this little guy will be attached to a motor and run against the ring gear (I hope).
Here I've got the gear all laid out and ready to cut (I printed out the drawing 1:1 and sprayed the back with spray adhesive, then stuck it to the plywood. Easier then trying to draw it out on wood free hand)

After the spur gear was cut out I when after the ring gear. It kicked my butt, This shot is after an hour and 2 batteries on the cordless jigsaw.

It's going to be a long day!...

Well after about 3 tedious hours and 4 batteries I got 1 ring gear (I hope it works I really don't want to have to cut it out again!!!).

Looks kinda nice laying there on the work bench...but I wonder how it looks in the dome?

The Disk looks good!

The Gears....They Look even better !! and they seem to work too! now they just need a little clean up with a file to smooth them all out. (later this week.. cause it was late when I shoot these pics!, and my arms still numb from the jigsaw! )

All in all it was a good day. I'll get the mounting hole for the bearing drilled and the hole for the slip ring cutout this week and go from there.

Thanks for all the positive response lately, it helps keep me going. The Ideas and drawings are always welcome.

On a little side note I know that before I've said that R2 will not have a working holo-emitter (projector)...Well I've changed my mind....Stay tuned over the coming weeks for the projector mod (it will stay right here but I'll mostly be working on it!), I'm just waiting on parts right now.. my goal make the projector work (display @ min of 5' away) for less then $100 us (not counting the cost of the emitter cause I've already got it!)....Let's see if I can pull this off.

Till next time!

CrazyBillybob

[crazybillybob]

Here is the start of a ....Mini Mod? It's really a sub mod as it's still going into R2 but you get the Idea.

I received the two main components of the Holo projector this week. (the Holo- emitter detail is the white thing in the bottom of the pic).

A Hip Gear Screen Xbox controller (new) and a Holiday Projector (new)..You know one of those things your neighbor has out at Christmas to cast a 15' (4.57M) tall Snowflake on his house. What the heck are you going to do with that crap...They have nothing to do with Computers or Star Wars... Stay tuned over the next few days (maybe weeks!) to find out!

First thing is for sure!
They didn't last long in there nicely pack homes.....Or in one piece for that matter

I striped off all the Xbox controller pieces of the hipGear. To Get down to the LCD display goodness.

For those of you that don't know (which was me till about 2 weeks ago), these little LCD screen's electronics can accept regular Video signal...and run on 12Vdc. I've been looking @ a few other sites and I think that the wiring in this controller is a little different then ones other sites have shown, So I'll show you what I've found out so far.

Here is the connector that brings all the wire into the controller. The numbers are for the 6 solder pads in front of the connector, These are the wires that go to the Video/Audio board (the ones That I'm after!)

Here is the wires that attach to the pads (the numbers match between the top an bottom). From left to right: (1)Yellow is the Video input, (2)Brown Video Ground, (2)Black is Audio Ground, (4)White and (3)Red are your Audio line in, (5)Green is the power supply ground, (6)orange is +12Vdc. You will notice that the video and audio grounds go to the same pad.

I've only got the disassembly done on the Hip gear...next I'll wire up some temp connections so we can test the display out.

Now The Holiday Projector has 2 part that fit into one another that make it work.

The first is the light source and image they are house in this little sub frame here.

The light source in this unit is a 12Vac Halogen bulb...Not going to work on DC so I'm looking into other options (low heat and power....LED maybe?)

The Illumination sub frame slides down into the outer housing. The outer housing holds the optics, these focus and enlarge the image.

Really I just need the optics from this unit, but it's a nice housing, I don't have to mess with measuring focal lengths etc, so if it fits in the dome I'm using it too!

That wraps it up for this update, I'll have more soon so stop back in!

CrazyBillybob

[crazybillybob]

Thanks for detailing it so precisely, CBB, this is one project I'm sure will be useful for many of us. Expect to see elements of this mini-mod copied many times over by quite a few of us once you get this running.

With all the Q's about LCD's for cases lately, and the low cost of the hip gear screens I figured that we would be seeing allot of them. So I figured ?I've got the tools and the training I'll help the guys (and gals) that don't out.... (All of you guys that work plex do the same for me!).

As for the mini-mod I didn't get allot done this weekend....I've got a rebuilt shoulder (in me not the droid ) and it's giving me allot of problems this week so I'm trying to let it rest for a bit. But I did get some testing done....The LCD on the AC adapter, and the Projector with an AC light.....= a 4' Image on the wall @ 10'....Better then I thought it would do! Now I just need to get some pics (to share with all of you) and figure out how to mount it all, then find a DC light source.

If you all start in on your Hip gear screens and have Q's let me know I'll give you all the help I can. (I do read my PM's so don't feel you have to post publicly...If I get allot of the same Q's I'll make a quick post/write up to answer them all @ once...if not it will be one on one!)

Back soon with more!

Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

Snickells,
The bearing, not the gears, will support most of the weight of the dome. The gears will only have to be strong enough to make the bearings roll, so they have to be stronger then the friction between the bearings and the raceway (the trace that bearings ride in), the friction can be reduced by applying a thin film of grease to the bearings and raceway. I used Plywood instead of solid wood because it doesn't have a shear face like solid wood does. When you break solid wood you get a nice clean break normally along the growth rings (when the wood is cut in the modern fashion, it's different with quarter sawn ..but they don't do that much any more so we'll skip it). In plywood each layer of wood is placed with the grain perpendicular to the one before it, then they are all glued in place. This is way when you break plywood the edge is uneven and frayed, it doesn't have a common shear point. The only thing that I'm worried about is wear on the faces of the gears where they meet. The plywood my wear faster because it's rubbing together. I'm going to do some testing with CA glue (super glue) applied to the face of plywood and see if this helps cut down on the wear. I hope that in all this I answered your question If not let me know where I lost you (cause I may have lost myself in there somewhere too!).

Thanks for the artist comment! It's scary how Art and Science slam head long into each other allot with me!

Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

crenn,
After cutting out that gear I'm not in a hurry to cut out a bunch of little bits of aluminum. how would I hold the alum to the face? I'm still not sure wear will be that big of a deal, I mean realy old windmills had wood gears, they wouldn't have used them if they didn't work well!?!
If wear and tear get to bad on the wood gear I can always make a plastic one! I can cut it out myself (a prospect I'm not happy with but would do) or send it to the laser cutters, easier but more expensive in the long run.

Thanks for the Idea not sure how to do it "the right way" though?? ?? and it's allot of work to do wrong.

Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

Welcome R2 Fans, Today here in the hillbilly journal, is the Very Rigged Holo-Projector

Held together with electrical tape, masking tape and luck.

Here is a projected image in a lighted Room...

Not very impressive....But ok!

Here It is in a Darkened room (not pitch black but low lighting, much brighter then MML or any LAN I've ever been too!)

Much better.

Yeap, I know the images is backwards, the Lens inverts it when projecting. I flipped it top to bottom to take care of the inversion but never thought of the left to right till I saw this image on the wall….I’ll fix it before the LCD is mounted permanently.


Now mind you this is with an A/C Light, and it seems to give it a yellow cast that isn't show in the pics.

I've ordered one of these 1W Ultrabright LEDs From All Electronics. I'm hoping that it will be bright enough to replace the A/c Bulb. I also ordered some 6"x12" copper clad board to make the slip ring out of, we'll see how that goes when it gets here.

Now I'll move on to moving the PCB for the LCD inside the Projector case, and making it so the wires pass out the rear of the unit.

Thanks for stopping by, let me know what you think!

Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

the 1w LED is a Lexon....Just the 1W kind...the 5w ones are a little out of my price range right now....If my wife ever finds out I spent $12 on 1 led she'll kill me as it is!

As for the image I have a lensless solution, I'll flip it over, since it's transperant it will not be an issue! (In theroy right now) I'll let you know if I need help with another lens (hopefully it just works without one

Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

Well, I got back to working on R2 some this weekend. I Remade an Aluminum side box for the main Radar Eye (The Big Blue Squareish thing on his dome), I had one part way put together from close to a year ago, and was not happy with it. So I made this one up.

It sits right up beside the Eye like so

Now I just need to get some primer on it (to see if I need to fill any low spots), and the weather looks better for this weekend (32degF) so I should be able to get some primer coats on things

I also worked on getting the Utility Arms (The two Blue bands on the front of R2, He used them to run the Com device in EP3:ROTS) sanded down to fit.

I'll have to adjust the skin cutout's just a bit, but the Arm is ready for a skim coat of bondo (to hide the wood grain). The other arm....Well I nee to remake the "hand" section as it broke when cutting it down.

I also look At the second motor Bracket ...looks like I may have to cut it back apart and flip every thing over So the motor stick out the inside of the foot, as it doesn't fit quite right in the foot currently....I'll get pics up when I figure out how much needs to change....I'm hoping that I can just adjust a few things and not have to cut it all apart..... Oh well the best laid plans of mice and Men! I'm just happy that I'm not feeling like death warmed over now!!! I can get back in to R2 again!!!!


Thanks for sticking with me in my long dry spell.
Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

I have a question: you thought about how you're going to ventilate that thing? With a computer, all the movement circuitry, the HDD's for running the bugger as a server, not to mention the Perojector and lens set up-the frame looks like it might make things a little hot and stuffy in there. Maybe a large fan, like from an old car radiotor put into the body, would help to pull air through and push it out through the bottom? Or are you hoping that passive cooling will cut the mustard in this scenario?

Just remembered where i wanted that mechanism-for my sliding door. Similar idea.

-Dave

I have some places in the skin that are open (Nicely cover with decritive vents) that will house some 80mm fans (If needed I have a place for some 120mm too) and will be ducted to the PC/HDD and Charging gear. For the Projector I'm trying to design it to run as cool as possible (hence the LED light sources), The dome is all Aluminum, so it should add some cooling in that area, plus some of the dome Pie wedge shapes are going to be able to open, so I can mount a fan in there to help cool that if needed as well.). Hopefully heat will not be an issue (as fans use power...that means the more fans the less run time) but I will not know for sure till I get all the peices installed.
I'm also needing to know how much current this R2 unit will need when charging. My guess is 5-7Amps AC, but I'll have to double check that at a later date.

Crazybillybob