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Date: September 26, 2007
Days left until R2LA V: 3
Another big evening of building, and the end is really in sight now. I'm positive I'll be ready for Saturday.
The thing that's been blocking progress for a couple of days now is this cube:
This sits on top of the leg strut, and is too wide to fit properly into the booster cover. In an ideal world, I would have sanded down the booster cover prior to painting so that it would fit. I didn't. So now I have to sand down this cube. The bummer is that a solid cube of aluminum is much more difficult to take down to size than a big chunk of resin. If I had a mill, it would be a snap.
I spent about a half an hour using sand paper and metal files to try to get it smaller, but I just wasn't making any progress. I saw this as a golden opportunity to purchase a piece of equipment I've wanted for a long time now.
Ladies and Gents, let me introduce my new Ryobi Combo Sander. Nice!
It made short work of the cube, and within 20 minutes, I had the final strut assembled and the booster in place.
It didn't take much longer to do a repeat on the other side. Though it's dark outside now!
I spent some time fidgeting with the battery hose connectors, and came up empty handed. No solution has yet to present itself that will work predictably. I may just let this slide for R2LA, and hope to pick up some tips while there. Not a big deal though, honestly.
I wired up the dome motor driver, and did some more connectivity work on the sound system. It's all set! I'm not sure if what I've cobbled together is the most robust solution, or even a good one, but R2 works. He's on a circuit breaker, so I feel a lot safer about not blowing out all of the electronics if I hit a bump in the road or something. And I mean that literally, not figuratively.
I drove R2 around the garage for a bit last night, checking to see how all of the functionality works in harmony. The dome still twitches a bit, despite my best efforst to twist all the internal wiring. I may try moving the dome controller to a different location inside. Minor issue though.
Here's a picture of the near complete R2:
And because he was looking and acting so good, I made another movie and put it on youtube. Check it out here.
Updated list of remaining tasks.
Updated list for the electronics and drive system
The remaining items on the list almost don't really need to be done. I'll probably do the hose reinforcement. I did three hoses already, only one remains. That item is almost finished.
Either way, he's looking really great!
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