New Lifter System

After my Failed attempt to build a Vex type lift, I started building again.

The Vex system gained way too much weight, So I dropped the idea.

The new system I'm working on now is taking much longer to build and I'm watching the weight this time. The pics show the base under the X plate. This will be for mounting the drive to something attached to the dome ring and will also have a drive motor attached to the open area.

The X is where the Periscope will be bolted and you can see I reduced as much weight as I could and that's why it looks like an X. If I can find a threaded type rod I like, I will have 2 threaded rods across from each other as to even the force needed to lift the Periscope.

The 2 steel rods are there for support and keeping the drive smooth. You can see from the other pics, I'm really cutting this one close. As the Periscope will have just enough room not to hit the rods. The last pic shows a belt drive pulley I took from a Garge Door Opener. Althought it's to big for what I need, It gives the idea of where I'm going with this drive.

Lifter Video

Here's a small video of the system at work. The only thing I don't like about it so far is the noisy Vex motor.

Periscope Lifter

I just started building my Vex lifting device. This is the real rough stage of the build, But it will give you the idea of what I'm building. In the pics you can see the gearing and the Vex motor assy. along with the 2 slides that control movement. Now, I will have to cut the slides down to the correct length to fit inside the dome. I took a rough measurement inside the dome and it looks like I have about 10/11 inches to play with and so far this assy. is only 8 inches. I'm not sure how much lift is needed for the periscope, But it looks like the periscope is about 6 1/2 inches long. Once I get all the bugs worked out this should make a nice system. More to come.

Utility Arm Motors

Sorry the pics aren't that great, But it will show where and how this works. The Vex motor will push the slide system back/forward and this will be connected to the rod that is connected to the arm. All I need is a rod pivot to connect the arm rod to the slide. The sldie is very smooth and stable. The gearing is fairly quite and I'm happy with this. Once I get this completed, All you will see is the small rod in the arm area and I'll paint it to hide it from view.

Dome Drive Motor update

The drive assy. works, But the motor does not have enough power to turn the dome.
You would think it would be strong enough since a small Vex motor spins the dome with
no problem. It's just the Vex motor makes so much noise that I can't go that route.
If the noise is not an issue with someone else, Then the setup will work fine.
Here's a link to the next motor I will be trying. Other builders have used this motor
so I'm sure there's enough power in this one. Just got to redesign my setup.

Center Foot Casters

I'm following Jerry C's idea on the caster system.

I need to order the wheels that will be used in place of these hard plastic wheels.

I bought the casters from Home Depot and they're pretty nice and smooth turning.

Dome Drive Motor

Here's the motor I plan to use for my Dome drive.

I robbed it from the Satellite motor assy. It has more than enough power t o do the job. And you can see my shaft adapter that will connect to the angle drive in the previous post.

Dome Drive System

Here's 2 pics and a video of how I'm building my dome drive system. In the pics you can see how the setup looks. And mounted in the body you can see the short shaft that will have a motor I removed from the Satellite motors assy. I did this because I'm trying to save all available room in the chest cavity for other goodies. I know this assy looks flimsy, But Vex gears and components have not let me down yet. If you watch the video, You can see the shaft turning and that's where the motor will connect. I just need some more parts.

Charge Port Leds

Here's a video of the leds in the Charge port working. I used a Carl's Pic Flasher to make the leds flash. Once I get the front skins complete, I'll mount it in R2.

Now, Mine is not the same as Chris J's but it will do the trick. Chris' has allot of electronics in the background and his charge system is AWESOME. This is 1 of the Secrets I was going to install, But I was beat to the draw. Soon I will be working on some of the other ideas I have and more action will be incorperated into my R2.

Vex Goodies

Got some goodies today!!!

In the pic you can see the small Vex controller and the gear set I ordered. The small Vex will allow me to control some items that I don't need to be fancy like the Vex Micro.

In the video you can see the start of my Utility Arm servo. This will be hidden in the body and a small rod will be attached. As the assembly moves forward it will move the arms in/out. I've got allot of tuning to get it right, But it's a start.

More Charger Port

The Leds finally came in and I had Brenda set these for me in the fixture. I shake to much to get these into the correct position.

But we now have 5 rows of red and the red and green in the top right corner.

My charge port is alittle offset, But it was the best I could do.

Once the flashers come in, I'll wire this thing up and post a small video of them working.

MegaCon Trip

Our trip to MegaCon in Orlando was GREAT!!!!
Keith and Carolyn meet us there and made our trip even more fun.
The Con was packed full and the 501st was there and everyone really enjoyed them.
Doug Dixon had his R2 running around and the crowd went crazy. Next year Brenda and I will have our R2 and R3 up and running and will make our 1st big show.
There's more pics of the Con on Brenda's site www.r3t7.blogspot.com
Now I will return to working on R2 even harder than I have been.

