R5-D4: Update April/May 2023

I’ve been giving R5 as he hadn’t been actually moved since Birmingham at the NEC.

New Dome motor wheel:

3D printed him a new wheel, as on the previous one the retainer nut wasn’t being held well and the PLA had been stretched. So I slightly modified some of the sizes and then printed it in ABS. Fitted the nut and 'o’ring and then fitted it onto the motor shaft.

Test was on Saturday at…..

 ...April

Next up was to connect up the new receiver. This didn’t take me to long, compared to the nightmare I had trying to sort it out when at Celebration 🙄.

I didn’t need to connect power (previous TX require power), this one utilities the power from being connected by the servo leads. Jacking up the wheels meant I was able to setup the drive and steering channels, plus the extra switch ones, for the utility arm, sounds and (once I have the long enough servo lead) I’ll be able to trigger the trading card dispenser.

Trading card dispenser:

A while back, I made a new trigger control box that utilised a servo controlled relay, instead of the previous remote control. Once the servo lead arrived, I crimped on new plugs to connect up the TCD control box.

View Blog post here.

But on testing it….. I realised that it needed to have a momentary activation rather than an actual ‘switch’. So I’ve been on Radio Model Workshops website and will be ordering a single RC switch relay, which has the option of it being a momentary one. So this control box will get another upgrade when it arrives.

In the meantime, I swapped the control box back over to the remote control version and 3D printed a new box for the remote, so that it could be attached to the new rear panel I’d printed off for the new Flysky transmitter.

I drew up a button bracket, that fits into one of the rear screw hole sockets, this will be upgraded again to look better and also hold the LED in place.

May 9th

Outer foot ankle lock:

The outer foot shell needed some repair to it, so with the legs off the body, I stripped the outer foot down. The ankle locks unbolted and the ankle bolt nut (previously held in place with super glue), fell out lol. I knew I needed a better way to hold them in place. I had thought about a lock washer, but then a lightbulb 💡 moment came. I measured up and drew up a nut holder to 3D print. It would be held in place by a bolt.

Nut holder loose.

Nut holder moved into position. I applied some thread lock to help keep it in position, but only nipped it tight to allow the ankle bolt to locate through into the thread.

I’ve added the file to my Prusa page.

The wooden foot shell got cleaned up inside to allow the new glass fibre to bond properly. Good as new again.

Event Report: Southmead Hospital Charity

 Saturday 29th April 2023

Myself, Mike and Mark had been invited to attended a Charity fundraising day by local friends from Clevedon.

This is the second one we’ve attended helping to raise funds for Southmead Hospital.

Check out their Facebook page.

We were located next to the toy area, Mike couldn’t help himself and borrowed a Grogu toy 😂😂😂

Mike took his R2 off round the floor area, and stopped by the amazing face painting and balloon sculpture. 
There were lots of happy parents and kids 😂. Lots of people asked questions about the droids and building them, and then Mike was telling them to ask me for my autograph ✍️ 😂😂😂

Here are some of the days pictures:

And some more:

Father and son 😂

There were quite a few visitors who were not from Bristol , as became apparent when telling them about our upcoming event at the M-Shed Museum.

Looking forward to this, as well as Swindon’s Stars of Time event next month:

Disclaimer: my R5 is NOT the one used in the Mandalorian series 👍🏽

Event Report: Southmead Hospital Charity @ John Lewis

This one is down to Mike Berry….

A few weeks ago he had a customer pop in and noticed Mike’s droids. They got chatting about a, unknown at this time, mutual friend, Paul W of TRamp designs.

www.trooperamp.co.uk

There was an upcoming charity event at his store, John Lewis' in the Mall, Cribbs Causeway. Details were exchanged and Paul was contacted and he invited us to join them.

It was a VERY cold early morning, Mike picked me up in his van and we made the short trip up the road to Cribbs.  We were met and escorted to where we had been allocated a large area, near the toy section on the lower floor. A banner had been kindly supplied by Southmead Charity so that people knew why we were there lol. Three collection buckets saw a lot of donations deposited. Lot's of photos were taken and plenty of questions asked about the droids and how to make them....so we could see a few more builders in the coming weeks/months lol.

There were other things going on, a violinist, choir, guide dogs, face painting & balloon creations.

Jamie was passing by and popped in to say hi 👋🏼 

Was good to see him & chat. He was also kind enough to babysit the droids when we went to get food.

As a thank you we were presented with our very special tins

We finished up around 4pm and were kindly escorted back to the loading area to load ip Mike’s van. Another successful event.