I’ve been busy getting Artoo ready for RoboGames this weekend, and needed to buy some bits and pieces at the local Ace Hardware store in Pacifica.
I thought I’d finally take Artoo over for a visit. Dave the owner is a big Star Wars fan, and I’ve gotten to know a lot of the staff really well. They’ve always been super polite and put up with my crazy questions and ramblings when I’m trying to MacGyver something.
I also figured this would also be a good test of the new wheel/caster setup before I head out for a long weekend at RoboGames.
To my surprise the new casters were much better on the van’s loading ramp, and made easy work of the asphalt parking lot. He had a spot of bother with the big door jam going into the store, he almost made it over but not quite. On the way out I approached it at and angle, and after a bit of wiggling of the joystick made it out without me having to lift the front foot. I really don’t think the omni’s would have made it either, so right now I’m more than happy on how the wheel casters performed.
The visit turned into a bit of a mini event with lots of customers interested in knowing more about my creation – and I proudly told them how much Ace product was in him.
We patrolled the aisles searching of spare parts
When stumbled upon Lee at the hardware section – there’s probably 100’s of screws in Artoo from these bins. I also have to thank Lee for special ordering me some of the ‘mythical’ 3 inch casters.
On the way out we bumped into Dave, the store owner. We hung out for a while and talked about his love of Star Wars and how I envied all the resources he had at his disposal to build Astromechs – maybe he’s got the bug? I’m not sure 🙂
The 5th annual RoboGames, the world’s largest open robot competition, takes place this weekend, Friday, June 13th through Sunday, June 15th at Fort Mason Festival Pavilion in San Francisco.
The R2Builders Club will be in attendance on Saturday, this will be our second year at this very fun event.
Posted by Chris on June 11th, 2008 in Events | Comments Off on RoboGames 2008 This Weekend
Tags: robogames
We had another successful event at the San Jose Museum of Art this last Tuesday. A few days earlier I’d read on Laughing Squid that there was going to be a party for the current exhibit “Robots: Evolution of a Cultural Icon“. Given that Artoo is such an icon I had to do my duty and take him along.
The only real issues we had at the event was the two city blocks of cobbled stones Artoo had to endure to get there, and having to sit in the droid mobile all day suffering temperatures in excess of 100 degrees – which cause some problems with parts expanding – resulting in dome drive problems, but I’m not sure if it was the heat or the cobble stones that did it. He definitely needs a tune up at this point.
Big thanks to Chinh, Steve and his family for support that night.
As usual more photos in the gallery, but here’s a sample.
As usual Artoo was a big hit with the kids, old and young
He was also able to take in some of the art
They were a little worried he was going to knock over the 21 foot styrene robot
He even met up with a Treadwell Droid
And did some light reading
I’ve done enough all day events to now know that downtime and space is a good thing. It’s especially difficult when you’re the only one minding the shop. People sometimes just can’t seem respect that you’re on a break or trying to fix something – and just have to get close to Artoo for a photo.
To help with crowd control I bought some second hand retractable belt stanchions. I picked them up from a local airline for $20 a piece via an ad on Craigslist.
With 6 of these I can create a 7×14 space which should be plenty big enough to hold the fans at bay 🙂
I’d almost bought some the other day, but they’re super expensive to ship due to the weight and can run anywhere from $70-100 ea. for the really cheap variety, to over $400 for the top of the line models similar to what I got from the airline.
Now all I need is an event to use them at – maybe I can create a ticket line on the driveway for the local kids to come visit Artoo 🙂
We’ve been having a mini heat wave the last few days, but I was still able to get out this weekend with Artoo.
Late on Friday I found out that “Master Model Builder” Stephen Gerling from Lego would be in town building a giant eight foot R2 at Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo. So I just had to take Artoo along to check it out.
With temperatures up in the mid 90’s by lunchtime on Saturday and no AC in my droid mobile we headed out. It felt like everyone was trying to go where we wanted to go, and we sat in traffic for almost an hour while trying to leave the coast side. Usually the mall is only 20 minutes way, but everyone wanted to escape the heat and hit the beaches – so traffic just limped along.
We quickly unloaded and headed into the mall – breezing by security, who must have though we were part of the attraction!
The building had already started on Friday night and it looked like they were about a quarter of the way done by the time we arrived.
There was an army of kids making small section of the Artoo, while Master Builder Stephen orchestrated the placment of pieces.
We were totally mobbed the entire time we were there
This has got to be one of the cutest shots of the day
Thanks to Stephen for being a good sport and allowing us to crash the party 🙂
I’d really like to go back on Sunday to see it done, but I’ve got a previous engagement.
More Photos
Update 5-27-08: I never did make it back on the Sunday to see the finished model, but here’s some photos of it I found on Flickr.
I’ve been inundated with emails from people who saw us at Maker Faire. Here’s some of the reaction from the internet and media out there.
And if you Google on “Maker Faire R2D2” then you should get a sea of blog posts and videos 🙂
Short video compilation of Artoo dancing with the children at Maker Faire.
