DAY 39 - Back to Form

It was a good day of building today.  Started at 8:00 and hung up the tools at midnight.

I began the day trying to identify the electrical gremlin that has been plaguing me for the past couple of weeks.  I am thinking I have a power supply problem in the dome now that I have all kinds of new goodies in it.  It seems as though when a DC motor is introduced to a circuit, even though it does not consume over 1.5 amps, it can wreak havoc on the other kids in the electronic neighborhood.... I will have to brush up on some reading by some guy named Ohm.  Apparently, he knew a thing or two about electricity ;-)   If anything - his knowledge is directly inverse of mine.  I am like Schultz from Hogan's Heroes, "I know Nothing !"

All in all - I made some progress with the dome lights and periscope.  First up was installing a remote relay that reverses polarity.  I  tried to wire up the 12 channel relay to perform this task, and tried a few other remotes - and the results were the same every time... not good.  This relay is dedicated to moving the periscope up and down - and it just plain works.

I also separated the power for the periscope lift mechanism from the dome logic displays and lights.  Additionally, I installed some uber BRIGHT LEDs in the holo-prokectors.  These also run on their own power.

Front skin removed, and top electronics bay shaping up.  12 channel wireless relay in the center used for turning on the Periscope lights.  Certainly overkill, but I could not figure out how to program a 6 or even a 2 channel wireless relay that I had in waiting.  Apparently, when you purchase something off Ebay for $5 from a seller in China, instructions are not included...

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Periscope chillin' waiting to raise and lower.  the rear electronic panel was opened to try to clean up a number of wayward wires, and to allow access to the body, as I had to reinstall a bunch of parts that I cooked pretty well last week.  

View of the completed electronics panel in the dome.  Separate switches to power up the Dome Logics, The Holo-Projector lights and the Periscope.

Speaking of Periscope, here is a shot of how tight the tolerances are for the periscope nestled inside the dome.  Not sure if the photo shows it properly, but there is about an 1/8 of an inch clearance all the way around.

Shiny - and I mean SHINY new aluminum radar eye.  Mirror like finish - it will be a shame to paint this part.....

A little better look at the Radar Eye.  Of course, the mounting holes do not align with the ones I drilled for the resin Radar Eye, so I will have to drill some more holes in poor R2's noggin.

Happy mistake # 42 - The lighted switches I used in the dome throw off a good amount of ambient light inside the head.

When the lights are low - the effect is really COOL.  Looks like R2 is floating on a bed of neon... Hmmmmm... makes me think this would be cool to put it on a car ...... or not.

Looking really cool when the front PSI turns red and the logo on the PSI mount is red against the blue light inside the dome.

R2 : total Mack-Daddy.

Here are the three switched responsible for all of the interior light.  There are two blue, and one green switch.  The blue light pretty much drowns out the green switch (in the center).

Large Data Port and aluminum utility arms installed.  (Again - the Radar Eye is not in it's final resting place)

Come give us a hug....

The arms installed in minutes - really a great fit, and they swing in and out effortlessly.  Perhaps I need to automate them.  Perhaps, I need another hole in my head as well.

Another pic of the arms with the skins attached.

Dad and I had a good time assembling the all aluminum legs.  That is correct - all aluminum from head to toe now !

Mounting the new legs.  (New to me at least - these were purchased second-hand from a member of the Astromech.net boards.

"Diet" Aluminum Horseshoes from Guy Vardman's recent run.  Many of the parts being made these days are called "diet" because they are routed out to weigh less than a solid piece of aluminum.

Alluminum Center ankle and steel center foot.  This took a while to get together, but the existing caster brackets fit in like a glove.

R2 "Airing it out".

In case you wanted to see more.

A little video of the lights in action.

You can see the periscope acting a little erratic, and at the end - the front PBI panel "locks up".  That nasty gremlin is still in there somewhere.  Oh ye, I will find him, and when I do, it will be "time to exercise the demon".  I can't wait to say "This Droid is clean"....

Cool blue hue with the lights off.  Even if he did nothing else, it would be satisfying to use him as a glorified mood lamp.  I am building an .... ahem .... something - something dollar ... lava lamp.  Congratulations, me.

"Because mine says Desert Eagle five point 0, and your's says 'replica'".... love that movie.

This is a single input and output power distribution board with a digital display of the input and output voltage.  12 V in 5 V out to power the holo-projector lights.

One last parting shot of the inside of the dome.

Next week will involve getting the little guy moving around again.  His legs are mounted, but the motor mounts need to be installed.  (Didn't I do this a few weeks back ?????)

Also, the center ankle will be mounted.  Once that is done - I foresee video of the new legs and feet in action.   That is, if the motors can still move his tubby butt around.