Motor mounts

Tonight I decided to cut my fiberglass feet and fit the motors and wheels into the allotted area. The battery box will be fabricated by me and made to fit over the part of the motor sticking out. This is another of those projects that I keep thinking about and wondering how I'll get it to work. So what better way to dispel those fears .... power tools.

I feel like I'm just plain lucky building lately. Some aluminum brackets I had cut at an aluminum shop for motor mounts fit perfect. And I thought I had them cut wrong after I bought them. The cuts I made to the feet were also very well done and I didn't do much measuring. Some but not a heck of a lot.

I also played around with the skin snaps Daryl Mueller makes as well as the skin mounting blocks that Daniel D. makes. Daryl's are very nice but I don't think they'll go on the upper part of the skins above the shoulder of my A&A Frame. I sure wish I had an aluminum frame. This thing seems so fragile.

I've been real tired when I get to the part of the night when I type this blog. So sorry if it's a little cut and dry lately.

Ready to glue skins

Cutting and trimming/filing the skins was actually pretty easy now that I'm done. Tonight I did the back inner and outer skins. Now they're ready to glue together. I bought 15 mini clamps at Home Depot (37 cents each) so with those and my other mini clamps and clothes pins the skins should be together by the weekend. I just need to consider what type of glue to use.

After that, they're getting mounted to the frame and painted. I love it when a plan comes together.

Today I also stopped by the aluminum shop and picked up a couple pieces of 1/8" aluminum plates to make some motor mounts out of. Not sure they will work but I'll see what I can fashion. That's going to be difficult with the size of the motors and wheel. The feet will have to be cut and enlarged for them to fit. The advice I received was to have the wheel as far out (on the sides) as possible and as far to the rear that I can get.

Today I cut the remaining panels out of my Front skins and filed the edges down smooth. The skins are now just a shell of their original weight. An interesting process. Instead of using a hack saw to cut the larger areas out (where you can get a hacksaw blade in) I used a small diamond cutter with my rotozip (it wouldn't fit in my dremmel for some reason). Much easier than a hacksaw blade

Cutting aluminum skins

Keeping the momentum going is important to get an operational robot. So I try to get a little done every day if possible. Tonight I trimmed the parts out of my aluminum skins. At first it was difficult until I found the correct razor blade knife that allowed me to cut the tabs for the thin inner pieces. I made sure to label all the pieces and where they came from on the skin. I then stored them in a box. I got most of the front inner and outer skin trimmed and the rough edges were filed smooth.

I guess I need to start figuring out which doors I'm going to make that open and close. Laying the trimmed skins on the frame looked really cool. Enough for tonight ...

R2 standing on his own

Just as no two robots are alike, method and techniques are completely different from builder to builder. A lot of builders like to collect parts over a period of years and then begin to finish each piece just so. And then they will attempt to put it all together.

I'm more of a damn the torpedos, full speed ahead kind of builder. What I'm doing now is putting the droid together with a bunch of unfinished pieces. I'm fabricating the necessary parts to hold it all together using materials I have at hand. So far so good. Last night and today I fabricated a nifty front leg bracket out of some scrap aluminum I bought at an aluminum store awhile back. I also used pieces of 4x4 and 2x4 lumber. The real kick came when I turned him rightside up and let him stand on his own three legs. Then I temporarily attached the aluminum skins and balanced the temporary resin dome on his head. And then ... the XM radio station I was listening to started playing "Mr. Roboto". Cool.

I also finished creating the MegaCon DVD from pictures and footage from other attendees

Enthusiasm

Today I tackled my demons and decided to attach the arms to the A&A frame. Attaching the legs seemed intimidating to me. These fiber (mdf?)arms were not exactly correct for the A&A (the holes) so I used 5/16 instead of 1/2" bolts so the holes fit in the diameter of the arms.

Everything worked great first time .... well almost first time but I just had to turn around one part I installed backwards on the A&A frame.

So to fuel my R2 enthusiasm I popped the resin (temporary) dome on him and set a few resin parts in the frame. With his legs .... I can actually see a droid sitting on the bench. And that's what fuels enthusiasm. Keeping the enthusiasm strong allows the build to go a lot smoother and quicker.

Building an R2 one piece at a time

Ahhhhh the first pieces being worked for R2. I'm starting with the Utility Arms (as I reinforce the frame). Nothing real exciting here. Just a lot of sanding and filler. And then they will get mounted on the frame.

Also added new magnets to Bender's mouth. That way his cigar won't fall out so easily.

Weak R2 foundation

My secondhand A&A Frame is really in bad shape. It's almost like someone dropped it from a 3 story building at one point and then glued humpty dumpty back together. Since Saturday two more hunks of the frame fell off while moving it. I also realized that it's missing a big section in the front of the frame.

