Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Motor Holders

I went to the hardware store on my way home and bought a plethora of nuts and bolts for my A&A motor holders. I'm sure I will have to go back later and get more. LOLI eventually got tired of having double threads on both hubs so I carefully removed the threads from one of the hubs and test fitted the bolts. I will bolt it together permanently later when I get the bearings. Next I bolted the motor holders together to see how they look. I'm sure I will have to take them back apart at some point.I did a quick test fit on the legs with one foot....
Then just had to try it with both feet. LOL



Monday, April 28, 2008

A&A Heyday!

I got my A&A motor holders today and laid out all the parts to make sure I had them all.
I could not resist to play LEGO and put them together temporarily. LOL


Saturday, April 26, 2008

Odds and Ends

Not much done today, I took the large resin Data Port and chiseled out the back corners so I could open the back section of it up. I then carefully scored the inside along the edges a few times and gently pushed the excess towards the back. The flash pieces easily split on the cut lines and came out in two pieces.Later on I will take some sandpaper and smooth the edge a hair more but it looks good already. Next I cut some rectangles from some scrap pieces of MDO and screwed them into the frame to keep the batteries from sliding around.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Battery boxes

Got my battery boxes today!
They are made out of PVC .

Backstory part 18

Aboard The Tree Hugger, Lihp was sleeping while all the pilot droids stood around doing nothing on the bridge. Patches was watching events on the holo-news looking for any news that might lead them to their first mission in stopping Eco terrorists. Suddenly a breaking story flashed on the screen, “An Ithorian that is wanted for questioning by local authorities in the Jedi temple for alleged connections to the Trade Federation is missing. Authorities want him alive and unharmed, he goes by the name Esoom Mendo, he should be considered armed and dangerous.” Then a rotating bust of Esoom’s image came up on the screen. Patches whistled wildly in surprise catching the attention of all the pilot droids.
Suddenly the news flickered as another signal forced its way threw. A man dressed in a blue senate guard uniform appeared in front of the little droid.
“I don’t have much time; they will trace my signal soon! Esoom is hiding in the lower levels in a repair shop of a friend. I know you are not in league with the Federation but you should go hide with Mr. Mendo before they impound your landing craft and you along with it. I am sending you his coordinates. The password is USED PARTS. Good luck!”
As the image started to fade Esoom plugged into the console and stored the coordinates directly to his memory unit so they could not be found in the ships records.
“Pilot droids! I want you all to shut down till I get back, if they break in and see you functioning they might shoot on site. There are to many of you to sneak threw the under levels undetected. Lihp and I will take the speeder and meet Esoom below.”
“Rodger, Rodger!”4791 said and they all compacted down into a fetal position in unison and shut down. Patches was surprised they did not put up a fight and he hurried to the lift. Before heading down he put a few tack welds on the bridge doors, just enough to slow them down but not enough for them to rip the door to shreds.
Patches then went looking for his Jawa friend whistling for him as loud as his vocal system would let him.
“What is wrong astro droid?” Lihp yelled stumbling around a corner.
“Esoom in trouble! We must go get him!” Patches gurgled. ”Get the speeder ready, we are leaving!”
“What! Lihp want to know what happening first!”
“No time lets go before local security get here and arrests us too!”
The two of them rushed downstairs to the loading platform and hopped into the speeder. As soon as the bay doors opened wide enough Lihp shot the speeder out the opening. As they zoomed off Patches pushed a button on the speeder that shut and locked the doors of the landing craft tight. Patches rattled off directions as the Jawa did his best to follow. They headed straight down for several thousand feet then shot away from the general direction of the Temple above. Soon there was little traffic at all as the walls of the buildings got closer together and no surface light could be seen. Soon Lihp had to slow down as the walls got to close for two-way traffic and craft to safely navigate. Patches spit out some more directions and they headed down deeper into the older parts of the city. After a while they came to the coordinates that Patches was given. The only light came from the speeders console lights and a sign above a door that said Melac’s salvage. There was a small ledge in front of the door barely wide enough to land the speeder. The craft was in no condition to be trusted to hover by itself for long periods of time, along with the fact that someone might hop in it and steal it while it was running. After shutting down the speeder and activating the built in theft traps the both got out and carefully eased there way to the door.
