New Gadget

As you can see in the Movie Pic, There's a Gadget coming out of R2's wide door to the right of the vents. Now I have no idea what this thing is called and I've never seen anyone else build this part, So I'm giving it my best shot. I started with some circles I cut and then skinned them with Polystyrene. I had a few junk parts that seem to give me the basics for the gadget.

It's in the rough stage right now and I'm still not up to speed after the surgery, But I'm trying to get back to normal.

My Friends

Thank you!!!!!
Jason, Victor, John, Johnathan, Aaron!!!!
Thank you so much for the flowers, I'm in allot of pain and can bearly walk.
The surgery went fine except for the fact they had a problem waking after the surgery.
They were starting to worry.
I don't know when I'll be back, But Thank you so much for thinking about me.
I'm going to lay back down now, So if I don't respond don't worry.
My friends, I'll be thinking about you guys :o)

My Last Post

This will be my last post for awhile.
I will be having surgery this Friday and will not be working on R2 for quite some time.
It may take a month for me to recover from the surgery and get back on my feet.
I will miss everyone and working on R2 and Brenda's R3 :o(
I'm trying today and tomorrow to get my notes together, So when I return to R2
I won't have forgotten where I stopped.
Don't forget me guys.

Dome Power

Hey, I managed to get the Slip ring powered up without burning the Slip ring up.

So, I made a new video of the lights working and they're powered by the Slip. I can't turn the dome yet because I need to modify my dome connector mount. Most of my lights are 12v. except for the Holo 9v. and the rear Logic is 24v. Now the Vex Micro will be powered by the Slip also, Which makes me nervous about it's power demand. Down in the body I have 2-12v. batteries that will only power the accessories and I have some Dc/Dc power converters that will help me with the different voltage. I'll post more pics soon.

Slipring Mounting

Here's a video of how I'm mounting my Slip ring connector.

This is not exactly the way I wanted it to work, But I couldn't find a better place to mount the connector. The problem this causes, The dome itself will not separate from the dome ring as easily as it has been in the past. The wiring in the dome will connect to the female connector and the male connector will run through the body as a power source. If I need to separate the dome and the dome ring, I will have to unbolt the female connector from the dome ring. This is not really a hard task, But it sure was nice to grab the dome and slide it off the ring.

I'm not sure if most builders separate the dome and ring much anyway. When I sit the dome back on the body, I will be able from the back of the body to bolt the dome to the bearing using 4 wing nuts and then connect the 2 connectors together.

Slipring

Here's the slipring I'm working on and I'm not sure if I'm doing this right.

I don't know allot about Amperage and Voltage, So I wouldn't copy me on this project. The Slip ring wires are suppose to hold 2 amps and the 24 pin connector pins hold 3 amps.

So what I did was: I connected 2 wires each to 3 pins as a positive and the same for the ground. Now I don't know if this will support my Vex, But we'll find out soon.

The other connections will be soldered as I need them in case I'm doing this wrong. The other connector is for the dome itself to power everything in the dome. This Slip ring will allow the dome to rotate and receive it's power from the body batteries. More to come.

General Update

I have'nt been doing much lately and I'm still working on the Periscope setup.
Here's what I have been working on:
I have my Slipring now and I'm able to do some wiring. This is my current setup.
I'm using the 12 ch. remote from Ebay and my Vex Micro to work almost everything in the dome. Here's the layout-
Ch1. = PSI Lights on/off Ch.2 = Small Logics on/off
Ch3. = Alternates Small Logics to logo
Ch4. = Front Holo Light on/off
The above works with the 12ch directly connected. The below will be in juction with the Vex Micro.

Ch5. = Front Holo movement - "Uses" motor port 1 and Dig. 16
Ch6. = Periscope up/down - motor port 2 and Dig. 15,14,13,12
{Periscope uses 4 Dig. ports - 1 activates - 2 limits - 1 light switch}
Ch 7. = 2 Pies by 1 Y-connector - motor port 3 and Dig. 11
Ch8. = 1 Pie between the 1st two - motor port 4 and Dig. 10
Ch9. = Lifeform Scanner Pie - motor port 5 and Dig. 9
Ch10. = Lifeform Scanner - motor port 6 and Dig. 8,7,6,5
{Works the same as the Periscope setup}

This layout may change as I go along, But I'm using it as a guide to help me.

Lifter Top

I started working on the top plate for the lifter.

As you can see it's in the rough stage now and I have allot of filling to do. The Periscope will fit through the plate and the 4 holes are for the Aluminum rods to mount from the bottom plate through the slider and bolt to the top plate.

The flat area to the right is where the lift motor shaft will have a bearing. Once I get this cleaned up, I'll post some pics.