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Date: September 19, 2007
Days left until R2LA V: 10
Yet another "where did the time go" kind of evening. Lots of things accomplished, and that much closer to the goal.
The day started with another monopolization of my lunch break. It's almost getting to be a routine at this point. The people at ACE hardware are starting to recognize me. My goal was to pick up hardware for attaching the speaker mounts, and to get some clear plastic hose to strengthen the battery cables. ACE didn't stock the thickness I need, which means it's off to Home Depot tomorrow. They did have the hardware, which makes the trip worthwhile.
Next was a stop I was dreading. A trip to Gyro Hobbies in Lake Forest. Man do I hate the place. Today did not change my opinion of that claim. Sadly, Gyro is the only place I know of locally that has a decently stocked Evergreen rack and spinner. You know, styrene? I was looking for some rigid tubing to make a housing for my antennae within R2. I go in, and out of the three employees, not a single one even looks up from what they're doing, or asks if I need help. As a test, I wander the store for a good ten minutes, just to see if anyone will come to my aid. Guess what? Nada. Turns out that they're absolutely consumed by the youtube video of the student getting tazered at the recent presidential campaign stop. They keep yelling to each other "Don't taze me dude!". They think it's hilarious, and apparently much more interesting than helping a customer find something he needs. Sad thing about this is, I think one of the employees is the owners kid. Kinda sad. Though I understand the whole teen angst and apathy thing. Maybe caring about your employers welfare is something that only comes with maturity. Maybe there's a reason that these guys are only paid minumum wage. oh darn, I'm ranting again.
I did end up getting the styrene tubing I needed, so at least some good came out of it. Even better, I found a model rocket that was used in the Fifth Element. I'm a big Fifth Element fan, and I love building and collecting props from that movie. Looks like they used an off the shelf Estes rocket not only for the guts of the ZF-1, but also as a mangalore rocket. That's the one they fire at the bar that Korben is hiding behind on Fhloston Paradise. I don't know why I didn't pick it up. I think I was distracted. I'd rather buy it from "Hobby People" than give Gyro any of my money.
Anyway...
It was raining today, which made me think it wasn't the best day to do paint and clear coat activities. Or maybe that was just a good excuse not to do it, as I don't really like those ops. But that did not stop me from having a productive evening of dealing with electronics and stuff.
In retrospect, I realize that my approach to the electronics is very amatureish. Almost every electrical system runs off its own power supply. With a little more work, I could have combined a few of them into one or more battery, but it just seemed like a lot of work. For an extra pound or two of overall weight, it shaved layers of complexity out of the project, which is good for me. But there are MANY ways to do the electronics better than how I did it. But hey, it works, and that is the ultimate goal.
The evening started with an investigation of the wheel on the left foot that is sticky. I'm really hoping that this was the thing that was causing the problem with the drive system months ago. The more I think about it, and the methods I used to try to debug it last time, the more I am convinced that this sticky wheel is the culprit. of course, I won't know for sure until I power him up and get him walking around, but it's always good to flex ones diagnostic skills with a little introspection and reflection.
The problem was previously diagnosed by me as a motor problem. I came to this conclusion because I had switched the drive systems from foot to foot and was still having a problem with this particular unit. By switching them over, I confirmed that it wasn't the wiring or the controller, but was in fact a problem isolated in the foot unit. That being the thing you see in the picture below. It didn't occur to me that it might be one of the wheels.
I took a closer look at it tonight, and the long and the short of it is that the bolt was overtightened. Once loosened up a bit, the wheel spun much more freely. My only fear is that by loosening it, I've condemned it to slip out of position some time and send R2 crashing into his "toes". But probably not. So I'm happy. I still have to test it, of course.
I wired up the feet motors to their power cables. I'm still a little cautious about the use of an extension cord as the main delivery mechanism to the motors. Though this method came recommended by a fellow builder I trust, I think I'm still shaken up and a bit apprehensive from the "Slag heap" incident a few months ago. I certainly don't want a repeat of that, especially now that he's all painted and nice looking.
To attach the extension cord leads to the motor leads, I Just stripped down about 3/4" of insulation from each side, then twist tied them. I then used one of those twist off caps to close them off. This is temporary. I'll eventually solder them up, but I want to test everything first before I do that. To keep the cables out of the way, I used zip-ties to bundle it all up close to the ankles. Those will fit right inside the batteries when the time comes.
My main goal for the evening was to get the sound system mounted, installed, and up and running. Everything else is just gravy. I started out by installing the mounting brackets for the speakers. This is a simple little piece of engineering I came up with many months ago. I don't think it's the most robust solution, and will probably eventually add some kind of support at the top of the speakers to add stability.
The two little aluminum slats are held in place with my favorite hardware combination, lock washers and lock nuts. That should keep it pretty steady. This caper actually took a lot longer than expected, as I'm working in very tight quarters. My arms and hands got pretty tired as I was wrestling with tightening those nuts and whatnot. Even worse, I had to do it twice as I initially mounted the slats upside down.
Then the speakers went it. I shuffled around between different hardware to get this right, ultimately settling on some pan had screws with lock washers.
With the speakers in place, it was time to test the sound. I figured R2's aural emissions might get him some attention from passers by, so I attached the dome again, just in case. Good thing too! Once R2 started squalkin', passersby became more interested. Nobody actually came in for a look, but I heard someone say "Seems like R2 has started talking". That's cool. Overall, I'm very pleased with the sound system, though not all of the sounds are of the same volume. Time permitting, I may go back to my PC and boost the volume on the lower end ones. That's not even going to appear on the "to do" list, as it is so unimportant.
Here's a funny side story. With the sound system working, I wanted to test the range on my remote. I closed up R2, and left him in the garage. With the garage door open, I climbed up to the third floor of the apartment complex. I was about 30 feet away, and three floors up. The sound remote STILL worked. AMAZING range on that thing, even when the antenna is inside an aluminum drum. Too cool. Of course, that was with the remotes antenna fully extended, which I don't foresee being the case in the future. It will probably reside inside a shoulder bag of some sort, the carry-all of choice for R2 builders! Still, I was very pleased with the range on that thing.
Note that on the above picture, the shoulder hubs and shims are missing, but the booster covers are in place. They're still not clear coated. I just put them on for the photo.
With the sound system working, I bolted the CFSoundIII into place. You'll recall from earlier pics that the CFSound III and the 12 channel remote reciever have been bolted onto a board, making it one unit. That unit is now in place inside R2. Lots of builders tend to mount all of their electronics on a board bolted into the frame, but I decided to use the platforms inside the frame. I believe this platform was intended to be used for the 2-3-2 conversion mechanisms. The sound system is suspended underneath it, and the drive system is on the top.
I got the sound system installed, and then went ahead and installed the drive system. What the heck, I still had time left in the evening. It was a little problematic due to some hardware issues, and again with the space constraints, but it all worked out eventually.
You can see the reciever is mounted right in the middle of the main brace across the top of the neck. It's held in place with velcro underneath, and a velcro strap around it. I like using velcro for stuff like this, as I see a high potential for the need to relocate. Time will tell if that turns out to be true.
I was tempted to push ahead and get the whole thing wired up for movement, but I really don't want to do that until I get some heavier guage wire. (that's tomorrows lunch break down the tubes).
Updated list of remaining tasks.
Updated list for the electronics and drive system
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