PSIs are Installed!

Took a little bit of modification, but I was able to get the Front PSI installed.

The opaque screens have all cured up since I installed them, so now I am ready to go forward with installing the actual PSIs.

Turns out there was a bit of a fit up problem with the Front PSI because the holoprojector mount is so large that it encroaches over a bit in the the PSI's mount area. Just needed to take a bit of the mount flange off to make it fit, no big deal.

Earlier in the week, I had hooked up the PSIs and turned them on again so I could get a look at how the lights would be seen from the outside. Turns out the cutting sheet alone isn't quite enough to properly diffuse the bright LEDs on the PSI board, so I had to make another diffuser screen.

So, if you pay even MORE attention to the movies, you'll notice the the PSI on R2-D2 actually has a hexagonal type screen of some sort behind the opaque screen. So I whipped up a quick hexagonal pattern model and had it 3d printed.

I had made the patter a square (just because that was simplest) so I had to trim it to fit in the mount. I underestimated this one quite a bit and it took me about an hour to get it to fit just right. Once in I sealed it with some epoxy to keep it in place.

Dabbed some epoxy on the flanges and squished it right in place on the dome. Spent about 30 minutes applying pressure and making sure that it lined up just perfectly so that it was clearly seen from the outside.

All in all, I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Also did the same for the rear PSI, just glued it in place. 

So now I'm just waiting for more servos to come in for the other 2 holoprojectors, and once I get those installed I'll be done with the dome for now, until I'm ready to install it on the body frame. Looong way to go.

Next up I will be starting working on the leg assemblies! And also in the meantime figure out how i am going to get the 2 remaining holoprojectors up and running.

2 Domes become 1!

I've taken the step and passed the point of no return... I've mated the Inner and Outer Domes together!

Yep, that's right. With the holoprojectors and mounts ready to be final installed, that means I've come to the point where it's time to mate the two domes together.

I had a bit a trouble with getting the Outer Dome to fit on top with all the holoprojectors installed, but figure it out when I realized I need to uninstall the front and rear ones, then install them after the domes have been mated together

I decided to just glue the Radar Eye to the dome because I couldn't get the screws to thread into the plastic mount like I was hoping. Instead of struggle with it until I was going to break something, decided to just take the easy way out. Also noticed the PSI mounts, they pop out nice!

After everything is fit up nice and snug, I moved on to mounting the LED light boards into the mounts I had previously installed. The dome is definitely starting to populate now.

All the light boards already have mounting holes on them, so all I had to do was screw them into the mounts installed on the dome. Pretty simple, just drilled a few holes and screwed in a few fasteners. Once I have everything final installed I'll be cleaning up the wiring a bit.

Now with that out of the way, I moved on to the PSIs. Currently there are just open holes in the dome for the front and rear PSI ports/ If you pay close attention, you'll notice in the movies that they are actually opaque and have a milky transparency sheet covering the opening.

So I did some research and didn't find much. I decided to head to the local Target and try to get some inspiration. I walked the ENTIRE store, looking in the office section and arts and crafts section for a semi-transparent sheet that I could use. Nothing.

...Until I made my final stop at the culinary section. Right away I spotted some cheap cutting sheets, and found exactly what I was looking for!

The blue part is a 3d printed mount I created to attache the PVC light board holders for the PSIs to the dome. So I traced out the size of the mounts on to the cutting sheets and went to work with the scissors. Got my 2 cutouts that I needed and proceed to get them glued up to the dome.

These should be perfect for when I install the PSI lights, as they will now be a bit more blurry when seen from the outside, instead of the individual LEDs. It should turn out pretty nicely.

LOOK INTO MY EYE!!!

Next week I will be installing the PSI mounts to the dome and getting the lighting effects all wrapped up.

Dome Integration has Begun!

I've now gathered pretty much all the parts I need to start with integrating the lights and movement effects into the dome.

One of the members on the Astromech forum has created a really clever mount system for controlling the holoprojectors inside the dome. Today I installed these mounts, plus some of the mounts for the lighting effects as well.

Not only do these kits come with the mounting frames, but also all the required hardware to fasten everything up. Once again, the builder's community has delivered!/

Assembling the mounts is pretty simple, I just had to locate and drill the 4 mounting holes for each mount on the inner dome. I started with the front holoprojector first.

