feet

Battery POWER!

Since I’m suffering from inflamed thumb-muscles (no, not from spending too much time in front of my PS3, but rather from over-exhausting my hands at the gym), building (and pretty much anything else that requires .. well .. thumbs) has been quite slow.

I have, however been out and got myself a proper motorcycle battery for my droid. This heavy-duty baby weighs 6.2 kg (13.7 lbs), packs 12 Volts and has a massive 20 Ah, something that should keep my droid rolling for some time, I hope.

It fits like a glove inside the droid too!

I placed the battery in the front of the robot, since otherwise, it will be a bit back-heavy due to the aluminum dome and all. This may need repositioning, but I think I need to take it out for a few test drives first. I don’t want my droid to go face-planting on me!

I build (and glued in) a holder for the battery as well. With an added buckle on top, this battery will not go anywhere! Note the dramatic close-up…

I still need to add a fuse box into the robot, and especially now, with so much power in it, I don’t dare switching it on until I have it properly fused!

As if adding a battery wasn’t enough, I also started on building the battery boxes. Contrary to the name, these will not contain any batteries, even though they could, technically. These boxes was used in the original 2-legged version of R2-D2 for Kenny Baker to have his feet in. That and the foot shells.

Since my droid will be void of short people inside, it will however be a great place for my motors to extend into, and the cabling that goes up into the legs to have a place to hook up and be alone.

The battery boxes, consists basically of a box, with some added half-pipes on the ends.

First we build the box…

The cut-out is for easy access in the future. The holes in the back will be lined up with the cable channel and main leg mounting bolt.

Add some sides and half-circles to build up the strength… cut out some materials for the motor…

A little bit of sanding, skinning and a few more details, and this baby is ready to be installed. The holes are so the hoses leading in to the battery boxes will have a little extra room behind the knurled hose fittings, which will be placed in the extensions in the ends of the battery box.

This one has been measured and cut-out to match my foot shell already, and it really fits like a glove, eh?

This leaves the droid in the state that I really NEED to start working on the second foot shell, since I cannot complete the second battery box until this is done.

Once both foot shells and battery boxes are complete, it is just a matter of detailing on the body. And painting. And sanding the dome. And paint the dome panels. And drill holes in the dome. And find a way to mount the resin parts inside the body .. and .. and .. and .

Anyways, seems like the basic shape of the droid is nearing completion! 😀

By |2016-12-06T00:01:41+01:00March 12th, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on Battery POWER!
Read More

Not much done over the weekend..

.. but I had to do something, at least =)

Yesterday, I spent on becoming an EFR instructor and then head off to the Magic Bar to do a gig, and that went just great.

Today, I just played things lazy, and finished measuring for the design of the Ankle Bracelet.

I did do some constructive work, though. First off, I need to show you the incredible aluminum Leg Struts that (finally) arrived after the Post Office had lost my package:

So, since I wanted to finish off the legs, I decided to get to work on the Resin Booster Covers, and fix a way to mount them and sand them off and all.

i also sanded off and glued the top of the leg strut holder to the booster cover.

I routed out part of the booster cover on the backside with my dremel, and glued 2 pieces of 3mm styrene in place.

I then positioned these on the main leg, and drilled and tapped through both the styrene pieces and the leg for M4 bolts. I had a few lying around (with too large head, but it works temporarily)

I also put in a temporary “holder” behind the leg strut. I should really see if I can fix some sort of sprint to place inside the leg strut, so it will be held in place by its own power.

I dare anyone to find the styrene pieces. They are invisible unless you know exactly what to look for 😉

The leg looks almost complete now. I’ve added the shoulder hub, which is held in place by magnets, and the left leg now only needs a shoulder cylinder and a horseshoe for me to mount the last things on it!

Yep, I’ve also mounted my foot shell. Starting to look good!

By |2016-12-06T00:01:47+01:00February 26th, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on Not much done over the weekend..
Read More

R2 is now wearing a skirt and has a detachable center foot mount!

Felt a little better today. The cold is definitely on its way back, and I’ve taken things easy again.

However, there are a few things that I’ve done on the droid after all.

First off, I drilled and tapped the center ankle and also the skirt and frame bottom, to allow for the center foot to be mounted on and off with 6mm wing nuts, just like the center legs.

So, now my leg mounts are complete! I also drilled and fastened the center foot into the ankle with 6mm bolts, so everything is secure!

Next thing was to sand the edges of the skirt, to get ready for completing it. I also wanted to add inner walls to the skirt, even though it is on the underside of R2, and very few people will ever see anything there, but I like to keep things looking neat, so I glued in 1mm styrene to cover the structure of the skirt.

Once that was done, I sat in my chair for a while chamfering. *sigh* Not my favorite thing to do, but necessary. And messy.

(… and I had cleaned up twice before I took that picture…)

Finally, the skirt, side angles and cones was glued onto the bottom ring, and is left over night to dry off. Only thing remaining now is the “ribs”, something that will require a lot of chamfering… again.

By |2016-12-06T00:01:48+01:00February 22nd, 2012|R2-D2|Comments Off on R2 is now wearing a skirt and has a detachable center foot mount!
Read More
Go to Top