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Leg repair part 2 (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:29:00 +0100

Not much done today. I put screws around the perimeter of the legs and put the first coat of bondo on the screw heads. I also put a few more screws R3's legs as well while I was at it just for the heck of it. Monday I hope to start sanding .

DROID MAINTENANCE MODULE_Part 3 (Russell's R2 Blog)

russellr2d2 — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:47:00 +0100

Painting the boxes of the maintenance module. Just plane ol' house paint will suffice. The boxes were primered first and then sanded.

If you are missing the point to all this ("what is he building boxes for"?) here is a clue:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pPfSjXAtggo/S43d9oH-KuI/AAAAAAAAA5Y/4O1bym_29X8/s1600-h/R2D2+Asembly+Stand.jpg

Just rolling it on, not really important to get a perfect finish. This thing is just a utility anyway. Take it out of the trunk, set up R2, and then throw it back in with as little fuss as possible.

The two boxes nice and snowy white, just like R2 and any proper "space equipment".

This is a glossy print I did at work of lettering and numbers that will go on the sides of the boxes. One box will get the #1 and the other the #2. This way I will always know which is left or right side. The platform these boxes attach to is being cut out and painted tomorrow (see link to blueprint above).

Mike's Pacific Symphony Orchestra Gig (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:37:00 +0100

Once again, I blog about an event that is not mine. This event belongs to Mike Senna and his R2-D2, I just hung out and took pictures.

The Pacific Symphony Orchestra is in town, performing for three nights selected music by John Williams, with Richard Kaufman conducting. Mike was asked to have his R2 appear on stage for a surprise visit during the show, to help deliver the score to Star Wars. Mike and I both took the day off from our respective jobs to be at rehearsal around 2:30pm.

I can safely say I've never gotten my own dressing room, and probably won't in the future either.

Mike and I did some quite comical sneaking around the building to see what there was to see. Thousands of seats just waiting to be filled for the show.

Here is the prop score that Mike's R2 brings out to the conductor during the show.

It turns out that it is a real score, but for unrelated music. Unfortunately, it was very heavy for the wooden dowel that Mike's droid was going to carry it on, so several pages had to go. Yes, he was given permission to start tearing it up.

The sound technician placed a microphone in Mike's droid, and the sounds were played over the sound system used for the rest of the concert (instruments and conductor's microphone).

Time to rehearse! Mike's droid will appear stage right/audience left. Conductor Richard Kaufman went through the routine with Mike. Everyone is dressed casual for rehearsal, but for showtime it's all dresses and tuxedos for the orchestra and conductor.

As is always the case, everyone loves R2, including violinists.

As the show approached, we went to our stations backstage. Full video showed us what was happening on stage, but we couldn't see the stage directly for ourselves, because it was behind a closed door that the conductor enters and exits.

And finally, the gag itself: "We were going to play one of John Williams' most popular pieces as you see in your programs, but I cannot find my score."

Video was shot from backstage with my still camera, so the sound is not the best, nor is the video.

(Later, Mike's droid made a second appearance to deliver the upcoming season's schedule.)

Finally, proof that I was there. Mike and I with conductor Richard Kaufman.

Thanks to Mike and the crew at PSO for letting me tag along.

The full photoset is here.

Tardis light take one (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:04:00 +0100

Here is a video of my first TARDIS light mock up :D

Two steps back (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:05:00 +0100

Instead of being mad about the legs splitting I decided I will do a more in depth step by step on how to fix this problem with the legs if it happens to anyone else out there.

I started by removing all the painted parts from the legs that could be damaged by the clamps.
Then I removed the motor holders. Dawmer came by and helped me flip R2 over on hid dome ring.
Here are a few of the parts I took off the legs.
I can't believe I have him this far back apart again after only a week. At least now I can fix the servo that is behind his leg as well.
Brad came over as well to lend a hand and we took the leg parts down to the workshop.
I wedged a screwdriver in the crack and pulled it apart. We dripped glue in and I brushed it all the way down inside covering the surfaces as much as possible.
Then the cracks were clamped together and set aside to dry. Tomorrow before I take the clamps off I will add some course thread drywall screws around the perimeter to enforce everything. Then I will start on the cracks on the bottom side of the legs which are very small thankfully.
I also bought a truckload of 2x4s to make a crate for Patches so this kind of stress does not happen again in transport. Thanks Brad and Dawmer for lending a Moose a hand tonight :)

KidsFest Event Video Part One (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:37:00 +0100

Part One of the Kidsfest Video

Pacific Symphony John Williams Concert, OC Performing Arts Center (Senna's R2 Adventures)

R2-D2 — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:00:00 +0100

Pacific Symphony invited R2-D2 back for another performance on stage with Pops Conductor Richard Kaufman, who directed 3 nights of concerts of John Williams music. R2-D2 saves the day by delivering the missing Star Wars score! Here's some photos from the first day's rehearsals.

