May 30, 2015

R5 work planned & work in progress - May/June 2015

Planned work:
woke up early......to early......buzzing with an idea and eager to crack on with it!

I've had this 'would it work' idea for a few weeks now, but a recent comment (said in jest), on Astromech.net in someone elses build thread, about R5 not being 'technically cannon' has spurred me into thinking, he's right!! So out have come my build plans to see if I can build a new......... Ah yes..........what is it I'm on about??? ......well.......I'lll post up again soon.

Progress work:
Have been away this half term, so frustratingly not had any time to finish off the slip ring wiring I started the prev week. I just need to wire up R5's head connector socket and the wires to the main power board.........more to follow.

May 20, 2015

Slip-ring system 1.0

March 2015:
Slip-ring arrived, was a bit disappointed about the size of its wires. Assumed they would of been thicker, my bad. Still to work out how many wires I'll need or if need to double them up.......or to just buy another slip-ring lol.

May 2015:
With everything else going on, this next step had taken a back seat. So now am moving forward to see if the original unit will be up to the job.

Stripped the wire ends and tinned them.
Drilled a dia 22mm hole in the centre of the bodies top cross section.
Ordered some male & female connectors for the dome connection and from body to the slip ring.

The idea is to run a 12v power for the dome lights. A 12v power the will run the bad motivator unit. And a reduced down 6v power supply for the smoke system activation unit.

Drilled out a 22mm dia hole which the slip ring fits in snugly. I then fixed it with 3 screw's.
Test fitting pictures.

May 11, 2015

Upgrade work on Dome rotation system 1.1

So the original grub screw fitted was small, about M3 size. The collar unit is made from aluminium, which is fine but you couldn't apply much force to lock the grub screw into place as the Allen key hex would slip in the hex socket! This was the reason for the Dome issues I had on Saturday at Corsham!

So, I found some M5 grub screws, drilled through and re-tapped the new holes to M5 size. I filled the end of the grub screw flat and to a depth that once fitted in the collar, it was flush with the hexagon face. Then when the wheel is fitted onto the hexagon, it acts as a stop if the grub screw tries to uncrew or be forced out by the motor shaft rotating.

I said 'some' grub screws, as I tapped the new collar holes right through.

Plan 1: a second grub srew can be secured on the opposite side, with the addition of maybe a location hole in the rear face of the shaft.
R5D4 motor

Plan 2: If the original upgrade doesn't work and Plan 1 is no better, then I can drill and pin the collar to the shaft.


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The next upgrade was the rotating ring that the motor wheel runs against. When I had originally cut this out it was far from a perfect circle. At the time, I thought this wouldn't be a problem, thinking the motor/wheel assembly would be sprung loaded, as per 'the norm'.

But this caused slipping issues with the motor wheel, being fixed (although the bracket has some spring) it wasnt helping with opposite direction movement.

So I took the ring still attached to the lazy susan, into work and once fixed, slowley rotated it to get the outside edge cylindrical and concentric to the lazy susan. Half hour later, job done.
R5D4
And fitted with rubber strip for more grip.

On re-fitting the motor, I found it was now to high?? When the dome was rotating and the body in 3 leg mode, the wheel would catch on the underside of his dome. So I added a spacer to drop the motor bracket down. This has solved the problem.