Sounds for Droid 2020 - 1.9 transmitter

Back in February:

I installed the volume control.

Another thing that has been sat on my workbench, that I needed to fit. I decided to take it out of the little box I made & secure it in place behind the octagon port, with its nut and washer.

The new 3D printed dial’s shaft needed to be cut down a bit as it protruded out too far.

April 2021

Today as part of R5’s system check, I powered him up and tested his functions. More on this in next Blog post.

The sound system & transmitter triggers worked great.

• Red surround digital voltage reader & voltage regulator = power to the adafruit sound board.
• Black surround digital voltage reader = power to the amplifier.
• Relay below it is triggered by the transmitter.
• Board below power switch = Adafruit sound board.
• Board below sound board = amplifier.

Sounds for Droid 2020 - 1.8 installation

Made up a new bracket for holding one speaker, out of some MDF wood. The prev one was perspex and was attached to the old sound board.

I may mount the second speakers in a rear position.

Continuing on with organising the wires, the slip ring underside wires are always annoyed me as they are stiffer due to less strands. This makes it awkward reaching inside as they get in the way. So I decided to cut them short and connect new, more flexible cable. This will also be yellow to match up with identification of the voltages, yellow being 12v positive.

Next up was to install the sound board. I changed my mind about which side to mount it on. Decided that it would be better over on the right hand side. I needed a spacer block, so cut a small piece of wood, marked the boards fixing hole position on it, then drilled clearance holes and screwed the spacer block to the frame.

Next up was to then mount the sound board to the spacer block.

I de-soldered the red power cable on the sound board and replaced it with a yellow one. I had some yellow heat shrink to cover the red wire for the Trading Card Dispenser electronics box.

Next up then is to connect the speaker, route the servo lead which operates the relay switch and test out the amp/speaker. Also need to look at where best to fit the volume control knob.

Sounds for droid 2020 - 1.7 Sound board build

Back in August 2020   

 After lots of design layout ideas, and 3D printing a special holder for the sound components. I decided to just go back to basics and use Perspex.....as I had found some spare. I still utilised the digital voltage meter holders & also the Dual Relay Switch holder, as these don't have there own fixing points.

I dug out all the old nuts and bolts previously used and thought.....naaaa, I don't like the look of them. So I drilled a hole and test fitted a threaded Brass insert. It worked! So positioned the components, marked and drilled holes......all except the sound board (as this requires M2 size thread fittings) and then using my soldering iron tip, melted into place the Brass inserts.

Next up was test fitting all the components on the perspex board.

Just waiting on the M2 thread fittings.....

I started routing and soldering the wiring next. I drilled holes to route the power wires behind the panel and to help identify the voltage, used yellow as positive for the Audio FX sound board as it uses a lower voltage than the amplifier.

The M2 inserts and bolts/screws arrived in a few days via eBay and where inserted into the rear of the board.

October 2020.....update

Got on with refitting the sound system. The extra perspex material has now been removed and a suitable location to mount it has been prioritised. A wood spacer block is needed to raise off the vertical frame support to allow the wires to fit behind. This new location is closer also to the 12v terminal distribution block.

I also fitted some of the new cable clamps I designed and 3D printed.

    

The board just needs terminals for the 12v power.

Thingiverse - digital volt meter holders now online

Just uploaded the two versions of my digital volt meter holders.

A single version 2, without the extra unnecessary raised panel.

A a dual version, if anyone actually needs a holder for two.

Originally I did, so perhaps someone will as well. 

Links to both available on my Thingiverse page here

Thingiverse Page - James_R5-D4 = latest designs.

16.6.2020

Latest prints, printed by co worker Will and kindly posted as well.

Volume control box holder:

Designed this up to hold the volume control unit.

First attempt at thread inserts as well.

Was thinking of using acrylic sheet for the lid, but may just 3D print one.

