There’s a quite a few club astromechs featured in this month’s Bantha Tracks, including a show report on WonderCon and Jedi Con. Check it out here.

Unfortunately, the article is only viewable by Hyperspace fan club members.

With such a busy month I almost forgot to post this. The R2 Builders Club was featured in Servo Magazine and Nuts and Volts. Can you believe it, two great articles!

For Servo Magazine, Kate Stiles Howard cover the history of the club, plus a interviews with members and the story behind R2-KT.

And Vern Graner in his “Personal Robotics” column for Nuts and Volts talks about crafting an all-aluminum astromech droid with photos of hand-milled robot parts. There’s even a photo or two of my droid in there 😀

Read the full articles here

• Servo
• Nuts and Volts

I recorded an interview with Jim Valley from KIRO Radio up in Seattle today about my droid building.

The segment will air tomorrow morning at 6:40 and 8:40 on KIRO, and it will repeat this weekend in Seattle, Salt Lake, Phoenix and Washington DC.

Take a listen if you’re in one of these areas or check out the radio stations website now for the segment.

Even Artoo got in on the act at Maker Faire and made his very own flip book with the help from Eddie at lightmoves.net. Check out the video

I’ve had a crazy couple of days at Maker Faire, and we still have one more day to go. I’ll be posting a full update and photos tomorrow, but just had to post this tonight.

We won a Maker Faire Editor’s Choice award for our creations and participation. This is a great honor and surprised considering the 100’s of cool Makers and their creations at the event.

Make Faire is a production of Make: Magazine, which the R2 Builders Club was featured in a few years ago, and is held every year in San Mateo, California, with in excess of 45,000 people in attendance.

Summary of work and posts for April 2008

• Holo Projector Servo Test
• Mounting Dome Electronics
• Slip ring servo board brackets
• A look inside the failed Pittman gearbox
• Slip Ring Servo Test
• New R2 Event Banner
• More WonderCon Videos
• Dead Pittman Motor
• Electrical System Update
• New Photos
• Lucile Packard Hospital Visit
• Slip Ring Spin Test
• New Battery Holder
• Slip Ring – Cutting the Frame
• Slip Ring Update
• Bay Area Builders T-Shirts
• Front Vent Surrounds Surround

I added some support brackets to the slip ring servo boards. Nothing fancy just a small piece of extruded aluminum with a few holes in it.

I made them slightly longer than the boards to allow extra holes for mount.

I’m busy getting ready for Makers Faire and printed off this vinyl banner yesterday for the booth at the event.

It’s approx. 36″ x 60″, and Artoo is almost full size. It’s based on graphic used at the last few SW Celebrations. Thanks Cory for giving me permission to use it.

I plan on making a stand out of PVC to mount it on.

And Gerard will have his tall C-4 banner there too.