Battery Box Mod

I had to lower the battery box and drop the ankle mount lower in the frame.
I was planning to use 2- 12v. 12Ah batteries as my main power source.
But I found a set of 12v. 20Ah batteries that would almost double my power supply.
The pics show the difference where the box was mounted.
I need to make a mounting block to go down into the center ankle for a solid
mount for the ankle.
After I get past this part, I will finish the skirt and move on to the feet
and battery boxes. Once these items are complete, All I will have left is to
start wiring everything and hopefully be ready for the next MegaCon.

Magnets

If you can see it in the pic, I installed the magnets inside the rear skin opening.
They are hide from the outside view and they hold the door in place very well.
All I have to do is bring the door close to the opening and you can feel the magnets pull the door into the correct position.
Once the glue dries that's holding the magnets, I will finish the rear door and skin the inside with styrene for a smooth area for new signatures.

Rear Door Magnets

I started working on the back door again and glue the Magnets in place.
The inner frame I installed on my rear skins also have hidden magnets,
So as the door comes into position the magnets will hold it in place.
My rear door has really gone downhill since I 1st painted it and the signatures
I have on the outside will be lost due to the need of repainting the door.
I hate to loose them, But the door looks terrible.

Periscope Movement

I used a geared motor out of my Wowee Gorila head.
I really did'nt care much about this head and I bought it cheap.
I allways buy stuff like this for parts and it paid off.
The gear motor I added a drive wheel and a line spool for the
nylon string to curl on.
All I have left to do is finish mounting the motor and fine tuning
the lift. I will also find areas to trim down weight from the lift.
This will be controlled by my Vex micro inside the dome, Which gets
the signal from the 12 Ch. Ebay remote to activate the lift.
I will add limit switches at the top/bottom for stops.
So far, It has turned out pretty good and I will be glad to
move on to the next project.

Skin Bracing

I noticed that my skins were starting to get heavy and I noticed a slight sag.
So what I did to stop this from happening while R2 is moving around hitting bumps.
I added some 1 inch Aluminum angle to the spots I'm pointing at on the inside where you can't see them.
The last pic shows the little angle pieces near the center vents.
Although these are not bolted to the frame, I think just being there and placed against the A&A frame ring will be enough.
I plan to search my frame for more weak spots and add braces to make it stronger.

Periscope Drive

I'm going to use a Hitec Servo for the power winch. I've made a small rotation drum that will pull a Nylon string and move the plateform up and down.
I'm using Nylon string because everything else I looked at had to much resistance to curl around the drum.
I also put a small drum pulley at the top of the setup for the string to ride on while pulling the plateform.
Although gravity would be enough to pull the plateform back down, I added a very light weight spring to the side of the slide. This gives very little resistance, But it's just enough to pull the plateform back down. It also seems to have added some stability to the plateform.

Redesign Allready!!!

YEP!!!
The post below is a good example of why everyone should check my blog for updates.
The lift was not working as smooth as I wanted, So I started over.
I didn't understand how the bearings worked inside the slide until I slept on it.
The bearing have to float inside the slides for a smooth flow. I had restricted the bearing from floating and it was stiff.
I also had it setup so that only 1 slide provided movement and that was another mistake. Now there are 2 slides in motion, 1 moves 4 inches and the other moves 3 inches. The Periscope itself is 6-1/2 inches tall, So I will clear the dome at the top by 1/2 inch. As I tweak the setup I may get more height out of the Periscope.
More to come.