So last night in my workshop I looked at the frame and pondered my options. I could either buy another A&A Frame, use a wood tube, or try to find an aluminum frame. Aluminum frames are beautiful but are very expensive. After buying the custom NPC Motors and Vantec controller, my budget has pretty much been used up for the next couple months.

So I decided to try and salvage this frame by reinforcing all the weak points and build a front section out of MDF. I'm happy with the way the MDF reinforced the bottom so this shouldn't be too difficult and will make it stronger.

I got a new set of side feet and a center leg in the mail today. They are pretty good but will need a great deal of work. One of the feet has the gel coat coming off on one corner and the leg is missing part of the top edge. These feet are about the same as my other feet.

The more I get into this the longer my timeline extends to completion. A lot of these parts will need many tubes of glazing compound and bondo. It's hard for my ADD brain to keep from getting overwhelmed. I want to simultaneous solve all these problems at once so I need to come up with a fuzzy plan of attack this weekend.

Southern R2 Builders meeting

Saturday was one heck of a learning experience. It was a day of talking to other R2 builders and getting many questions that were floating around in my head answered. There was a wealth of experience over at Daniel D's house. Everyone had a great time and it seemed like minutes after we got there it was time to leave.

It's good to live in an area that has so many people enthusiastic and interested in building robots and droids. A very creative group.

Electronics that don't talk to each other

I tried hooking up the Vantec controller with the Vex module and the NPC custom made motors. Sadly, the Vex module wouldn't talk to the Vantec controller. Murphy's law of spending money applies here. I'm probably going to have to spend more to get this to work. And I'm already in the top of the spending zone.

I also did a little more to A&A frame by attaching the door. Now all it really needs is the styrene panels (which need to be made).

Therapy

Life is so full of stress that everyone needs a release of some sort. Mine happens to be in the garage with the smell of sawdust and some retro music.

Yesterday happened to be one of those days where therapy was much needed. As soon as I got home, I made a beeline for the garage. Ahhhhhh.

With the help of a new Dewalt jig saw, I fabricated a skirt block for a broken piece on my A&A Frame. I used a scrap piece of MDF I had onhand. A few mdf blocks were also cut to reinforce several other points on the frame. It actually feels pretty solid now. Before the threaded rods, I wasn't so sure.

After cutting and installing the threaded rods A large crack was patched with some aluminum pieces from the vex parts.

It looks like this A&A frame will work just fine. Tonight I'll install the door and get the shoulders ready to install.

Saturdays building events

A couple guys came over with their robots and robot parts and we tinkered and learned. Doug P. with his R2 and Scott brought his B9 head and 3' martian death machine. Doug answered a few of my R2 questions and so I'm slowly but surely figuring out the R2 build process. Hopefully I will soon get going on that project. I now have most of the primary electronics and most of the parts to make a mobile RC R2.

The Bender CNC table motor project is just about in the dumpster. After redoing it about a dozen times, I'm beginning to think Bender will remain a stationary robot. But it was fun trying. At least it got me motivated to fix the mouth and a few other parts of him.

This next Saturday a lot of builders are getting together and it should be a great time. There is going to be a lot of people there and most people are bringing their R2's or R2 projects.

I was hoping to have my A&A frame fixed (it's in rough shape with cracks and missing pieces) by Saturday but my @#%#% Ryobi jig saw junk is out of commission. So today I got a good quality DeWalt jig saw and hopefully tonight I'll have time to fabricate a few parts to at least get my frame up to snuff. I prefer building parts out of wood and decided R2's motor mounts will be made from wood. Aluminum is fine if you have the correct tools but wood works for me.

On the MegaCon front, I got some great footage from Trent so now I begin to edit the footage and stills into a video. Probably won't be ready in time for the Saturday event but no biggie.

Old man Bender

Guilt from my younger son prompted me to pull out the old knife and scribe out the mouth from Bender. Paul has been egging me on to fix Bender's mouth and remove the paper smile. And I knew he was right.

Cutting the mouth was a little tricky because I wasn't sure what was behind the styrene. As it turns out there was very little behind the mouth area. Some MDF on the top and the rest was just styrene that wrapped around the head frame.

I bought a few nifty dremmel attachments that allowed me to trim the MDF down about a half inch. I also had to pick up another orbital sander because the second identical piece of crap Craftsman sander I had disintegrated the same way the first one did. They were closed out for a reason I believe. Unfortunately I have about 80.00 worth of sandpaper discs (5" 8 hole sticky if anyone needs them) sitting on the shelf.

