A little Saturday night build

I decided to put the Com8 A1 frame together tonight with a little help from my family.

One of these days I will actually find out what I have in the manner of "extra" parts for this droid.  Again, I am not sure if this is an upgrade, or a re-do.  Could be a little of both.  I seriously do not want to scavenge parts from my existing droid.

New regulations on part runs through our club means that the parts may be a little more scarce in the future.  Meaning, the parts must be in hand by the maker before any money is collected.  This will certainly put a different spin on "part runs" in the future, as whoever is hosting the run will need to pony up the funds to create the parts, as opposed to having members pay and source the money from their interest.  Apparently a few runs have gone south recently.   Which means, a good number of members paying for parts, and the organizer of the run not being able to produce the final product.  This has caused the builders council to change their approval process of parts runs - nothing will be offered unless the parts are complete and ready to ship when payment is made.  The long and short of it, a maker who would offer a run of 100 shoulder hydraulics would have to front around $10,000 in costs for a shop to fabricate the items, then hoe there was enough interest to sell all of the parts.

These clubs have always operated on a blind trust basis, backed by the insurance of a forum of users.  The parts run organizer offers a service, you pay some money, and wait for the parts to be made.  The only thing that keeps people from skating with the dough is the respect for and from the community.  Again, a few runs have not gone smoothly as of late which has changed the game a bit.  I have been very fortunate in my experience, and have not lost money, but I foresee longer wait times and less parts being available in the future.

Parts come available from time to time, but with the emergence of Tapatalk - a forum app, these "used" parts rarely stay available for more than a minute.  Tapatalk will send users notifications of posts on the forum, and the for sale threads are responded to almost as quickly as they are posted.  That said, it may take a while to get any remaining parts that I need for this build.  But this build is meant to be leisurely - not the race I participated in on the last go-round.

Here are a couple photos from tonight's session.  The Com8 frame is a thing of beauty in engineering.  Everything fits together without a hitch, and is machined to perfection.

My nephew Kaden is no stranger to an R2 build.  He was pretty much there from day one on my first build.  He knows which way to turn the allen key to make it tighter.

Upon completion, every screw is then garnished with a "look what I did !"  Good job, young man.

Dad gets in on the action as well.  Being a guy who worked in the brazing industry for 40 years, Dad once considered aluminum the enemy.  That said, I have to believe he sees the beauty in this frame.

Somewhere behind the frame lurks a no-neck monster.......

Here is a pretty good shot of the slide mechanism for the center foot.  The carriage runs up and down on 4 rods with derlin bushings as slides.  The center leg lock is right in front of dad.  It has a key that locks the foot in the up or down position.  The actuated 2-3-2 mechanism is being manufactured at this point and will be available in a few months.

This is really a test fit for the frame, as I am sure it will be in various stages of construction throughout the build.

I will post more photos of the frame at a later date, but it is really a thing of beauty.  Almost a shame to cover it up with skins.  The plan on this build is to make it as clean and organized as possible.  Armed with the knowledge that I achieved from the last build, I foresee saving at least 3-7 swear words per build day.

Edit : here is a photo of the new foot drives for R2.  I will be using the NPC 2212 motors on this droid.  I love having my name on a part being made.  (2nd from the bottom left)

More to come on this as well....

It has been a while....

It's been a while.

For the most part, R2 and I have been having a lot of fun.  Taking him to events is really satisfying.  Trying to upgrade him in-between, well that has been met with mixed results.

I think the first iteration of R2 was probably the most stable, although not intentionally so.  I had no idea what I was doing with the electronics, RC, Arduino, L.E.D.s, etc, etc.  But, I think that actually helped me.  During the initial build, I was so overly cautious of making sure everything worked in conjunction with all of the other pieces parts that everything just worked in the end.

Then I started meddling.  I got confident.  I made changed.  I made modifications.  I made mistakes.

Gone are the days of the blue smoke and arcing flashes of electricity.  These are the days of  wondering.... "Did it work just as well (or better) before I changed _______".  I think this is part of owning one of these beasts.  In theory, the process of making him work and upgrading may never be complete.

With that said, I have been collecting a few parts here and there over the past year.  Here are some photos of a new frame that I picked up from a user on Astromech.net.  The coveted Com8 A-1 frame, made by James "Commando 8" in Texas.

I have seen these frames in photos, and read the oohs and aahhhhs from a multitude of posts.  Nothing you have seen in a photo, or read about in a blog can speak for the quality and sheer cool factor of these frames.

Here are a number of photos for your enjoyment :

Pretty much, all the parts together.  The frame is a beautiful anodized blue.   There is a crazy amount of detail etched into the frame, and a host of holes to reduce weight.

Did someone say ba-donk-a-donk ?

(I originally typed ba-donk-a-DORK by accident, laughed so hard I shot Vernors ginger ale out my nose.  It made my eyes water... a lot.  Still chuckling about the ba-donk-a-dork.)

Back on task - the rear door.  This thing is beefy and STRONG.  You never realize just how much you open and close the back door when he is "complete".  The hinges on this back door are made of 1/4" aluminum.  

Center leg plate and lift mechanism.  This mounting plate runs up and down inside the frame on the 4 shafts in the upper right hand corner of the photo.  The black post with the pin in it is used to manually move (and lock) the center foot up and down.  An upgrade kit is going to be made to allow automation of this process..... uh-oh ... did someone say 2-3-2 ???

Here is the top plate.  A ton of machining went into this part.  It is an absolutely beautiful piece of craftsmanship.

The bottom plate with routed recesses for batteries and weight shedding.  All of the hardware in the center is for the outer legs.  The Two outer legs will rotate and lock in position with ease.  The red parts are for the legs struts that allow R2 to stand in two legged mode.  More on that to come in following weeks.

The center plate with the shoulder hubs and a new center vent kit by Wayne Orr.

The utility arm plate and speaker bracket.  I will eventually remove the backing plate and install my newest utility arms that will be animated via a system of servo motors.

The side plates.  These are the plates that mount to the leg hubs and ultimately, the legs.  I really like the details on this part - reminds me of a recognizer from Tron.

So there you have it.   The start of what is an upgrade... or another build entirely.  I want to take more time with this build, as it will be way more involved.  I also do not want to start scavenging my current R2 in order to build on this one.

The ultimate goal is for full 2-3-2 automation on this droid.  Currently, there are probably 5-6 droids in the world that actually have accomplished this.  I have a number of custom actuators, numerous motor controllers, and an overwhelming amount of confidence at this point.  We will see what the future brings.

In case you are wondering what 2-3-2 is - check out this video from Droid Builder :