Patches' emergency leg surgery (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:13:00 +0100

Riding in the back of a truck or trailer has taken a tole on Patches. Unlike all the other R2 legs I have built Patches' legs were purchased from the club. The thin layer of paper board used in the kit has de-laminated over time and split in two. Not the best material to use in something structural. (Not saying the club legs are not great, just that I would add screws to them as well when you put them together.) The legs I make now have no such paper layer and they are nailed and screwed together so they should not have the same problem. I plan to take R2-CM's legs off tomorrow and get as much glue as possible into the splits them clamp them together. Then I will put a ton of screws through them to hold them together like my other legs instead of depending on the wooden dowels that can loosen over time.

While I have the legs off I am going to go ahead and do the finishing work along with R3's legs.

Here are some pictures of just the top side of the cracks. My poor R2 :(

Welcome, New Visitors (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:31:00 +0100

Makezine.com and hackaday.com (and others) recently linked to this blog, so for new visitors, I thought I'd just mention what's here. I'm working on my second droid, it's mostly done. (I'm currently working on the foot shells.) The blog entries below show the progress for droid #2. Why am I building a second droid, you ask? As soon as I figure that out, I'll let you know.

For most visitors, the Events link to the right is probably the most interesting thing to see. It shows the many events that my first R2-D2 has been a part of. The vast majority of appearances are charity events.

For anyone interested in learning more about building an R2-D2 of their own, be sure to visit http://www.astromech.net, the official home page of the R2 Builders Club, along with the R2 Builders Group on Yahoo.

I am just one of many folks out there who have built an R2 unit, and some of mine was built using club parts (the dome and skins being two major examples), and some was built from scratch. The club does not sell kits, but it does have official blueprints, and occasionally members do a "part run" of certain parts at a machine shop. Most of the droid can be built from scratch, however.

If you are interested in buying an R2-D2, you'll want to check out eBay and/or Sideshow Collectibles. Sideshow sells a static (non-mobile) R2-D2 for $5,450, although for around that price you could build your own, and have it remote controlled too. It would just take (a lot) more time and effort. Club members generally don't put their droids up for sale for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the amount of time and effort we spend building them, and we don't want to fall out of the good graces of Lucasfilm, which has been very supportive of our club to date.

Thanks for visiting,
Victor

R2-D2 Photo Shoot pictures.... (Paul's R2 Blog)

Paul — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:31:00 +0100

My good friend and coworker, Michelle Barker, shared with me some of the pictures she took last Saturday. They are incredible...

Grand Rapids Griffins Star Wars Night (Rae's Artee Dootoo)

Mieal Deneb — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:15:00 +0100

March 6th, 2010 was the annual Grand Rapids Griffins Hockey Star Wars night. R2-D2 was RCd for the first time and moving!! The week before the event, I got the pocket vents finished up and attached, and then I weathered everything so he looks more "real". It was great fun to have R2 a part of the charity photo booth and see the excitement on all the kids' faces!

Ankle Cylinder Tutorial part 3 (JDuffphoto's R2-D2 build diary)

jduffphoto — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:51:00 +0100

Continuing on from the last update, I have trimmed the excess material off of the cap. I used a utility knife to do so. After a light sanding, the part was smooth with exception of the end of the PVC tube that chipped away when I cut the tube. That will be filled in with glazing putty later on.

I have completed this portion already, but to show you how to cut the tab that is glued to the end of the cylinder, I started with creating a template. I based this again from the blueprints for the cylinder, located in the files section of the R2Builders Yahoo Group. This template will cut 6 pieces. Using 3mm styrene that I had left over from scraps, I cut all 6 pieces, and glued them together in pairs. This gave me a total of 3 tabs. After the glue cured, I sanded the piece smooth in preparation of gluing to the cylinder cap.

Here is the tab glued to the end of the cylinder.

Next up is to cut the semi circles that add detail to the end of the cylinder. The diameter of the circle is the same size as the glued edge of the tab.

I measured out the width of the tab. This area needs to be cut out. The semi circles are then glued in place around the tab. When dry, a light sanding will prep for the glazing putty.

This is the part after the glazing putty was applied and sanded. The chips at the end of the PVC have been filled and sanded smooth.

My wire hanger jig. After final sanding, the part is ready for primer.

Prime coat.

I've learned that very light coats of paint will bring out the most even coloring. This is after two coats of Rustoleum's aluminum color. You can still see the primer coat under the paint.

Another two coats later and some drytime overnight, the aluminum color is in place. I'm going to let the part rest and cure for a couple days and then tape off to repaint the center a metallic blue.