Update: 22.6.2020
The volume control box holder, needed to be slightly modified. I should of made the cable hole larger as the two struggled to go through. So had to trim off the upper section. Not the end of the world as the idea was to fit a lid. Also the hole for the rotary had to be opened up a bit, printer tolerance. The best bit tho was the fitting of the thread inserts.

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Volume control knob:

Yes I did look for a long one but thought why not just design and print one. It is designed to go through the 18mm thick base.

Update: 22.6.2020

Volume control knob, needed only its shaft hole to be opened up. I wanted it to be a tight fit, but was a little to tight at first.

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Utility arm bracket:

Three similar designs, to save time with seeing which one works.

Update: 22.6.2020
Utility arm bracket, these printed great, but still they need redesigning as I just can't get the flat parts to fit the curved angle of the arm. So back to the drawing board for these.....

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Next up:
The Digital Voltage units. I didn't have one to hand when I was drawing up this model for another project, so missed a few details. Both are not major things and one was easily solved by trimming the fixing tabs off the digital meter.

 Before tags were removed, seen on right of picture.

Once tabs removed and rear circuit board filed down a bit, the digital push fits in. The upper recessed tab I had originally intended to have printed labels stuck in stating the voltage. On hind sight though this is a bit pointless as you'd visually see the display.

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Lastly, the mini voltage regulator needed a new holder.

The regulator clips into the holder and is a snug fit. I need to add a securing holed tab.

When I'm happy with these, they will go up on my Thingerverse page.

R4-D4 Dome work progress 2.5

So yesterday I re-designed the servo panel and sent it to the printer. Four hours plus later, it finished....just in time for me to leave work.

Once home, I removed the raft & supports. There wasn't much cleaning up needed.

Later I then test fitted the components & whilst I had some free time, connected up what I could.

It may look complicated, but I don't do complicated lol, all 'plug-n-play' here.....with a bit of splicing of the digital volt meter to be soldered to the output pin connectors of the voltage regulator unit. The bottom two red wires are to the momentary switch I used for testing. This you can see in the picture below.

Here's a quick video.

R4-D4 Dome work progress 2.3

Last week, the last two panels have been worked on (17.11)

Panel 5 received a PVA wash, rasp work to take off the edges and sanding with paper (repeat until smooth). Wood filler was then applied, then once dried, this was sanded smooth.

Then it was onto the last curved panel. Trimmed it to fit along its edges (the clamped edge), then glued and clamped into place. First side.

Once dried, I glued the second edge down and then trimmed off the excess along the bottom edge. Then it was back onto rasp file work, and sanding smooth.

Friday I glued up the first edge of curved panel no6, I took the dome home and at the weekend I was able to finish glueing the second edge. Then a PVA wash and some wood filler, ready for work on Monday.
After sanding the filler and wood smooth, I gave the whole dome a spray with primer/filler.

Then on the lunchtime, I gave the whole dome a smooth sanding.

This process helps pickup areas that need small amounts of wood filler.
I also started on making the lid.

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I had some luck re: on/off relay circuits. Thanks to pointers from fellow builders, it lead me to one which is now in the post to me. More on this when it arrives.

I have also been working on drawing up a circuit board panel to mount the trigger board, voltage regulator, digital volt meters and once it arrives, the on/off relay circuit board.

This is the second design. The on/off circuit board doesn't have mounting holes, so I'll have to attach it to the board via clips glued on perhaps.

Well, I wasn't happy with this version, so I re-designed and drew up another.

This has the fixing bracket already fitted with a screw location hole too.

Control Panel upgrade 1.0 (2017)

This was more work I'd completed at the beginning of the month but hand't had time to post up:

With the new addition of the SyRen10 dome speed controller, I wanted the main control panel to be self contained. As I originally (due to time/space) had the 24v to 12v converter mounted on the sound board.

I wanted it tho to be independent, so with the panel out of R5's body, I got to work on re-working the layout to fit it all on.

R5's Power control panel

Waiting on a few connector blocks and then connecting it all back up again.

