Cut Yet Another Ankle Lock for Left Ankle

Back on May 4, 2019, I had cut a new ankle lock for the left ankle, as the previous one wasn't doing the job. Well, this one wasn't doing the job either (it also had a tendency to spin around). So, third try's the charm?

I was determined to get it right this time. I started by making a paper template.




I translated the paper template to the cutting board I've been using for the ankle locks, and cut the piece to size.





I then did a test fit. I'm ok with between a 1 and 2 mm gap between the foot shell and the bottom of the ankle lock. Here, the ankle lock is resting on the foot shell, so the gap is on top.



The next question is, where to drill the mounting hole? The hole has to be located such that a screw driver can reach around the motor. I (foolishly) convinced myself the upper left was the way to go.



But when I mounted the ankle lock and screwed it down, I found that I still couldn't quite reach around the motor. This shows the lock mounted, but not the motor being in the way.



So I had to drill a new hole on the opposite corner, which was accessible with a screwdriver.



I did a lot of test driving with this new ankle lock, and it really looks like it's going to work this time.

Robotics Society of Southern California Presentation at Cal State Long Beach

Today I was invited to California State University Long Beach to give a talk to the Robotics Society of Southern California about R2.



I arrived around 10:20am for my 11:00am presentation in the Engineering Technology building.



I unloaded the Droidmobile and brought R2 and some his gadgets to the classroom, where another robotics presentation was under way.



I gave a presentation that covered the R2 Builders Club in general, and my build in particular, and I demonstrated some of R2's capabilities, such as the mist effect, dome and sound automation, and flag wave circuit, among other things.

Afterward, I invited those in attendance to take a look inside R2. We also had good questions, and it was nice presenting to an audience that really understood a lot of what goes into making a robot come to life.

CHOC Festival of Life

Today R2 helped CHOC celebrate their Festival of Life, along with several other characters outside the Star Wars universe.



The event was hosted in the outdoor atrium of Hyundai's building in Fountain Valley, CA.




Young patients who had survived cancer and other maladies attended, and took pictures with the characters.





Everyone had a good time, and it's always a good experience to help CHOC out.