So now I need to consider the mouth backing to allow the magnetic cigar to work. Also I'm thinking about trying to slide a speaker into that area before I close it up.

Doesn't Bender look old with his mouth removed ... very funny.

Going on a Bender

I finally gave in and decided to make major modifications to Bender. After purchasing a surplus CNC table motor and realizing it was broken, I took it apart, drilled out rivets and then re-assembled it to get the thing working. The gears had jammed or something. I almost pitched it into the trash. To reassemble it, I used a tube of two part epoxy and it now works great.

The motor's purpose is to use as a base to turn Bender's head. Needless to say, I spent the entire day mounting the table to the head and gutting Bender's neck and Belly. It was very difficult because I built Bender to be a static statue ... never to be taken apart. It was near impossible tearing his stomach out and cutting into the torso area from the neck to run wires and attach something to hold the CNC unit up.

As usual, I go into these things with very fuzzy plans and no real idea what I'm doing. Fortunately everything usually turns out ok but in this case I'm kind of wondering. I got the head to turn using the controller. I will need to mount some stop switches to allow the head to only go left and right in automatic mode. But ... I'm not sure how that's going to be accomplished.

I'm sitting here Sunday night and this is one of those projects that already has snowballed. The nice clean garage I had straightened up on Saturday now looks like someone tossed in a few grenades. Tools and stuff strewn everywhere.

Cutting the stomach out of Bender busted my new Ryobi jig saw. That nifty chuckless blade changer fell apart and now the saw is useless ! I would have been better off getting an old fashioned jig saw that you use a screw to tighten the blade.

Like the rest of Bender, I only used recycled junk to build all the components for his movable head (except the CNC motor). An old Bunt pan is what is attached to the CNC and then screwed into Bender's head. I pulled the extruding tube of the bunt pan out and it will make a good Robot nose for a future project.

The Belly area is now accessible and can hold the electronics that will be required to make him move. If we're lucky a voice module could possibly fit in that area.

The other dreaded Bender project that I have been putting off is to cut out his mouth properly. It's something I just do not want to do. One slip up and ..... I can't even think about it.

Using Speed controllers with Vex robotics

Tonight I spent some time playing around with a Victor 884 speed controller that I interfaced to my Vex Robotics controller. The speed controller was tested with several motors and the results were fantastic. It ran well with a Dewert motor as well as to a surplus windshield washer motor that I had recently purchased.

The speed controller allows you to use any voltage motor with your robotic controller. The signal from the controller talks to the speed controller which does the interface with the actual motor. You supply the correct voltage to the speed controller which powers the motor.

I would like to use Vex to power my R2D2. That way I could not only use the radio controlled motion for it, I could also program the R2 to randomly move his dome back and forth as well as pop the periscope up and down periodically. I'm sure I can do all of that with what I have now. The speed controllers aren't cheap and are a little more than $100.00 apiece. But ... they sure do open doors with robotics when you need more power.

R2 envy

After spending time at MegaCon with some really cool R2's, I have come to the conclusion that I must build an R2 ..... NOW ! No matter that I have a dozen other projects swirling around in my brain and on the bench. R2 is now at the front of the list.

Now, building an R2 has always seemed a little daunting to me. It seems much harder than building the B9. More parts and less room to work with. The advantages on the other hand greatly outweigh the disadvantages. There's a large population of R2 builders and parts out there. Much more so than any other robot or droid. Plus I have some of the top R2 builders in the world in my backyard to ask questions of.

So for the last couple weeks, I've been reading and surfing the internet to figure out what I need to do to get my very own Radio controlled R2-D2. I'm also lucky to have most of the parts already.

At this stage I have several intimidation factors that are nagging me.

The first is how do you attach the aluminum skins to the A&A frame? I know I'll figure it out eventually but it's daunting to think about. And do you have to attach them so they are easily removed to work on the inside electronics?

The second big question in my mind is how to attach motors and speed controllers inside the two feet. Which motors to use and how to mount them with what gears, etc. Big intimidation factor here.

The third big question bouncing around my brain is how to attach the legs to each other and the frame. I have a vague idea how I could accomplish this but at the same time I'm nervous after reading about other bulders having their R2's legs splay outward under the stress of movement. An R2 doing the splits would be bad.

Besides that, I think I can handle the other build facets of an R2. Painting and prepping will take the most time. An aluminum frame would be nice but .... I can't really afford something like that now so I will make what I have work. I will use my vex controller and some speed controllers for the feet.

The Gort robot from the 30's I'm working on will still get some attention but will drop to a secondary project. And the other projects I was hoping to start soon ..... will just have to wait.