Reinventing the wheel……

😄😄😄 lol, yes…..aaaaaand no.

Back in April (last month)….

R5’s ride height has always been an annoyance for me over the years. Most noticeably at events on nice flat surfaces where I can clearly see the wheels. [for film appearance's 😎, this isn't so much of an issue]

Also the feet internals weigh quite a bit and they don’t support the floating foot shells very well.

So, I decided I needed to redo them to be lighter and lower.

Using my original internal feet frames, I drew the new versions up in AutoCAD inventor and then 3D printed out these test pieces.

This build structure is not new, but as buying the components might not fit my 'UNIQUE' foot shells, designing my own to fit made sense.

Above is first draft printed. The cut outs were just to save filament.

Test fit inside the foot shell.

And showing the reduced protrusion from the bottom of the shell.

I’ve ordered some aluminium plate, for the frames off eBay.

The first sheet of metal arrived.

Nice……👍🏽

Due to a family event, the funeral of my Grandmother who reaches 105years, the project was paused.

May 2022

Tuesday 3rd: was cutting aluminium plate day. I got out a hacksaw and started cutting out the main side plates.

I was also figuring out bolts, spacers and nuts.

Additional plates are on order, the two hashed areas on the 3D prints [above picture] are not needed so will be removed.

Found some suitable Stainless Steel tube, which will be great as the spacers.

I’ll be using M6 bolts and Nylock locking nuts, which I bought from local DIY store.

The steel tubing needed to be squared off at the ends, so used the lathe.

The bolts have washers both ends and locking nuts.

I drew up a shell support to help keep it from tipping over, as the shell 'floats' on the inner frame. This I 3D printed off to save weight. It's held in place by the longer bolts, washers, nuts.

Next up was creating retaining clips for the aluminium channel strip. First idea was hollow, but thought, it doesn’t have to be. So cut it in half and turned it into a clip, that snaps over the spacer tubing.

With the new frame layout, it will also be easier for me to access the ankle bolts, nut. On the original steel frame, I had the nut welded in place. Now, I’ve got nylock flanged nuts.

Next was to drill location holes for the front caster mounting, angle plates. And I positioned the caster to be more inline with the rear wheel.

And here’s the completed assembly, with motor and caster fitted. This whole assembly is so much lighter than the old one.

I have already made a start on cutting out the second set of plates. So this will come in a following post.

June 2022

Back in work after a short break away and back on with cutting out plates for foot no2.

….a rushed week of getting everything sorted before attending Saturday 18th’s event at Stars of Time, in Swindon’s steam museum. But got everything installed Friday night lol.

Event report to follow…..

New (old) Dome Motor with new Bracket

R5's dome motor needs a new bracket!

Dome motor upgrade. This motor is an original I had installed years ago. It’s bigger than the previous one.

Drew up a simple clamp/bracket arrangement, with captive nuts.

(Just need to find some cap head bolts the right length).

I repositioned the motor to be at the front of the body. My thinking is that the motor won’t have as greater force to overcome when moving the dome, compared to when it was at the rear of the body….

Next up was a new wheel…… again 3D printed off my design and then cut a rubber o’ring to length and glued it on.

The shaft hole is a ‘D’ shape to match and I also fitted a recessed nut in the lower diameter for the locking bolt to have something firm to lock with, so preventing the PLA from breaking.

Time will tell how strong this all is with the R5 dome on!!

R5's outer feet, Ankle Lock, upgrade [& new centre foot wheel]...... 1.0

R5's outer feet were built, as most peoples are, to spec, well mine were as close as lol.

With a single motor wheel and caster at front to ballance, the wheel/foot assembly, then requires ankle locks to help stop the front caster from tipping the foot (due to its diameter being smaller and often 'digging in' where a larger diameter wheel is be able roll across a hole/gap). With how my outer feet and internal frame work is the locks are not the greatest, well, they're ok flat smooth surfaces, but anything slightly uneven and the 'panic stations mode' is flipped!

So the plan is to change his internal feet to better support driving him, real world situations, hopefully, reducing the worry of him tripping over.

Recent event's have confirmed that the casters are definitely the week point on any surface other than flat & smooth! So am drawing up some ideas on how best to fully lock the feet, whilst trying to keep things atheistically pleasing to the eye.

With R5 putting his [outer] feet up, I needed to replace his centre foot wheel. This may also need a future upgrade, but for now, just a new wheel was needed. The size I wanted I could only find at the original place I had got the first one from, B&Q!

