Gwinnett Gladiators Game

R2 and the Ga501st had an event sponsored by Turner and the Cartoon Network for the season finale of Star Wars the Clone Wars.

Ceremonial first puck drop:

Working with Lexan

While working on my electronics panel, I needed to add a bunch of hole that were close together and a few large holes. Lexan likes to chip if you drill it and break if it is near other holes. To get the holes I needed I used a spade hole bit for drilling holes in wood. Set to low speed it made short work of the Ledxan without any ninding or chipping. I could get the holes as close as i wanted.

Star Wars Charity Event

Pictures from the Lucas Film Charity event held in Atlanta.

I can see the light...

Well a lot has been going on. The electronics work is about 80% done. The dome is about 90% done since I just have to finish cutting the dome panels and the front logic displays. The Rear logics are mounted, but they still need the fiber optic conversion. The logib displays on are hold until I can get more bezels for them. PSIs are now done. The outside of the droid only needs the battery harnesses, flat side plate, side vents, and a mounting system for the center vent surrounds to be complete. He is now pushing 175-200lbs fully loaded. I have to figure out hwo get him in a weigh in.

Lots going on, no pictures...

R2 was taken completely apart and pieces were ground down and adjusted to make way for electronics. The feet now have the NPC motors mounted and new wires pulled up the through the new holes in the feet and legs. The wires currently are just pulled into the body. The new electronics panel was cut out of 1/4" Lexan and mounting brackets were made to fit it to the frame. Some of the vertical rods on the frame were moved back to allow room for the hinges for the doors on the skins. All this done in a weekend. I now jsut have to positions the motor controllers and fuse blocks wire them up and R2 should be moving. Then I need to finish cutting the inner dome for the hinges and the dome can go back together.

R2 is almost talking

I just finished the setup of the sound system. The system consists of a VMusic2, Arduino, and speakers. I formatted a USB drive and updated the firmware on the VMusic2. I then created sound files for each sound and put them on the USB drive and created a little sketch to play all the sounds on the drive. I jsut have to write a little more logic to control the sounds through my Wii nunchucks and then install all the wiring in the droid

Kitty Litter PSI lenses and Dome moutning plates

I finished one PSI and started work on the other one. I used the large 40 pound litter containers for material. They make great PSI lenses.

The starting container


The rear plate being fitted. The holes are drilled in the dome and the plastic is clamped in place. 1 hole is drilled through the plastic and then a screw is inserted through the dome and the plastic. A T-nut is screwed to hold the plastic in place. The clamps are moved to a new location and a heat gun heats the plastic while slowly screwing the clamps down. Once the plastic is mostly in place, I used crushed ice in a baggie to cool and the plastic to form. Repeat the drilling process until the whole plate is in place.


The completed product (front). The holoprojector still needs to be cut out.

Back side of the front plate. The PSI LED holder will be changed out and the cone will have a new holder mounted soon.