Placentia Heritage Parade and Festival 2010

Today was my third time participating with R2 in the city of Placentia Heritage Parade and Festival.

The event kicks off (appropriately enough) with a parade. Thus far, I've kept R2 out of the parade due to my concern with cracks and bumps in the road, and potential speed-of-parade issues. Other Star Wars characters did participate, however.





I had R2 join the Star Wars characters adjacent to their booth at the festival that followed the parade.



I was a little bit of a weasel today, and left R2 on top of his cart. I've had some mixed experiences with this event in the past, so I didn't want to leave R2 completely open to attack.

Although I didn't drive R2 around, I did activate his dome and sound automation circuit, so he was fairly lively, and I didn't even need to turn on the transmitter.

Folks from all walks of life (and then some) stopped for pictures.







Always a familiar sight. "What happens when I pull this thing?" Endless joy for the kiddies.



Mike Senna lives nearby and dropped by to say hi. "Man, I wish my droid looked this good."



Event coordinator Jim Cucalon took a picture with the two droid builders, along with Mike Prestin as our Clone Trooper and Nick Smith as our Tusken Raider.



Unfortunately, I had to leave early, and I also will not be able to do any blog updates until R2LA weekend, coming up starting Friday night.

The full photoset is here.

Glued Side Supports for Front Logic Housing

Tonight I was able to glue on the side supports that hold the box for the front logics in place.

You'd think this would be trivial, but there is a method to it.

First, I needed to cut a strip of PVC in half to make the supports.




Next, I made sure the outer dome panel fit just right, and then I fitted the box with the front logics inside it, to ensure that everything would line up when I'm done.



Then, I taped down the outer panel.



Next, it was time to start gluing the side supports. The bottom edge and the inside face get the glue.



With the box held down in place with one hand, I glued down the left support with the other.



I repeated the process for the other side.




I still need to glue some small segments of PVC behind the logic boards, to force them forward in the housings. That way, when the housing is screwed down on the dome ring, the logic boards and aluminum surrounds will be sandwiched between the inner dome in the front, and the PVC segments in the back.


After the glue had dried, I took a family portrait of the various dome electronics mounts and housings.



Finally, my "I don't believe this..." moment. As I was putting my PVC scraps away, I noticed a Ziplock bag with some PVC in it.



Hmm, what's this? It's a front logic housing assembly all perfectly cut and labeled from when I built droid #1!!

I had cut a second one at the time in advance, for droid #2. This was sitting on a shelf all this time and I didn't even realize it! D'OH!



I literally mumbled out loud, "I don't believe this." Several times.

I wonder how many other pre-made things I have sitting in my droid junk room like this that I don't realize? Misadventures indeed.

Finished Gluing PSI Holders

Tonight I spent a few minutes finishing up my PSI holders.

First, I marked where the metal PSI housing should sit on the uprights.



Next, I sanded the areas of contact, to help give the PVC glue a rough surface to grab onto.



Then I brushed a little PVC glue at the top of each upright.



Finally, I placed the housing onto the uprights, aligning with the marks I made earlier.



And then I repeated the process for the other PSI.



Of course, I still need to assemble the PSI electronics, but at least they'll have a place to live once I'm done.

Started Gluing PSI Holders

Tonight I started gluing up the PVC holders for the front and rear PSIs.

I double-checked where the vertical uprights should land on the base, and marked the location to glue.



And then, I glued.



I repeated the process for the other PSI holder. After the glue for the first upright had dried, I located and glued down the other one.



That's it for tonight. Hopefully I'll have time tomorrow to glue down the housings.

Finished Gluing Box for Front Logics

Today I worked some more on the front logic housing.

Before continuing work on the PVC box, I cut a small 1/16" strip of styrene to help separate the two aluminum front logic surrounds, and glued it down.




Turning to the logic boards, I've noticed that the logic boards and their LED boards are slightly misaligned.



If I had to guess, I'd say that during manufacturing the boards were probably cut slightly differently. The boards are held together with two rows of pins. I considered trying to bend the pins, but I was unable to pry the two boards apart, and I didn't want to damage them.



I decided to sand the edge of the LED board and bezel so that it matched the edge of the logic board.



That's better.



The two glued up pairs PVC sides were test fitted around the logics. The fit is a little snug, so I'm allowing a little overhang.



And with that, I glued it up, with light pressure from my baby clamps.



I will test fit the logics tomorrow. If I don't like the fit, I'll break apart the opposite corners and try again. I had to do that with droid #1, so there is precedent. :/

Finished Cutting Front Logic Housing, Started Gluing

Today I spent a little time working on the front logic housing. I still needed to cut the vertical sides.

First, I had to measure how long to make them. They need to be exactly as tall as the space required by the front logic surrounds to fit into the outer dome panel, so I set up the surrounds and panel, and aligned one end, using a flat piece of PVC.



I noted the other edge with a piece of paper taped in place.



I then removed the surrounds and drew a line along the edge of the paper so that half the line was on the paper and the other half was on the PVC. The straight(er) side of the line is to the left, and that's the edge to cut along.



And cut along it I did.



I cut a second, identically-sized piece for other vertical edge, and did a loose-fit of the box around the bezels and logic boards.



As I noted yesterday, the aluminum logic surrounds meet the bezels at a tapered angle, so I needed to sand some material from one of the edges of each of the vertical pieces of the box.



This helps ensure a better fit of the surrounds when they are in the box.



Finally, I started the glue-up.



I used a couple of flat pieces of wood to ensure perpendicular alignment, and I used a scrap piece of PVC to ensure that the front edges were aligned.



I repeated this for the other half, and hopefully tomorrow I can glue the two halves together and the box will be done.

Cut PSI Holders

Today I spent some time cutting the PVC legs that will support the PSI housings that Tom Doucet made.

First, I located where the housings should sit in the dome. Then, I used a triangular piece of paper to mark up where the PSI holder would support the housing. From there, I measured how tall the PVC holder should be. Note that the vertical location of the front and rear PSIs differ.



Next, it was a mere matter of chopping some strips of PVC to the right size.




A few chops later and I had my four holders. These will be glued down to the base piece that sits on the dome ring.



I sanded the top edge of each piece to match the profile of the PSI housing.




I also gave some thought to the housing for the front logics. As I did with droid #1, I plan to build a rectangular housing for these front logics. The aluminum logic surrounds are a little bit different than those on droid #1. The aluminum surrounds flare out a little bit where the plastic bezels meet the aluminum.



Building the box to fit exactly around the logic boards would mean that they won't quite fit around the aluminum surrounds too. After some consideration, I've decided I will sand down the inside of the PVC housing to allow the aluminum surrounds to fit. Hopefully that will resolve the issue.