Periscope Lift

I started working on the lift, I got the idea from Wayne Orr and Chris James.
Just to make sure credit for the idea goes to the right people.
I have changed a few things in my setup and though it's not finished,
I thought I'd show some pics.
The 1st pic shows the cabinet drawer slide and you'll get 2 when you purchase them.
The next pic shows how the slides come apart and you'll need to do this and you will also need to shorten the slides.
Next the little bumper on the end will need to be removed and the tab that holds the bumper bent down. This will allow you to seperate all 3 pieces.
Next, I took the inner ball bearing out of the 2nd slide and added it to the 1st slide. This gives me bearing for the inner piece to glide on the complete travel distance.
Next, You'll need to cut down the inner slide to gain travel. The long piece shows how much I cut it down.
Next, I put the inner slide in and you can see the main travel I will have in the main slide. The other pic shows the lifter together.
I built a small mounting plate for the Periscope to mount to and I also added sides to restrict slop (which there's not much) and this gave me a place to mount my rear rollers.
The rear rollers control drag created by the weight of the Periscope.
Once I order the small motor (the same one I used for the dome motor),
I will complete this setup and fine tune everything.

Dome Motor Mount 2

Here's a few pics of the mount painted and mounted to the A&A frame.
I tried the motor out again to make sure everything was what I expected
and it works GREAT!!!
I also tried again to destroy the motor by jerking it back/forth and it
keeps right on going. Long term use, We will have to wait and see.
I did run into 1 problem, There's 2 screws with lock nuts that hold the
motor frame and the mounting frame together and I super glued the screws in place.
The screws allow the 2 mounts to slide when adjustment is needed. Well the glue
didn't hold, So I'll have to fix this problem. Other than that, It works and
I'm happy with my creation. This keeps the large motor setup out of the belly
of R2. Some have said the motor is too small and too weak, I tend to disagree.
The motor has a small gear box (The ratio of the gear box, I forgot) and this allows
the motor to have allot more torque. I also assume the size of the Drive Wheel
helps out.

Dome Motor Mount

The motor mount is starting to take shape. The idea is to keep the motor up out of the way, Instead of hanging down in the body.
The bottom pic shows the bracket that will be mounted to the A&A frame.
The next pic shows the motor mounted to it's frame which will slide back/fourth
for tension adjustment.
The next 2 pics show how the parts come together. The bolt on the left (which is a screw for now) will provide the tension to the motor slide and will push the drive wheel against the dome bearing.
Once I get it mounted to the frame, I will take more pics to show how it works.
Also, My little motor has not gave me the 1st bit of problem rotating the dome.
I'm very happy with this " Little Engine That Could ".

R2's Brain Installation

As you can see the Vex Micro has lost it's place
and I'm working on getting the Mini Itx Motherboard installed.
I placed the board so all the connectors will have easy access.
There will be a few other items to go on the Plexi board, But not much.
I'm really not sure how each item will fit on the board, So as I buy each
piece I'll arrange them above the Itx or maybe to the side area.
This setup cuts down on having so many different electronics in R2
and saves allot of room. As far as parts I still need will include:
Laptop Hard Drive - 2 Gig Memory - Power Supply and a few more Phidgets.
Once I get the other parts I plan to get R2 finished before the next MegaCon
and have him moving at the show.

One of Jim's Robots

Here's a clip of Jim's AWESOME WORK!!!!!!

Jim's Southern R2 Builders Meeting

We had a GREAT time at the meeting this weekend.
Here are some of the pics and the rest of the pics will be
on Brenda's R3-T7 Blog.
The bottom pic is of Brenda and her R3 in the Hotel.
The next 2 pics are of Keith's Lifeform Scanner and his Periscope.
Next shows Doug's R2, Which is built like a tank!!!
Next shows a couple of pics showing parts and Darth Vader.
Last but not least, A pic of Keith and I standing at Toys R Us waiting
for the 12:00 bell to get the new Giant Falcon.
Check out Brenda's blog for more.

R2's Brain

The Intel Atom Motherboard arrived today!!!
Now all I need is memory, hard drive etc.
I'm taking the board, my code, and Brenda's R3-T7 to the Southern Builders
meet this weekend in Clearwater, Florida.
I can't wait to get the board installed in R2, But it may be awhile
before this happens. I want to set it up and complete the code before
I install everything, This will make it easier to change things.

