Com8 frame build

Just a quick update. Received my com8-a1 frame. Such a well made amazing piece of engineering! Nothing really to add as I just followed the instructions really. 

Test fit of the skins just to see what it looks like....

It'll be a while until I think about attaching the skins, but at first look they fit perfectly!! 

I've also been collecting electronics... Here's a preview, I'll post details of what everything is when I wire it all up. 

It's really coming together now I have the frame and I have plenty more parts on the way!! 

Logics, slip ring connector and base plate...

Not a great deal of progress the last few weeks and a few frustrating problems...

First up my logic lights arrived so decided to spend some time building them, just a case of following the instructions really... A fiddly job cutting all the fibre optics but got it done in a few hours and they looked great.

I also connected my psi's to them and everything worked great (though I suspect I will get the new led psi's if their available before the psi holders are!)

I tried positioning the lights in the dome but noticed an issue where the two front logics get in each other's way and prevent them sitting flush. The pic below tries to show this but it's not a very clear pic.

The only thing I can think is to increase the spacers on one of them which will mean redoing the fibre optics.  

However, now the bad news, a day later without changing anything the logics have some major issues. Joymonkey is of course helping out and looking into it, but that means it'll be a few weeks until I get them back....

Next up was the dome base plate, I want the dome base plate (with periscope etc) to stay with the dome when it's removed from the body but also have the option to easily separate from the dome if need be. The bottom ring on the new hydro domes has an exact cut out for the dome base plate to sit into,  so to fix it I made some small aluminium brackets to stop it going past the ring, I will later get some simple wing nuts to hold it in place.  The first pic shows the darker grey pieces in put in to support the base plate.

I need to buy the wing nuts so moved onto the slip ring connector.  After seeing a post from Brad (bhd) about a quick connect system I decided to copy the idea.  This involved mounting the dome side slip ring connector board into the bottom ring and mounting the connector to the rockier.

So now when the dome is put onto the rockler the studs that hold it on align it to the slip ring connector.  This means the dome can be removed by simply lifting it off.

The pics show this better.  However, spot the stupid mistake!!...

Did you see the problem?? There is now no room for the dome gear set to turn the dome... I'll fix this later but I'll need to mount the rockler bracket on the other side and make a new bracket for the connector board so it can sit higher up... A bit frustrating but is what you get when trying the figure things out befor having all the parts... 

However it's all good as I have a com8 frame on its way to me... I was worried it could be a good 6 months before I got this and it would put a stop to my build but I managed to get a 2nd hand one (though it's not been used!). I now can't wait for it to be delivered as it'll open the door to so many things for me to get on with!  

Panels finished, some programming and mounting electronics

Have managed to make some good progress the last week. I have firstly finished mounting all the hinges and panels.  Some of them still need some fine tuning but am pretty happy. 

Next up was mounting some of the electronics boards.  To start with I need an arduino uno, an adafruit servo controller, a power converter and the slip ring board.  I plan to run all power from 12v batteries in the body.  With all the gadgets I have planned I know room in the dome will be tight so my main objective is to keep everything as compact as i can.  

I got some simple pcb mounting feet and will mount some boards directly to the dome with captive studs and some bits on a plastic board.

First up was the servo board.  I mounted this on a plastic board which I then mounted to the dome.  To make the feet mounts fit to the contour of the dome I just shaved a bit off the outer edges.

Next up was the arduino, I just mounted this to the dome directly with the feet and chose to put it directly above the front PSI. 

I decided to mount the slip ring dome board (from glynharper) and power converter (from Chris) together.  I made a quick mount using plastic board and a cut down piece of mini trunking.

I then mounted it to the dome using the same captive studs as before, and again shaving the feet to fit the contour of the dome.

Next up a temporarily connected it all up and wrote some basic code.

I have an arduino mega adk that will eventually go in the body that has a blutooth dongle.  This is then connected to the arduino in the body and the servo controller using I2C. 

I am powering both Arduino's with 12v and the servo board with 5v (though I have read that 6v is better so may change this).

I have written some test code for the body arduino that enables me to receive commands from a playstation3 move navigation controller. The button presses then send an I2C command across the network to the dome arduino.