It was an old fashioned door that had to be manually opened with a knob and it swung inward as it opened. As they entered the door hit a chime that made a noise that let whoever was here know someone came in. The room was surprisingly well lighted with a sitting area and a very well kept front desk near the back wall.
“I’m coming, be right with you!” Came an odd elderly voice from somewhere in another room.
Soon an elderly robed figure came in threw another door holding a thick black cane. Patches had no record of his species in his memory.
“Hello strange fellas, my name is Melac. How can I help you?”
Patches warbled out in his droid speak that he was looking for an Ithorian but Melac seemed not to understand.
“I'm sorry little droid but I can not understand you.”
The Jawa tried speaking for Patches in his crude broken version of the Basic he was trying to learn with no avail.
“I can kind of understand you but you are going to fast for my old Yarkora ears to hear.” Said Melac as he leaned harder onto his cane. He then scratched his head and re adjusted a pair of welding goggles he had atop it. “We- look for Giant Man- long neck- name E-sooome.” Lihp said as slowly as his nervous mind would let him.
“E-sooome? Never heard of the name? I have never seen a long necked man in hear recently either? Are you sure you are in the right place?” The Yarkora then shot Patches a warm friendly smile.
“Tell him the password for me!” Patches said to Lihp.
“Jawa no know the words! E-sooome no teach yet.” Lihp then went and sat in a chair and folded his arms in defeat.
Patches let out a cry as he thought what to do. He suddenly remembered how he communicated to Esoom when his vocal system would not work on Naboo. He powered on his new front holoprojecter and produced an image of Esoom on the counter for Melac to see.
“Ah is this who you are looking for? An Ithorian, Hummm. Nope I have not seen one in a long while.” Melac proclaimed.
Patches then manipulated the holo to make different parts of recordings match up to make a sentence. “Looking-for-Esoom Mendo-Pass-Word-Used-Parts.”
Melac’s face changed, his ears perked up and a coy smile came across his wide lips. He sat up a little straighter taking his weight off his cane. “Well why didn’t you say so! Used Parts are always welcomed around here my little multicolored friend. As for your pitiful Jawa friend he will make an amusing pet.”
The camel like being pushed a hidden button and a thick blast door covered the antique one. The rear wall behind the counter lowered into the floor revealing a huge warehouse of striped down droids and vehicles.
Startled Lihp ran for the blast door and beat on it with his fists with no avail. Melac shrugged off his robe and stood straight up reveling that he was not old at all but quite muscular and young looking. He took his black cane and leveled it like a blaster and stung the helpless jawa repeatedly till he fell limp to the floor.
“Now you little tin can, we can do this the easy way or the hard way!”
Patches immediately deployed his hover pads and pushed them to full power. The little droid shot up towards the ceiling and hid behind a ceiling beam.
“Ha! You think you can escape from here! No droid ever has! Come down here or I will stun your stinky friend here into a permanent coma!” Melac yelled in a gruff voice while looking and pointing a finger in the astromechs direction with one hand and taking the cane and pointing it in the general direction of Lihp with the other. “I can wait here longer than you can; I have all the time in the world.”
Patched could not surrender and he knew it, if he did give up Lihp was doomed for sure as was Esoom if he was here. He opened up a side dome panel and deployed the gadget he had Lihp make. It was a swivel arm connected to the Gun that used to belong to the Gotal from the day before. It was modified so that Patches could trigger it himself and had it hooked into his own power supply for long durations of firing.
Patches carefully aimed at the Yarkora’s cane and fired breaking the weapon in two, throwing the muscular creature backwards. Patches immediately took the opportunity and momentarily turned the power off on his repulsor pads and fell from the ceiling while changing the setting on the blaster to full stung.
Melac sneered and put his goggles over his eyes and held the long straight part of his cane like a club. Right before Patches reached the floor he powered his repulser back on rocketing himself towards Melac.
Patched fired at the same time Melac swung. Both of them connected with their shots and were flung to the floor and skidded in opposite directions. The Yarkora slammed into the counter and slumped to the floor while Patched scraped along in a shower of sparks while loose parts flung off his dome from where he had been hit. The droid then rammed into a pile of stripped power converters headfirst.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Kick the tires and light the fires!

I got my drive wheels from www.PartsForScooters.com today and test fitted them together.
It is kind of hard to screw them together with threads on both hubs.
Later next week I will go into Omaha to a place that sells commercial grade bearings cheap called "Precision Bearing". They will have the droid parts I am looking for. :)

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Running out of time!

Well OsFest is just around the corner! I want to have R2-CM running around under his own power and with a head at least by July LOL. I hope I can make it!