With an even coat of glazing putty, you can't tell that the tab is actually two pieces glued together.

R2 has a photoshoot and more... (Paul's R2 Blog)

Paul — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:33:00 +0100

Last Saturday I brought R2-D2 to a photo studio a co-worker had rented to take some pictures. With R2's white paint, shiney dome and bright electronic lighting, R2 is a challenging model to photograph.

There are the snapshots I took with my little Canon Powershot. I can't wait to see how the professional pictures turned out!

I don't have any appearances planned this week, which gives me some time to work on some more tweaks to R2. The new computer still needs more setup work and its about time for a tear down, inspect and re-assemble.

Kidsfest event (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:08:00 +0100

This weekend Brad Syrena, Jen and I hauled the droids 150 miles to help out with the Iowa Kidsfest event.
The 501st, Rebel Legion, and us R2 builders were there in force (no pun intended) to show everyone in attendance a great time.
Brad's R2 and my R2-CM hit the ground running, stoping for tons of pictures wherever we went.
Patches even took a picture with these two Lovely leather bound ladies. Jen and Tia.
Shannon from the surprise Hockey game proposal last week finally got to meet the droids.
At the end of the day Brad and R2-CM went on stage to do a skit with the 501st.
The video of the skit as well as more pictures will be posted tomorrow evening.
It was a great event with a great group of friends from the 501st and Rebel Legion.

DROID MAINTENANCE MODULE_Continued (Russell's R2 Blog)

russellr2d2 — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 06:53:00 +0100

Building began on my solution to "how to take R2 to events in my little car" problem. I need a stand to set R2 on while I put on his legs. The solution is the "DROID MAINTENANCE MODULE" ! (there's some dramatic music score in there somewhere). Refer back to my last post with the blueprints and you will see what I am building is a couple boxes that bolt down to a platform. The whole structure is what R2 will sit on while he is getting legs attached.

Below is a shot of the gluing of one side of a box. Good ol' Gorilla glue. Use a LOT because particle board really soaks up glue.

One side is up and checking it is square.

Two sides of the box. These boxes will be placed under R2 just far enough apart that I can fit the skirt down between them.

OOOPPPSS! Glue not dry enough to walk away from yet! Oh well I'll try that again.

Ok, both boxes glued up and I also used 1" finish nails to fix the boxes together. Now I am measuring the base plate that will keep the boxes at the required distance from each other and stabilize them while I am struggling to lift R2 onto them.

One the bottom of the base plate I installed T-nuts. The boxes have holes in the bottom and a bolt will pass through to attach the boxes firmly down to the base.

Here is one box set in position You can just see one of the bolt holes. Also visible is a center wall to make the box really strong. I can stand on these boxes (180lbs).

The complete structure. This all comes apart in seconds. I can throw the base plate in the trunk along with the individual boxes, and take them out in seconds and be ready to set up R2.

To come: This will all be painted a pristine white and receive some STAR WARS type graphics to make it look cool too! After all, this IS a "DROID MAINTENANCE MODULE"...not two wooden boxes!

Miscellany (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 03:45:00 +0100

This is a rare non-building-related post with a few FYIs.

Searching continues to be broken for my blog, along with a large number of other blogspot blogs. The supreme irony of this is that blogspot.com is owned by Google. This is a known problem for blogspot.com, there are a couple of links on it from the blogspot support forums:

http://knownissues.blogspot.com/2009/07/searching-from-navbar-is-currently.html

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=0e07b50a0cd483f6

This is very frustrating for me, as I know a lot of people use this blog for reference (as do I from time to time).

If you are looking for something on my blog and can't find it, please leave a comment and/or e-mail me (I've added my address to the upper-right), and I'll do my best to answer your question and provide the proper links. Alternately, you can download the entire 129MB blog for droid #1 in PDF format, and then search it from within a PDF viewer:

http://vfranco.astromechbuilder.com/R2D2-Complete_Diary.pdf

(Thank you to pixelFiend for hosting the PDF version of the blog.)

One day, I may add more tags to help look up things such as "booster covers" and "dome," but that will have to wait. Hopefully searching will get fixed and I won't have to do it.

It has crossed my mind to relocate the blog to another blogging service such as Wordpress, but I know a lot of people have links to this URL, and I really don't want to move if I can avoid it. This blog even references itself, so all those links would also have to change. Thus, for the meantime, the blog will stay right here. If I seriously consider moving the blog, I will solicit your feedback first.

Finally, for no particular reason other than I had a bunch of still pictures and video sitting around, I slapped together a "Making of R2" video:

The direct link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb1Mc0cQ7ck

-Victor

R2LA Builders Day (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:46:00 +0100

Today Mike invited the locals out to have a building day. In all honesty, not a lot of building got done, although William and Nikki Miyamoto were busy at work the whole time, and Russell Rucker also got some work done. As for me, I brought the foot shells in the car, but I was so busy socializing and managing the webcam, that I never did bring them out.

