Dome Pot, Painting, Ankle Locks, Radar Eye and other bits...

A quick update on a few odds and ends that I have been working on before I start on getting R2 standing.  Before I get started I went to the UK R2 Builders Day kindly organised by Brad (BigHappyDude) - it was a great day with so many droids to get ideas from. Was interesting seeing the MOT's being done as well, can't wait to get my droid rolling and get involved.

I have started painting a few leg parts.  The booster covers are tricky as they need a bit of masking - I used a mixture of green frog tape masking tape and blutac to cover the areas that need to stay metal.  I found that the best result was doing all the painting, removing the tape after a couple of hours so paint was not completely hard.  I then applied the lacquer afterwards to seal the edges.  I am happy with the result but it could have been slightly neater I think - good job he'll be weathered.

I tend to do a coat of acid etch primer, two coats of normal primer, then three coats of finished colour.  I sand between each layer of primer as well.

You can see the blutac in the half moons. (I am not sure those indents should remain metallic but I think it will look good)

I also decided now was time to spray the area around the rear PSI - its the only part of the inner dome that is painted.  So, I masked it off and applied coats as above.

I also started to paint some of the body parts any my new aluminium radar eye - it was such a shame to spray such a nice metal piece but it had to be done.  However I didn't realise until after I painted the eye that the indented parts not he right side are supposed to be left metallic - I may try to get the paint off later...

After 1 coat of blue - I find lots of thin coats much better to prevent runs etc.

Another quick job was to fix the top pie panel.  I found that the hinge did not fit well to the outer panel and seemed too far down, adding the inner dome panel that I cut out between the hinge and outer dome panel seemed perfect. (All the other hinged panels just use the outer panel directly stuck to the hinge).  I now just need to find a dome topper - will search through my odds and sods box of washers sometime - there must be one in there somewhere!

My next job was to get a radar eye in place - I have a glass eye lens on order but I know it'll be a few months so decided to create a cheap alternative as a temporary solution.  I purchased a fake CCTV camera from eBay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321632062417?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT), cut off the top section of the dome and painted the inside black.  I am very pleased with the result and at last R2 can see what he is doing!!

Next up was starting on the feet.  A bit of painting to get the first layers on, however I am not happy with the finish so will be sanding them down and redoing once its all fitted together.

I also cut the hole for the ankle lock rod to through.  This took a fair amount of time to get it the right position - its a touch too long but very hard to see once the ankle is in place.   One of my next posts will go into how I mount the foot drives etc.

I am now realising how much I have done since my last post - in future I'll try to post more often with smaller updates!!

I started to try and get some wiring done - got the foot drive controllers wired in, and started on the actuator controllers...  there is so much wiring to do, so I'll post again once some more is done - for now here is a messy pic of my electronics board.... (I have also decided to make a custom PCB for the arduino mega's as there is so much connecting to them now - i'll post further details once I have a more final solution!)

Last section for this post is regarding the dome potentiometer to measure which way the dome is facing.  I want to be able to implement code that can tell which way the dome is facing and centre it when needed.  I haven't really started the code yet, but needed to mount the potentiometer. 

I decided to make use of my 3d printer for this, I needed a bottom part to protect the potentiometer itself and then something to apply pressure to a part of it as the dome turns. 

In my build I intend to keep the dome plate attached to the dome when its removed, so I didn't want to put the reader on the dome plate.  I realised my dome connector already extends halfway to the centre (to carry the slipping wires) so thought I could double up the usage of this.  My first attempt below was a bit big and also instead of pressing on the pot with enough pressure it just lifted the reader.  

 My second attempt is more lightweight and includes a grove in the base part that the top part latches into - this prevents it lifting when pressure is applied to the pot.  Works perfectly so am happy with this.

I did manage to burn out two softpots before realising resistors are needed - so make sure you put a 1k resistor between the 5v and signal wires when connecting to your arduino.   I'll post details of how it connects up when I post about the code.

In this next pic you can see the grove the top part locks into.

That's all for now I think.

I now have most my parts to get him standing including legs, ankles, feet and battery boxes (thanks Jens (prostreetnotch)!.  I also have my 2-3-2 kit from James (commando8), have decided to put it all together before doing anymore painting (i'll then dismantle it all to paint and reassemble... can't wait to get R2 on his feet rolling around...!