R5’s Bad Motivator : reincarnation (Part 2)

March 2022

Planning out the electronics/electrical connections etc.

This has been the most concentrated effort of work to get things ready for Birmingham's event @MegaCONlive [26th March 2022].

….well…..I got it working on the bench, but there was a problem once installed in R5’s dome.

The smoke system worked ✅

But the magnetic actuator didn’t have enough to move the motivator assembly ❌

So back to the drawing board & a new lighter motivator assembly .........

October 2022

I eventually returned to this project as have time. I thought I’d try out an idea that Brad 'BHD' had a few years ago to activate HIS bad motivator’s on his droids.

It utilised a servo, pivot arm and a track system. His droids are gone, but his webpage Blog is still lives on 😎👍🏽

Link: Brad’s R2-X2 Droid build

For lightness I dug out a rail and bearing carriage I'd salvaged from a 3D printer.

Next up was to measure the carriage’s holes position, so that I could draw up in Inventor CAD, an adapter to a-fix to it for the Bad Motivator. I then needed a bracket to secure the servo to and also the rail. So again I CAD’ed up a design and 3D printed it off. It was a Friday, so I knew that this would have to be ‘modified’ lol. Sure enough, with the help of my soldering iron, (melting plastic to reshape areas, the servo fitted into place.

I’m using a metal gear servo for strength, the new motivator isn’t overly heavy, but just to be safe as it will see a lot of action.

As this setup is in R5’s dome, my standard arrangement to activate the bad motivator, is via a remote control fob.

I have been toying with and have tested out using, one of the other transmitter’s receiver’s (I have a few spare and connected it up using the last free channel on my transmitter). This is still a work in progress idea.

After printing the components, I test fitted the assembly unit into R5’s dome, only to find that the rail was further over than existing setup. The new assembly is fitted inside the dome, the old one, resting on the top of it. the 'white' component is the original 'Bad Motivator' location piece, the inside 'black' component is the new 'BMs' location piece. So I had to do some CAD alterations.

The next set of prints worked much better, fit wise. On test fitting, I had trouble with the actual motivator fitting up through the pie hole, without it catching on the new rail. This was due to orientation.

I’ve always accepted this motivator design as (at the time) was the only version available. But I think its now time I stopped wrestling with that nagging feeling and CAD up the motivator ‘that I envisioned years ago when I first sketched it up from what/how I saw it from screen caps’. (Said in Moff Tarkin’s tone of voice 😂).

…….So that’s Mondays project!

Next was to install the brass inserts, drill a few holes to secure parts and wait for a dual relay switch to arrive.....

Throw Back Thursday - Collectormania 23 - 2015

This weeks throw back Thursday

is when I attended Collectormania 23,

at Milton Keynes football stadiums conference centre.

R5 & James' X-Robots R6

Click the link to see the pictures and mini event report:

Collectormania 23

@Milton Keynes,

event report 2015

UK R2D2 Builders Christmas Event 2017

This years event was held at a different/new location. Sam P,

arranged the event and was held in Camberley, Surrey.

web link: UK R2D2 Builders Club

Doors were open from 12 till 5 pm.

I took my two youngest along as they love seeing all the droids, plus it gives the wife a day's rest too.

There was a few planning on heading up from the South West region, Paul F, being one of them, followed me up.

We arrived just on mid-day and a few members were already there setting up. Sam had set up a live webcam for club friends to view online.

As well as a meet and greet day, it was also a chance to MOT new droids and re-test pre-MOT approved droids.

Lot's of questions and answers about builds, electronics, ideas etc were discussed throughout the day. Sam bought along his R2-Q5, Chopper built and new one in build progress, as well as a new R2 unit he is working on.

Checkout Sam's progress on his Instagram feed.

Here are some other pictures from the day.

Here's a You Tube link to the above & more droids.

After the MOT's were complete, it was almost the end of the day.

The kids needed more food, but not before the final droid collective photos.

Below pic was posted up on my Instagram 

We also had two 'special guest', Brad O (BHD) & James S, made an appearance!

Was great to see them both! Although their droid's didn't attend.

Almost forgot to fit the R4 dome on to show people lol, managed to remember....just and take some photos as well.

Just need to finish printing off the neck ring..... more on this soon.

UK R2D2 Builders Christmas Event 2016

29.Dec.2016
I hadn't been able to attend this Christmas Event in previous years, but this year would be the first of many to come! Lol, two things more important than Christmas, were Rogue One & this builders day :D

My two youngest came along and enjoyed the day, and like myself, meeting new fellow builders & the 'Usual Suspects' builders too lol. We arrived about 2PM, driving up with fellow Bristol builder, Paul Felski, who followed.