Mike Johnson made the drive from Las Vegas, and we got to see his powder coated pieces in person.

Newcomer Ed Perello has done a beautiful job preparing and painting a resin eye, it even has a glass lens. Remarkably, his paint formula and one of Mike's panels had virtually the same hue.

Russell Rucker desoldered an annoying beeper from his $40.00 Think Geek t-shirt sound system.

Meanwhile indoors, Mike Senna showed Greg Schumsky how his droid works.

William takes the necessary precautions with a box of dirty diapers. (Actually, he had been sanding MDF, necessitating the mask, and the box is full of parts.)

Matthew Henricks amuses me as he types answers to web chat questions that he could explain out loud to the camera.

The return of Chicken Cam, starring Michael McMaster as Gonzo the Great, with Camilla.

Max Cervantes has RC'd his Hasbro Interactive droid, but its dome and foot motors turn too fast. Mike performed some resistor surgery with the soldering iron to slow the dome down.

It was a fun gathering, and possibly the last local gathering before Celebration V in Orlando.

Glued Fourth Skirt Strips on Center Foot Shell (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:43:00 +0100

Today I glued in the fourth (and last) skirt strip for the center foot shell.

Just like with the others, I measured and marked the 1/8" overhang and centerpoint.

In it goes, once again I am using the Testors glue.

There is plenty of filling and sanding to do, plus some door work. I'll get to that soon.

Glued Second Skirt Strip on Center Foot Shell (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:36:00 +0100

It turns out the ProWeld struggled to hold down the strip I glued last night, so I reglued with Testors and all is well. On to the next segment.

Measure and marked.

The second one is glued and clamped down.

Then I did the same thing for the third backing strip.

This will dry overnight and then I'll set the last one in place. That may require a little sanding to get a good fit, we'll see.

Busy work (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:40:00 +0100

Some more resin parts came in today, now R3 and R4 have data ports.
The next order of motors belts and wheels came in to fuel the army. I will keep one set as a spare or use them for K-9 later.
My newly painted boosters are mounted as well as my custom speaker set up.
With the new speaker set up I had to relocate all the innards again. Talk about time consuming.

Ankle Cylinder Part 2 (JDuffphoto's R2-D2 build diary)

jduffphoto — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:49:00 +0100

Time to start cutting into the cylinder. For the two cross cuts, I used an Xacto razor saw. This is a very thin kerf and very precise cut, as I don't want to cut too far past my end points. The thin kerf will allow me to use Bondo to clean up any over cut without filling in a larger gap, such as the kerf from the Dremel cut off wheel.

For the lengthwise cut, I used a rotary tool with a cut off wheel. I can't stress this enough - PVC is very gritty when being cut with this tool. Wear your glasses and a dust mask, and expect a pretty good mess when you're done. I've heard a lot of discussion of Dremels burning out. PVC is pretty easy to cut, just let the blade do the cutting.

The next part is to cut a guide line for the grooves. Again, I used my razor saw for precision.

Once the guide lines are cut, I used a flat file to create a V groove. Using the corner of the file, cut in long smooth movements to keep the depth even. I had to rotate the cylinder several times to complete the groove around the PVC tube. Be careful and let the file do the cutting as PVC is soft enough to cut through all the way if you apply too much pressure. When you're done with this step on all of the grooves, clean up the entire part with some sandpaper. I recommend 220 or finer.

Close up of the V groove. This was prior to me cleaning up the groove with some light sanding. The actual cut is very straight.

The last step for tonight is to cap the ends. Since I have leftover scraps of .040 styrene from my skins, I traced the PVC tube end on the styrene, cut and glued. I have been using Amazing Goop for plumbing. It sets in about half an hour and when it cures, it's near impossible to separate the two pieces. Make sure you have good ventilation when using this stuff - it's pretty potent!!! Oversize the cap a little, this will be trimmed with a utility blade after the glue dries.

These steps took about an hour to complete to this point. Let the part sit and cure. Next up, the tabs on the end of the cylinder.

Started Gluing Center Foot Shell Backing Strips for Windows Pieces (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:25:00 +0100

I'm not intentionally dragging out this foot shell build, but it sure seems like it.

Tonight I got very little done, I started gluing the backing strips that make up the skirt for the lower foot shell. These pieces also serve as backing pieces for the small windows along the bottom of the shell.

The skirt on the center foot shell is supposed to descend 1/8" from the rest of the bottom of the shell. Some newer designs provide an even longer skirt size, but I'm going with the current official blueprints. Droid #1 does not even have this skirt piece, but it does help hide the wheels somewhat.