It's a 2-piece clamp on the bottom of the holoprojector that then ties into the actuating plate where the servo is mounted. On the pic below you can see it fully installed with both servos installed/

Of course, instead of continuing one with the rest of the build, I HAD to try them out, so I hooked up the servos and gave it a shot. The Arduino program sketch that is already installed for the lighting effects also has the automated movement control of the front holoprojector written into it, so I went ahead and tried it out.

I got some movement, so that's good enough for now! My plan for the future is to have all 3 holoprojector moving randomly. I will need to look into this a bit more, but I think I've already found an Arduino sketch to make that happen. Will just have to figure out to hook everything up together.'

Also mounted up the other lighting mounts, and painted the inner dome it's final color of black. 

Things are starting to come together on the dome. Just need to install the lighting effects and get all the holoprojectors moving and I'll be pretty much done.

Back at it!

It's been a while since I last made a post, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working! I've got a ton of pics to upload, so I'll break them up for several post over the next few days.

It's been about 2 months since I've last made a post, and majority of that time has been used for gathering parts.

Parts on parts on parts on parts....

Most of the time has been spent 3d printing all the detail parts for the leg assemblies. Almost have all of them done at this point. Will need to then clean them up and paint before they are ready to be installed to the legs.

Also purchased the leg sets (that brown box in the background of the above pic). These guys come in a kit that will need to be glued together to create the actual leg strut. More on that later.

At the same time, I purchased the frame too! Both the leg struts and frame are made by the same guy, one of the more senior builders in the club. Lucky for me he leaves only about 30 minutes away so I was able to pick them up in person!

I originally wanted to go with the nice aluminum frame made by Com8 (builder in the club), however costing over $1000 I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So the other alternative was this wood frame that hundreds of builders have used with great results, and at only $260, I couldn't pass it up.

Right now I have it temporarily put together until I am ready to glue it in place. I am waiting on getting the aluminum body skins first, because I need to use the skins when gluing the frame to ensure that everything fits up nice before I pass that point of no return.

Next post I will cover my starting of the internal dome integration! I will post about the HoloProjector mount system I installed and talk about setting up the automated control movement for these guys.

Final Touches on the Outer Dome

It's been difficult to find time, but I was able to squeeze in final painting of the Outer Dome.

It's been raining a lot here in Southern California lately, so I've also been delayed with final painting for that reason as well.  But the planets aligned and I was able to paint!

Since I had already done all the masking, it was a quick few minutes of work to get the metallic gunmetal color painted on the Outer Dome.

I was VERY careful and made sure to make multiple super light coats rather than only a few heavy coats. I was definitely worried about paint bleeding through the masking I had done, especially since it was a couple of weeks between when I masked and when I actually got to paint.

I let it cure overnight, and went right for removing the masking the next day. It was a tedious process, but then again I may have been a little too cautious when removing. I REALLLLY didn't want to mess up the red paint underneath.

Look at that!

I have to say, it came out perfect.There was absolutely no bleeding onto the red parts. Very crisp and clean paint job.

It looks very Sith-like with this scheme... wasn't anticipating that, but I'm digging it. 

It was now time for the final clear coat. I spent a good amount of time considering the type of finish I wanted,and in the end went with a Satin textured finished. 

This muted the colors a bit, and gave a rough cement-like finish to the Dome. I think this gives it a more hardy, durable feel, which a military droid should be, right? It also looks like it will protect the paint from pretty much all but the worse damage.

In the mean time, I've been starting to acquire detail parts for the leg assemblies (3d printing like crazy!) as well as the body frame! Frame should be here next week, and then still waiting on the Holo Projector mount and control system, which will be the final part assemblies for the dome.

It's been a while since I've posted, but this is a quick update about starting the final paint process for the Outer Dome.

As I am waiting for more parts to come in, I took the opportunity to work on prepping and painting the Outer Dome. 

It had been some time since I had last worked on the Dome, so the initial primer coat was definitely cured and reading for paint. My idea was to paint the red panels and other details first, mask all those areas up once they cure, then paint the remaining base gun metal color.

Painting the red details was the easy part. I took some 400 grit sand paper and hit all the areas that would be receiving the red paint as it's final color. Didn't care much about the other areas as they will get prepped prior to final paint.

Candy Canes? Christmas in March...

The satin finish turned out pretty well! Color is definitely what I was hoping for on the Dome.

After letting that cure, I went straight into masking up all the areas to prep for the final gunmetal color. All I did was using typical blue painters tape and covered up all the areas that would stay red. I'm hoping this works as well as I have envisioned come time to paint.

All masked up and ready for final paint! 

Now just to find some time away from work.... the weekend can't come soon enough!

Winter in SoCal?! Not quite...

