Dome lights and more body work

Steady progress still.

I have wired up and neatened all the 12v sources in the dome and as much of the servo leads as i can.  But to be able to continue on the dome I'm now waiting for servos that should be here by now. :(  I have had him on for the last few nights.  Really pleased with the colour choices.

I have Seglus's Vegas PSI (Mk1) and JoyMonkey's R-Series logics (Mk1).  I didnt fancy having to write code for these, so i decided to use the Rear PSI on the front and the front on the rear, in R2-D2 colours.  With that choice made James and i had a play with the R-Series colours to get something that looked right.

Fronts have a Green/Orange fade with white spots.  To try and mirror the Green/Orange PSI.  Not a great vid, LEDs dont like being filmed. :(

Then the rears are Blue/Purple and Red.

I think it suits him.  The lights are off, or not installed on the screenshots, so i figure this gives us free reign.

The diffusion on the PSI is a trial and error thing i did a while back.  It is a 1mm layer of plastic from a Hobbytronics delivery box, then OHP inkjet film with the honeycomb print, then 10mm (2 x 5mm) light box perspex. Boards sit on the back, spaced off  with, and held in to the silicone hose (my PSI holders) by large O rings, smaller diameter between pcb and perspex and thicker to retain it. Looks great in person, but tricky to film.

I then mounted the servo for the big door.  Using a modified version of the same servo holders i had used in the dome.

After that i finished wiring up the UAC servos to a communal point.  And glued it in place using HP40.  Seems nice and solid, and thanks to a little shaping and the pull of the glue it all lines up well.  A touch up of the paint and it looks like it was always there. :)

CBI door servo and PCB next.  Then id like to look at the front foot one more time before testing.  I don think the positions are optimal at the moment.  Maybe time to start modelling that in Cubify.

Utility Arm Carrier and Arms

The Master setup has already failed.  The dremel shaft eventually failed at too low force. :(  But only in the anticlockwise direction. :(  So I have ordered a alternative to try.  I also found that i can use a bearing in the arm, that may help too. :)

I had built the UAC to replicate the JAG V5 UAC points that i needed, but from CNC cut styrene.  It took a few goes to get right. I glued the carrier up with the arms installed without spacers, but due to the amount of slop the first 2 attempts were binned, so i replaced the bearings, and used a nice flange bearing instead.  

These are a few pics of my final prototype:

I then redid in black and added an LDP / Vegas lights strip carrier. So all glued up and skins added.  I removed the arms and painted.

The complete reassembly was a pain.  Having to thin the spacers to the right heights, have all elements aligned to be able to do up the all the grub screws, and insert the spacers, and the belts, and the servo, all inserted in the right order, the right way up.  So all in, but scratched all over. :(  And not clearing nicely, and rather strangely, sitting differently, so a little filling later they were opening and closing pretty well, paint was touched in, and all working well.  Good enough for this job. :)

And the Vegas lights should be better concealed on X2 :D

This is probably easier on an Ali frame, but without being able to strip the UAC the install was very tricky and tight.  Now it is installed, the Arms open beautifully and the mechanics of the mech are superb. 

I spotted i had missed the front power coupler.  So masked and painted that too.  So the whole droid is now externally done. :)  

James is working on the dome motor hub for the A&A gear and the pitman i mounted in the top ring.  I hope he will update you on that when complete. :)

Not too much more to go. :D

Master Utility Arms

These have been bugging me for a while.  I ordered the Servo City shaft adaptors and they took nearly a month to come.  I had already bought the recommended HS-65MG servos so finally once i had the dome done, i could crack on.

I had broken one of the Dremel hand shafts not long ago.  So i got the new one running and cut up the old one.  The centre was just about perfect for the flex shaft in the arm.  So I cut 2 35mm sections and cleaned up the ends.  Then drilled out the brass couplers provided and the servo adaptors to take the 3mm shaft.

The brass bits were great, so easy.  The servo couplers were a nightmare.  The Allen key provided didn't fit the grub screws and the screws didn't fit the adaptor.  So i ended up just gluing the shaft into the adaptor, but the hole is tight and almost threaded, so should hold ok.  But only after a lot of playing.

Grease was needed on everything, it really helped, and also the plastic bush when fully pushed on flared due to the ali of the paw doing so.  So that was trimmed by about 1.5mm in length, with that it rotated quite easily under servo power.  But took a bit of playing to find the right answers.

So with that i painted one arm and sorted the other's mech.  Then painted the 2nd arm. :)

Today i reassembled the painted arm.  The long grub screw for the paw to bush didn't want to go in, so i cut it short and it only grips one side.  It runs beautifully. :) Shame about the wiring colours, i will have to connect these to correct extensions in the body, but it was the only wire of that thickness i had.

2nd one can wait another day. This one is a day older and the clear is still a little soft.