The original one has worn down and although a harder compound wheel would be more suitable, the size to fit in is the limiting factor. I am looking into similar sized scooter wheels as they're material is harder, so won't wear out as much! [W.I.P.]

Spent bout 45 mins, looking for suitable size/thickness wood, figuring out how to best fit it..... When I found some metal strips that would be perfect. So bent one to the angle required and then marked for cutting.

I found a pair of M10 cap head bolts that should do the job of holding the angles in place. I just need some nylock nuts.

Outer feet - weight reduction 1.1

Re-assembled all the components into the inner foot frame. I used loctite on the bolts that hold the motor in place. Then after locating the drive belt, re-fitted the rear wheel, along with its upgraded spacers and washers. Looks and feels so much better :-).
Lastly I fitted a black front caster. It needs to be lubricated as isn't very free moving.

Before assembling I did weigh the frame and it is slightly lighter..... lol :D

R5's outer feet casters were white and were only used as I had swapped them over from the the feet internals that allowed R5 to be pushed around on. This one has now been changed to a black one, need to buy another one, so I hope, they will not be as visible.

Drive wheel brass bush's upgrade work

On stripping down the feet internals, I noticed that there was some brass 'dust' residue on the bush's. On closer inspection I realised that I had not machine turned the diameters on the ends that make contact with the wheel bearing face and they were rubbing on the outer diameter face.

So in work, I machined both pairs down in size.

I needed to make up to new washers, as was easier than trying to modify them.

Old washer, far right of picture, for size comparison.

Outer Foot No.2 - Bolt locking issues

This afternoon I removed the internal motor frame from the shell, with the intention of stripping it apart to carrying out the weight reduction process as for frame no.1, only to find it wouldn't come apart? On looking inside I found one of the motor bolts had come loose! I managed to get the internal frame out and found that the other two bolts were loose.these do have barbed locking washers, but I think I may have to apply some loctite thread lock!

Outer feet - weight reduction 1.0

The internal metal frames for R5's outer feet, are heavy! They weigh 3.5 Kg each without the shell or battery box. And once the motor and wheel is removed, 1.5 Kg.

So I started looking at where material could be removed to reduce weight, though I don't think this will actually make much if any difference??

Finished the first 'wave' of cutting and weighed it....... unable to give a reading, lol.
So back on the milling machine to remove more metal :)

R5's Dome Motor.........found motor maybe?.......naaaaa

A Long Time ago.......

19.05.2012
I thought I'd have a look at the stripped out motor with gears, switch, 6v battery (rechargeable) from the kids broken 'ride-on' toy car last year. Potential R5's dome motor??

It is noisy (plastic gears). Tried lithium grease, but made no major difference. So I'll either try other gears or go with something else.

~~~

10.04.2014
Roll on two years and now R5 is 99% complete, I want to get him or some parts of him, moving. This is two fold:

1. To start my journey to remotely controling R5
2. And this is the main reason, until he is full operational, I wanted him to be able to interact with the public, by at least having some dome movement.

So I've been looking at the simplist and cheapest way (funds are very tight at the moment) of doing this. A fellow Builder Mr M Dutton, (see the UK R2 Builders Club on FaceBook) installed retro Tamiya mechanical speed controllers for his R2 Unit!

Searching on eBay, I found this, 12V 4 Channel RF Wireless Remote Control.

With the advice of fellow builders (who HAVE electrical knowledge) this could be used to control a motor for R5's dome. Using two of the channels, to turn left and right, in effect power in one direction and then reverse, hopefully stopping spinning at some point lol.

I would like to get a SyRen 10 controller, as this is a proven item by R2 Builders.

~~~

Roll forward to 14.09.2014
The 4 channel wireless remote idea has been transferred to another idea for R5's Bad Motivator.

As for the 'ride-on' toy car motor I had......this I am NOT going to be using as it is just TO noisey for my liking.

For simple dome control, rather than go with the SyRen 10 Speed Controller, I'm thinking of using Victor Franco's blogged use of a servo connected to two micro switches to control the dome motor. He's used this idea twice in both his R2 & R5 droids. This is a simple but proven idea, simple I can do :D

R5-D4's first steps.............???

Finished off connecting up all the wires, strapped the batteries back inside, and just like the Jawa's, moved R5 off his transport platform, out into the twin Suns burning bri.....yeah okay, maybe not, it was 1am in the morning in my garage!

Power switch on................check.
Power switch to motors.....check.
Radio transmitter on..........check.
Radio reciever on..............check.

Here is R5's first steps.....