Thanks to the unusually high temperatures, I've been able to get a lot of painting done!

Yes, even for Southern California this time of year, the weather has been pretty hot lately. Though I do love the cold, cozying up with a blanket and a move, I can't help but be happy. This weather provides the perfect conditions for painting parts!

And what better timing to have my Holoprojectors arrive! Yep, one of the final parts for the Dome assembly has finally arrived and is ready to work.

I was able to find an independent vendor on the Astromech Builder's forum who specializes is making custom resin parts for R2 builders. Long story short, I was able to get a set of resin Holoprojectors for much cheaper than an aluminum set.

First thing's first; I had to fit them up. Make sure they look as awesome as I have been picturing in my mind.

Yep! Looks good to me.

Outer and Inner Dome fit up with one of the Holoprojectors.

Okay, now that I got that itch out, it was time to actually do some work. Fortunately, all that needs to be done for the Holoprojectors is paint. Once I get the mount and control hardware, I'll have to hook that up, but that'll be at a later time when I am ready to final assemble the Domes.

Using the same process as for the Radar Eye Lens Mount, I prepped up the three Holoprojector sets and started painting. This was also a great opportunity to try out the metallic paint that I had purchased and was planning to use as the main color for the droid.

After a few coats, we are looking great! Both colors came out really nice, and are exactly what I had imagined when I first came up with the concept of my droid. I feel the colors compliment each other very well, especially the satin finish of the red with the metallic gloss of the base color.

Looking good!

Once I have the Dome ready for final assembly, I'll install these with all the control hardware and hook them up to the same Arduino board which controls all the dome lighting effects.

I'm working on a custom Arduino sketch which will control all three Holoprojectors to move randomly on their own, creating a realistic AI droid feel. More on that to come later.

Well, since I was already in the painting mood, I decided to go ahead and put the primer coat of paint on to the Outer Dome.

The Dome was relatively clean, so all it took was some work with steel wool, and I was ready to paint. Applying primer now allows me some extra time to get ready for the final color coats in the future.

After one coat of primer.

This one took a few more coats than the smaller paint I've been painting; about 5 or 6. But after just a few minutes, I had a smooth, complete finish. Now all I have to do for final paint is a light sanding, and I'm ready to go.

R2-N7 - Hoth Variant, anyone?? I kind of like the white!

Next up will most likely be final painting of the outer dome (as I wait for more money so I can get those Holoporjector mounts and control hardware :p ). This should be interesting.... but fun!

3 Day Weekends are meant for Projects! Part 2

Wasn't able to get as much work done today as I was hoping, but what it lacked in quantity, it made up in quality.

I had originally thought about primering the Inner and Outer Domes today, however the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wasn't quite at that stage yet. There are still several components I need to mount to the inner dome, so I'd rather get those all squared away instead of cutting and drilling on an already painted dome.

The big win for today was that I got the Inner Dome to fit on the Mounting Ring! Once again, it was my dremmel tool to the rescue.

I was having just a tiny bit of interference during the fitup, so the first thing that came to mind for a resolution was to add a chamfer to the Inner Dome. Putting this angled edge on the dome will allow the two pieces to more easily slide together and is pretty common design feature for mating parts like this.

After about two passes with the dremmel tool, I fit it up. It was still a bit tight, but it fit! Took some light tapping with a rubber mallet to get the Dome to seat all the way on the Ring.

With this achieved, I was now also able to drill the alignment holes between the Inner Dome and Mounting Ring. These match drilled holes will hold small screws, which will lock the Inner Dome and Mounting Ring together. So once the Mounting Ring is spun, the Inner Dome follows.

For the first hole, I picked a spot on the rear side which could easily hide the defect if I had messed up. Due to there being little openings on the dome, there wasn't much visibility to where I was drilling, so my first shot was mostly a guess.

I like to leave little notes for myself..... :)

As you can probably tell, my first hole didn't turn out too well. I drilled it too close to the bottom of the Dome, which did not leave enough space for the nut to be run down on the screen on the inner side.

Missed it by that much!

Well, that's part of the fun of this project! It's all a learning experience. My second hole was dead on, so I can now take the measurement and apply it to the next several holes around the circumference of the dome for when I'm ready to final install the two parts. For now, just one for alignment purposes.

Next update should include some more parts coming in. I just received word that my 3 Holo Projectors are ready to ship. That should be the final structural part of the entire dome! 

Until then,back to reality...

3 Day Weekends are meant for Projects! Part 1

The Dome has arrived!

