(11-05-2012) Periscope arrives

It's been a long time since I updated my blog, but R2 is still progressing.  Most of the dome work is done, but I do have a few more holes to cut in the inner dome and that always makes me nervous.

The center foot is all assembled and the outer feet have been shipped.  I still need ankles, but then R2 will be able to stand. 

I also ordered R2's test paint last week.  I ordered a powder coat gun and some different powder paints to try to match the look of R2.  I'm looking to find a cheap kitchen stove or toaster oven to cook the parts and do some testing.  I've always wanted to try powder coating and R2 is going to be my first try.  Getting some blue on the dome will really make it look like R2, but the all aluminum look is really cool too.

Last but not least, the new periscope arrived last night.  It was quite a complicated piece to assemble, but it looks great and it will be a great addition to the dome when the time comes.

(09-16-2012) Working on the electronics

This weekend I spent some time working on the electronics.  I spent a loooooooong time trying to get the Syren 10A controller to work, but it seems to be a lost cause.  I had planned to hook it up to the dome motor and control dome rotation, and maybe at some point that will happen, but for now I have the dome motor being controlled by a Sabertooth 2x12.  The controls are through a C6C from cheap control systems, and is currently being controlled with a Playstation controller (wired controller, the wireless controller I have didn't work).

I also worked on my Teeces v3.0 lights some more.  They seem to work fairly well with a good solid 5v from the bench power supply, but on battery they get a bit flaky.  I still had no luck in updating the sketch to v3.1 on the Arduino that came with it.  I ordered a new Arduino to do some playing with, and to hopefully figure out what I'm doing wrong.

If I can get the right screws/bolts today I will have the dome motor mounted.  I can't wait to have the dome rotating and the lights working reliably.  This will be a huge part of the electronics finished.

(08-26-2012) Hello, my little friend...

Here is the current state of R2.  The radar eye is just sitting there, the front PSI (the red light) needs lots of work still and the dome needs cleaning and polishing.  Still, it's good to see Artoo coming together.

I reworked a few issues with the lighting.  Some of the header pins were the wrong shape and the wire connectors were loose, so I replaced them on both the Arduino and the PSI boards to keep this from causing issues in the future.

I also tried to upload a later version of the sketch onto the Arduino, and for some reason I couldn't get it to upload.  Everything looks right, and the lights on the Arduino and the USB interface flash when I hit the upload button.  I keep getting a "not in sync" error, and I"m not sure what I'm doing wrong.  Paul, aka Joymonkey, has been very helpful in troubleshooting the problem - as well as packaging up these great lighting kits for the club.

(08-25-2012) More dome work...

Saturday I did more work on R2's dome.  All of the holoprojectors and the front logic displays are mounted to the inner dome.  

I ran into one small problem.  The lights were working perfectly until I installed them in the dome.  Once the front logic displays were installed I had to power them up and see the blinking lights in the dome, but they wouldn't work.    Blast it!

I am running an old version of the Teeces kit where all of the lights are in a long single chain, which is prone to problems.  I swapped out the longest cable in the chain for a shorter one and viola!  The lights all started working again.  Looks like I'm going to be soldering some wires onto my Arduino and changing the sketch to support parallel chains of lights.

All in all, a fairly productive day - even though the dome doesn't look that much more complete.  I was hoping to get all of the lights installed and to finally see R2's dome all lit up, but it wasn't to be.

(08-23-2012) More holes...

Last night Jody and I cut some more holes in the inner dome.  There is still a lot of filing to do to get everything to fit, but it's starting to look more like R2 all the time.  If all goes well I might get some lights mounted in the dome this weekend.

(08-21-2012) Holoprojector Holes

I have been dreading cutting the inner dome ever since I got it.  The worst part for me was making that first cut.  Here is how I cut the HP holes in my dome...

 Step 1:  After deciding where you want the holes and marking the hole and the center point, make a rough cut inside of the marks.  I drilled a hole in the center and then used a hole cutter (utterly useless - I won't be using it again, maybe next time I'll just use a hole saw) and a dremel with cutting disks (much better results - but hard to control).

Step 2:  Use a D shaped file and file until you think you're close.  Then test fit your HP housing to see how it fits.  I found that once I was close the HP housing would pivot on the narrowest part of the hole and I could file these areas until I had a perfectly round HP hole. 

Step 3:  Once a good fit is achieved and the hp housing sits flat inside the inner dome, put on the outer dome and look at your work.  Drink a cold one in celebration of a job (well?) done.

After doing the front and rear holoprojector holes I'm far less worried about the remaining holes.  I want to mount the two HPs to get the domes aligned before making any further cuts.  Hopefully this will help in making sure everything is lined up as well as I can get it.  I don't think the remaining holes will be too bad, except for the rear PSI.

(08-04-2012) More work...

I worked on sanding and polishing the dome some more on Saturday.  It seems I'm never satisfied with the results.  If this keeps up I'm going to go with a matte finish on the dome.

This weekend I also spent some time wandering about Lowe's and found some hardware to mount the skirt to the COM 8B frame.  It looks great!

And lastly, I have been investigating paint.  My current thoughts are to get some transparent blue powder coat and try it out.  This blue looks like it might be something close to what the R2.0 guys did with their blue.  The only down side to this is that it may be too durable and make it hard to weather the blue effectively (show paint chips with metal underneath).