I finally got time today to do some overdue maintenance.
I started off with the biggest issue that would most likely stop me going out again anytime soon – The center foot. At the museum event last week I’d noticed it was jittering way to much – it was probably the cobble stones that finally pushed the casters over the edge.
On the bench – I was surprised to find the two rear casters still in good condition and span fine, but the front one was in sad shape and would not move without some force. It has several gashes, dents and cracks – which isn’t a surprise really considering how hard I’ve been driving him this last year on all sort of surfaces.
I opened up the housing and on closer inspection it was obvious why it wouldn’t turn. It had developed a bulge and become pear shaped.
I could just replace it with another ball caster, but it would fail again. I’ve been planning on trying out some regular swivel casters for sometime, so later this week I’m going to try and get them mounted. The issue will be trying to get them to fit in the foot shell and maintaining the same clearance as before.
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 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.
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.
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 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 🙂
