The R2D2 builders club had a room where we displayed around 80 droids and got to hang out with other builders. It was a good time meeting builders in the club from all around the world. We all had a very good time and I learned a lot talking to the other builders. Also had a good time with the 501st attending the "bash" at the Doubletree. We were lucky to meet up with a couple members in our local garrisons to have a few drinks and talk.
The highlights of the convention for us were the droid races and the droid parade in addition to wrangling R2D2 among all the convention attendees .... especially the kids. If I had a nickle for every smile that R2 generated, I'd just about be able to retire.
My R2D2 performed flawlessly until the last day when I was unhooking my charging cable. I made a mistake in designing that cable and made it where it could short out when disconnecting it from the charger. Which is exactly what happened on Sunday morning before the droid parade. The short started a small fire in R2 with a lot of smoke and melted wires and a melted switch. Since the switch melted, I had to pull the hot wires out manually to stop the short. But by this time the battery wires to the switch / charging unit were completely melted and fried. These were thick wires too ! After picking the melted plastic out of the circuits, I borrowed some wire and bypased the switch to power on R2. Fortunately all my main circuits were protected and all the important electrical components were intact. I was able to run R2 for the rest of the day but with no on/off switch. I had to manually disconnect from the battery to shut it off.
Another lesson learned. I'm going to redesign the charging port to be a little safer.
Here's a few pictures and a link to the droid parade. I'm the guy who has his hand in a brown leather bag controlling his droid.
1 comment:
Hey, there's that group picture that absolutely nobody told us about!
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