Video Update

**** Warning Large Video File ****
This video may help explain the direction I'm going with the code, computer and Phidgets. It shows what I have so far.
Once I get all the Phidgets I'll need and the other parts for the computer,
I should be able to start wiring R2 and finally have him moving.

Intel D945GCLF Little Falls Mainboard

Just ordered my motherboard for R2.
I was going to purchase another board, But this one has many new features
and the power consumption is suppose to be lower than the other board.
This will run all the Phidgets in R2 along with video, sound and etc.
Hopefully I'm not getting into something that will drain the batteries
down quickly, But I figure since it's 1 board instead of multiple electronics
for various features, It should do better.
Here's a pic of the board:

Parts Estimate

Here's a small summary of parts and prices:
Visual C# - free from Microsoft
Phidgets Manager - free from Phidgets
Windows Xp Upgrade - $89.00

3- 4 Servo Phidgets controllers w/Servos - $ 347.94 plus Shipping
1- Intel D201GLY2A - 77.00 plus Shipping
1- 1 Gig Memory - 32.00 plus Shipping
1- Power cable - 7.00 plus Shipping
1- M1-ATX Power supply - 69.00 plus Shipping
1- FDM40XDI4G Memory to replace hard drive - 98.00 plus Shipping
1- Syren10 motor controller - 49.00
1- Sabertooth 2X25 dual motor controller - 124.99
2- Scooter motors - ?
1- Dome motor - ?

Current Total $893.93 without shipping.
Now I know this seems like alot of money, But if you take into account
this system does allmost everything and has the ability to go much further
with Autonomous features it balances out the price.
Once I get everything complete and installed I'll go over the total cost comparison.

Updated Summary

I know more of the same as far as post go,
But here's where I stand now.

Joystick #1 - controls the drive feet
Joystick #2 - controls the dome rotation
Button # 5/1 - controls R2 beeping sound
Button # 5/2 - controls Look Sir Droids sound
Button # 5/3 - controls R2 Scream sound
Button # 5/4 - controls Leia Speech sound
Button # 7/1 - controls My personal R2 Intro music
Button # 7/2 - controls Star Wars Theme music
Button # 9 - controls Volume up
Button # 10 - controls Volume down

As the code grows I'm learning more and more about what I can do with code.
So far I'm extremely happy about the setup and will order my new Phidget controller
tomorrow. As I said before, This was my original idea of using Phidgets in R2.
But I was unsure if I could do it. I've been VERY lucky to have had help with the code and working with it I've learned much more than I would have if I were just working out of the books.
The bigger value to this setup is:
Reducing the cost of buying seperate electronics for each feature needed to get R2 moving. Most builders use standard R/C remotes and add sound boards and other electronics to aquire the same results which can up money very quickly.
Nothing wrong with that, But I like to keep the money in my pocket.
Once this code is complete, I will add it to the R2 Builders group for everyone
to enjoy. It will include all the sounds and all the features I can come up with
to make the code a easy setup.

Sound code

I got the sound code setup for the gamepad.
Just as I hoped it would work,
I hold down the top side button which is button 5
and then I press button 1 and this plays a certain R2 beep.
If I hold down the lower side button which is button 7
and press button 1, Now the same button 1 plays my R2 intro.
When I use button 1 by itself it controls a servo.
This gives me more buttons than I could ask from my gamepad.
If everything goes as planned, I should have this code complete soon.
The only thing slowing me down now is parts I need to complete this package.

More Code

Not much to post lately, But I'm still at my code.
The 1st 4 Servo Phidget code is complete and now I'm working
on the sound files to work with the gamepad.
My idea is to hold 1 of the top side buttons and press 1 of the 4
top buttons and this will give me my song jingles.
If I hold 1 of the lower side buttons and press 1 of the 4
top buttons, This will give me my R2 beeps.
The code is growing and I need more Phidgets to get the other servos going.
Once it's a complete code I will release it to the group and if someone
wants to go the computer route, It will all be preprogrammed and all they
will have to do is buy parts and maybe customize the code.
More to come.