UBEC for Droid #2

Today I finally got around to installing the Universal Battery Elimination Circuit (UBEC) on the electronics panel of droid #2. I had installed one of these way back in 2019 on droid #1. This being my last day of vacation, I wanted to check this off my to-do list.



The first step is to remove the LM7805 voltage regulator. This worked fine, but can only deliver up to 1 amp of current (vs. the 3 with the UBEC), and runs very inefficiently.



Next, remove the shrink tubing in order to do some unsoldering. I only need to unsolder the +12 wire on the left pin, and the ground wire on the center pin.



With the old wiring and regulator disconnected, I can solder the input lines on the UBEC to +12 and ground.



After that, get the new shrink tubing in place.



Time to test! The power light is on, that's good.



And the output voltage reads a little over 5 volts, which is fine.



I secured the UBEC onto the electronics panel with some Velcro



I verified that it powers up the receiver fine. So it looks like it's good to go.

Finished Working on Steel Foot Door Frame

Today I wrapped up work on the steel center foot shell doors, where I used some 1/16" aluminum bar to help close the gap between the door frame and the door holders to eliminate rattle.

A couple of days ago I needed to scrape off some JB Weld with a chisel, exposing a little bit of the raw steel on the inside of the foot shell. I wanted to spray some primer on that to make sure the steel won't rust.



All nice and protected.

The next time I use this foot shell, it should be much quieter.

Continued Working on Steel Foot Door Frame

Today I continued where I left off with yesterday's work on addressing the rattle of the doors on my steel front foot shell.

Now that the glue had dried on yesterday's work, I checked the fit, and things look good. More important, the rattle on this door is pretty much gone.



Next, I glued in the other four 1/16" aluminum segments that I cut yesterday.



I'll let the glue dry overnight, and hit some of the spots where I scraped off the JB Weld on the foot shell with some primer to protect the steel from rust.

Worked on Steel Foot Door Frame

Today I worked on a slight annoyance with the steel center foot shell I sometimes use on either droid. The doors tend to rattle when driving with the omniwheels, due to a small gap between the door and the doorframe, so I worked on addressing that. (Note that I usually use a wooden center foot with a PVC foot shell, but when I want extra stability, I use the steel foot shell with the omniwheel foot.)

The problem is due to the fact that the door frame is 1/16" thick, but I'm using a 1/8" thick segment of PVC for the door holders and pivot sticks, which leaves a 1/16" gap between the PVC and the door, allowing for some rattle. I found a segment of 1/16" aluminum bar that should help eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) the rattle.



A while back I had done a very lazy and sloppy job of oozing some JB Weld epoxy where the pivot sticks rest. It was very imprecise and didn't help a whole lot.



I scraped that mess off with a chisel.



Next, I cut the 1/16" aluminum bar into 8 equal length segments, as I'll need four segments for each foot.



Then I roughed up one side of the segments and cleaned them up, in preparation for gluing.



Finally, I glued the first four aluminum segments into place.



I'll let this set overnight, and glue in the four segments for the other door tomorrow.

Star Wars Night with the Anaheim Ducks - 2021

Tonight, R2 returned to Honda Center for Star Wars Night with the Anaheim Ducks. We were joined by Matt Hobbs and Tina and R5-D4, along with Craig and Ashley Jo and their droids, and the members of the Rebel Legion and 501st costuming clubs. As usual, my former coworker and Ducks fan Rich Newman did wrangling and photo duties.



We arrived at the nearby offices around 4:30pm to sign in, and shortly thereafter relocated to the parking lot, where we unloaded. This year the characters weren't allowed to visit the ice due to Covid protocols, and there was no pre-game show being produced at the stadium.



Around 5:30pm, guests were allowed in to visit the characters, which were stationed near the entrance of Honda Center.



R2 and Jasmin (our Princess Leia for the evening) were requested for a couple of photos inside the building, for the classic pose of Princess Leia recording her holographic message.



Before the game, R2 and R5 were featured both on the scoreboard, and simultaneously on ESPN+ and Hulu's streaming feeds.



And while we were there, passers-by asked for photos.



Later in the game R2 was featured once again on the scoreboard (along with Rich).



And after that we were pretty much done with R2 for the evening. The Ducks lost in overtime 6-5, dropping R2's record to 3-3. Hopefully we can return next year to push his record back over .500.

Hollywood Christmas Parade 2021

After a year away, R2 and friends were able to return to the Hollywood Christmas Parade!

Joining me and R2-D2 were Gordon Tarpley as C-3PO, Matt Hobbs with his R5-D4, Ed Perello with Matt's pit droid on a remote controlled cart, Darren Moser with his BD-1 puppet, and Steven Dodds wrangling.



The parade didn't start until 6:00pm, but the streets are closed hours ahead of that, so I arrived around 12:45pm to ensure a spot in the nearby parking structure.

William Miyamoto arrived shortly afterward in his Bumblebee car that he drives in the parade, so Matt and I went over to visit with him and see some of the other cars that had already arrived.



And for some reason, an 18-wheeler with a mammoth facsimile potato.



After a late lunch, we headed back to the character changing area, where stormtroopers, rebels, Wookiees and droids started to materialize.



Around 5:45pm, we headed up from the changing area to the staging area at the start of the red carpet.



As we waited for the parade to start, folks near the starting line were excited to see the characters.



The parade got going, and it wasn't long before William drove by in his Bumblebee.



A few minutes later, the Star Wars clubs made it to the red carpet. We were to hop in right after them, so this is the last picture I got before we joined in the parade.



We marched/drove on Hollywood Boulevard from Orange to Highland, at which point we exited the parade route and headed back to the parking structure to wrap up. Given that the streets remained closed for a couple more hours, we mainly chatted for a good long time.

It was great getting back out there, but there are a lot more builders that want to do this parade now, so I may or may not be involved next year, we'll see. I remember the first year I did this parade, they couldn't get any droids, and they asked if I'd be willing to just drive R2-D2 for the red carpet portion of the parade, and obviously I said yes to that. I wouldn't feel comfortable attempting to drive the entire 3 mile parade route, given the condition of the roads, the somewhat slower pace of the droid, and the distance involved. But maybe sometime soon someone will.

The full photoset is here.

Halloween 2021

After a year off (2020 basically canceled just about everything), R2 and the mouse droid returned to the garage to greet trick-or-treaters for Halloween.



Lots of surprised visitors snapped pics and got their candy.



Fellow club member Maddie was in the area with some of her college friends, so they dropped by for a visit.



I'd say about 50 kids showed up in all, which is a pretty good turnout for this area.



It was good to have R2 out and about, it'll probably be another month or so until his next event.

CHOC Visit - Fall 2021

For the first time in nearly 2 years, R2 was able to return to Childrens Hospital Orange County.



Due to COVID-19, R2 hadn't been able to visit the young patients at CHOC since November of 2019. Today we were able to visit for about an hour and a half. Our first stop was the Ryan Seacrest Studios, where R2 made an appearance on the hospital TV broadcast to let the patients know he'd be visiting those who wanted to see him.



After that, Amber took us room-to-room.



This was neat, the folks at Disney sent a crew to paint the corridor walls since our last visit. There were dozens of these mini-murals throughout the hospital, featuring not only Star Wars characters, but Disney and Marvel characters of every kind.



And the doggies that visit the patients were back. Amber said they just returned within the last 2 weeks.



Each of the patients, and one R2 operator, got a plush R2 doll, courtesy of Disney.



It was great to be back after so long, and I hope to return in the not-too-distant future.