Yes, I am sure you are all just excited as I am. The Dome has arrived! This is probably the most significant part of the entire build! And definitely the most recognizable.

I opened this bad boy up as soon as I had the chance. Included was the Outer Dome, Inner Dome, Mounting Ring, and the Support Ring. I also needed the Rockler bearing, but as mentioned in a prior post, I already had this part ordered a while ago.

Pictured below is the Outer Dome, Mounting Ring, Rockler bearing, and the complete bearing assembly including Mounting Ring, Rockler bearing, and Support Ring.

The details on the features is incredible!

The Inner Dome is essentially the same as the Outer Dome, but is designed to house all the fasteners attaching all the different parts, motors, servos, etc. required to move the dome, but keeps them hidden under the Outer Dome.

Mounting Ring.

Finally, the Rockler Bearing shows itself!

The Support Ring is the "Peace Sign" shaped part. This allows for mounting of motors and other electrical parts for convenience.

Everything went together fairly smoothly, with one exception. The Inner Dome was not cooperating and I could not get it on top of the Mounting Ring in its designated groove. This will require so extra modifications to the Inner Dome and/or Mounting Ring so that I can get them to fit. Will save that for another day since this is all just a test fit up.

Once I verified all the mounting parts were good to go, I moved on to preparing for finishing the domes. Received out of the box, the domes will have some extra material around the cuts from the laser machining process, so Step 1 was for me to remove all this.

Before. This was present on about 50% of the cuts on both domes.

This stuff is pretty sharp and will actually cause the Inner and Outer Domes to bind up when trying to put them together, so it's important to remove all this material before trying that. Luckily, I recently purchased a nice dremmel tool which made grinding out all these rough spots a breeze.

After. Not to worry about the appearance; all this is on the inside of the Domes and won't be seen.

Once everything was all cleaned up, I fit up the domes. They fit almost perfect, a bit off on some of the cutouts, however this is not too much of a problem. The last item I had on the schedule for today was to fit up the Radar Eye Mount I had finished in a previous post.

The locating holes for this piece on the Inner Dome only, so I needed to fit up the domes, and mark on the Outer Dome these locations so that I could drill them out. A few minuted later, and I had the Mount all fit up. Aside from some minor hardware issues that will be addressed later, it all fit up well.

Well whattya know, that looks pretty good! R2's starting to take shape! You can see I also fit up the FLD mounts. Perfect!

Up next will be a lot of painting on the domes, stay tuned!

A lot of good work this weekend! Radar Eye Assembly 100% Complete!

I was able to send a good few hours working in the garage today, The Radar Eye is totally complete, painted, and ready for installation!

The gameplan for today was to cut the Radar Eye Lens to fit inside the mount correctly, prep and paint both the lens and the mount, and install the lens into the mount. Easier said than done!

So Step 1 was to cut the lens, since it was too large to fit flush inside the mount. I needed to make sure the lens was completely recessed in the mount, because if not, there would be interference issue when installing the mount to the dome.

I fit up the lens into the mount, and traced out a line marking where the extra material would need to be removed. Then mounted it up in my vice and prepared to cut off the material.

There is a small tab on the edge of the bulb that I used to clamp in the vice.

I soon found out that cutting tool I was using was generating so much heat, it was actually melting the plastic at the same time it was cutting! This didn't exactly create a problem, but I had to change my approach with how I was using the cutting tool.

About 10 minutes later, I had completed the cut. I did a first rough cut, to remove most of the extra material, then did another couple passes to cut at the marked line as accurate as possible.

All in all, the part turned out near perfect. After a quick fit up in the mount, it was now time to paint the lens. The weather was finally a bit warmer today which provided a great environment for painting.

After about 3 coats, I had the consistency I was looking for in the lens. Not solid black, more of a smokey effect. One thing to note is that I painted the inside of the lens, and not the outside. By doing this, I was able to maintain the natural gloss finish of the plastic, but achieve the coloring affect I was looking for.

You can see the difference with the left image showing the inside painted surface, and the final affect for the outside.

Now that the lens is complete, I moved on to prepping the mount for painting. Because the part was 3D printed, the surface isn't really all that smooth. It's more like a "stepped" surface, so that means I needed to sand it to smooth it out.

This was definitely the most time consuming task of the day. And messy. I didn't quite get it completely smooth, but it I later found out that it was good enough. And even left a more textured look to the part that I wasn't expecting. I like it!

The paint I choose is a bit darker than the original color of the printed parts. And also has a nice sating finish.

