Update #1 - electronics

I'll do this a step or two at a time, to keep it simple :)

First upgrade was to the sound system. If you recall, I was using a pair of USB powered laptop speakers running on 5v.
At DCon I quickly realized that would NOT be sufficient for any larger venue. So I hit the 'Bay and picked up a pair of speakers and an amplifier.

Here's removing the old setup:


And the new speakers:


these are directly behind the front vents, and can be seen from down low, but they are shiny, so they kind of fit...

My new amplifier:


and the re-arranged layout on the "vox" board:


and the board in place:


I think the total cost of that upgrade was about $35...the speakers and the amp were pretty inexpensive.
I'd also recommend if you get that type amp, you make sure the power lead is included. Mine was, but it was the only auction that specified the cord was included.

Next up, I decided to get away from the old 72Mhz telescoping antenna that my Futaba had.
I checked out several links from Astromech.net and decided to go with the:

Spektrum DX6i and the BR6200 from the Robot Marketplace. Once I figured out which channel to reverse, I'm running like a champ again!

That's good for now...I'll post about rebuilding the ankle later, since it's much more picture intensive.

Blog updates!

Updates are coming...be patient! Here in the next day or two I'll have some stuff to post.

The work is done, it's just the posting that takes some time...

Quick update about upgrades

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.

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.

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!

Ankles locked, footshell doors on, and shoulder hubs in

So like the title says, did some of the last remaining tasks to get Artoo ready for DCon!

Started off by pencilling in the outlines of the ankles to decide where to drill, then drilled an 11/64" hole, and then screwed some 10-32 2" bolts into the holes.







Also managed to get the doors on, which isn't exactly as easy as it might sound. The right footshell was slightly out of square or something, and the motor mount was in the way ever so slightly. I had to grind a trench across the back of the door to get it to fit. Don't have pics of the trench, but I do have pics of the doors in place:





Also saved the shoulder hubs for last of all, because once they are in place, they are a supreme pain to get back out. But I went on faith and put them in anyway..

Assembled pics!

Here's pics of the 99.95% complete droid now sitting in my living room!











TADAA!

As you can see, all that's left is putting in the shoulder hubs, pinning the ankles so the feet won't move, and putting the doors to the footshells on!