Also I finally figured out what the yellow switch will control. It will control the power for the feet motors. So I had to change out the on/off switch for it to a heavy duty one. Here is a pic of the old switch and the new one. (The new one is bigger)

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Odds and Ends

I started shortening and soldering the wires on the back of my panel, as you can see they were starting to get out of control.
I also took out my dome motor and routered the dado in the frame flush because it was holding the motor a little crooked. It is now straight :)

Monday, April 21, 2008

Backstory part 17

Patches and Lihp returned to the Tree Hugger without incident. The Jawa coasted next to the ship’s outer doors and got out of the craft while the astromech hovered himself to the floor and deployed to three-leg mode.
“Ok Lihp I want you to make something for me out of your pile of parts and I will forget to mention your little detour to Esoom,” The droid said.
“What does astro droid want me to make?” Lihp asked in return.
Lihp was surprised by Patches’ request and hesitated to do as asked at first but then grudgingly agreed.
The Jawa then went into the ship to start assembling the parts he would need.
Patches stood on the landing pad wondering if his decision was the right one while wooing to himself. He watched as the sun started to set wondering what his friend and master Esoom was doing at this very moment, hoping things were going more smoothly for him.
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After a light meal of fresh greens, Esoom was shown to his guestroom where he would stay for the night. While entering the room he was thinking back to the meal he had just eaten he realized that other than the time he helped the Jawas on Tatooine, he had not practiced the Law of Life sense he left Ithor. Had he really gotten this far off course from where he started when he first asked his elder to do his special droid experiment, he thought to himself. He let out a sigh and looked at the furniture in the room around him, there where a few couches and tables but otherwise the room was bland. He went to a terminal that was inset into one of the tables and brought up a map of the Temple. After thumbing threw the endless list of room he found what he was hoping for; an arboretum that went by the name of The 1000 fountains. He took the time to memorize the path in his mind then switched off the monitor. Esoom knew he should stay in his room but he needed to free his mind of the guilt he was feeling of not being one with mother jungle even if Ithor was light years away. The Ithorian peeked his long head out the door to see if anyone was around and seen no one in the immediate area. He calmly walked down the hall as if he was suppose to be there and headed towards the arboretum.
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On the bridge of the Tree Hugger Patches had just got done tacking down the panel that had come loose in the firefight earlier that day. Now with all the repairs were complete he then went to check on the clone of the Naboo plant they had brought with them on the ship. He inserted one of the new instruments Esoom had incorporated into him into the soil and found that its moisture content was surprisingly fine.
“The plucky little R2 unit stared at the plant in great detail wondering if their next stop would lead them to rescue more endangered plant and wildlife.
Lihp came onto the bridge shuffling his feet as he went, holding the contraption he had made at the astromech’s request.
“Lihp is done. You sure we should do this?” The jawa said with a heavy heart.
“Yes, let’s get this over with.” Patches bleeped still looking at the plant.
“E-sooome not going to like when Giant man figure out.”
“It is only for emergency.” Patches said, and rolled past Lihp and into the lift. “4791, you have the bridge till we return.”
“Roger, roger.” The pilot droid said while standing straight at attention.
“Come on Lihp; let’s get this over with.” Patches bleeped, and the jawa entered the lift with him and they went down into the ship.
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As the Ithorian got closer to the arboretum his heart started to race but his face showed nothing but determination.
Soon he was at one of the entrances to the indoor garden area and he pushed a button on the wall to open the door. As the doors slid to the sides the sounds and smells assaulted his senses. The sound of cascading water, the smell of cut grass, the bouquet of many different flowers, the bright lights from the ceiling.
Esoom walked into the huge area, waterfalls could be seen everywhere around him. A huge lake stretched out in the center with water so clear you could see the bottom. Esoom’s mood calmed down in less than a minute as he strolled threw the grass. The waterfalls came in all different shapes and sizes with the largest one being on one end of the lake. From the outside of the Jedi Temple he would have never known this room was here. At one point he stopped, sat on the grass with his knees folded, and closed his eyes. He gathered his worries pushing them back in his mind as far as he could. He found the calm and peace he had missed since he left Ithor, the dark feelings were nowhere to be found. The Ithorian meditated easily for a long time peacefully and fully.
“Come here often?” Came a voice in his native language. Esoom jerked out of his trance to see another Ithorian sitting in the same manner as himself dressed in the robes of a Jedi and a Lightsaber on his side.
“My name is Roron Corobb, Padawan of Drake Lo’gaan.” “Esoom, Esoom Mendo is my name."
“Well Esoom Esoom Mendo, what are you doing here, I can see that you are not any kind of Jedi, shouldn‘t you be in one of the guest areas.” Said the Ithorian as he opened up his eyes to reveal they were blue, which is rare for their species.
“I came here to clear my head, I am sorry if I am trespassing but I had to come, I have not felt the call of Mother Jungle in such a long time.”
“I can see you are not here to do any harm, come let me show you something you should like. Follow me.” Roron said.
Hesitantly Esoom got up and followed him to a trail that led threw some dense growth to a hidden area in a corner of the room. There before them stood a small grouping of Bafforr trees just large enough to have a group conciseness.
“Oh my!” Esoom exclaimed as he choked on his words, “Bafforr trees here! I would have never known!”
“Come sit with me brother, open your mind and let them commune with you.”
Esoom did as he was asked, soon tears of happiness streamed down his face. He felt as if he was home again on his herd ship, he became one with the trees for a short time.
After some time talking with the trees and Roron Corobb, Roron said that his master was calling for him.
“I do not hear him?” Esoom said.
“He is letting me know telepathically with his Jedi powers” Roron said with two big smiles.
They both got up and headed to the entrance Esoom came in at. “I trust you can find your way back to your room before you get caught brother?” The blue eyed Ithorian said.
“Yes I can, and thank you for your kindness.” Esoom said as the two of them bowed to each other.
Esoom walked quickly back to where his room was trying not to be noticed. When he turned the last corner of the hallway he saw a Jedi with a man and some guards standing outside his room. Esoom duct back into the other part of the hallway before they seen him. Carefully he listened in on the conversation.
“I am sorry that the owner of that Trade Federation ship is not here, we will track him down immediately Chancellor.” Said the Jedi. “See that you do Master Windu, I want to make personally sure this man is not in league with the Trade Federation.” sneered the Chancellor.
“The Queen of Naboo herself has sent word that this Ithorian was given the ship.” exclaimed the Jedi Master.
“That may be but the senate will not rest till I have a more definitive answer for them.”
Esoom peered around the corner to see the Jedi. Slowly he peered around a little more and saw the man who was asking about him and his guards. Suddenly the wave of Esoom’s own bad thoughts and memories hit himself hard. His head started to throb and his ears whistled loudly in his head. His dark thoughts and emotions hit again even harder that he let out a scream that shook the whole hallway. Soon the pain was too much to bear that he blacked out and fell to the floor unconscious.
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Lihp was not happy with Patches’ decision but finished the modifications to Patches’ being anyway.
The droid looked at his new appendage in a reflective hull panel with a feeling of guilt. Unhappily he tucked it inside his dome panel and the two of them just stood there quietly for a moment.
“Lihp tired go to sleep now.” The Jawa said turning and walking away not waiting for an answer.
Patches knew it was not a fun modification he had just done, but a necessary one to help keep his friends safe.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Wiring and jig making