I marked the 1/8" spot and drew a line. I also marked the centerpoint, to align it properly with the rest of the foot shell.

As you can see, I got sloppy with the Testors glue the other day, so I squared some of the corners that had glue in them, before bonding the backing strip. I will sand the faces of the footshell smooth later.

Time to glue! I went back to the ProWeld for this.

I'll let this dry overnight and work on the next piece. I expect I will have to do some filling if the pieces don't align perfectly (and I have a feeling they won't).

Ankle cylinder (JDuffphoto's R2-D2 build diary)

jduffphoto — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:57:00 +0100

I finished the first of 4 ankle cylinders. I started the layout for the second cylinder and hope to get some work done on that one this weekend. This is such a simple piece to construct for those who are building from scratch. I saw this done on Dan Baker's build site, and gave it a try. I'm very happy with how it turned out. There are a few minor flaws, as in just about all scratch built pieces, but this again adds character to my build.

As I build my second cylinder, I'm going to document my progress as a tutorial. First up, aquire the material. I picked up a pvc clean water pipe, 1" schedule 40 from Lowes for $1.58 for a 5 foot length. The outside diameter of this pipe is almost dead on for the diameter of the cylinder. For anyone scratch building, this is about as close as you're gonna get. I cut each cylinder to 6.5 inches, based on a drawing that I downloaded from the group files archive, and started measuring. You can see that I have measured and drawn out my guide lines for the grooves and the cut out area. This area will allow the cylinder to recess onto the ankle. Next update will show the cut out area, and the process to recess the grooves.

Visited the Amicus Center today! (Paul's R2 Blog)

Paul — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:11:00 +0100

Today R2-D2 and I were invited to visit the adults at the Amicus Center.

This was the first time I had R2-D2 in front of a group of people. So far its just been very small-scale visits.

It was also the first time using the Honda Odyssey, which worked great! Plenty of room for R2, support equipment and more.

Here's some pictures from today's event.

The Middle Leg (Joe's R2 Blog - www.r2droid.com)

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:00:53 +0100

Well after taking the winter off from droid building to finish some other projects it's officially time to get back to work. Right now R2's dome looks done from the exterior and all his lights work, but I still have a lot to do inside to get his gadgets working. His body will be the last thing to finish. So now I am going to finish the legs so I can concentrate on the electronics and body for awhile. Starting with the middle leg. The first thing I wanted to do was add a layer of rubber to the caster mounting plate for a little shock absorption. The method I am using I saw on someone else's site but I can't remember whose for the life of me, and it definitely is the cheapest of all the solutions. You basically take a rubber plumbing pipe connector and cut it to size.

This is the one I got.

After cutting it to size, the next thing was to cut four holes that match the caster plate. The rubber layer sits in between the standoffs and the caster plate.

Pretty straight forward, It might not do a lot but hopefully it adds a little something. I am not gonna be taking him out on parades or anything extreme.

The next thing was to work on extending the skirt on the middle leg. My middle foot is a steel JAG foot from a run that happened before the bottom skirt matched the outer feet. After spending so much on so many other parts I really wanted to make this foot skirt extremely cheap, it didn't matter if it was 100% accurate I just wanted to get something on there that looked good and could take a beating while bumping into things. I knew I wanted it to be metal so I bought some right angled Aluminum that was 1/16th of an inch thick and 3/4 of an inch wide. Like this: So I figured out the angles as best I could and started cutting some pieces... After I had the four sides I made the cutouts for the caster wheels to swing through. Then I took some JB Weld and filled in the seems and also used it to attach the skirt to the foot. I put the JB Weld on in layers and used my Dremel with a sanding attachment to smooth it out, then finally some fine grit sand paper to finish it off by hand.

Here it is all done with a coat of primer on it. All in all I am very happy with it and it probably cost me about $10 to make. It is slightly wider than what it should be, but I think it looks fine.

The Last thing the middle leg needed before it could get painted was it's ankle locks. These prevent the foot from tipping in the wrong direction while he is driving around. All I had to do is drill and tap 2 holes in the ankle to attach them. Like so:

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Box time (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:33:00 +0100

Started on the floor section of the crate. I had to make some adjustments to the size so it fits in the new trailer. Now to trim the floor boards up and build the sides.

R2D2 ASSEMBLY STAND (Russell's R2 Blog)

russellr2d2 — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:47:00 +0100

Getting ready for the up coming Comic-Con show. I will need a stand for R2 because I must transport my R2 in pieces. Body in the back seat, legs in the trunk, head in the passenger seat, and cooler/folding chair/carry bag of tools on the floor. Stuff everywhere!