<insert video here>

This was where I'd planned to post up a video of R5 rolling around........but no, nothing!

I mean, nothing happened???

Checked voltage in, at first switch, at terminals into speed controller, all good! Speed controller status Blue LED, on and no red error lite. It was late and tired so called it a night and went to bed :( a little disappointed with myself. Will re-look in the morning.

Electrical: Batteries arrive & more installation 1:4

Sunday I started sorting the servo leads, firstly by cutting off the end female plug as the wires are fitted into terminal blocks on the speed controller. The receiver get's it's power from terminal blocks on the Speed Controller.

Monday, my.....sorry, R5's Batteries arrived. They tried to deliver them last Friday, now that's quick service!!

I placed them into the base area and they look good! :-)
I then started looking at how/what I had material wise to clamp them in place. Something lightweight, but strong! Found it! A strip of U section Aluminium (not shown in picture). I had left over. So after marking it up, into work it went and had two sections milled out. These help with securing the batteries and stabilising them from possibly sliding around. Next was to make up two angle securing brackets for the ends of the strip to be bolted onto.

Last night (Tuesday) was a good work night!!

Spent bout an hour soldering up last cable, re-wireing a cable to the main power switch, marking cables with coloured tape, and the battery connectors (just incase). Checked the battery connector circuit was the right way round to give 24v power out.

I then physically checked cables, that contacts were screwed down tight and all plugs were too.......then flipped the on switch......

Speed controller statue blue light: ON

Digital readout: reading 25v (no, not a typo) lol.

Am very happy!

Electrical: Cable installation begings 1:2

More pieces arrived on Monday, 12AWG cable, spade connectors and digital volt meter (range 3v to 30v).

Oh, and from the weekend, my Speed Controller!

Just waiting on some double pole switches, some more cable connectors with XT60's pre fitted to them and a light indicator. The extra XT60 connectors with cable, will be to connect up the two batteries in parallel, to boost power from single 12v power to 24v power!

**UPDATE**

Took parts into work to position them and drill holes to secure them to the 'Electronics Panel'.

The spade connectors that connect the cables up to the speed controller, have holes in them. These are enlarged so that the screw clamp will fit through, securing the spade connector in place. I'd seen this done before and thought it a great idea. My wires will all be soldered to the spade contacts, so they are doubly secured.

Once home I started on feeding the 12AWG gauge cable down the inside of R5's hollow leg.
I removed the centre hub (can be seen just in front of outer feet) for easier access and taped the cable ends together.

(To see more of the inside of R5's legs, click on the right hand side)

Next I fired up my soldering iron, then trimmed the cable ends ready to fit the spade connectors. Once fitted, I then soldered the cable ends and connectors.

I think I have some cable sleeve somewhere, that I'll fit over where the cable runs into the foot shell and inside the leg, passing through them into the body. Granted, there is less chance of the cables chaffing but better safe than sorry!

Outer Foot No2 - New foot internal frame work 1.3

Well, due to work commitments, welder Neil's was not been able to weld up the foot frame last week, so still waiting for this to be done.

In the mean time I got on with making the angle brackets to fit the front caster onto. I cut up some U section aluminium and then cut one of the U's off, to make an L shape. Then it was just a case of marking, drilling and thread tapping holes.

Excuse the colouring in the picture, but the Sun was streaming in through the window :)

Neil got the first part of the welding done and it's a lot less cleaning up than the other one lol.

first part of welding, done

Test fitted motor and wheel with belt back into frame......and again, there's a slight misalignment grrrrrr :( This may just be down to me and not making holes 'clearance' holes lol. Soon sorted though. Next was sorting and positioning the channel wall's, see pictures below.

Ankle bolt locked in place first to help align the two holes, then holes were drilled and tapped for the angles to support the side channel walls. Next up these and the nut to be welded.....

Electrical Board......to mount the electronics onto......eventually = 1.0

A board or 'electronics board' is needed to mount R5's electrical components onto. I found a piece of 5mm thick plywood, but then found some clear acrylic in work. So using this instead, I measured across R5's two internal vertical panels and cut it to a suitable size.

I had already cut up some 'U' section aluminium and then cut off one of the sides to

form 'L' shaped brackets. These will be screwed to the frame and then the clear panel will

be bolted ont the 'L' brackets.

It's that small thing just below the bolts, lol

I've also bought some servo leads, to link up the reciever to the speed controller, when I get it. And in the meantime, I also bought a servo to use as a test unit &
a power pack to run temporaly run the Radio Reciever unit
[it will eventually be powered by the Duel Foot Motor Controller]

It's only on two of the angle brackets as I'm still thinking about position of the panel once batteries are installed below it. Also it can pivot at the moment, which might come in handy.

