R2-D2

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Re:Wired

In this process of doing things that is not really taking the build forward, but rather redoing things I wasn’t too happy with, I’ve spent the past two days making an overhaul on the electronics system!

The old electronics board had gone through three changes, and the flat styrene board looked like a well seasoned Swiss cheese, and it was a tad too small since everything seemed to be sitting on top of each other! The Dude will not abide!

This had to change!

In addition to that, I also hade a veritable spider’s web inside the droid with cables running back and forth, and not really bound together properly. This, too, had to change.

This is the old electronics board. A bit cramped, but not too bad. That’s because not all cables are attached! The incoming power and USB cable was sticking out at the bottom, and there was 8 different cables that needed to be attached at different places. This, I did not like!

Also, the cable for the Slip Ring had to be basically folder all over itself to not get tangled up. This clearly had to be moved somewhere, especially if I am planning to get a dome ring for my periscope and life form scanner!

This is the new electronics board, with more room for extensions, one common plug for everything (apart form the USB connector). I’ve got main power, both drive wheels and dome coming in on that connector on the left! I’ve also moved some things around, like giving enough space for the slip ring connector!

So much for the electronics board, but what about inside the body?

Well, I didn’t really take any “before” pictures, but perhaps this can give you an idea of what it was like. Many cables, back and forth, and all of them individual. Also note that most of these cables had to be able to connect to different places on the old electronics board!

This is a mess of power cables, foot drive cables and dome drive cables. Nothing really marked, how good is that?

This is the new look of the interior wiring, prior to me installing the board. There are still a few individual cables, but they will be tied down when I’m finalizing the cable mounts after the paint job is done. This is just hanging there and not fastened 100%.

With the electronics board in place, and the big connector plugged in…

…it looks like this! Clean and not too messy!

Another angle… remember it is all plugged in. No more cables going back and forth. If I need to unplug my electronics board, I only need to undo that plug and also remove the USB cable (not attached in this photo), and it’s a simple matter of opening the velcro fasteners and there we go!

Best part: I can not attack anything the wrong way anymore!

… and look at that! It even works!

Tomorrow I hope to have beaten this flu! I’ve got work to do… and a network thing… and Thursday I’m getting knee surgery!

I’m looking forward to getting a lot done on the small parts while being partially immobile!

 

By |2016-12-06T00:01:17+01:00September 25th, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on Re:Wired
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Many more small fixes…

I can really tell that the day when I have nothing else to do but to get the body painted is closing in, and fast!

Today, I spent first sanding off the skirt that I puttied up good yesterday, and the results look good!

(note Tiny R2 in the background…)

Naturally, there were a few places where the need for a little extra putty was making themselves known, but from a scratch built skirt, it looks pretty ok, I must say!

Even more so after it is painted!

I went over the places that needed a little more putty and will sand those off and then the skirt will be left alone until the body is primed!

The rest of todays work was actually spent in removing the temporarily mounted pieces, such as the rear power coupling…

The same hi-tech mounting system (duct tape) was used to fasten the coin returns, and.. well .. basically everything except hot glue in a few places (also removed) and finally the front power coupling, that is actually mounted quite good!

The resin coupler was only painted with a quick layer of silver and then brushed blue on the corners as a quick and dirty paint job for midsummer’s..

Another thing I was not all happy with, was my LDP. Even though I was very happy with the shape of the LDP, it drooped somewhat in the middle, and it sort of bugged me a little.

I removed the LDP, removed the magnets on the backside, and attacked a 1mm styrene backing to it, making sure to remove the droop as I superglued this piece in place. Since the LDP was a little bit crooked in the back end, I also added another 1mm piece to the back that was gradually sanded away once it reached the middle of the LDP.

LDP when drying with a new white styrene backing. This needs to be painted, of course. My plan is to paint the styrene backing black once the rest of the LDP has the correct colour.

This is the new backside of the LDP, with a new mounting magnet. I decided to use the same mounting system with magnets as before, although I needed to move them somewhat to make up for the now slightly thicker piece.

The new mounting magnets inside my frame. This is actually better, as I can use the top part of my armbox holders as backing for the magnet, rather than just a piece sticking up out of nowhere!

Now a LOT better. I’m happy!

What else, you may ask?

Well, I hinged another door, this time the small power charger door. I have made a pretty good door to this one, but it is slightly thick, so I need to chamfer the inner part of the door to make it open and close without issues.

The door is just a quick thing, really. I also took a steel ruler and cleared out all crevasses on the skin, where the inner skin is showing to make sure they are crisp and clear and not filled with old glue residue.

Lastly, I did something that was really needed: cleaned off most of the old 3M sticky spray I could find that was still on parts of the frame, and gave the inside of the frame a good vacuuming!

All in all, my R2 is now more naked that he’s been in 6 months! Most of the extra pieces are removed and I’m currently looking in to proper ways of mounting them, while preparing the body for the upcoming paint job…

I’m guessing my next job will be the battery boxes.. I know one of them really needs a little TLC to look its best!

By |2016-12-06T00:01:18+01:00September 23rd, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on Many more small fixes…
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Looking up R2’s skirt…

After a couple of days with the flu, and still done 2 gigs and a casting session (drawback of running your own company as a performer), I was finally starting to feel good enough to get some time to do some building.

I have my list of things to go through, but nothing on that list seemed appealing to me today.

I did, however, start with drilling holes under the bottom plate of my droid, to have decent mount points for my octagon ports!

I took out the octagon ports, measured up on the bottom of the droid where the openings in the skins were, and then used a quick paper template in order to measure out where I needed to drill and countersink.

These will be underneath the droid, and will not be noticed. Technically speaking, I could glue countersunk M3 screws in place and bondo on top of them, if I don’t want the screws to be seen, but partly, I need to get the correct length screws, and partly, I don’t really see this as a problem at this point! =)

Another thing I got done while I had the droid upside down, was to treat the skirt with bondo (Tamaiya Putty, to be precise) to remove any irregularities. This will need to set until tomorrow and then sanded to smooth perfection!

After this has set and been sanded down, I think it will look just great! =)

I’m starting to run out of things to do until it is paint time… =)

By |2016-12-06T00:01:18+01:00September 22nd, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on Looking up R2’s skirt…
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