Building at Mike's, Reassembled Drivetrains

Chris Romines and Roy Powers had some droid building to do at Mike's, and Mike said he thought he could revive a couple of non-functional Saturn motors of mine.

Mike was all laughs when he found out I was testing the motors with the covers off. I learned today that you can't do that. I did have a broken solder joint in one of the motors that was repaired, but it looks like the other motor was never bad in the first place. At any rate, both motors are running now, and I put one of them on my droid when I got home, as it had a superior shaft adapter attached to it, compared to the one that I was using on my right foot.



Meanwhile, Mike and Chris worked on Chris' wire-up, while Roy fought with his drivetrain.



By the end of the day, Chris' droid was moving via R/C. Two droids have taken their first steps in the last three weeks at Mike's.



When I got home, I spent quite a while putting my two drivetrains back together. Every piece had been taken apart, so they didn't go back together quickly. I placed the drivetrains in their respective foot shells, ready to go back on the legs tomorrow.

Redrilled Holes for Half Moon, Foot Shell Assembly, Finished Cutting Wheel Padding, Helped Roy, Installed Battery Harnesses

I wasn't happy with the location of the half moon on one of my center foot shell doors, so I drilled three new holes and remounted the half moon.



Then I assembled the center feet, with the doors and half moons attached. I'm pretty happy with how these turned out.



I finished cutting out the last of the rubber layers for the wheel padding. Right now I think I'm going to leave these off for a little while. One reason is that if I install this layer of rubber on the wheels, then the threaded end of the knurled cable fittings will need to be further chopped down on the end that fits inside the foot shell, or else they will run into this layer of rubber.

I prefer not to shorten the thread end of the fittings, because I won't have enough room on the fittings to secure them from behind with nuts. And if I can't do that, then I can't secure the front foot strips without drilling them and using screws to secure them, as I did with the rear foot strips. I will probably do that eventually.



Roy Powers came by for a while to discuss some drivetrain trouble, and to get his dome drive controller finished.



I wrapped up the evening by using silicone to glue down the battery harnesses onto the battery boxes.



Tomorrow I plan to start putting R2 back together again. For the first time he'll have his painted battery boxes and foot shells on, and there will be very little work remaining.

Voltage Converter Arrives, Wheel Housing Cuts, Painted Foot Shell Window Details

The voltage converter that I ordered from Aircraft Spruce arrived today. This will convert 28/24 volts down to the 12 volts that the CFSound III card requires. I haven't tried it out yet, but I will test with a multimeter first, you can bet on that. Thanks to Chris Romines for finding this. There are similar products out there, but this is the one I ended up going with.



I decided to go ahead and open up the wheel housings on the drivetrain to allow a 1/4" layer of rubber that I may glue to the wheels to pass through the edge of the housing. Without this trim, there wasn't enough room for that extra material.

I placed one of the rubber strips I cut last night on top of the wheel to get a feeling for how much material needed to be removed.



I used a jigsaw to hack away at the wheel housing, and I used a file to clean up the cut.




I wrapped up by hand painting the hard-to-reach areas of the foot shells, where the little windows are. I'm not sure if this really mattered, but I decided to do it anyway.



All the painting I did this week should be thoroughly dry by the weekend, so I'll be putting R2 back together again soon, and adding the finishing touches early next week. The end is near.

More Center Ankle Paint, Installed Rear Power Coupler, Started Cutting Wheel Padding

My brushed-on paint for the center ankle from yesterday looked atrocious, so I sprayed on a little more paint tonight. Now it just looks bad, which is an improvement.



At long last, I installed the rear power coupler tonight. The power coupler frame is siliconed onto the back door, while the power coupler itself is held onto a small piece of wood with Velcro.

I attached the rear door, and then placed the small piece of wood with the power coupler attached to it such that the power coupler was perfectly placed within the coupler frame on the door. Then I glued down the piece of wood to the bottom of the frame.



Later, once the glue had dried, I removed the door to see how it all looked.



The door goes back on just right, and the power coupler still fits within its frame. The Velcro allows me to make minor adjustments if necessary, and I can also remove the coupler for repainting should the need arise.

I wrapped up by cutting some strips of rubber that I may or may not attach to the wheels of the outer feet. Those wheels are pretty expensive, and the layer of rubber would provide some protection. However, I would need to hack on the wheel housings of my drivetrain in order to get this extra layer to fit, and I'm not sure I want to do that. I'll think about it...

Painted Foot Shells, Center Foot & Drivetrain Channels, Center Ankle, Silicone for Shoulder Flange, T-Shirts

This morning I painted the foot shells white. I think these three coats are going to be enough.



In the evening, I painted the channels on the center foot and drivetrain. I disassembled the drivetrain and only painted the channel pieces, I did not want to risk getting paint on the chain or gears, and I didn't feel like masking the whole thing. I think I'm done with the spray can now, just a little touch-up painting here and there with a brush.



I brushed on primer, and later, paint, to finish the repair on the center ankle from this weekend. It looks pretty darn sloppy, more impetus to rebuild the center leg one day in the future. Keep in mind that most of this does not show though, as this portion of the ankle is facing down, toward the top of the foot shell.




I applied silicone to the wooden hub that holds the shoulder flange in place, so the flange piece won't move around and expose the wood underneath. There is also a single wood screw that holds the flange in place from underneath, but the top part had a tendency to shift.