I devised this stand idea so I can have a stable platform to assemble R2's legs. The idea will be that I can pop the stand out of the trunk and assemble the thing in seconds, then plop R2 onto it and attach the legs. That takes about 5 minutes thanks to a modified gas pipe system I have.

Here is a drawing with some basic (and changing) dimensions. I want it light, simple, cheap, and quick to put together at any remote location I may be.�

Patches' limo (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:51:00 +0100

Got a deal on a trailer and now the droids have a limo :)

Glued Window Strips to Center Foot Shell (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:07:00 +0100

Tonight I glued the "window strips" of the center foot shell to the main body of the shell. I used Testors model glue because the surface area of the points of contact is minimal and I wanted to use something a little thicker. It dries more slowly than the ProWeld, but the thickness helps form a good bond. (Or so I hope.)

I decided to wait on gluing the backing strips for these pieces until after they were glued in. I'm not sure that was the best choice, but I don't think it will matter much.

Mouse without flare (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0100

Except for the bling pieces on the side this mouse is done! I will take him for a test spin tomorrow :D Now to finish up the scrubber!

Let there be sun! (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:36:00 +0100

The tempature outside finally got above freezing and the sun was out so I decided to paint my mouse droid. Here it is drying in the sun with it's wheels off.
I also started on a crate for T3 to be hauled in.

Center Foot Shell Window Strips Glued Together (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 10:30:00 +0100

I've gone about as far as I want to go with the dome for now, as I await the front logic surround run before I go any further.

In the meantime, there's plenty of work to do on the feet, so tonight I picked up where I left off last July, and glued together the "window strips" for the center foot shell.

I used Ambroid ProWeld for this. It sets pretty quickly. Earlier I had used Testors model glue, which also seems to work ok, but didn't dry as quickly.

This should be ready to glue to the rest of the foot shell tomorrow.

Iowa Rough Riders Hockey game (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 08:56:00 +0100

Here are some photos taken and owned by newly inducted friend of the Legion,
Bryan Humphrey at the game. Welcome officially to the 501st!

Group shot with the cheerleadersTia posing for the camera.
Mom and Daughter meet?
Troopers taking over the ice.
One trooper has a special surprise in store for his girlfriend, he asked her to marry him on the ice. She said yes! Congratulations you two!
Future wedding guests photo maybe? LOL
One of my favorite troops thus far :D

RigRunner installed (Paul's R2 Blog)

Paul — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 07:50:00 +0100

Today I installed the RigRunner 4005H. This is 5.75 inches wide and fits nicely on the back of my electronics tray. The open door panel on the left is where the power switches are located for toggling this power panel, the main drive power and charger port.

I had previously purchased a RigRunner 4008 but at 9 inches wide, it was too big.

The Anderson Powerpole connectors are quite nice. I purchased the TRIcrimp crimpers and that made attaching the connectors a breeze. The RigRunner came with rentention clips that help secure the connectors to the power panel.

With that installed, the cables are now better organized.

R2-D2 and I made the cover! (Paul's R2 Blog)

Paul — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:46:00 +0100

I wanted to share this....R2-D2 and I were featured on the cover of the weekly Eastern Maine Medical Center newsletter.

Mr. Head (Calvin's R2 Blog)

Calvin Thomas — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:09:00 +0100

It finally arrived and the quality is AWESOME!!!!!!
It's the Palpatine head I bought on Ebay for $50.00.
There's a couple of guys selling these and one guy is always in the hundreds.
It is a hollow cast, Which I was hoping it would be and it's well made.
I will be buying more of these for future projects.

Finished JB Welding Dome Screws (for Now) (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:18:00 +0100

I'm running out of thrilling revelations in describing the JB Welding of screws into the dome.

The last two went in tonight, these are for the rear logic surround.

The only other screws that might get installed would be for the front logics, but until they are manufactured and I receive them, I'll wait to decide how I want to secure them. On droid #1 they are more or less forced in from behind by my front logic assembly, no screws are required. I may well do it that way again. The PSIs will be secured in this way as well.

New arrivals: RigRunner 4005H, crimpers and resin CPU Arm (Paul's R2 Blog)

Paul — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:52:00 +0100

Some new parts and pieces have arrived over the past few days!

First is from ResinParts.Com , the CPU data arm.

I need to use some rubbing alcohol and cotton balls to wipe off the remain release agent from the piece. Then, a dunking in some warm dish soap to complete the cleaning. The top piece comes off, so I need to drill a long hole in the shaft. The tip I will drill and tap out. A remote control 4-40 thread push-rod should work nicely. I already have a motorized pan/tilt system for this to mount to, I just need to add another servo at the base for the tip to slide forward and back. Once I have all the drilling and such done, I plan to use an chrome spray paint and some metallic model paints for the finer details.

