DAY 17 & 18 - Thems Holidayz, they bring gifts.

Well, the 2012 Holiday season brought much cheer to our family, and in turn, our new friend got neglected in the process.  I don't think we have to worry much, as he has been receiving a weekly shower of gifts for the past four months.

I did not work much on R2 over the holidays, but what I did get done really makes me happy.  (You WILL want to stay tuned until the end of this post - or just cut to the chase and scroll to the bottom...)

We last left off with cutting the recessed ledges for the pie panels on the top of the dome.  Christmas weekend continued with the same process for the doors along the outer edge of the dome.  I used the same process with the top pie panels, but I either A: lost my touch, or B: had trouble with the longer straight lines.  The process did not seem as easy this time around.  Honestly, I think a little bit of over-confidence in my skills may have caused me to push the Dremel and rush the job.  On the first cuts on the top of the dome, I was so scared, that I moved at a pace that would make a snail jealous.

That said, I did not screw anything up, it just seemed to take longer to get the desired results.  Probably because there were a lot more and a lot longer cuts to be made.

Here are some pics of the sections that will be covered by the awesomeness that are Crash's Carbon Fiber door panels.  Eventually, these panels will be hinged, and will open and close via commands received by a servo.

A little closer view showing the rough cut of the doorways before the extra material is removed to allow the door to sit inside the recess.

A nice shot to see just how many holes this guy has in is head.  (Not as many as the builder, but he's getting close)

This shot shows a good angle of the recess that allows the top pie panels to sit on and match the contour of the dome.  I have completed the same ledge on all of the perimeter door panels, but .... uh, you guessed it - no photos.

In my ever-growing pension to have every piece in every imaginable material, I purchased a set of CNC routed wood legs from Steele from the Atlanta Builder's club.

The truth is, as R2 gains all of the additional weight from this build, I feel as though I need to beef up all of the other parts to support his weight gain.

This, of course, means reworking a couple of parts on the old PVC legs that have been permanently attached to the legs.  Including, the shim for the layered shoulders, the little shelf that sits below the booster covers and the beefy ankles.  I have ordered and received more beefy ankles and have cut a new shoulder spacer from some ABS sheet that I purchased long ago for extra material on a 501st project.

Here are a few snaps of the wood legs being assembled.  These things went together like a dream.  Place dowels, apply glue, clamp.

I used Gorilla glue on these parts - I have used it on a number of teak parts on my boat, and it is simply the best product for bonding wood together (IMHO).

The only drawback with Gorilla glue is the foam that forms outside the edges as the pieces are sandwiched together and clamped.  This comes off rather easily with a nice sharp wood chisel.  It is not recommended to clean the foam as it is drying, as this glue will stain your hands for a good week if you are not wearing gloves..... which I rarely remember to do.

Center leg all clamped up and ready to rock.

Over the holiday, I had the great pleasure to meet BobC from the Astromech builders group.  I saw a thread of items for sale in the Parts Junkyard section of the boards, and I jumped on a set of steel outer feet and center foot.  As I was working on prepping this little guy to move with the scooter motor holders, I noticed that the simple stresses of rolling him around caused the PVC foot shells to separate in a few areas.  

Not completely satisfied with this, the timing was perfect for Bob to offer these parts up.  I found out that Bob was in the Cleveland area, so I drove out to pick up these parts - including ..... another set of wood legs.  I am not 100% sure that I will use the legs purchased from Bob, but I have 3 options now.

Oh, and I scored a set of minty aluminum half moon details for the feet as well.  BobC does a number of aluminum parts runs for the club, and I feel honored to have met him and "talked shop".

So we flash forward to Sunday, January 6th.  Having performed the bench test on the small motors with my RC setup - I was jonesin' to get this implemented with the scooter motors inside of R2.

Part of the testing and assembly of the "manual" center foot slide was to ensure I had enough room for the dual 12 volt batteries that will be running in series to produce 24 volts.

Here is a little diagram (although the voltages are different) that illustrates the setup.  I am fascinated by all of the electrical knowledge that I missed - or ignored - while growing up.

So it came time to hook everything up.  This has got to be about the ugliest wiring setup ever seen on a R2 build blog, but I needed to get this out of my system, as it was one of the MAJOR concerns I had with my skill set.

Here is my incredibly poorly rigged electrical system for the foot drives.  The Sabertooth 2X12 motor drive taped in the center, the RC receiver and battery pack taped on the top plate of the frame.  The wires to the battery and feet were pretty much all over the place.  Again - I did not care about aesthetics - I needed to test functionality.

Actually, it does not look all that bad from the front....

.... which leaves the rear view a total mess.  This is like the "mullet" of Droid wiring.  "Business in the front, party in the rear".... More like, "Business in the front, train wreck in the rear".

Looks and gal-world functionality aside, I am happy to present another video !

Ladies and Gentlemen of the blogosphere, please enjoy R2's first steps !!!!

WOW - what a satisfying day.  I have to admit, that this was the number one concern of mine.  Could I actually get this thing to move ?  I have to give ALL of the credit to Ted (Buhatjk) and his incredible PowerPoint presentation that was prepared for Celebration VI.  I followed his recommendations, and I have to say, I could not be happier with the results.

You will notice that the feet sometimes "kick up" as he is moving, this will be remedied by a shim between the ankle and the foot shell.  It seems to be a common problem amongst builders - and the solution is rather simple and effective.

At 24 volts - there is no lack of power.  He is FAST.  I am very happy that this first test was indoors amongst Mom's coupons and Nephew Kaden's book stack.  If I were in a wide open arena - I fear that accidents may have happened.

After 20 minutes of testing out the drive system, I had to connect the other motor controller to get the dome spinning.   After moving a few dip switches on the Syren 25 motor controller and getting the jumper lead plugged into the correct receptacle on the receiver....

....Another VIDEO !!!!!

All in all - a banner day.  I did not get much "building" done, but this is a HUGE weight off of my chest.  He actually MOVES !!!

Here is a quick note for my (and your) reference in case we forget how the RC receiver is hooked up to the motor controllers.