Date: February 26, 2007
Total hours spent today: 7

Looks like I'm back on track after a couple of "down" days. By "down", I mean depressed! Well, depressed about R2. Which isn't really that big of a thing. All things considered, I'm doing pretty well in life :)

Before we go any further, check out the latest youtube video of R2 walking, talking, and head spinning.

I'm nearing the tail end of my latest assembly. I'm already committed to the idea of tearing him apart once this is done, as I've encountered a ton of stuff along the way that requires attending to. But time will tell. There's a chance I could do the remaining tasks with him assembled, it'll just be easier to do it with him apart.

Here's a picture of him all put together. Though none of the dome details are in place, he's essentially assembled. All of the "holes" in his torso are going to be filled with panels that will probably be glued in place from the inside. Still got to do the coin slots too.

I had an interesting problem once I got him all assembled. His rear wheels did not touch the ground. Seeing as how his rear wheels are the drive wheels, I figured that was important. I sat there scratching my head trying to figure out what had changed since the first assembly, when everything worked. After about an hour of digging and thinking of ways to fix it, I realized that it was the height of the center foot. A while back, I had raised the center foot support panel into the inside of the torso. This made R2 recline at the proper angle. I did this testing without the drive system in place. So I guess what I didn't notice was a VERY slight angle on the two outer feet that would have lifted the drive system off the ground. So when I assembled the whole thing, this became apparent. I ended up taking out the struts that were setting the center foot plate about a half inch into the torso. So while R2 is not reclining at the correct angle, he is able to walk. I'm on the fence about what to do about this. It wouldnt' really be much trouble at all to re-lathe those struts so they were half the height. Thus allowing R2 to recline properly while still engaging the drive. Minor problem, but that's the type of stuff I discovered during this assembly.

And let me "soap box" for a moment about assemblies. I recommend them. Do it frequently. I've been so buried in sub systems and supports and whatnot that I haven't had the opportunity to see how all these little pieces will work together. I'm LUCKY in a number of ways that as many things worked as well as they did. Working on stuff in isolation is dangerous, as there are so many other factors of systems interplay that you may not consider. So frequent and regular full assemblies help with this.

But enough about that.

I took some pictures of the innards of R2. Please note that this is all temporary. When I get all the kinks out and get everything in the proper place, I will clean up the insides and make sure it all looks pretty.

This is of course the back side of R2, with his rear door open. (you perv!!). You can see the huge batteries at the base of the body, held snugly in place by my custom battery harness. Above the batteries are the sound system (suspended upside down) and the drive system. Next to the drive system is the motor controller for the dome.

Top view. Up at the top of the photo are the speakers in the custom mount that I milled out. Underneath the cross bar is the drive system. Down on the lower right you can see the flywheel that spins the dome.

And here's a better view of the back side. A little closer in.

At the end of the evening, he was running around the shop like there was no tomorrow. Oh, another hint for all you droid builders: TIGHTEN THOSE SHOULDER BOLTS before doing a test run. I forgot, and he almost spun out and crashed and died!! Still, it was a really fun evening at the shop to have him walking around and talking and everything. Very cool.