I then wrote some code for the dome arduino that receives the I2C command and moves the servos.

The code is a bit buggy but for now it proves the servos all work at least.

I plan to write most scripts myself and will post them up when they are more complete and reliable.

Anyway, here's a quick video...

http://youtu.be/nXkqf5GH5VU

Magic Panel and a few more hinges

Got a few more hours in this weekend and managed to get a few more ultimate hinges installed and the magic panel.

The hinge installs were all similar to the previous ones, just have to be careful lining them up as there is little tolerance.  Once they are all installed I'll have to bend them a bit to improve the fit and in some cases file either the opening or the hinge slightly.

I found the best way was to line the hinge up then clamp it in place and actually drill the first hole with the hinge in place, that way the hole is definitely in the correct place.  On one of the pie panels I had to cut the corner off the hinge mount so it cleared the lower panel hinge, a simple dremel cut sorted that out.

Here are a few pics of the hinges so far.

I now just have the two small hinges and the top hinge to mount.  Need to decide where to place the top hinge, but will probably be to the left of the periscope hole - speaking of which, that panel is not hinged as eventually the pie panel will rise with the periscope.

Next up was the magic panel, I managed to source this from the junkyard on astromech and it's the first lights to get installed!

I first had to solder on the headers and power/I2C terminals. I only had some odd ones which is the only reason the I2C one is so big!  

Cutting the hole for the magic panel was time consuming but simple enough. I started using my dremel to make a whole that was about 5mm too small. I only did this to ensure I didn't go to big as the lip on the panel is only small and I didn't want it to be able to come through.  After much filing and measuring I got the panel in.  I then just fixed it using the same captive studs as the hinges.  Powered it up and now have a cool red panel!! I'll be modifying the code for it later to respond to my I2C commands but for now it looks great.  The edges will be covered by the outer panel when it's installed.

To finish up I started to think about how the other bits will be mounted.  I don't have my holo projectors  yet but do have the mounts.  I could have a problem with it overlapping the hinged panel. After some advice on astromech, I'll worry about this when I get the hp's.

I've also started writing my android app, but more on that later!

Electronics start...

Now I have some servos installed I thought I'd spend some time messing about with some arduino's etc to try and get them working.  Not quite there yet, but made some good progress.

Have decided that for now I am going to use a PS3 Navigation controller connected to a 'Master' Arduino for some controls, I'll be adding a android device connected via bluetooth using a custom app later to control other stuff.

I have taken many ideas from BHD's system with some other ideas too but for now I have a PS3 controller talking to my master arduino over bluetooth which in turn talks to a dome arduino over I2C, which in turn talks to a adafruit PWM servo controller over I2C.  All might sound complicated but its building blocks for a much bigger system in the future I hope.

Anyway, I got two servos moving in response to pressing a button on a controller - doesn't seem much but took a bit of head scratching and a broken arduino to get this far!

Here's a very dull video to prove my work :-)

I'll be posting a lot more about my electronics and code as I go and will make it all available to anyone who would like it. 

More Dome Cutting & Servo Mounts

Have now managed to cut out all the inner panels that were not pre-cut including the top circle. (I haven't done the MP panel yet as I am waiting for it to arrive to see how it fits.)

I first aligned the domes as best I could and used a permanent marker and a washer to draw a line about 4mm in from the outer dome edge on each panel to be cut.

After separating the domes I started on the square panels.  I used the dremel to cut a small sit in each edge - I then just used my hacksaw to cut the panel out.



With a bit of filing, sanding and wire wool it's pretty easy to get the holes nice and even and smooth.

With the 2 tiny panels I spot drilled the small edges as they are too small for the dremel.

I then put the appropriate ultimate hinge up to each hole to see if it would fit - the 2 tiny panels needed a bit more work but nothing major.

The three identical lower panels were too small for the hinges though - as another member did I just widened the top part to allow the hinge to pass - looks ok, but I may widen the whole thing later so its more even.

