Well, since getting home from DragonCon, I haven't started tearing R2 down yet, just kind of leaving him in the corner as eye candy at the moment.
I have been planning upgrades and getting started with ordering.
The first upgrades are to the sound system. At the Con, if we weren't in the room or in an elevator, you couldn't hear R2. At all. So I've ordered an amplifier, and a pair of speakers. those weren't the speaker's I'd intended to buy, the set I wanted was $5 more, but I wasn't paying enough attention and ordered these. That's just under $30, which should make him PLENTY loud enough :).
The other upgrades are waiting on JAG to get around to doing runs of the parts I want. I need steel feet - all 3, feet side details, an ALU center ankle and some ALU battery boxes, which Ethan is supposed to be looking at running sometime this month. With just those parts alone, i'm probably looking at increasing the $$ in my droid by as much as 33%...
anyway, that's all for now. Still planning my new center ankle holder, but can't actually do anything until I take him apart to get measurements.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
And the bad news from DCon...
Friday morning, while moving Artoo from the Marriott to the Hyatt, I found this in the street:
Yup, that's right. A pothole. Just a small one, but devastating all the same. I was pushing Artoo across the street, and the casters in the center foot hit the pothole and stuck. Since I was pushing, Artoo stood up on the center foot, and the left side of the support for the ankle collapsed. The footshell shattered into pieces, and there's a big chunk of the oak inner foot missing.
Artoo ALMOST did a nosedive, and it was all I could do to keep him from sliding on his face down the street. People were running from all directions to help, but I managed to keep him upright.
Here's some shots of the damage to the supports:
One day this week I'll begin "tearing" Artoo back down to the frame. Naturally I'm not looking forward to that, as I'm sure you can imagine.
I'll have to get lots of measurements to build a new strong and sturdy ankle and supports out of hardwood.
I also found that Artoo does NOT like running on hotel carpet at 12v. After I check some specs on the speed controller and the dome motor, I'm going to do a rewire on the drive system to 24v.
Also, I'm going to have to pull the laptop speakers out of the frame, and get a car stereo speaker and an amplifier. Artoo was audible in the room and in the elevators, but out in the general areas of the con, he might as well have been whispering.
And of course, I'll be watching for the JAG runs of new metal feet, and possibly an alu center ankle. So, just when I thought I was done, now I've got all sorts of things to do.
Yup, that's right. A pothole. Just a small one, but devastating all the same. I was pushing Artoo across the street, and the casters in the center foot hit the pothole and stuck. Since I was pushing, Artoo stood up on the center foot, and the left side of the support for the ankle collapsed. The footshell shattered into pieces, and there's a big chunk of the oak inner foot missing.
Artoo ALMOST did a nosedive, and it was all I could do to keep him from sliding on his face down the street. People were running from all directions to help, but I managed to keep him upright.
Here's some shots of the damage to the supports:
One day this week I'll begin "tearing" Artoo back down to the frame. Naturally I'm not looking forward to that, as I'm sure you can imagine.
I'll have to get lots of measurements to build a new strong and sturdy ankle and supports out of hardwood.
I also found that Artoo does NOT like running on hotel carpet at 12v. After I check some specs on the speed controller and the dome motor, I'm going to do a rewire on the drive system to 24v.
Also, I'm going to have to pull the laptop speakers out of the frame, and get a car stereo speaker and an amplifier. Artoo was audible in the room and in the elevators, but out in the general areas of the con, he might as well have been whispering.
And of course, I'll be watching for the JAG runs of new metal feet, and possibly an alu center ankle. So, just when I thought I was done, now I've got all sorts of things to do.
DragonCon '09!
How do you choose from the 100s of pics...
That's some of the best...here's a link to the rest of the pics:
Click here!
That's some of the best...here's a link to the rest of the pics:
Click here!
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