I kind of know what will go on the board, standard items are speed controllers (feet and dome), junction block, radio reciever and maybe a sound card......small steps people.....small steps lol.

Outer Foot No2 - New foot internal frame work 1.2

This morning I got on with drilling and tapping holes to fit the angles onto to help locate the channel plates for welding.

Welder Dave is away, so hopefully welder Neil will be able to weld this all up tomorrow.

Outer Foot No2 - New foot internal frame work 1.1

Marked up and drilled holes for motor bolts and the large hole for the motor to fit through, see below.

Cut up two scrap pieces which will be welded across the to side plates.

Fitted a location bolt to aid welder later on. Did some more work on the two channel wall pieces. Drilled the main bolt location holes and have started on the angles to support the sides for welding up.

Outer Foot No2 - New foot internal frame work 1.0

Foot No2.

I marked and cut out a piece on the outer foot shell.

I then started on inner foot frame no2.
Metal plate, marked and cut out.

Next, to mark up the metal plate for drilling holes.

Outer Feet - New foot internal frame work 1.6

For my Wood internal wheel frame, I used T-nuts to be able to clamp the leg ankle to the foot internal. This was a great idea as it ment I didn't have to (somehow) reach inside and try to secure the bolt to the nut.

Now I have metal frame work, this requires I get a nut welded to the back face.

Here is the finished frame, just need cleaning up the weld splatter. Thanks Dave, great work!

Aluminium angle and bolts can now be removed.

I will need to cover/fill/block up the threaded holes visible inside the side channel plates.

I also needed to re-drill a hole location for the lower aluminium channel plate.

One was a new hole due to the location of the new metal frame internals and the old hole would need to be blocked up. So I decided to just make up a new strip as the old version I wasn't to happy with how it looked or would of looked with the blocked hole.

So I drilled & countersunk two new holes.

Secured with these hex socket countersunk bolts off eBay :)

Sorted out the axel bolt holes and reduced the brass motor bolt bush's my 1.6mm.

This helped alignment of the belt with the wheel more.

Next up is to fix the front caster back on. This is a stabiliser to keep the foot level.

Measured up the inside, this is bacause the metal flexed a bit when it was welded.

These are just gude measurements ;-) lol

Next is to fit the front caster on, then it's on with frame work for Outer Foot No2.

Outer Feet - New foot internal frame work 1.5

Back in work to drill the holes. The three 5mm dia clearance holes for the Motor plus a centre drill point to help line up the other plate. Then using a drill and a boring tool, I got to work on opening out the hole to fit the back end of the Motor through.

Well, the hole alignment between the two main plates for the wheel axel, were off......only a bit but enough for the belt to be so tight it tipped the axel and the other end wouldn't fit through the hole in the other plate! The hole in the side plate for the back end of the motor to fit through, helped align it, so I opened up the holes a bit.

I got Dave in work to weld up the frame.

When I got home Friday, my two axel bolts had come. Once I'd fitted it all together, it looked like this.

The last picture (above) also has the first channel wall piece. These wont be welded on (for now) as I'll need to sort out clamping of the leg and also how best to support the Outer Foot shell to the internal motor/wheel frame.

Next job then was to locate the first channel wall piece. I drilled and tapped into the Steel frame & the channel wall piece.

To be continued......

Outer feet - motorisation is on it's way 1.1

Whilst waiting for my wheels to arrive, (over a week now!) I've been swotting up on build designs for R5's motorised feet. Also been sourcing material for the new internals. I found some scrap brass bar which I machined up to use for spacer tubes for the motor fixing screws. These can be seen bottom of the pic. The motor has a post-it on it for hole location transfere checking.

I'm planning on having a go at modifying my original internal frame to accomadate the motor and new wheel. The metal plate strip I'm planning on using to locate the new wheel's axel.

Outer feet - motorisation is on it's way 1.0

I've managed to save up some cash and have started seriously looking at electric motors & wheels. I sort of know what I'm after, it's just the matching codes for motors with codes for belts and number of teeth etc lol.

I was looking at having chain driven drives, as my thinking was R5 is heavy. But on talking to fellow builders at last weekends event, I was reassured that the normal rubber belts and motors should easily cope. So I've ordered sets of motor's, wheel's & belts......£36 (UK pounds)

Next up will be alxe's & then, new frame internal's for the motor's.