February 25, 2020

Thingiverse page - James R5-D4

Since creating my Thingiverse page, it’s inspired me to design more and (I hope) they are useful 3D designs.

Click link to my page which has the Trading Card Dispenser,
'Y' smoke tube adapter, mini pumpkin brackets, Frankenstein neck bolts,
trading card display stands and lots more.

YouTube channel: James’ R5-D4 Astromech Droid

My YouTube channel hit the 100 subscribers,
and before I had the chance to post this,
two more people subscribed 😂 thanks.

YouTube Channel

3D printed journey of the Trading Card Dispenser

It’s not till you see all the left over printed components, from a project, that you realise what went into developing it.

I kept all the printed pieces so to track my progress through the build. This was all part of the development process. Some parts, I thought, might be useful in future ideas of the build, but unfortunately none of them were.
Trading Card dispenser


Links to Thingiverse for the Trading Card Dispenser...
Trading Card dispenser

February 20, 2020

Relay switch holders - 3D printed

Relay switch holder

I designed this holder for the relay switch from 'Model Radio Workshop' (link)
It's just a simple holder to help keep it in place, once inside R5-D4.
I've also drawn up a dual holder, see other link below.

As per usual, I drew it up in AutoCAD Inventor, works program, and then printed it out on the Ultimaker S5.

Thingiverse Link




This dual version, is not just a simple, placing two of the above together, I had to modify the design slightly.



Thingiverse Link for dual holder

This was the third cable clip design I came up with. The cable easily folds around and slides under the clip, holding the relay unit in place.

February 19, 2020

Electrical System Update 2020 - 1.2 cable tidy

Having ordered some more red power cable to reach from R5’s right leg to the Sabertooth speed controller. I spent a few nights soldering connectors, heat shrinking them and connecting everything back up, step by step.

The angled socket for the right side was also installed.
xt60

Next up I wanted to tidy them all up. I was never happy with the spaghetti mess before, so I ordered some protective cable guard. This stuff is great as it expands to allow the cable through, even with connections on. I then used heat shrink to close the open ends.
Here’s a ‘BEFORE’ picture:
new wiring
See below pictures for ‘AFTER’.

I’ve not heat shrunk all the terminals yet as i’ll do this once all the electrical testing has been done.
Really happy with how things are looking so far.
xt60, cable sheathed


sheathed cables
I still need to sort out 12v distribution from the regulator (grey finned box, bottom of picture, yellow & black cables coming out of it).

The dome motor controller location.
New power cables for the dome motor.
Power for the trade card dispenser too.

February 17, 2020

Sounds for Droids - 2020 upgrade 1.1

With R5’s electrical re-wire almost complete, and not being one to finish one thing before starting another lol, I turned my attention to the relay switch I mentioned in 1.0 of this update segment.
Link to Sounds for Droids - 2019 upgrade 1.0

I didn’t want anything to complicated, so went for a design that will hold the relay in place with a cable retainer on the other end.

This was the first test print to prof the idea. The updated version will be a more snug fit....will know for sure once printed.
Switch relay, 3D printing


Switch relay, 3D printed

I left the screw terminals accessible for connecting up the leads.

February 07, 2020

Electrical System Update 2020 -1.1 : 3D printing spacers

So in the prev post I printed these angled XT60 holders, that will be mounted to the inside of the framework for future removal of the legs (if needed).
xt60

I needed to make some spacers so that the cable would have a bit more bend clearance out of the bottom of the XT60 plugs.

Dimensions were taken off of the re-scaled version and after the second attempt at printing, these 3mm spacers print great. But they needed to be thicker, so had to print off a second set, which also required longer screws.
xt60

I then super glued the three parts together. I'll be fitting the brackets with the female XT60 connector, as the bracket opening is a snug fit and on testing the male plugs outside slightly deformed so making fitting of the female connector slightly harder to pull out to disconnect.

February 05, 2020

Another mini project 2.2 - Trade Card Dispenser fitted

At the weekend I test fitted the TCD and it's control box, into R5.
As the card dispenser is going to be central, positioning it wasn’t very hard. The control box, for now, was just positioned in a suitable location lower down on the frames woodwork.

This picture shows the dispensers position behind the Utility arm, in it's closed position, to show clearance of it.
Trading Card Dispenser

View through the arm opening
Trading Card Dispenser

Cards protrusion from utility arm opening.
Trading Card Dispenser

 Card protrusion from utility arm outlet.
Trading Card Dispenser

Control box, temp position.
Trading Card Dispenser

Next up is sorting out the rest of the electrical's and activation of the Utility arms again.

February 04, 2020

‘Trading Card Dispenser’ - Another mini project 2.1 - new support bracket design part 2

The new support bracket needed a front panel. I had the idea of creating one long piece to also act as the rear of the Utility arm recess.

So I started with just the panel to retain the TCD unit.
This is the green piece shown in the image above. It has since been modified slightly.

Next was to test fit in R5.

Electrical System Update 2020 -1.0

Did some more wiring at the weekend. The new switch position needed longer cables to reach the power distribution block.


Also fitted the switch panel into place.

I also test fitted the TCD (Trading Card Dispenser) behind the Utility arm. And temp fitted the control box to the inside of the frame. See next post for details and pictures.

Back to the wiring:
I am planning ahead this time with the idea of, if needed, being able to remove the legs in order for R5 to fit into my much smaller [than the wife's] car. This is something I had thought of when originally building R5, but due to set up time etc and being new, and the fact R5 could easily fit into the vehicle's we had, this was never needed.

So with this in mind, I wanted to fit plugs to the ends of the legs wires. Previously they were wired directly to the switch, preventing removal of them.

I had a look over on Thingiverse and found a few XT60 holder ideas. So why design one when someone has done so already. The one I used is this angled version, designed by Kamil Wijatkowski, link here.

The first print @100% was to big and the plug wouldn't be held tightly.
The second print I reduced to 90%, this was a better fit in one axis, but was now to narrow.
The third print, I mixed up the scales, 90% in the X & Z axis & 95% in the Y.
XT60 bracket

This produced an excellent tight fit!
XT60

Xt60

These are to be mounted to the inside of the frame for easy disconnection.

February 03, 2020

Droid Builders UK 2020


Coming again this year is the R2 Builders Clubs, droid event.
Renamed 'Droid Builders UK' as it is not just for R2's but all droid builders alike, as can be seen in the logo image above.

For more info click the link here.

One way to be a part of this if you can't make the event is to grab yourself a patch & pin badge, link to these can be found under Merch in the above page link.

Check out the website for lots more droids, events and news.