Chris makes - website shout out!

One of my good friends, Chris, has a website/Blog with his builds and he also has a shop.

Link: https://chrismakes.uk/

He is a fellow droid builder, but he went to the next level of building and has created his own, wearable C-3PO suit!

His love for tinkering has then led him to make and sell 3PO eye lighting kits. So check out his website/Blog and shop for more!

For Chris’ website/Blog, click on the link here.

DBUK 2020 Live - round-up

Both Lee & Sam, co-hosted Droid Builders UK 2020 Live, on Saturday 1st August.

The event was in replacement for the clubs now annual summer get together.

Check the videos out on their YouTube channels, the tutorials will be posted up soon as well as the interviews.

The event was supported by ......

3D Filaprint

Sideshow

M2

Roboteq

Who donated some amazing prizes up for auction on the club’s eBay page.

All the money raised goes to CALM.

Raffle results can be found via this link.

These helped raise a fantastic grand total of......

Saturday 1st August 2020

The event was to raise money and awareness of the charity CALM.

Here is the link to the Justgiving website in support of CALM which gave you a chance to win Droid Builders prizes.

 

If you want more information about #CALM

please Google them or alternatively click the link or picture below.

CALM

Thank you for your support!

Throwback Friday - 10 years of the UK R2D2 Builders Club

This weeks throwback is a day late and also a few weeks too.....

June 9th marked 10 years of the first gathering of like minded builders. There were other builder groups, but this event marks the beginning of what has become the UK R2D2 Builders Group.

click on link below to view video

UK R2 Builders 10th Anniversary

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Littlebits - Star Wars Droid Inventor Kit - pt 7 (2019)

Last week my youngest daughter got out the Littlebits R2-D2. She had been doing some work in school and it re-ignited her imagination with electronics.

So back in work I re-opened the 3D files I had drawn up for the R5-D4 dome and got back on tinkering with the final design from earlier this year. Click here for part 6.

With our new works 3D printer and my new design, I had more confidence that this would print/work second time around.

With the print time at just over 12 hours, and all the settings set to standard, due to my limited knowledge of them lol.

This picture shows the support structure.

Once happy with everything, I set the print to start just before I left work.

With my fingers crossed for a successful print come the morning......

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.......The morning came and YES, success! I've not felt this good about a 3D print in a long time lol, especially after the previous dome print fail. Here's the pictures before removing from the print bed.

The print quality is fantastic! Even when removing the supports, the finish is still great.

I just need to finish removing all the support material and see how well the 'lid' fits the dome.

Once everything is sorted, I'll post up this print on my Thingiverse account.

I'll post up more next week.......

Littlebits - Star Wars Droid Inventor Kit - pt 4 The Build

So last Sunday afternoon, I managed to get my two together long enough for me to give them the R2 Inventor building kit.

My youngest daughter was more enthralled then my Son (just turned a teenager lol), but both sat down to first start downloading the app, and to then get out all the components and start arguing about who was going to do what lol.

My youngest daughter follows more after me for being 'creative' etc which is great, so she was the one who took charge, following the simple and straight forward instructions, via the App. (PS, my Son has other talent's, like being an international football star, lol)

She was soon playing all the sound bites that were available. This was great and very responsive.

As a parent the one big thing about buying something that requires batteries......is when the item actually COMES with them!! A defo MAJOR plus point! As this kit comes with it's own 9v battery! So no hunting round the house looking for one.

The circuit boards are extremely well made and visually to a high standard! Most impressive! And the 'only one way' connection of the magnetic contacts makes assembly simple and easy to use.

All the components clip onto the main internal frame easily and can be removed the same way, without difficulty.

And it wasn't long before the body and legs, which all just clip together, (my Son was allowed to do this lol) were assembled and our new droid was moving and beeping.

Feature 1: The recorded message.
You can record your own message and send it to the Droid, via the App, for it to replay on your button pressing command. She thought this was amazing! (tho it's not an instantaneous upload to the Droid), but is pretty neat.

In order to move onto the next stage you need to 'complete each mission'. This involved dis-assembling the droid (by following the App instructions) we didn't actually do this. Only then can you move onto the other build 'missions' (this is because they are locked).

But before she could do this, she wanted to start applying the stickers. She did ask, but I said she could do whatever colour scheme she wanted. So red/blue and black it was.

Blue pie panels, but the rest of the dome and body are a mix of the others lol.

I can't remember now what she named him 😃

The other 'missions' involve dis-assembling the components and re-arranging them to be able to operate the 'waving arm' (from the front body slot), this uses the centre foot stearing motor, 'dome rotation', using the main drive motor etc. This makes sense, even tho as an actual Astormech builder, you have it in you to ask 'why didn't it come with extra motors etc lol'.

My kids are on half term break from school, so I've only been told what they've been up to with the droid while I've been at work, so I'll do another update once the other 'missions' have been assembled and tested out.

More Blog updates to come......

Littlebits - Star Wars Droid Inventor Kit

Seems a long time ago now, but when we were at the

Force Friday 2 (link to my Blog post) event at John Lewis,

the Littlebits team were there with their Droid Inventor kit.

The attending club members chatted and were asked if we would like to review the kits.
At the asking price, I personally couldn't justify buying the kit.
These last few weeks, I've seen other's, review the kits and so assumed that a quota had been met and that I wouldn't be needed for testing purposes 😄 lol.

So yesterday, the wife messaged me to say a package had arrived, I hadn't ordered anything??.......oh wait, my new club top perhaps??

Got home to find this.....

WOW! 😲

It was a busy evening last night, and my kids had already gone to bed.
We have a busy next few days and then I've an important event on Saturday.
So I won't be able to let the kids at this till Sunday at the earliest 😄 & I'll be asking them to write me a review (which I'll take full credit for.....spelling mistakes an all 😄 lol)

A big thank you to the people at Littlebits for this.
For their main website, click their name at top of page
or search up online for UK shops