It was then onto the top circle which I was dreading!  Turned out pretty easy though, just used my dremel with a cutting disc and did several passes around until I got through  Best to clamp the dome down and use both hands on the dremel to steady it I found!  Then as with other panels I used files, sand paper and wire wool to even it out.

And that's all the big cutting done. I gave the inside of the inner dome a quick polish as well before starting to mount the hinges.

I then started to think about mounting the hinges using the captive studs.

I used a scrap piece of aluminium to test it first.  Drilled a 7/64 hole as suggested - I don't have a countersink tool, so just used a large metal drill and by hand just cut a makeshift countersink.  Seems to work well as it leaves a rough surface perfect for the stud to latch onto.

Attached the hinge and tightened the nut - all seems good. Time to try it on the dome.

Spent a good amount of time ensuring the hinge was perfectly lined up then marked one of the holes.

Drilled one hole and countersunk and attached the hinge - once aligned again I drilled the 2nd hole and attached the 2nd fixing.  All worked well though one hinge is slightly off, I think for the others it'll be more accurate to align the hinge and just drill the first hole with it in place rather than marking it as the tolerance for error is very small.

Managed to get three hinges mounted and pretty chuffed with the progress!

I do however have a few issues with the 2 domes not quite aligning properly but more on that another day!

A bit more dome cutting...

Just a quick update, managed to cut all the panels out of the outer dome.  Then spent a few hours smoothing all the edges and getting rid of all the sharp edges. Used a file, then some 300 grit sandpaper followed by some steel wool.  Got all the edges nice and smooth.  I'll be sanding and polishing the actual outside of the dome a bit later.

Next step is to cut the inner dome panels that aren't already partially cut after lining up the inner and outer domes and marking the cut lines.

Now all the sharp edges are gone it's pretty easy to put the two domes together and separate again.  The fit looks ok at he moment as well.

That's all for now....

Dome cutting

I received my 300mm hydro dome a few weeks back - its such a great piece as it is so it was a bit daunting thinking about cutting it.  After stocking up on a few new tools and clearing out our spare bedroom which is now a dedicated R2 building room I was all set.

All 13 panels in my dome will be hinged using the ultimate hinges (from Kevin Holme) so there is a fair amount of cutting to do.  I started on the inner dome so any mishaps will hopefully be covered up.  I've also started experimenting with polishing and cleaning the dome on the inner skin.

I first marked all the panels on the inside so I can match up the parts once they are all cut out.

I then attacked the first panel with a hacksaw - i tried to cut as close to the dome part so less to file off afterwards.


After removing the first panel I filed the edges with a large file, then a smaller smoother file, I then used some 600 grit sandpaper and finished up with some fine wire wool.  This managed to take all the rough edges off nicely.

The second panel I attempted to cut with my dremel but it was a lot more tricky and time consuming than the hacksaw so ditched that idea.

So a couple of hours later and the five top panels on the inner dome are removed and all edges cleaned up.

I also tried some different polishes to clean the dome.  I know others have sanded the entire dome to remove the slight imperfections - I am undecided on this as I quite like it as it is - I don't want it too shiny - plenty of time to decide on that one though.

Could resist sizing up one of the hinges... they are going to be tight but thats a problem for another day....

...and that's day 1 of my build done... can't wait for my next free time to carry on!

and so it begins....

After considering making an R2 for many years I got to see one up close over the Summer.  Needless to say I thought it was great and it set my desire to build my own.  After a quick google search I stumbled across astromech.net and started to read... and read... and read...  there is so much information on there and at first its all a bit daunting.

I decided that if I was going to build an R2 it would have to be the best I could possibly make it, and as such I decided to go all aluminium.  This of course if the most expensive way and the most time consuming with regards to getting the parts as some bits are only made every few years.

With that in mind I started jumping on every part run a few months back and have been slowly building a small collection of parts.  More about the parts I have got so far later and much more later about the grand plans I have for the electronics - today I decided to actually take my first steps in the actual build.

I decided to blog my build so I can refer to it down the line and also it will hopefully help out other builders in the future in the same way as I have been helped by many other blogs and build logs.

I'll also create a build log on astromech.net and post each time I update this blog.

Hope you find it interesting and useful - god luck with your build!

Matt