Slow but steady, or not…
It seems that xmas and new year is when all the part runs start. At least that is what it feels like to me, for all the parts I want.There has been a sudden rush in ordering things for R2 which means I nearly have everything I need to get him put together and mobile. The one part I’m still missing is the outer ankles, which I am hoping will be on a run soon. The last few cosmetic pieces I need are due soon too, such as utility arms and LDP. Progress whilst waiting for these parts has not been too bad, but I do keep coming across problems to work around. I guess that is the fun part tho.
On the electronics front, I managed to (I think) blow up my amplifier. I still need to hook it all up again and test it. I’ve a feeling that the switch I’ve got for main power isn’t rated high enough for the current that is going through. I’ve also decided to change the layout of everything, and install an actual touch screen inside R2 for the Raspberry Pi. This will give me the ability to control certain aspects of the software, and also at a pinch I can plug a usb keyboard and mouse in to do onsite programming whilst away at a convention or such like. I’m also currently waiting a Raspberry Pi v3 which will give R2’s brain a bit of a boost. Overall design hasn’t changed much, it’ll still all be controlled via i2c, but will also have wifi and 3g internet connectivity, turning R2 into a wireless hotspot! I will have to see how much the aluminium body affects the signal, but can always put an external antenna somewhere.
I have more or less got the legs finished, and have done a test fit! Must say, they are looking rather good. All the parts slot nicely together and are pretty solid. Of course, I still have the problem of a lot of the screws and bolts being imperial (We’re part of the rebel alliance, don’t want any of that imperial rubbish!) rather than metric, so getting hold of replacements can be tough. This is more of a problem seeing as I’ve had some of these parts for quite a while and not only been moved around the office in the old house, but have moved to the new house and gone in and out of the garage, so some of the fastenings have been misplaced along the way.
I also decided to get one of the nice new hydro formed domes that are available. I was never too keen on the existing one that I had, and the new domes come with the mounting ring to fasten it to the body which meant one less thing I had to fabricate. A lot of the tutorials on the forums are geared around these domes too. Not only did I get a new dome, but I figured whilst I was doing that, I’d also upgrade all the things to go in the dome. This meant getting the ultimate hinges, aluminium holoprojectors, aluminium logic surrounds, aluminium eye, and even the fancy PSI holders. All this together gives me a pretty much top of the range dome for R2. It also means I can do a quick and dirty rebuild of the old dome at some point and create a different astromech.
Which brings me more or less up to date. The dome is nearly finished, I just need to put a few final touches to it and tidy up the cabling inside. I even got the dome servos all hooked up and took a short video. I need to replace the arms on the servos with something a bit longer to get a bit more throw on them, but overall I’m pretty pleased.
Next step is to get to work on the body. I’ve got some of the ultimate hinges and have some installed already. Just need to fit the servos to them. I also need to trim down my data panel to fit it into the breadpan, but that shouldn’t be too much trouble. The one part I’m having issues with is the charge bay breadpan, it just doesn’t want to fit in properly. I may have to resort to some pretty hefty modifications on it.