The other arrival is a smaller version of the RigRunner, the 4005 H (horizontal). This will fit on the back of my electronics tray and provide a main power junction for the electronics in the body. Items like the ServoCenter control board to the servos, the dome motor and other items yet to be added. I also relented and bought the special crimper for the Anderson Powerpoles.

I'm in the midst of setting up R2's new "brain", the Asus 1201N netbook. This will run my ArtooSoundz application nicely, which controls the sounds, video and servo actions of my droid. I chose this model since it sports a Dual Core cpu (Intel Atom), nVidia ION graphics card and decent battery life, all in a small package.

NewEgg had a special and included a free cooling pad, which draws power from a USB port. I'm debating whether I will need that inside R2 or not.

More tomorrow!

Boosters a plenty (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:42:00 +0100

Got the first few coats of paint dry on the boosters, just one or two more coats on the yellow ones and they are done.

JB Welded Screws for Rear Holoprojector and Buttons (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:42:00 +0100

More JB Welding of screws into the dome. Tonight it was for the rear holoprojector and buttons.

I've become a believer in sanding surfaces that will be bonded together. I've been sanding the screw heads and the countersunk holes on the dome, in order for the JB Weld to form a better bond. A more rugged surface area seems to help, I do it for silicone, primer and JB Weld.

As before, JB Weld is applied to the screw head. If you use Star Wars paper plates, it works even better.

Six more screws in place.

The screws and JB Weld get a gravity-assist while drying. Sure hope this doesn't topple during the night!

Worlds first working T3 arm welder (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:35:00 +0100

Here is a short video of T3's first arm test.

JB Welded Screws for Front Holoprojector (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:53:00 +0100

Tonight I JB Welded four more screws into the dome. This time, the screws were for mounting the front holoprojector. I'm intentionally going slow because a) I'm lazy, and b) I'm propping the dome up afterward to allow the JB Weld to cure with the screws pointing downward, so they don't have to fight gravity. Thus, only one set of screws is being installed at a time.

I'm only applying JB Weld to the screw head. The idea is to avoid getting JB Weld on the screw threads.

Four more in place.

I had drilled one of the holes too low the other day, so there's an extra, harmless hole near this HP. It will be covered by the outer dome.

Tomorrow I should be able to do the next batch.

Colors of the rainbow (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:30:00 +0100

Went over to Brad's yesterday to do some painting on the droid parts. Here is the first few coats of red on R3.I cleaned off the top of the one booster on Patches that had some problems and repainted it. Just two little mini fish eyes this time. GRRR. Will put another coat on later to see if they go away.
For some reason Dawmer's dome and my R4 boosters were doing all sorts of funky things when we tried painting them. Maybe it was a combination of the temperature, the huried prep work prep, and the light color paints we used. Finally I got mad enough and stripped the boosters all the way back down and shot it again. The second time it came out much better but there is a spot or two I would like to fix. Maybe I should wait to paint till spring on the rest of the yellow parts as they seam to be more temperamental than the red and brown. With the yellow I will need several more coats to hide the primer underneath. Right now it looks a little green threw the primer.

BarBot 2010 News Video (Chris - ARTOO-DETOO.NET)

Chris James — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:13:47 +0100

R2 makes a brief appearance half way thru. [video link] Related: BarBot 2010 RoboGames 2009 RoboGames 2008 Report

Front vents (JDuffphoto's R2-D2 build diary)

jduffphoto — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:46:00 +0100

Just a quick update. After several attempts, breakages, etc... the front vents are now installed. I did not glue them permanently in place as they are such a tight fit that friction itself is enough to hold them in the vent surrounds. The vent surrounds are tight enough fit in the skins that they too are not able to slide in or out. For the moment, I'm going to leave things alone, until I find a good reason to secure them further.

Here's the pics.

Finished Drilling Dome (for Now), Started JB Welding HP Screws (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 08:41:00 +0100

Today I finished most of the hacking on the inner dome. The only thing I'm deferring until later is the cutouts for the front logic surrounds. I'm awaiting an upcoming run.

The first item of business was to finish countersinking the holes for the #4 screws that will secure the holoprojectors.

Next, I drilled a couple of "just in case" holes on each side of the two buttons on the back of the dome. I plan to use the same switches from Radio Shack on droid #2 that I used on droid #1, and these do not require mounting screws. But just in case I change my mind someday, I'll have a way of mounting an alternate set of buttons.

I needed to trim a little more space for the top of the rear logic, so I used the Dremel cutoff wheel for that.

I had put off drilling the 5/64" hole at the very top of the dome. I placed the panels on the dome, and marked and drilled the centerpoint.

After that, I located where to drill for the rear logic surround, and drilled the holes for #4 screws.

Next, I removed the dome ring and drilled the remaining holes that were too low to drill when the dome ring was still on.