Today I did some more wiring and got the motor controller for the dome totally installed.
I also wired up the on/off switches so that all the electronics do not all have to be on at once.
I also tested out one of the 9 volt connectors on the front PSI
Here is what each switch controls:
Green= CF3 sound board and the two 12 button remotes
Blue= All the 9 volt items for the dome.
Red= Main Power to the board
Yellow= Nothing yet
After the wiring was done I made a jig to hold the outer ankle sides level while I drill holes for pins to go in.

I also ordered the drive wheel parts for the motor holders and a set of PVC battery holder shells for the feet.

All in all a very good day, I still have not finished my skirt but I should get back to it soon.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Mounting my new power board

I took a spare piece of plexi glass and outlined where all the mounting points for the power board and switches would go and drilled them.
I then added some wood strip to the back of the frame where the plexi would mount so the switches would not hit the skins once they were on. If you look closely you can barely see the holes for the switches in the plexi.
The Power board and switches look as if they are floating in mid air with how clear the plexi is.

I also mounted my Dome motor controller but it was getting to dark to take a picture.

You've got the Power!

My power board came in today! Ya!!!!
Sorry about the Poo Doo picture.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Dome stuff

I got my dome motor controller in today.
I was going to glue my curved skirt panels in but it was way to cold outside again tonight. :(

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Skirt work

Not much done today, just cut and glued some small backer blocks for the front and back curved pieces to rest against while the tack cement drys.
The rest of the day I did some spring maintenance on my El-camino engine.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Shades of Grey

I sanded my skirt and primed it with grey primer so I could easily see where I needed to do some touch up.
I then cut the curved parts out of styrene for attachment later.

Maybe soon I can attach the center leg for real!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Leg work

Today I made four stand offs for the center leg rails
and glued them in.While R2 was laying down I marked on the frame where the mounting blocks for the skirt will be when I attach it later. It was easier to outline them now before the skirt is completely framed in.Poor Patches looks like he was left in a bad neighborhood and was jacked for parts in a dark alleyway.Lastly I temporarily clamped the center leg in and Patches stood on his own for the first time. Yaaa!

R2 standing tall!

Today with some of my free time I made some temporary feet for my droid so I could get him off the workbench and free up some room.
I put the bronze bushings in my outer feet and just my luck one of them snagged the outer finished layer of the plywood and ripped it off the tip. I will glue the piece back on later and it should not effect the durability of the foot connection but it does Smegging suck.
I may temporally clamp the center leg in place but I real do not want to permanently mount it till I get some skins on and make sure the outer legs are where they are supposed to be at.
I found some broken In-line skates in a rental clean out job that I will use and mount in my temp feet tomorrow.

I really need to get a better camera.