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Thursday, September 24, 2009

Robot room gets a new roommate

After years of sitting in my garage, R2D2 finally rolled into our living room last night (the robot room). The cat wasn't too sure and watched cautiously as R2 drove through the house trying to navigate the tight doorways. When he finally came to rest in the robot room, the lighting and ambiance of that room made R2 look amazing. We sat and enjoyed the moment as our little droid lit up the room and just looked cool as can be.

However I think one of my upgrades didn't take so well. The wire couplers for the motors use a lighter gauge wire than I originally had. These go directly from the foot motors to the speed controller. Maybe it was my imagination but it seems as if R2 doesn't have the power he did before the upgrade. The problem was even more evident on the carpet in our home. So I'll need to rework that just to be safe. Reminds me of some early power problems R2 had when he first started driving around ... and that also had to do with lighter gauge wire.

I've also been working on a welding booth in my limited garage space. I'm trying to make it safe as can be so I don't burn the house down. I purchased fireproof welding blankets that will ring around my welding area. I'll also get a protective welding screen so I don't burn the neighbors eyes if they happen to look into my garage. And protective clothing and fire extinguishers. Then I will begin the next big project. After the garage gets rearranged our new outdoor robots will slowly begin coming to life.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jim,
I was just curious which project you take the most pride in. I know you've built several robots, and I was wondering which was your favorite.

Thanks, Gary

Jim said...

Gary without a doubt the most pride I take is in the B9 robot which was my first. It's the project that gave me confidence to build and prodded me to learn new building skills. I also learned that whatever I messed up could usually be fixed.

R2 was challenging but as I bought most of the parts I don't take that much pride in it even though it's the most functional. And it' by far the funnest of the robots when you take him out into public.