March 2007 Summary and R2-CCA Get Together
Last weekend was the R2-CCA event at Ed’s place in Elk Grove near Sacramento, and I thought I’d best do a quick write up while I remember.
It was a long drive from the Bay Area, but well worth it. I got to meet some fellow builders and talk over some road blocks and decision I need to make.
I packed up a bunch of parts at random to show and talk over, including my dome and the new persicope lifter kit from Daniel, my new legs from JAG along with all the leg detail parts.
Like an idiot I forgot my camera, so sorry there’s no photos of the event.
There were four R2 builders in a attendance, Ed Wamser, Ryan Goff, Gerard Fejardo and myself. There was a also bunch of friends from the 501st that I hadn’t seen in a very long time, so it was good to catch up.
I was suitable impressed on how much work Ed and Ryan had put into their R2’s. I wish I was that far along in my build Ed is very close to finishing.
After a long day and lots of talk I now I’ve cleared some things that were bothering me and stopping me moving forward –
- Dome – I’ve cut out most of my dome and can attach most things, like the Holo Projectors etc. But I’d recently gotten the new one piece AL Front Logic Kit, which requires me to re-do/pull apart my B&J Front Logic LED Kit to make room. It also requires a big square cut in the dome. I can’t see me doing either, and the consensus was to try and use the older separate Logic Surrounds. Another issue with the dome was I was in a short of catch-22 with assembling it before I got my frame. I had thought that I needed to wait before I could attach my Periscope Kit, Rockler Bearing, etc. But Gerard explained how I can work around it. And I’m confident I can now move forward with finishing the dome w/o worrying about aligning things later.
- Rockler Bearing – After seeing Ed and Ryan’s setups, I’m pretty confident on how I’ll mount the bearing and dome lifter plate from Dan.
- No 2-3-2 for now – More complicated and unproven on heavy droids. I have the sat motors, but I’m still going to pass for now.
- Paint – I also brought along my paint samples. Everyone who’d seen “Krider Blue” thought I was pretty close. Ed used to work in the automotive paint industry and had some good tips too.
- JAG Legs – Gerard had brought his fully assembled JAG legs, and I got some great tips on how to assemble mine. I’ll be documenting this later.
- Drive System – I’ve decided to stick with the JAG drive system using the NPC-2212 motors. Dan had mentioned some custom motors from NPC that maybe more suitable, but they work out to be close to twice the price, but the drive system should be simpler if and when it’s made. However, when I factored in spare motors, and the possible wait for Daniel, then the JAG system comes out cheaper. ** See more below **
I’m sure there was more things we’d talked about 🙂
When I got home I just dumped everything on my workbench, and only tonite did I get around to sorting things out. What surprised me was how much stuff I’ve accumulated in such a short period of time. I’d only really started the project in earnest in November 2006. I was going to list what new parts I’d gotten in the last month, but it’s easier to say what I’m missing.
On Order/Arriving Soon
- JAG Outer Ankles
- JAG Outer Feet
- JAG Drive System
- McMaster’s Octagon Ports
- Waterset Ankle Cylinders and Wedges
- WARR Battery Harnesses
- DanS Power Distribution Board
Needed
- Center Foot (run planned)
- AL Frame (run planned)
And that’s it. I’m also holding off from buying the following as I don’t need to spend th cash right now –
- CF3 Sound Board
- NPC-2212 Motors
- Battery Charging System
- Speed Controllers
So as you can seem I’m very close to having most of the parts.
It’s a shame I do not have everything in hand as I’m pretty sure I could get an unpainted RC Droid ready for C4. Maybe I’ll get the dome done in time to bring down.
I was also hoping to get to LA this weekend for the Science Center R2 meetup, but it’s a long drive and it’ll be hard to get there by 11am without moving some other things I had planned. C4 is less than 60 days way now, so I’ll get to see a lot of the southern builders very soon.
This week I also got some of the surplus drive motors that are very close to the NPC-2212. All that’s missing is the extra mounting holes. Plan will be to use these as spares and reduce the cost of buying spare NPC-2212 motors.
That’s it for now. Nothing major planned this weekend coming up now that I’m not going to LA, so I should get to R2 at least one of the days.