Mounted First Holoprojector

I took the plunge yesterday and cut a circle into the inner dome.  After much filing to get it smooth enough and large enough, I mounted the first holoprojector.  Everything looks good.  Hopefully it doesn’t break off when the first kid touches it.

On a side note, I will have to repaint the pie panel that surrounds it since filing the circle chipped a bunch of the paint.  That will teach me to wait before I paint.  I suspect I will have to do that to all of the dome panels since none of the laser-cut circles are the correct diameter.

Aluminum Fever

I’ve got aluminum fever.  I’m making the switch from a wood frame & legs for R2, to aluminum.  After seeing and reading about COM-8’s new lightened frame and how pretty it was, I decided that was the way to go.  It’s still being built, but in the mean time, the new aluminum legs have arrived.

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Dome Preview

The paint on the dome panels has dried enough that I could tape them into place and get a preview of what it’s gonna look like.  Not too bad!

Admining Another Site

If you know about me and the 501st, you know that I troop at the ToyMan Show about every other month.  Well I’ve gotten to know the promoter for that show and now I’m coding his website for him.  It’s nothing too advanced, but I am working on a cool database driven back-end so he can make changes for himself.

What’s the old saying?  “More than three and you have a problem.” Does that apply to websites too?

Painted Dome Panels

So I’m on vacation this week and I decided to get back to some R2 building.  I’ve been slacking off and haven’t done anything for a while.

First on the agenda, finish painting all the dome panels.  While I may have to repaint a few that didn’t turn out so hot, I at least accomplished my goal.  They are all drying in the garage right now.  Later this week, I’ll get some tape and mount them temporarily so I can get a look at my progress.

There is a specific formula for getting the blue to come out just right.  It was developed by R2 builder Kelly Krider and hence, is called”Krider Blue”.  I need to refine it some more, so everyone will start calling it “Moody Blue”.  **grin**

First you need to spray your panel with primer.  Then wet sand it with fine wet/dry sandpaper.  The water will help keep the dust from making your paper useless after 3 strokes.  You’re trying to sand away the ridges in the panels.  The primer will fill in the valleys, and the sand paper will take off the peaks.  After that, primer it again and make sure it looks nice.  Let this dry for a day or two.

Next up is the Metallic Purple from Rustoleum.  Give the panel a single, even, shiny coat of this.  Let it dry for 10-15 minutes depending on temp, sunlight, and humidity (don’t paint in high humidity).  A side note, the Rustoleum Metallic Purple is VERY hard to find.  You pretty much have to special order it or get it online.

After the purple give it a single, even, shiny coat of the Duplicolor Metalcast Anodized Blue.  Again you want it to look wet.  Start with the edges of the panels so you know you’re getting them, then do the top.  Let this dry for the same amount of time as the purple.

After the blue coat, it’s time for a coat of Rustoleum’s Crystal Clear Enamel.  This clear coat will give your blue a nice shine to it.  Spray a nice, even, shiny coat.  You need to make sure you do this coat about 10-15 minutes after you do the blue coat.  If you let the other coats dry completely, the clear coat will react badly with them and you’ll have to dump the part in acetone and start over.  If you like, you can do a second coat of clear about 10-15 after the first.

Sound System Complete

I finished up Artoo’s sound system a little while ago.  While I may still make some changes to the audio files, everything else is complete.  And changing those is simply a matter of copying WAV files onto a CompactFlash card.

The way it will work is like this.  You press a switch on the keycoder (attached to the bottom of the transmitter).  The keycoder encodes it and sends it into the TX.  The transmitter sends it to the receiver on channel 5.  The RX sends it out the channel 5 connector to the keycoder receptor.  The KCR decodes the signal to see which switch was pressed and then closes a circuit for the corresponding output wire.  That wire leads into an input connection on the back of the CFSoundIII box.  The CFSIII sees which input was signaled and plays the corresponding WAV file.  Easy is pie!

On Stage w/ Weird Al, again!

I had another opportunity to perform on stage with Weird Al Yankovic this past Friday.  This time he was appearing closer to home at the St. Charles Family Arena.  Without further ado, here’s the video!

Photos from the event can be found here.

R/C Kit Arrives

My order from Vantec showed up today!!  Included in the order was the Transmitter with 16 channel Keykoder attached, a receiver, two servos, NiCad batteries for the receiver, the Keykoder receptor, and the RDFR23 motor controller/mixer.  Missing  from the box was the wall charger.  But after a call to Vantec, they’re sending it right out.

I also put in an order for my CFIII sound system.  This will store and play back all the R2 noises.

Ordered R2's R/C Kit Today

I ordered my new Vantec R/C kit.  It includes a Futaba 9 channel radio transmitter (the big remote control), a 16-channel keycoder (all those switches attached to the bottom for doing droid sounds), the receivers for inside R2, batteries, chargers, and even a couple servos.  Along with this, I also ordered the RDFR23 motor controler, which will mix the signals and contol the speed and direction of the wheels.