R2-X2's Dome

We have the Crash dome with the carbon fibre panels.  It is a really nice strong piece, beautifully made.  It is very hard to tell it is a fibreglass dome.

But offering up the standard hinges, the results weren't great.  So we decided to use the CNC and try to make some to suit the thicker dome and the lack of inner layer on the doors.

Starting with the point we wanted the pie door to stop, we designed a new style of hinge, with much greater opening and clearance of the opening.  We then did the same for the lower doors.  After doing the 9 doors, but just hinges, i dropped the dome, busted 3 hinges and proved my dome strength theories and my hinge weak point ones too.  So i redesigned the profile to have holes not grooves, Mk2 is SO much stronger.  I then sorted the servo arm and connection and ran a few tests.

Then i got all 4 pies reinstalled and setup the servos, at that point i couldn't resist another video. :)

So 9 servos, hinges and doors sorted.  But i had a carbon top panel, so it would be rude not to add it as a door too, right?  ;)

James cleaned up and assembled the other 2 HP servo mounts and i cut the top mount to allow the top hinge to clear.  I then test fitted all the logics and any other dome bits.  Once happy i started preparing all the elements and getting ready to paint.

Painting took almost a week.  The carbon panels are a lot of work to get a good finish.  Several filler and primer cycles eventually got them to a pretty good standard.  Then i gave the white bits 4 coats of stain, and the green/black 3-4 of colour and at least 2 thick clear coats. 

The dome stripes was the tricky bit.  I mounted the dome to the Rockler and made a bracket to hold the pencil.  Then slowly rotated the dome marking as i went.  Then using flexible masking tape i masked all the bits to be painted green, filled in the rest with blue masking tape and set to it.

Painting went well, stripes are great, but the blue masking leaked.  So I had to clean quite a bit of the white, but luckily you would have a hard time spotting the fix.  The rear PSI area could be better, but im happy with it, overall it is really crisp and clean.

So here he is, all elements now glued in and ready for the wire up and electronics, :)

Body and UAC work - Delayed update

This is all work i did a while ago, but forgot to update the blog!  :D

I moved the pivot points on the front suspension, it did the opposite of what i expected. :(  The change in wheel size and addition of the caster has altered the physics. :D  So the caster needs to be moved forward and i think the shock needs to go back to where it was.  But currently he isnt riding like he should.

So i stripped the ankle, remounted the caster and lowered the mech.  It is riding a little high, but it is so much better.  New legs for the caster and a slight height adjustment should get the ride height about right and give a little more firmness to the shock effect.  But we might test with it as it is.

Also need to rework the drive mounts a touch, half the bolts have now threaded on the small depth plate, may look at adding some inserts.  But that can wait.

Back on with the main build and continued working up.  I cut some styrofoam and made a battery holder, and bonded that in.

I then added the speaker back mounts and velcros for the Boom Mat covers.


Then i did the volume knob and octo port.  Same setup as BHD.  But all bonded into place. :D

I was then thinking about the electronics.  I didnt want to add too much weight, but wanted it neat and easy to work on.  So i decided to mount all the electronics into a box.  This may change, but it will be ok for now.

I might redo this.

The UAC (Utility Arm Carrier) has been bothering me.  I have the RotoPod mechs and Master arms, with the twist paws.  So it had to be set well and be a reliable set up.  The mechs are designed for the COM8 frames, so i borrowed the JAG plans and manually transferred them to Cubify.

I cut out the old one. and enough of the top ring to allow the new one to be fitted.

After a few test runs i ended up with a nice solid frame and mount.  But the bearing were nasty, so i ordered some more, they rob a little space, but still fit fine, it is a little tighter.  The assembly isnt the easiest, but is possible. :)

I glued it all with the arms in place, so they sit pretty straight, there maybe a small amount of adjustment of the skins needed but dry for they seem fine without paint.  Im yet to sort the spacer heights, so fun still to be had, but I haven't looked at the master arms yet so will wait to bond it to the droid.  I hope all 4 servos and the LDP lighting will be tested before it goes in forever.

This is the last prototype, before i redid it in black. :)

I had the CBI panel in black, but added top and bottom parts to make a shallow pan for it.  The panel sits about 1-2mmm from the edges and so it quite prominent in the space.  I like it. :)

For the big door i wanted to leave the options open.  I added a pan surround and bonded it in, then made my own blank SK10 panel surround and a back plate.  I did a horrible job on the glue, so painted it, and wedged it into the back.  I will replace this once i know what im doing with the touch screen pad.  Again my gluing was horrible on the surround.  But i found some carbon  fibre vinyl and covered the mistake quite nicely.

So body almost done.  Some electronics and some testing then we can bond in the UAC and the top ring and get testing. :D  There has been more weight added than id like, but hey ho. ;)