MegaCon Video

Here's a smal video of the Con.

Easy Door Hang

Just to let everyone know, I use 3m doublesided foam tape to install the hinges on my doors.
I use this because, Sometimes it takes several trys to get the hinge set correctly.
The only down fall to the tape is it tends to let the door sag, But there's a solution for this problem. After you get the hinge set, Tape the door closed and around the hinge apply
Amazing Goop. This stuff dries clear and really has a strong holding power.
Now the hinges can not sag or release from the skins.

Random Work

I'm starting to jump around on different parts. As 1 part dries from painting and modding another item, I'm moving around a bit. I finally got my other Booster painted - Added a back brace to the Battery Plate - Hinged the door over the CPU Arm.

Led Video

Here's a short video of the Walgreen Leds.
If I can get more of these leds and the Carl's flasher, I think it will turn out nice.

Power Port Leds

Today, I started drilling the holes for the Leds to fit. I made the matix 4x5 (20 leds), They will all be red and will flash in this seq:

Center line - 2 lines out - 2 lines on the outter edge horizontal. The large hole is for the power plug and there will posibly be a green and red led in the top right corner.

The leds fit the holes perfect and the thinkness of the aluminum is correct for the leds to stick out very little. This gives me a flush design.

The electronics to do the flashing, I'm not sure what I'll use. Maybe a Carl's board can handle this seq. Now to sand, prime and install this project.

Power Port

This is the start of my Power Port that goes behind the small hinged door.

The plug I'm using is the same kind found on Currie Scooters. I allready had the 24v. chargers, So I decided to put them to work.

I will attach this aluminum bay to the back of the skins and add a plug to disconnect it if I need to remove the skins.

Battery Box Work

In these pics you can see the Main Batteries sitting on the plate. These are for the 24v foot motors and all I need now is to build something to keep them in place. You can see the Charge Port connector hanging down. This will be wired to the front small door for charging these batteries. I'm not sure yet how I will charge the 12v batteries. Maybe I'll hide another charge port for these. Since they will only be driving smaller acc. and lights, They should'nt need charging as much.

A&A Frame Mod

Here's the ideas I can up with to eliminate the rods in the belly area. After I hinged the Charge Port door and the door with the Restraining Bolt. I ran into a problem. The hinges were hitting the main body bolts that go from the top to the bottom of the frame. 1st I was going to move the rods, But the Arm Carriage depends on these rods for support and there's not enough room to move the rods. So, I used some aluminum to replace the support provided by the rods. The aluminum screws into the main frame and into the door sides and the frame rings. Now I have a clear body opening and the hinges have nothing to worry about.

Word Verify

I had to turn on this feature due to SPAMERS!!!!
I hate the idea that they will come on someone's blog and post bogus
links to garbage no one wants to see or read.
I have'nt done this in the past because it's kind of a pain for the reader
to post a comment and have to type in a special word.
Hopefully this will put a stop to this and building can continue.

Door Revised

I had to rehang this little door.

I normally use 3m foam tape for these doors,

But this little door needed a spacer for it to swing without hitting the edge. So I used a piece of aluminum between the hinge and the panel and this works fine now.

Battery Box

I started building my 24v. battery box. I only have the bottom together so far, But soon I will have the top and lower lip ready.

It sits just above the center foot mount and will add more support for the frame. I made the box alittle bigger than I need for the batteries so it will be easy to add larger batteries later.

You might not be able to see it very well, But I got the rear electronic board mounted back in the frame. It's the shiney area behind the batt. mount.

Charge Port Door

I finally got this door hinged and this will be the port for charging R2.

As you can see in the pic, I have a small magnet that will keep the door closed. I will not be adding a servo to this door because it will only get used for charging. I have a 24v. battery charger that has a aluminum connector for charging. The connector will get dressed up to look like the connector in the movie. It won't be exact, But it will be close. I also plan to build the charge pack and hide a actual battery charger inside. The only problem will be that the movie shows very little of this charger and I'll have to guess at some of the details.

Pie Panel Setup

Here's my setup for the Pie Servo.

It's not fancy but it gets the job done.

I used a Hitec MG85 servo and a 4-40 linkage to the hinges. The hinges I added a small threaded rod from hinge to hinge and this gave me something to attach the rod too.

The only thing I want to change is the treaded rod, I want to used some smooth rod so the arm does'nt grab the threads as it moves. Also the rod in the hinges has to be free floating or it will bind up the hinges as the move. As you can see in the video, The servo has more than enough power to open/close the pie panel.

Pie Panel Servo

Here's this weekend project.

I really don't know much about Servos, But I'm good at figuring things out that move.

I only have 1 Pie Panel moving and I need 3 more servos and linkage to get the other panels moving. Once I get all 4 Pies moving, I will have to make a decision on how to control all four.

