Tonight I was able to wrap up work on the periscope.
I installed the main gasket into the periscope housing, attempting to route the wires into their channels in the gasket as best I could. I used tweezers for most of this job, as we are advised not to use our "hot dog fingers."
Next, I clipped and soldered the rear LEDs.
I figured it would be wise to test the rear LEDs before sliding them back into their gaskets, and fortunately they worked perfectly.
In they go, still looking good.
And with that, periscope assembly is done. It really is a thing of beauty, great job Michael and Doug!
If you thought the assembly went slowly, wait until you see how long I take to get it installed in the dome.
Tonight I had a little time to return to work on the periscope. The first order of business is to thread the wires for the three red LEDs that go on the back of the periscope through their gaskets. I finally got a chance to use the tweezer set I purchased recently for this job.
After a few minutes I had the six wires threaded.
Next, the instructions suggest that portions of the side diffusion wedges get trimmed.
Done.
And with a little fussing, in they go.
The lenses are somewhat frosted, but the side wedges have these nice diffusion circles on them.
Let's see how things look.
It's tough to see, but the diffusion wedges could use a little nudge toward the front of the periscope, in order for them to be perfectly centered. Thus, I'll need to trim just a bit more material on each of them so they may slide forward. And while I'm at it, it looks like solder joint for the most significant bit (the white wire) on the main board that selects the operating mode needs a touch up, as that signal is acting flaky. I'll deal with that soon.
Today Mike Senna hosted an R2LA Build day, and several of us dropped by for socializing and actual building.
Tom and Amanda did some cool engraving on their frame, before starting the glue-up with Mike's help.
William Miyamoto cut some gas pipe for his droid #1. (The second and third droids have left this one in the rear view mirror.)
Mike Johnson drove out from Las Vegas and worked on his 300mm dome.
And finally, Roy Powers, Ed Perello, Dave Annetta, William and I (and possibly others) helped the Famous Maddy with her droid's center leg installation and started wire-up.
After some time away from Childrens Hospital of Orange County due to a flu embargo, R2 returned to visit the kids.
As was the case last time, R2 was joined by WALL•E, and Mike and Amy Senna. We didn't make it out of the reception area before the crowd gathered for pictures.
We did room-to-room visits on each of the six floors. The various floors are dedicated for specific purposes, such as oncology, post-op, etc. As usual, no pictures with the patients due to privacy issues, but the staff loves droids.
After almost three hours of visits, the droids noticed the local on-premesis radio station. You can see where this is going.
Yes, moments later the droids were in the booth, ready at the mic.
They also had a closed video circuit feed to the booth that the patients could watch in their rooms. R2 was simulcasting.
Another successful visit, and we'll be back again soon.
Today I had time to work on a few things for the periscope.
The first order of business was to solder in the six red LEDs that go in the small window in the center-bottom of the main periscope body.
The three LEDs on the left with the hard-to-see black marks on the metal leads are the three LEDs that are stacked horizontally on each other. I know that these have been sanded to fit the hole in the periscope body, so I wanted to make sure I used those three for that purpose.
The black front rubber gasket has tiny holes in it for the LED legs, which needed to be trimmed down before installation and soldering. The gasket helps to align the LEDs properly.
I soldered up the LEDs, trimmed the LED leads down further, and did a test fit in the periscope. Luckily, the LEDs fit through their window perfectly. I managed to sand them properly, and solder them in such that they weren't too crooked.
Now the big question, will they light up properly?
Phew, it works.
Next, I turned to soldering the wires for the three circular LEDs that are stationed at the rear of the periscope.
There are three pairs of wires for the three LEDs. I soldered each wire up to its respective connection on the main periscope logic board.
I need to wait until the Devcon Silicone I ordered arrives before I can glue the rear LED gaskets in place, so I wasn't able to test the LEDs yet. Instead, I worked on inserting the white gasket that goes over the main logic board. Per the suggestion in the instructions, I trimmed some of the thicker parts of the rubber gasket.
I then fit the gasket in place.
I also took a moment to follow the advice in the instructions, and trimmed the flap on the side LED light diffusers. I'm not ready to install these yet, and they will probably get another minor trim.
Finally, I trimmed the flange off of the three LEDs with the Dremel drum sander.
