Halloween 2024

Once again, tonight R2 joined me in the garage to hand out candy for Halloween trick-or-treaters.



A fair amount of kids and families showed up, as it started getting dark around 6:15pm. Between operating R2 and helping hand out candy, I'm not able to take many pictures.



In all, I'd say I had about 30 trick-or-treaters come by, and I wrapped up a little after 8pm. People in the neighborhood look forward to visiting with R2, and I'm happy he can make it out year after year.

R2LA XVIII

Today was the big day, R2LA XVIII, hosted by Mike and Amy Senna!



I arrived right around 11am and unloaded droid #1.



We had a special guest, all the way from Australia, R2 Builders Club founder Dave Everett! We had a nice chat.



People started filing in and setting up their cool and unique droids and props, including two studio-scale sandcrawlers.



The Paul Thompson wing of Treadwell droids.



The Miyamoto family wing of droids.



Who are these kids with Mike and I? Well, they are Ryan, Robert and Kyriana, and hopefully folks will become more familiar with them in the not-too-distant future.



Around 3pm it was time for our first ever R2LA droid parade. Since we pretty much take over the neighborhood curbs with our vehicles, Mike thought it would be nice to do a little droid parade up and down the block for them. We made our way to the front yard, and started the procession.



Once we were done, it was time for the droid group photo, followed by the human group photo. Mike did the stunt work on the tall ladder to get the shot.



I stayed terrestrial-bound for my picture, and I also jumped in for a picture as well.



Once we returned, I checked out some more droids that I missed on the first pass, including William Miyamoto's appropriately-named "Fire Mouse," that appeared in flames on the Disney+ series Kenobi.



After 12+ hours, we finally wound down and started stacking chairs and taking down the shade cloth, and another R2LA came to a close.



As always, it was a great time, and I already look forward to doing it again next year!

Moffett Elementary 5th Grade Clap-Out Ceremony

Today R2 participated in Moffett Elementary School's fifth grade clap-out ceremony, in Huntington Beach, CA. We were joined by several members of the 501st.



This middle school goes up to fifth grade, and when the fifth graders graduate, they get to march around the decorated blacktop, as family members and students in the younger grades cheer them on. The Star Wars characters were invited as a surprise to the students and most of the faculty, and they got quite a cheer when they emerged and led the fifth graders around the blacktop.

I was busy operating the droid, so I only got a couple of pictures at the finish line. The characters stopped after the first lap, but the fifth graders did a second lap and we were there to receive them.



Afterward, students got pictures with the characters, as did some of the staff.



The students were ecstatic (like screaming-ecstatic) to have us there, and it was a lot of fun.

Cutting Keyways and Keystock with Mike

I recently swapped out my old foot motors on droid #1 with new ones. I plan to keep those old motors on stand-by, and I wanted gears on them. I ordered the 14 tooth gears with a 1/2" bore, but those gears lack a keyway. Thus, I bugged Mike Senna, who has a keyway cutting broach and collar for this task.

This picture is from August 2, 2008:



And this photo was taken today. Some things don't change much.



Two keyways cut, and ready for keystock.



I went back home to cut a couple of segments of keystock. For these motors, the end of the keyway is hammered such that the keystock cannot slide out when the gear is installed, and the motor shaft is cut a bit taller than the gear height, so I don't need the keystock to be welded in place.

I marked where to cut the first piece of keystock.



I used the Dremel with the cutoff wheel to cut the keystock.



I then fitted the keystock into the keyway slot on the motor shaft. Again, the ends of the keyway on the motor shafts are pinched shut slightly.



With the gear in place and locked down with its set screws, the segment of keystock is captive in the keyway slot.



I repeated the process for the second motor.



These motors are ready to go, should they ever need to be pressed into service.

Motor Fun at Mike's

Well, I didn't leave the new motors on droid #1 for very long.

There is a piece of 1/8" square keystock that locks the gear on the motor to the motor shaft. I asked Mike Senna if he could spot-weld the piece of keystock to the shaft at the very end of the keystock/shaft, and he said yes. So, off come the feet once again.



Mike got right to work doing the welding. Evidently Mike considers prescription eyeglasses to be sufficient eye protection. (At least I think he closes his eyes.)



If those pieces of keystock ever want to come out, I'll have to grind them out a bit first.



I also brought over my old motors. We were wondering how much the brushes had worn down, so Mike opened up one of the motors to take a look. It turned out there was still quite a bit of material left on the carbon brushes. Enough that they did not warrant replacing for now.



We also inspected other areas of the motor, and they looked good as well.



Once that was done, there was the tricky matter of closing the motor back up. The brushes are spring-loaded, so they must be drawn back into their housings before the cover is replaced. I don't know how NPC manufacturing does it, but this is how Mike does.



After closing the motor back up, Mike tested it in both directions, and it worked fine. We didn't bother opening the other old motor, as it should look pretty much the same.

Once I got home, I put the new motors back onto the drivetrains and got the droid back together.



The new motors are somewhat noisier than the old ones. Mike thinks that once the brushes have conformed to the shape of the commutator, the motors will be quieter. As to whether the new motors are quicker than the old ones, that may just be me hallucinating, although I may try to measure the speed of both old and new motors.

Finished Prepping Spare Foot Motors

Today I was able to wrap up the work of preparing the spare NPC 2212 foot motors.

First, I did a test fit of yesterday's work on the left footshell and drivetrain. The clearance and fit looked good.



Next, it was time to get to work on grinding down the other motor.



This was an iterative process, of grinding material using the angle grinder, and comparing it to an existing motor.



I kept going until the clearance and fit also looked good for this second motor.



Two motors ground down. Next up, adding the electrical connectors.



I cut a couple of connector cables and trimmed down the wires coming from the motors (they are longer than needed), in preparation for soldering.



Next, I grabbed my terrifying soldering gun and Omnifixo helping hands to do the soldering.



The soldering gun is terrifying because at 230 watts, it glows red.



Anyway, I avoided self-immolation and soldered the wires together, followed by shrink tubing, and then electrical tape for good luck.



I also did a little maintenance on one of the drivetrains. The Delrin hub on one of the wheels had shifted, such that it was rubbing against the inside of the drivetrain body. (I also emancipated a couple of hair washers. Mmm.)



Mike Senna had recommended using a screw to lock the Delrin hub in place, so first I drilled a pilot hole for the #12x3/4" screw.



I repeated the process on the other wheel, and then pinned the hub to the wheel using the screws.



I put everything back together (after spending an hour looking for and finally finding a segment of keystock that fell under the car), and tried it out on the droid. No pics or video, but the droid was quite a bit peppier with these new motors. These are likely going to become my new permanent motors, and the old motors will be the spares.

I plan to go to Mike's tomorrow to inspect the brushes on the old motors, and possibly replace them if they are sufficiently worn. With 16 years and well over 400 events on them, I expect that they probably will be.