Not being limited now with channels, But being limited by the Vex micro only having 6 usable servo ports. I may buy the Servo recorder from Servo City. This will allow me to use 1 channel on the Ebay 12 ch. remote. But the recorder will do the same movement of the pies each time I activate the recorder. More/Less, I can set the recorder to open pies 1-4, Then have it open 1 and 2, Then 3 and 4. This will give me a animation that will happen every time.

Latest Work

Not much to show as far as pics, But I got some work done this weekend.
I finished wiring the dome lights and all I need now is the Slipring for power.
Since the electronics are now mounted to the dome itself, I will remove the plate
on the dome ring.
Things I will be working on next:
I need to install and wire all the servos for the dome Pie panels.
I need to get the dome side panel open and install the servo on that panel.
The front Holo needs a servo to get it moving.
As soon as 4D Electronics gets the video panel I need for the side of the dome,
I can get it installed and it will flash red until someone touches it and then the
pics will show.
That should pretty much complete the dome.

The Vex Remote I was working on failed :o(
The idea works, But I was getting some interference and it was causing the servo to jump.
If it was done as a PC board I think it would have worked fine.

I still have alot of work to get done to the rest of R2 and I will be hitting it hard from here
on out.

Skins vs Arm

More Arm Drive Pics

Here's the last pics I'll show of the drive because I'm going tho mount it for good.

All the parts used to build this drive is in the Vex Kit. It's very simple and could probly be improved. There's only 2 things I wish would have turned out alittle different.

I would have liked to stay with the larger gear in the drive, It held alittle better.

And I would have liked to use a Vex servo instead of a Vex motor, I'll have to be careful not to lift the arm to far. I may add a limit switch to the drive, But that will have to be later.

At any rate, This drive will work in just about any frame because the A&A is limited on space.

Almost There

Ok, After I had to rebuild the drive again.

I had to reduce the gearing due to space inside the frame, But it's mounted and after some fine tuning I'll have this project beat. I'll post some pics of the final drive soon.

Reduced Size

I started reducing the size of my arm drive and also found ways to make it stronger and easier to mount.
How I managed to make the arm turn with the shaft, I used more Vex parts.
They have some little mounts that come with the kit and I cut 1 end off and mount them inside the arm. This gives me something for the shaft to bite into and lift the arm.
As you can see in the pic, I tried not to scratch the arm but I did. This area is hidden by the swing mount and should'nt be a problem.

Well it Moves

In the video you can see it has more than enough power to lift the arm.

Now, I need to reduce the size of the drive and get it mounted into R2.

More to come.

Arm Drive

This is my Proto for the Arm drive.

Not much, But I think it may work.

CPU Arm Mounted

Although I have some adjusting to do to the mount because it's hitting my skin's,
I think I got it post fitted. The mount is bolted to the frame and as you can see it can be raised to the correct position. Now just to fine tune and get it moving.
Just a note: I have a threaded rod inside the arm and I hope to figure out a way to make the arm spin and extend about 1 inch once it's at full attention.

CPU Update

I'm not giving up!!!!

Ethan, From the group had an idea sort of like this and I think it's going to work. I used a garage door opener front mount as a mounting bracket and drilled a pin hole through the arm.

This will give me a tight pivot point and since the cap is not part of the arm, I think I can make it work. This is just the start of a long process that hopefully will turn out O.K.

CPU Arm

The CPU Arm just seems to be too big for an A&A frame :0(

It's so tight that the hinges would have to be placed in certain areas and that's not good.

The whole idea of having the doors open was to use the openings for items to be placed.

I'm really dissapointed in this problem and not sure what to do about it. If I was going to build another R2 I could save the arm, But I don't have any plans to build another. So I may resale the arm to someone on the group. (CRAP!!!!!!)

It would just be a shame to let it just sit there and do nothing, I mean you could see it if the door opened but that's a expensive dead prop.

Rewiring Dome

I moved a few things to the dome instead of the deck I had built on the dome ring.

The reason I did this, I'm working on the Periscope and noticed alot of things were getting to close to the area where the lift for the Periscope will be mounted. Also I want my dome to have easy access, Once I get all the wiring complete there will only be 3 main power lines to disconnect and the dome can be lifted off the body.

I know weight in the dome area is something to keep in mind, But I'm trying to keep it balanced around the dome. There's still many items to add to the dome and I figure by time I add servo's and all the extra goodies the dome will be pretty full.

Remote Update

I attached the little black box on the back of my remote for the extra crystal.

And believe it or not, The crystals fit like they were made for the box.

I did sand the edges of the crystal, So they would slide in/out very easy.

You can see inside where the original crystal would have fit and I cut the stem off of one crystal

to mount the wiring too.

All I need now is my 0n/off/on switch.

Once I get this complete, I'm going to give the whole remote a new paint job to match R2's colors.