New R2 ankle bracket design and new electronics goodies

After spending a few hours every night experimenting with different designs, I found a design that looks like it will work great.  The design was first made out of paper and then transferred to sheet metal.  After a few experiments, The design looks very sound.  I found a comment on my blog from Gary Cooke who used a similar design and I'm glad he mentioned that he used an 18 degree angle for the wheel platform.   I went with that angle and it worked out perfect mounted to a standard "JAG" aluminum ankle.

The next phase will be to reinforce this design by welding more metal around it.   The current bracket is only 22 gauge sheet metal so I need to add more metal for strength.  The fiberglass foot shells are also going to need a bit of work to fix the cracks and holes.  But the end result will be a stable front end on this droid.  If this hadn't happened then I could have taken R2 to a film festival event tonight where John Travolta would have been a guest.  Oh well ... better to do it right than rush and be sorry.

I also received a package this week with the J.E.D.I. controller and electronics that electronic genius  Scott Gray designed.  I got on the list to get this when it was still in the "idea" stage 3 years ago.  Amazing electronics that will allow me to programatically control R2 using a language Scott made called "JawaScript"  It basically allows the RC controller to control many actions with one controller and not limited to the standard 6-7 channels that most controllers have.  The chip allows you to have an almost unlimited control factor with the RC controller by having the J.E.D.I. controller board translate the signal from the transmitter.

Looks like the Giraffe will have to wait for another month or two before getting any attention..