So, even though the build is done, I will complete this build blog! I will honor my commitment!
Last things to do, consisted of making end caps for my PVC/Styrene ankle cylinders.
I glued 3 1cm strips of styrene together, started filing, added a bit of bondo, sanded some more, and it started looking pretty good
Once this was dome, time to glue it on to the circular bit of 1mm styrene I had already cut out.
Last step was to wrap it in aluminium tape, and then done! Two of them were made!
Also, last step was filing the aluminium foot strips. They needed to be chamfered in both ends. This was a tedious job, not very fun, but something that had to be done. It also rendered a lot of aluminium fillings…
Once this was done, time to file off the edges of the battery harnesses and then attach them to the battery boxes.
If you wonder, these have been sanded down to look nice and smooth.
Then time for weathering! I had to weather the skirt of my R2 and both legs.. Check it out when it was still in pristine condition.
About 45 minutes later, it did not look as nice and white anymore…
Since I posted the pics of the finished parts earlier, let me tell you about today:
I was going to a friends place, since his kid loves Star Wars and it was his birthday. I figured it would be a great place to break in my droid!
First problem was that when I started it up, nothing happened. The dome powered on and worked and I could rotate it, but it would simply not drive! Something was wrong!
The good thing about building this myself, is that I know everything about my droid, and I was forced to go debugging.
A couple of cables needed to switch place, and I changed a few things in how things were connected together, and it finally worked!
My droid is complete! Woohoo!
Nice machine! Nice looking! It even looks good from the behind!
And a little detail picture of some of the subtle weathering put in..
So: a proud owner with his droid. After over one year of building!
My estimation is that I’ve probably put in somewhere between 1500-2000 hours into this little machine.
Anyway, the kids party was a blast, but chaotic. Really chaotic, but R2 was the star, naturally, and he even made a couple of new friends!
So, I now have a droid. There are a few minor things that I may need to look in to. Might need to do something about one of the feet, as I am guessing the belt is chewing in to areas that doesn’t have any cogs, and that is effecting the performance of the wheel!
I also need to get get a better battery. I am using a 20Ah battery at the moment, and I need to do some measuring on power consumption, and possibly get a different one. I would love to get a LiPo battery. Found a good one in the UK, that weighs less than half of my current battery (it’s a good thing) and has more power.
The drawback? it is silly expensive!
I should start selling ad space on the droid to pay for things like that! (not really)
Anyway, at the moment the fully assembled droid is sitting in our living room and just been charged. I’m going to have so much fun with him at the upcoming sic-fi fair in 3 weeks!
That’s it for now!
Oh, and this build blog will not just stop. I have upgrades, updates and other things planned, including appearances, and a whole new dome that needs fixing up!
Stay tuned and thanks for following!
//Micke and R2.