Finally, I went to Mike's, but for once, it wasn't to do any building. I dropped off some screws for Mike, that he needed in order to mount his back door brackets. His R2 #2 is coming along very nicely, it should be done any minute.



More importantly, I picked up my super-duper, one of a kind, collector's item t-shirts. I have both a short sleeve version and a long sleeve version. These will be the envy of CIV.

Primer for Foot Shells & Center Foot, Finished Painting Half Moons, Foot Doors, Battery Boxes, CIV Badges, Battery PVC, Painted Skin Screws

Mostly primer and painting today. In more-or-less chronological order:

In the morning I gave the foot shells one last coat of primer and a sanding, in preparation for painting tomorrow.



I also applied primer to the channel area of the center foot; that area needs to be painted white, as it shows to the outside world.



One last coat of Rustoleum Satin White on the half moons, foot shell doors, and battery boxes. They are done being painted (as far as I can tell).



My Celebration 4 stuff arrived in the mail today, along with my replacement CFSound III board. I will mail back the damaged sound board for repair tomorrow. The new board works just fine, and I was able to verify that the original Contact Sense 24 was undamaged.



The main batteries' terminals were exposed, so I glued down some PVC covers to keep anything from shorting the positive and negative leads together.



I wrapped up by brushing on a dab of white paint on each of the skin screws. Hey, where'd they go??

Center Ankle Hacking, Gluing & Stabilizing, Foot Shell Wiring Holes, Finished Battery Railing

I really, really hated to do this, but I had to. I had to hack on the center ankle with the Dremel in order to get the center leg to tilt the specified eighteen degrees. With this hacking, the leg can now tilt up to twenty degrees.

The root cause of the problem is that the ankle bolt hole needs to be closer to the tip. I've done all I can to the foot to get more clearance for the leg tilt, but it still wasn't enough. The curve on the ankle had to be sanded down. I will probably use a paint brush to apply primer and paint. I hated to do this so much that I may rebuild a new center leg some day. The tape-ease cylinder is a pain, but the rest of the center leg is a pretty easy build.

Man, I hated to do this. (Ok, I'm over it. It's in the past now.)



I cut some center foot stabilizers that get screwed onto the center ankle. This way, when R2 backs up, his foot won't jump up like a spooked horse, as it is currently prone to do.



I used Krazy Glue to glue affix the washers from yesterday for the center foot, to keep it stable when bolted to the ankle. This eliminates any wiggle room. I didn't know if this would actually work, but so far the washers are holding tight.



One last cut on the outer foot shells, as I opened up a small rectangle with the Dremel and drill to allow wiring to pass from the ankle on down into the foot.



Finally, I finished up the main battery railing, I installed stubby pieces at the ends of the rails. Now the batteries won't slide around at all.

Painted Battery Boxes & Half Moons, Holders for Receiver Battery & Switch, Circuit Breaker, Center Foot Washers, Pipe Clamps, Battery Rails, Switches

With Celebration IV just over two weeks away and breathing down my neck, I need to get in gear and finish the many details that have to get done.

For the first time in a long time, I did some painting. The battery boxes and half moons each got two coats of Rustoleum Satin White today. I may add another coat later on, depending on how these look after they have dried completely.



I cut and bent some aluminum bar to help hold the main receiver battery in place, as well as the switch that determines which receiver battery pack is selected (main or auxiliary).




I used Velcro to fasten the main circuit breaker to the underside of the top of the frame.



My center foot needed a couple of washers between the tip of the ankle and the inside of the wooden channel pieces to keep it firmly in place, so I added those today as well.



I screwed down gas pipe clamps to keep R2's body centered on the gas pipe. There's one clamp on the left, another on the right.



I installed wooden rails to keep the main batteries in place. I still need to cut and install some short pieces toward the rear, to keep the batteries from sliding back when R2 is tilted back.



Finally, I secured R2's on/off switches to a piece of PVC, and attached that to the bottom of the frame, accessible from the front of the skirt. One switch powers up the main batteries, the other switch powers up the receiver battery.

More Battery Box Primer, More Wire Clamps

More of the same from yesterday, almost an exact replay.

I lightly sanded the primer on the battery boxes, and then reapplied some new coats in the morning. In the evening, I lightly sanded again. I think another coat or two of primer tomorrow, and they should be ready to paint.



I screwed down three more measly wire clamps in the evening too. Still a few more to go.

Battery Box Primer, Started Tying Down Wires

This evening I applied three coats of primer to the battery boxes and the doors that were cut from them. I plan to lightly sand them and apply three more coats tomorrow, and then hopefully paint them during the weekend.



I also started tying down the various cables that are running around loose in my droid. I didn't get very far, I've only screwed down three wire clamps. It's a bit tricky working inside of R2 nowadays.

Drilled, Pinned & Installed New Motor, Finished Redoing Door Holders

This morning I drilled and pinned the replacement motor for the right foot. I'm starting to get proficient at this, which isn't necessarily a good sign.



During the day, I called ACS. I ordered a new sound card, and I will send the old one in for repair (minimal or no charge). I'll find something to do with the second card, or I can always sell it someday if I don't need it.

In the evening, I mounted the motor back on R2, and he works again! Yea.

Matthew Henricks and Roy Powers dropped by to discuss various droid-building matters shortly after R2 was up and running again, so they got to see him in action.

Later, I finished redoing my door holders. The bottom holders on the outer doors were moved a bit to avoid the gears on the wheels. I also replaced the nails that hold the pivot pieces in place, with notched nails that are less prone to falling out.