Adam's R2-D2 Droid pt 6

Month 16 - June 2009
Dome is a little bare....	Trial marking the dome	Re-marked directly onto the metal	Lines engraved
Lower panels marked with a template	Lower panels engraved	Radar eye position marker	Radar eye taped in place
Drilling into the resin of the radar eye	Tapping threads in the holes	Bolted in position	Holes cut for the Holo-Projectors
Rear logic display being cut out	Rear logic display surround in position	Cutting the front logic display holes	Front logic display surrounds in place
Clips hold the holo-projector in place	Top holo-projector	One of the two lower holo-projectors from inside...	.. and from the outside
Lower holo-projector and rear logic display from the inside	Back view of the dome	Spare Dalek hemisphere gets cut to fit inside the radar eye	Dome from the front
Details added to the feet	Center foot also gets more detail	Bracket for fixing two 3" casters in the middle foot.	All this is hidden by the foot shell
Foot shell on showing how I get to the bolt with an Allen key	Middle foot underneath	Electric scooter	Dismantling the scooter. Two nice 12v batteries and a 100w motor that can move 140lbs
The important motor assembly	Bare essentials cut off the scooter	Dratt! too big to fit inside the foot shell, guess I'd better make some new mountings.	Supports cut to go in the top of the feet, note the welded nut
Hardboard test mount, big problems trying to get the motor mount holes correctly lined up	Transfering the Hardboard to 3mm thick alloy plate. Two bits are bolted togeter to make sure everything lines up	Using the scooter frame to mark the motor mount holes	Right first time in the metal
New frame makes the axle too long	Axle cut down, rethreadded and new spacers made	All fitted together with the shorter axle	Not quite finished but ready for fixing in the foot shells
	Tight but in there	Had to trim some fibreglass away for the moter but this will all be hidden by the battery box on the side of the foot
Month 17 - July 2009
Small caster fitted for stability	Motor mount fitted onto brackets welded to the supports	Still fits in the shells	Drilling the ankle hole to connect the foot
Foot not sitting flat on the ground	Leg trimmed to let the foot sit flat	Battery boxes get new keyhole fixings as I can't get to the bolts anymore	Time for a progress photo
The under shoulder details get mounting brackets made. The bolts cut their own threads in the resin.	Stabilisers fixed in place by a single screw into the leg through the middle hole in the bracket	Brackets fitted to the back to support a board for all the electrics. This way I can remove all of them with ease to work on them.	Electronics board fitted at the back and batteries fitted in holders in the base of the body. I will need bigger batteries later, but these will do for testing
Basic components. Radio receiver at the top, speed controllers on the left, voltage converter and fuses on the right	Voltage converter wired in to give 6v to the radio receiver from the 24v battery	Power wired into the drive controller. This will do the steering as well as the speed.	Feed to the motors wired in from the speed controller.
Two channels needed to the controller from the radio receiver to do forwards and backwards, left and right	All wired for driving around. The other speed controller will be wired in for the dome control later.	Electronics board in place, you can see the wires going through the holes in the shoulders, down to the motor in the foot at the top of the picture	Testing the radio control. The receiver has to be 'bound' to the transmitter so that it doesn't respond to anyone elses transmitter
After the first test run it was clear that the middle foot was causing problems with the two castors hitting each other	By changing one castor for a smaller one they now no longer it each other	Small block of wood to stop the outer feet tipping.	From the back its hardly noticable
First ever test drive, watch how the outside foot tips at the end of the video (no sound)		With the feet locked, it runs a lot better (no sound)
Some primer on the legs makes a big difference	Soon be painting him in his blue and white colours	New ankle brackets made in some offcuts of 3mm aluminium left over from the feet motor mountings	New ankle brackets
Some bronze braided cables fixed into the foot fittings	New hoses in place	Spring loaded bracket made up to hold a wheel against the dome bearing	12V motor turns at 300 rpm to turn the dome at 60 rpm, or one complete turn a second.
	Dome rotation testing. (no sound)
Dome speed controller wired in	Switches moved to the back of the electronics board.	Wiring has been tidied up	Switch panel in the large open panel at the rear of R2. The line of LEDs is a voltage monitor for the 24V battery.
Dome masked up ready for painting	Acid etching primer on the bare metal	First light coat of blue	Four coats of blue later
Radar eye goes blue too	Bolt head turned down in the lathe to make a dome topper.	Dome topper in place	A few more bits to go on but rain has stopped painting for today.
Acid etching primer on the bare metal	Center vent detail painted	Some of the body parts that needed to be painted. Many of them have two colours on them	Body reassembled after painting
Dome ring being painted	Leg to body hubs get aluminium tape added to the edge instead of paint	You only see the edge	The outer legs main parts being painted
Center leg and foot painted	Ankle cylinders painted	Under shoulder detail painted and fitted	Outer foot reassembled
Month 18 - August 2009
Getting to look like the real thing	Dome detail	Back panel to be fitted	Progress shot
	First run after being painted (no sound)
Personal soundtrack shirt from ThinkGeek.com, will be used to provide sounds from the droid	The programmable mp3 player from inside the shirt. The button pad will be replaced with a 12 channel rf control unit and suitable sounds for R2 will be loaded into the memory	Mp3 player now controlled via the remote control and powered by a regulator off the main R2 battery instead of seperate batteries	Sound board mounted behind the front vents of the body. The speaker is fitted on the other side of the board
Lenses for the holo-projectors	One of the lenses in place	Battery harness parts as they arrived	Harness painted and fitted to the battery boxes beside the feet. These were the last parts needed.
Feet all finished	Battery back-up unit brought from ebay as it has four very nice 33Ahr batteries.	Two of the new batteries will be fitted inside the droid, the other two will be back up if he runs flat.	A tray for the batteries is needed to lift them clear of the middle leg fittings
Just enough room	Tight fit but much longer run times	Some of the lights for the dome	The lights fit in these tubes with bubble wrap acting as a diffuser
Tube mounted to the dome	LEDs for the holo-projectors, also fitted on the dome	LEDs inside the holo-projector	Electrics for the dome fitted to the dome ring. Seperate battery from the rest of the droid
	Fitting a servo to operate the top utility arm	Arm in the open position
Testing the arm movement (no sound)		Testing the dome lights and utility arm (no sound)
Switch access tidied up	Rear dome lights on	Front dome lights on	To Be Continued....