Electrifying Artoo, Phase 2 of my R2-D2 build

[TK-0944]

Phase 1 of my aluminium R2-D2 project took him to a static display level. Recently, I've been motivated to start on phase 2...bringing him to life with electricity.

I'm going for a modular approach that will initially be driven by 12-channel RF remote control, but that will be done through a single power distribution board (which will allow a selection of easily exchangeable power supply options), and 12 centralised relays, so that I can retrofit a number of levels/options of sensor-triggered control later...here's the RC and relay board:



I'll use the 12 channels something like this:

1 rotate dome left (momentary)
2 rotate dome right (momentary)
3 front holoprojector
4 front lights (PSI and logic display)
5 rear lights (PSI and logic display)
6 looped sound effects
7 short sound effects (momentary)
8 short sound effects (momentary)
9 short sound effects (momentary)
10 etc.
11 etc.
12 etc.

[Gorman]

YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!

[TK-0944]

So far, I've got the front PSI (flashing blue and red...long red, short blue) and holoprojector sources sorted, but need to get them hooked up to the power distribution board (9V supply for the former, and 6V supply for the latter).



I didn't solder up the PSI circuits...got them as little pre-built boards a while ago (one is red/blue for the front, the other is yellow/green for the rear).

[Belakor]

Cool, more blinky lights

I was looking at that 12-channel system after you mentioned it the other day... it's really small and all those channels mean you can cram in all sorts of gadgets

[TK-0944]

Cool, more blinky lights   

I was looking at that 12-channel system after you mentioned it the other day... it's really small and all those channels mean you can cram in all sorts of gadgets

The RC comes from Hong Kong...they go for a pretty good price!

[TK-0944]

Had an idea for the remaining relay channels, based on stuff others in the R2 Builders group have done...it's non-canon, but...

Channel 10: play Star Wars theme
Channel 11: play Imperial March
Channel 12: play Leia's "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi" message

etc

[reelcollectibles]

Cool. I was blown away seeing Artoo in the flesh at your place Matt, this is great to hear he's going to Phase 2.

[SL-5673]

Had an idea for the remaining relay channels, based on stuff others in the R2 Builders group have done...it's non-canon, but...

Channel 10: play Star Wars theme
Channel 11: play Imperial March
Channel 12: play Leia's "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi" message

etc

Cool Matt.
I've just put together a little audio project that amplifies the output of a MP3 player and it's a pretty impressive volume output. The power amp is fairly small 20x50x20mm, only problem is you need a 6-16V power source (16V will give your 40W max) and a decent 8 ohm speaker.

[TK-4574]

More projects on the go. is impressive.....most impressive.
Nice

[TK-0944]

Cool Matt.
I've just put together a little audio project that amplifies the output of a MP3 player and it's a pretty impressive volume output. The power amp is fairly small 20x50x20mm, only problem is you need a 6-16V power source (16V will give your 40W max) and a decent 8 ohm speaker.

That sounds interesting...and a useful size for many prop-related projects...what else can you tell us about it?

[TK-0944]

Thanks for the positive comments.

The power board is coming from another R2Builder (Dan S), and shouldn't be too far off...although there are a few off-the-shelf PDBs for robotic and similar projects out there, the one he has designed is optimised for the sort of circuits one would find in an R2 dome (and it also has a few 'straight through' channels that can be modified with voltage regulators if additional stepped-down power sources are needed). Activity in the R2Builders group is ramping up a bit for CIV, and that's partly what's got me motivated to start working on my R2 again.

I've also just ordered 90 white/blue LEDs for the front logic display (already have a huge pile of red/orange/green ones for the rear display....they are way cheap to buy in bulk from Hong Kong.

[TC-8907]

Phase 2 sounds amazing Matt, I especially like the idea of R2 being able to play the "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi" message.

Adding cool little effects like that will transform R2 from a museum display piece to a real living astromech

[TK-0944]

Ive read about people butchering old fibreoptic strand lamps to make their logic displays, you'd use less leds  that way. just a thought. keep up the good work.

Yeah, I thought long and hard about the options to get an accurate looking pattern...may end up changing my mind again yet.

when you are finished building it, can I have it? I'll let you come to my birthday party

What sort of cake?

[TK-0944]

Yesterday, I kinda took a step backwards in order to get a (hopefully) better result...I removed the circular bearing that the dome sits on, to build a better mounting system that will (again, hopefully) work better with the dome rotation/drive system I envisage. Once I get it working, I'll see if I can post a quick vid.

[Belakor]

What sort of cake?

... wait... so if I had the right kind of cake I could have an R2 of my own?? sweet, I should start baking

Phase 2 sounds like it's going to be really cool.

BTW did you see the page on one of the R2 builders pages about being able to run multiple receivers from the same remote? Why have 12 channels when you could have 24 or 36 or... hey look, I can count

[TK-0944]

...BTW did you see the page on one of the R2 builders pages about being able to run multiple receivers from the same remote? Why have 12 channels when you could have 24 or 36 or... hey look, I can count

hehe...projects like this are never finished, just temporarily put on hold between upgrades. I'll start with 12 channels, but have already got ideas for more effects: I'd like to get a servo in there to move the front holoprojector, and a while ago I ripped all my old vinyl 'Story of Star Wars' records (+ ESB, ROTJ etc) into MP3s...for no particular reason, I think it'd be cool to have R2 be able to play them.

[TK-0944]

Made the most of the public holiday today, and reconfigured the dome bearing (it's now all fixed to the body), and installed a drive motor (from a cordless drill) to which an inline skate/rollerblade wheel is attached to rotate the dome. There is a ring of 3M grip tread around the inside of the bearing, so the motor drives the bearing by friction, but holds pretty well (although there is a lot of rotational inertia in the aluminium dome).

The little wooden mounting blocks are adjustable, and were necessary to get the bearing exactly centered, and the dome perfectly level...any misalignment will show up more when the dome rotates



Will try and get a vid of the dome moving (although I haven't done the dome rotation control system yet).

[Belakor]

Ingenious! That's a clever system, will the dome be able to rotate 360°?

Something I just thought of is will you have some sort of kill switch to cut the power supply? The reason I ask is I was just sitting and thinking about previous experiences with RC cars and them suddenly going nuts and smashing in to something at stupid speeds (they have this cool system that resets the throttle and applies the brakes as soon as you the signal drops below certain point)... not that you would have the problem of R2 racing off but he might decide to spin his dome around uncontrollably if the was some kind of interference

[TK-0944]

Okay, here's a very short vid: http://R2-D2.Dr-Maul.com/DomeDrive01.MPG (2169KB).

Sucks that it came out a bit dark (it looked okay when I previewed it on the camera), but gives the idea...I'm just behind the droid, manually controlling the motor at the moment. I hope I can put in a speed controller so that it's not quite so fast/loud.

[TK-0944]

Ingenious! That's a clever system, will the dome be able to rotate 360°?  
 
Something I just thought of is will you have some sort of kill switch to cut the power supply? The reason I ask is I was just sitting and thinking about previous experiences with RC cars and them suddenly going nuts and smashing in to something at stupid speeds (they have this cool system that resets the throttle and applies the brakes as soon as you the signal drops below certain point)... not that you would have the problem of R2 racing off but he might decide to spin his dome around uncontrollably if the was some kind of interference

I'm probably going to limit dome rotation, as there will be power/control conduits crossing from the body to the dome (across the plane of rotation), and I can't be bothered using a slip ring. To limit the dome, I'm thinging of using normally closed switches that kill the power (for one direction of rotation only) if the dome goes right around.