My new, expensive colander.

Finally, I JB Welded four #4 1/2" in place for the top HP.

I plan to JB Weld the other screws in place during the week, and then I'll put the dome aside for a while, and probably move on to the feet.

Started Drilling for HP Mounting (Victor's R2 Blog)

Victor Franco — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 11:02:00 +0100

Today I started drilling the inner dome in order to mount the holoprojectors.

I had debated whether to use the mounting holes that are already on the HP cowlings, or to do what I did for droid #1 and use clips along the edges of the cowlings. In the end, I opted to use clips for a couple of reasons. First, if somehow the locations I drilled to match the holes in the cowlings were off, it could lead to problems, such as the outer dome not accommodating the inner dome's location of the HPs. Second, if I ever were to swap HPs, the holes might be in a different location, and using clips along the edge gives me more flexibility.

With that decision made, I laid out the parts on the top side of the inner dome to compare where I'd need to drill for the HP mounting, while avoiding the holes I had already drilled for future removal of the dome panels.

Next, I traced the outline of the cowling.

I located where I wanted to drill the hole for the clip. In this case (as with droid #1), the clip is a link piece for RC-25 chain. There will be four of these per holoprojector.

I will be using #4 1/2" machine screws, so I grabbed the appropriately sized drill bit and got to work.

Next, I countersunk the holes.

Eventually the screws will be JB Welded in place, but for now I did a loose fit.

I sanded down the mess inside.

Time to give it a try. Everything is looking good on the inside.

I like!

I only had time to finish one of these, I hope to get to the others tomorrow.

This, that, and the other (Darth Moose's Astromech Build)

DarthMoose74 — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 11:31:00 +0100

Syrena decided to use aluminum skins for her droid so she could have the doors open. Jen and I stopped by to help her get started on her droid. The black ABS skins I made for her origionally will now go on my R4. Once I showed her the basics to attaching aluminum she took over and finished mounting them herself.
Later on everyone came over to work on their droids. Dawmer did some file work to his motor holders and Jen helped me take the silver tape off the inner skins that Syrena originally put on. I will be painting the skins so the tape had to come off.
I helped get Syrena's motor holders finished as Dawmer's needed some tweaking before getting them ready to finish.
Brad cutting some spacers and filing some rough spots.
When Syrena's motor holders where done she helped me take R4 all the way back apart again so I can put the skins on later.
Nothing like a well balanced droid. LOL Poor R4-ED in pieces again, he was just driving around yesterday.
Jen finished getting the tape off the skins, later I will clean the glue residue off. Thanks Babe!
Dawmer still filing away in the background.

Dome re-wire! (Paul's R2 Blog)

Paul — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 06:02:00 +0100

One issue I keep having is with the dome and the power wires.

As I had it, I had the battery sitting on the dome plate, which spins with the dome.

The problem I kept running into was the wires would get caught on something inside the body and get yanked off the electronics. The wires were made long so that I could remove R2's head and have enough wire to set R2's head down a short distance away. This just wasn't working, as spooling and stuffing all that wire under the dome was a huge hassle. It would also make the installation of other dome accessories, such as the projector, a problem.

My local Batteries Plus operator suggested some small, 6 volt batteries attached in series to provide 12 volts. Since they are very thin, they would sit inside the dome ring and be held in place with velcro.

So, I began the process of untangling all the wires and figuring out if the maritime 12 volt fuse block would fit....

It turns out that the fuse block would fit inside the dome. I would do what I did with the JEDI electronics that power the dome lights, make a small mounting plate.

Its no very pretty in there, but now the dome runs independently from the body. I didn't go crazy cutting and shortening wires as I would just have to do it all over again once I start hinging and attaching servos to the top dome panels.

And then, there was the moment of truth....everything powered on and worked!

Next week will be really busy for R2...

New main computer. The current netbook is being replaced with a brand new Asus 1201N. This netbook features an Intel Atom dual core processor, 4 gb of RAM, nVidia ION graphics and will run Windows 7 64-bit. With R2 doing sounds and video projector work, the big boost in processing will keep things moving along nicely.
Resin CPU Arm. This arrives next week and is a resin copy of the aluminum model. I have some resin cleaning, priming, sanding and painting ahead of me. Then, the fine work of setting it up to work with the servos for R2's computer to control.

The week after that, R2 has a visit planned with some great young adults. More on that later!

Drinks Tray (Chris - ARTOO-DETOO.NET)

Chris James — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:28:35 +0100

I made a start on my ROTJ drinks tray, it’s based on the A&A plastic kit. I still need to add some detail, finish filling/sanding and apply the final gold paint, but it’s almost done. There was a lot of Bondo work to hide the layer lines on the glued parts. We used it on Matt’s R2 [...]