So connectors came, heat shrink, cables & terminal block too. Any free time I spent on cutting, soldering (all connectors, non of this crimped stuff going on here!) then heat shrinking everything in sight lol.

Found a double sided sticky pad, for the transmitters receiver, to mount it on the panel.

The front view.

And part of the rear, view.

I say part, as the feet switch and cables are still inside R5's body, connected up. The switch goes in the hole next to the 'WARNING' label.

Next was to reinstall it back in place, wire up and test. The lead for the dome & the transmitter power were moved around. Power in was shown in the picture as channel 3, now in channel 6 socket - power. And the lead for the dome was moved to channel 4.

This is so that the left hand transmitter stick, auto centers after use.

R5's dome rotation upgrade 1.1

So Saturday afternoon I spent working out how I was going to fit the new bearing. I had planned to router out the original lower ring, but the bearing was the same size as the outside edge of it. The skin makes up the rest of the diameter to the correct size.

So that put a stop to that idea lol.
Next was to simply buy a thinner piece of hardboard and it plus the 10mm thick bearing would equal the right height again.

Whilst I was doing all this thinking/planning, I started to remove the old lazy susan & electrics that wouldn't be needed.

This was a great idea for a cheap and easy way to control R5's dome rotation, and has served me well. But it's replacement will same on space and all this wiring!

I also uninstalled my old & original, RC transmitters receiver unit. I had kept in, just incase I needed to swap it back over, but it wasn't necessary. It was replaced by a screen used version from a fellow club member, much thanks go to Colin Barker for his generous gift.

Old Rc receiver unit

Sunday was when I was able to get on with some REAL work.....

R5-D4's Sound system installation - UPDATE

I've cut down the perspex sheet to a more manageable size, though it's still to be test fitted inside R5's body. Cleaned up the cut edges with belt sander, nice and smooth.

Next was to fit the digital volt meters. I wanted to save space, so I milled holes into a 'stand off' piece of perspex and fitted it above/next to the voltage regulators.

The wires I had previously prepared......had the heat shrink & sleeve's removed. As it was to restrictive on the bends. I was also not happy with my attempt on the 'negative' wires for the 12 channel remote, so this was redone (in blue wire). I then fitted a single earth connection bolt with eyelets.

I then drilled location holes in the perspex speaker board. This will be mounted, stand off style onto the rear of the sound board. The ground loop isolator unit is also fixed to the lower half section of it.

Fan's spinning, digital volt meters reading

Plugged my 12v adaptor in and powered up sound board. All lite up!! Though at first I was worried the light on the 12 channel unit wasn't working......looking closer I realised it wasn't an led but a diod lol, I then pressed the bind button and it buzzed!

Next is to load up the audio and program the remote

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R5-D4's Sound system - Audio FX & 12 Channel remote.

AUDIO FX SOUND BOARD
With all the soldering going on, I didn't like the look of the work I had done on the Audio FX sound board. So as it came with pin's, I ordered some female crimp connectors off eBay to crimp & solder the wires to these. These were then covered in heat shrink.

At last my 12 channel remote control unit came :)

AA battery for scale.

I also could now layout everything onto the perspex to position and mark for holes to be drilled.

Board mock-up.

Audio FX top left, 12 channel remote, top right, voltage regulators (x2) middle, Sure Amp (in bag) bottom. Just the start of figuring out where to put it all.

Dome electrics - power connection

As I'm still waiting for parts, I didnt want to be left waiting to be able to power the dome motor. So I rigged up a stand alone unit, with voltage step down power.

The two micro-swtiches mounted with the micro servo.

Digital Volt meter with Voltage Regulator below it.

The unit takes its power from a split connection plug straight off the 24 volt line. This feeds into the voltage step down unit and is monitored by a digital volt meter. This then feeds the dome motor.

There was an issue with the servo not working(?) The transmitter was working, but the servo only twitched when activated??

.......ordered another servo......fingers crossed!

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!