R5's dome rotation upgrade 1.5

Had no free time the other weekend, so I had to wait till Monday back at work.

Due to more limited time, I was only able to work on clearance hole clearance & using my dremel, to grind down the washers that were overhanging the bearing inner diameter.

This is just to make sure that the dome motor wheel has a flat surface.

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This upgrade work involves a lot of multi-mini-projects lol. The electric upgrade, dome work, rotation/position of the lazy susan & next, the actual dome motor location and fixing.

I had thought about moving the motor to the front area of the body, so the wheel was at the top. But as I had already cut out an area, years ago in the build, for this position, I decided that here was just as good as anywhere else.

Next was how to mount it.....

I have a rear door stop on one of the vertical body struts, and it's in just the right position to mount the new motor spacer block. It will replace the original door stop at the same time. So I had to make up a new bracket for the motor/door stop, much more sturdier than the last bracket.

There was some thought in how to attach the bracket to the body frame, once the motor was attached to it, which prevented fixing it on afterwards.....lol, I don't make things easy for myself do I :D. The aluminium bracket fits to one side of the vertical internal frame, with a countersunk bolt and then a wing nut. This was the only way to secure, which was actually genius, as the wings stopped the nut from turning when the bolt was screwed into place!

Motor & bracket bolted into place.

Powered up the motor and the lazy susan ring spins great.

Update on the new lower dome metal ring to follow......

R5's dome rotation upgrade 1.3 + (Banebot wheels)

Managed to do some more work on the new dome ring at the weekend.
Lots of thinking, marking, drilling......then re-thinking, bit more marking and yep....more drilling lol. Customising something to fit something else can be a pain the the a$$ lol.

Marked up the bearing on the dome, for it's screw positions. Then made up two blocks that are screwed behind the new ring to add strength to the location points.

The 'A' is the location point to be drilled.
And here's the hole and the opening to accept the nylock nut which holds the screw onto the bearing race.

I had to make two of these as the third hole goes into one of the frame uprights.

ring positioned and testing length of new securing bolts

This fit's great on the dome and the body.

But because the dome location holes were made 0.5mm bigger, there's slight movement. This may be rectified once the metal skin is added. But may need to add additional location bolt uprights. So far so good tho :)

Another plus was that my new dome motor wheels arrived.

Banebot 'blue' & 'orange' wheels, different hardness's. I wanted two blue ones as they have become as rare as Unicorn poo! But I literally had the last one in stock, so had to get the orange one. This wasn't a problem as the softer rubber may be better at gripping the lazy susan bearings inner ring.

Instagram picture of the wheels.

R5's planned dome rotation upgrade 2017

The plan is to fit a lazy susan bearing, replacing the small central one. R5's dome wobbling days may soon be over. This will be a budget bearing race due to cost, but have read that these can be upgraded with some work to improve them, we'll see.

This is a BIG undertaking, as this was never considered as a do-able thing, due to the cost of the 'standard' Rockler bearings, used by R2 Builders (and the additional import costs). 

But I've come to the conclusion that it is needed :(. This may mean a new way to power its movement by wheel as the Bane Bot wheel was no longer available from the UK supplier I'd previously bought it from (update: I've now found another supplier). It will mean a new position of the motor/wheel assembly to power the lazy susan.

Next up is a 'SyRen 10'. Found one on eBay for £40, bargin!

So am waiting for the lazy susan, and SyRen speed controller, before I can carry on with dome rotation system upgrade work, both should be here by the end of this week.

Upgrade work needed on Dome rotation system 1.0

Yesterday I had to temporarily 'fix' the dome motor's socket to shaft grub screw. It screws through and secures onto a flat thats pre machined onto the shaft. When I first fitted this I was NOT happy at the small size of the grub screw and when tightening it the allen key would slip in the hex socket when being tightened up.

Well yesterday, it slipped under the strain/weight of R5's dome. At first I thought it was an electrical issue until I removed the dome to see the motor shaft still spinning, just not the wheel!

So my plan is to drill and tap a larger thread and use a larger grub screw with a flatter face for contact with the shafts flat. I'll also apply some thread lock to it too.

R5D4 - prep'ed ready for transportation

Spent two hours re-installing all of R5's electrical boards, sound system board and then testing it all.

This was the first time he was all together, dome on, lights on, sound on!

The sound system was loud! Which is a good thing as you forget that when testing in your garage or at home, (though not at half past 12 at night! lol). You normally DON'T have any loud background noise. But at event's, this increases dramatically. So to be on the safe side, I tested the amp on full power by flipping the two dip switches.......now THAT's LOUD!!! :D

R5-D4's Dome control system 1.1

Ordered my Dome motor the other week.

Along with a BaneBots wheel and the adaptors, required to combine forces.

The motor I ordered from Maplins, the wheel and adaptor I ordered from Technobot

(low stock levels)

Spent a few hours working on how best to fit it.