The event also doubles as an inspection of the droids, for safety at events. Control and stability of these is very important!

There was food layed on and a Death Star, two flavoured cake, thanks Emma!

The last time there were this many astromech's in one place, I'd say, would of been Celebration.

My daughter, was NOT operating R2's dome lol, but a toy BB-8

  

Just some of the droids.

Then we had the group photo....

Another great day, that flew by. Looking forward to attending events in 2017

Mini Droid get-together - 2nd July 2016

On Saturday 2nd July at a top secret location, the builders club had a pre-celebration droid get together. This mostly involved us just driving the droids around and chatting lol, but some new builds were shown off and updates & testing were done also.

Is always good to meet up with new builders & old ones too. I've not been able to attend as many of these as i would like, due to family commitments.

Some pics of the day.

My R0-D4

My R0 domed R5 body with friends

Photo credit goes to Colin [I think lol].

** Celebration Europe 3 - 2016 - The Event Report PT1 **

A day by day event report of my time at CE3, starting from Wednesday night (13th July)
This will be in a few parts....

Wednesday 13th:
Was basically loading everything into the Zafira. The wheels on the platform made life a lot easier. Both R5 & R0-D4 domes were loaded in, plus a suitcase, transmitter box, tool box & food (sweets lol) for the journey.

Thursday 14th:
After dropping my two youngest's off at school, as I wasn't now going to see them till Saturday evening, I set off up to London.

I eventually arrived about 2:30pm & met up with other builders who were also unloading at the same time, Brad, Matt, Giles to name just three. We all then helped set up where our droids would be displayed etc. Here we met up with Oliver Steeples. Once done it was time for a wonder around to get bearings of the venue.

This was still all being set up...

Checkout he AT-AT & Tie Fighter

lol, had to be done

Was so blown away with the Star Wars Falcon stage set, that I didn't even realise the gorgeous Andi Guttierrez sat a foot away from me :D She turned & smiled, I froze and smiled politely back lol

Falcon stage set

Setting up of the R2 Builders area:

James X-Robots R6 3D printed droid

Brad's BHD droids

Astromech's group shot

Simon's Boba Fett Droid

Just a few of the droids. And R5's temp display area.

R2-D2 & R5-D4 display area

Next then was a scout around. First thing I noticed in the main walkway, was the Death Star....

Death Star @ Celebration Europe 2016

This would be a rare sight as it wouldn't last long....no, the Rebels didn't blow it up (tho they might of blew it up in the first place lol), but due to technically difficulties (apparently) it had to be taken down! So if you saw it up, you are special!

Part 2 to follow.....

Vintage Futaba 'Ripmax' M4 & M6 for R5-D4 - 1.0

......photo from the set, R5 operator with transmitter....

On my searching and discovery of R5 pictures over the years for references for his build etc, I found the above pic of R5, [astromech.net], we'll call them his 'technical operator crew'.

It show's the original electronics of these Droid(s), in the open space where his dome/head would be. For me tho was the remote control transmitter being held by the operator.

I thought it would be a nice addition to have and at show's, could help people travel back in time to when the film would have been made. So I started my search for info related to this type of controller.

The controller is a Futaba.

From the image, there is a black 'knob' on the right hand side top & a switch on the left.

From my searching, I have found that this could either be an M3, M4 or M6 unit.

(the number represents the number of channels)

I say either as there are two versions (that I have found) but these are slightly different

(the top panel switches & black buttons seen in above pic) I've settled on this being an M4 version (until convinced otherwise lol).

Also the versions that were imported into the UK, where I believe, done so under the name 'Ripmax'. So USA versions are logo'd as just Futaba, but UK ones as Ripmax/Futaba (see pic's below).

Ebay searches through up a few of these on a semi-frequent basis and at not to extreme prices. So the internet history info search was on to find the correct version that I wanted.

Then last week, I found not one.....but two for sale!

Not only that, but the two were being sold as a pair for only £22!!

An M4 & M6 version.

Futaba M4 transmitter

Futaba M6 transmitter

There's always a catch tho lol.....no antenna's.

UPDATE: Thanks to Alan, a fellow R2 club member, for helping source a link to antennas.

I have also found that modeller's have converted these to 2.4Ghz's in order to fly their vintage plan's which have also been converted to the new frequency.

UPDATE: Thanks also goes to Brad and his knowledge, this can quite easily be done.

So this could be something for the future as well.

The units should be arriving the end of this week, but they arrived Tuesday.

They power up, do need some TLC and a clean, but for they're age, are not to bad.

UK R2 Builders Club @ Blackpool Comic Con 2015 [short video]

R2 Builders at Blackpool Comic Con this weekend.

Check out this short video [click pics]