A few more parts arrived today, some awesome Power Couplers from Michael and a set of used motor mounting hubs made by Raul Raygoza for the shoulder satellite motors.

I also got my set of R2LA & Celebration DVDs from Michael – can’t wait to watch them.

Tonight I quickly but together my periscope kit with some tape to check if I had enough clearance in the new dome panel holes.I’d left approximately 3/16″ around the border and the periscope was a tad tight at the top where it flares out as it lowered into the hole. So I’ll need to tweak the dome some more, but will hold off for now until I finish assembling the periscope fully.

Finally got the pie panels in the inner dome cut out, and I’m now all set to fit the hinges when they arrive.

Cutting them out wasn’t so bad and took about 20 minutes each. I thought cutting the curves would be difficult but it wasn’t.

I first marked out the pie panels using the outer dome and then stepped in an additional 3/16″ making a border. I cut a slot with a dremel on the verticals and then cut down with a hacksaw blade. I could have used a dremel, but I think the saw gave me a straighter/cleaner line. I then carefully followed the top and bottom curve with a dremel. I finished up the edges with a hand file.

As always more photos in the gallery.

New Leg Hydrolics and Buttons arrived today from Ryan 🙂

Some other good news, I ordered a few more things today.

1) The super fantastic aluminum holoprojectors from Scott this week. I already had a set of Jason’s but these are just amazing so I couldn’t pass them up. Should have them sometime early February.

2) Aluminum Rear Logic Surrounds from Wayne – that means that all the visible components of my dome will now be metal.

I’m a total newbie to Radio Control (RC) stuff, and I’ve been searching the net for good articles that focus on robots.

For basic information there’s a lot of good sites out there explaining things like the transmitter, receiver, servos, batteries and frequencies etc. but they focus on RC Car, Planes or Boats, as opposed to Robotics which has it’s own set of issues.

I went to a local hobby shop yesterday hoping to find an expert who could help but didn’t get very far. They specialize in RC planes/cars and I had high hopes, but they were overwhelmed when I tried to explain how many motors and gizmo’s I needed to control in my R2. They did have some good pricing on 6 and 9 channel equipment, but couldn’t help when I started to ask about how to multiplex channels etc. and had no clue when I asked them how noisy the speed controllers they had for sale.

So last night I stumbled upon this great robotic website for newbies. It’s not fancy but it has a LOT of good information I’m trying to read through right now and it’s helped me to start to understand some of the cryptic posts to the R2 Builders Group when people talk about their RC setup. The site even has a great section on 12V vs 24V motors. One note though, the site sells stuff too and I’m not recommending anything they have for sale, just the great FAQs they have.

I also finally opened up my Vex Robotics kit last night, which is a cross between a RC kit and a micro-controller which can be programmed to do functions. It has 6 channels so will cover basic control of an R2, i.e. wwo channels for the drive motors, one for the dome, and three spare for things like Utility Arms, Periscope etc.

I’m still hoping to get into programming it to give R2 some autonomy or ‘life’ e.g. If I ask him to raise the Periscope he’s go through a sequence to raise, it play specific sounds while the thing rotates – as opposed to me having to do all that manually via a remote.

I’ll try and keep this entry current with any good sites I find on Robotic RC info I find.

This just came in the mail today and had to share. As well as making replica props and costuming I’m an avid Star Wars collector. I’m slowly re-buying some of the toys I had as a kid. Last year it was the collectors cards, and this year it’s vintage Star Wars figures. The R2 figure is supposed to be mint/C9 but it’s not. It’ll have to do for now.

I didn’t get much done this weekend as I’d planned, but some good news. Jerry is doing another run of the aluminum legs so I’ve placed my order for those, and I also just paid for my aluminum skins from John. With a bit of luck both should arrive around the beginning of March. At this rate I’ll have 80-90% of the parts for a static droid by Star War Celebration 4, but no chance of assembling it.

The last couple of days I’ve been trying out different paint samples. Mostly focusing on the Krider method of layering the Rustoleum / Duplicolor Anodized and varying the amount or number of layers.

I used Rustoleum White Primer, Rustoleum Metallic Purple for the middle coat and Duplicolor Anodized Blue for the top coat.

First test came out too dark and not enough of the Purple sparkle came through due to putting on 2 coats of the final Anodized Blue. But it was nice and I was happy how easy it went on and how forgiving it was.

The spray can tops are there for reference. One on the left is the Duplicolor Anodized Blue and the right is the Rustoleum Metallic Cobalt Blue. Here’s a better photo showing the contrast of the Cobalt Blue and my first Purple/Blue mix –

Next test was a disaster. Victor told me to paint till the thing looked really wet, so I did. I waited 40 minutes then applied the top coat and then everything started to mix and swirl. I guess I put on way too much paint. But I’d rather learn the mistake on this than on R2. I decide to clear coat it anyway thinking at least some of it may look okay. Disaster is on the left. Click for a close up.

Next test I applied much lighter coats for both the purple and the blue and that’s the middle piece above next to the disaster on the left, and my original piece on the right. Here’s another close up indoors tonight.

I’m much happier with this. It’s a lot more shinny, not so blue believe it or not and in low light it’s very dark blue which I wanted.
More tests over the weekend.