I stepped out of the garage for a bit to spend some time with my daughter and parents, which let the paint on the mount dry. I came back a few hours later and was ready to install the lens to mount.

Just to make sure, I checked the clearances again. I must've gotten lucky, because the lens fit perfectly in the mount. I was even able to press it down into the mount to give about 1/4" of extra clearance, which would provide enough space for the glue I used to bond them together. 

Next, add in a $2 glue gun and a steady hand to put the final touch. I'm pretty sure the preload from pressing the lens into the mold (force fit) would have been enough to keep it in place, but I wanted to add the glue as a secondary method.

The glue drys pretty quickly, so it was done just as quick as I applied it. I then just had to clean up some of the extra glue, and BOOM! Finished product!

Starting to look familiar, eh???

Complete and ready for installation on the Dome. 

.... and **SPOILER ALERT**... my Dome is ordered and will be here in just a few days!

The Right Tools Can Make or Break You

***NEW WORK BENCH ALERT***

Okay, I may be a little extra excited about this, but I just got a new work bench for my garage droid factory!

Up until now, I have been taking over the dinner table with parts and other assorted goodies related to this project. I knew from the start that I needed to get a work space setup, preferably in my garage, where I could keep everything together and eventually start working!

Problem was that with all of my resources (a.k.a. $$$$) going into the parts, I didn't have much left over for tools and other secondary pieces required for the job.

It can't be luck, because there is only the Force, but by some twist of fate, my work was in the process of renovating work stations, and had old work benches for sale to employees!

Needless to say, I jumped on one of these work benches and claimed it as my own. I was also able to scavenge several parts from other work benches, like shelves, lighting, computer racks, cabinets, etc. and add them to mine.

Definitely channeled my inner Rey, scavenging through an old warehouse for different parts that I could use. Not as grimy of work, and definitely received more than "one quarter portion" for what I found.

Can you spot the special tool addition? What's a Jedi droid builder without the Jedi's tool?

 Bottom line: I purchased this whole bench for $100. ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!! 

Considering these top-level industrious work benches can sell for well into the $2000 range, I'm feeling pretty good about this pickup. 

This is a great addition to my project, and will be sure to put me in a position to build a great R2 unit! More to come....

3D Printing Saves the Day... and my Bank Account!

Another part an be checked off the list thanks to 3D Printing!

I was scrounging through the Astromech Builders forum, and made my way to the blue prints sections. Of course I had already been through these all before, but there was one item in particular that I felt the need to revisit...

The Radar Eye, which is probably one of the most recognizable features on the R2 unit. Part #1 labeled in the pic below.

Originally, I had planned to make this part out of aluminum, to match the dome. This is one of the most demanded parts, so there is a sponsored Part Run for these, making them readily available, and cheaper than a one-part order!

However,at $125 plus shipping, it would become the second most expensive structural part on the dome, behind only the dome itself. And I don't have an unlimited budget.

So naturally, I thought why can't I 3D print this? I've done with several other parts, it's small enough to be printed, doesn't seem too complicated...

After only a few minutes of searching the forum, I landed to the Wiki page for this part, where someone has already ready the 3D CAD file for this!

Now it was only a matter of setting up the printer and getting it made! I think it turned out amazing!

A few minor defects due to the actual printing process, but other than that, it's spot on!

You can actually seen the fill pattern from the printer, and how it creates the circular surface you see. Imagine the printer going around 1000's of time, building up the part bit by bit.

All ready to go! I was also able to find some cheap lens for the Radar Eye. $1.50 at my local hobby store for these clear plastic ornaments that come in halves. Just need to spray paint one of these black, and we then have all parts for a completed assembly!

Second Time's a Charm

Revised RLD mount was made, and fits perfect!

Over this previous weekend, I had modified the RLD mount to widen the opening by 1/8" (.125") since it was too small for my L.E.D cluster for the RLD. 

I was able to get in some time on the 3D printer late Friday night, since no projects were ongoing for the weekend.

Came back in on Monday and received my part, fresh from the printer. Turned out great! It has a really nice snug fit, and should be ready to go for install when the time comes.

I'm also diggin' the yellow color! I may paint it red to match the rest of the mounts, or I may leave it. It's a nice change up for my color scheme.

I had the TEECES auto sequence running when I had fit up the new mount. Pretty cool snapshot of the flickering L.E.D. program. 

All the L.E.D.s blink on and off at random intervals, creating a cool Sci-Fi robot effect. Check out my previous post to see video of this!