Foot progress

It has been slow going fabricating the feet. I was having trouble with the curved section that goes under the battery box staying put. I had and epiphany one night when I realized I could use a section of plastic tubing from an old roll of Xyron adhesive for that section.

I cut a piece to fit around the motor, then finished off the top part that goes behind the batttery box with 2mm Sintra. I have slotted the battery box bottom so that the drive motor tucks into it and I have an access hole where I will connect the drive motor wiring.

I still need to add the skirt around the bottom of the foot and do some gap filling.

Dome motor mount - finally!

Although it was a good building experience, I did not use the dome motor assembly I created. I had the motor mounted on a swing arm that was attached to the body frame and then held against the inside of the lazy susan by a spring. Unfortunately, the spring torqued the assembly, causing the wheel to wobble and subsequently "walk" it's way up and off the lazy susan. Very frustrating.

I finally went backed to the source and reviewed Dave Everett's styrene plans to see what he did. And lo and behold, right on the original plans were schematics for where to mount the dome motor! Doh!

I printed out the template, got things mapped out and after a few passes with the old Dremel tool I got things ready. I reinforced the spot on the frame where it mounts with another layer of Sintra.  I have seen the area on other builds reinforced with a thin piece of metal, but I need to scrounge something up to use for that.

I mounted the motor with two screws for the moment since I have to remove the lazy susan to get at the third hole spot, but for now it seems very secure with just two.

Body Parts

I have been painting and assembling the legs and other body parts such as the front vents and the octagon ports. The really dismal spring weather here in Wisconsin really put a damper on any painting activities. In the mean time, I fashioned some shoulder buttons out of old soda bottle caps and some assorted washers I had laying around the workshop.

I picked up some 4-1/2" bolts and I intend to fabricate some of the shoulder bolt details next that go in the large pockets of the shoulder as well.

Priming the body

Although I have had a long blog hiatus, work has continued on R2. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel!

I sanded and primed the body this weekend, and I have to look him over to see what needs more sanding and filling. I hope to get that taken care of and another coat of primer this week, so I can start the finish coat of white next weekend.

Dome Rotation

Finally got the dome motor mounted and hooked up to the electronics. I am using the same Jaycar motor as the feet drives for the dome, but I have a smaller Syren 10 speed controller that runs the motor.

There is still some tweaking to do with the speed controller since it gets to be a bit herky jerky at times and the R2 will lurch in a random direction! I posted a question on the builder's forum and I hope to get an answer soon. It seems like fome kind of feedback between the two controllers.

I have a small spring that holds the dome drive wheel tight against the lazy susan that could be tighter. There is one spot when rotating that it struggles to keep moving. I hope adjusting the tension does the trick.

Scratch Built Arm

Using the club blueprints I scratch-built one of R2's two utility arms. I am happy with how it turned out. I am going to prime it and see where it needs some filler. They are not going to be articulated, just inset in his body to provide more detail.

It was fun to do and I am sure the second one will go more quickly.

R2 Test Drive

I rebuilt the feet and have the Jaycar motors mounted on the styrene mounts according to the blueprints. I had to to bolt some third-party wheel hubs onto the Banebots wheels, but they seem to be pretty sturdy.

The 12V 7Amp motor is plenty powerful. It is going to take some getting used to the controls because it is easy to go too fast and jerk all around.

It was a good test because I discovered that I really need to reinforce the connection between the ankle and the feet. The right foot especially was way too wobbly.

And, I have to figure out how to keep the wheels from falling off the drive motor shaft when the set screw works it way loose. I can only get about 10 minutes of drive time before a wheel falls off. :(