Instagram post: QR codes

Says to save these to your phone and then press and hold to open link to instagram posts.

So if this works and you get to my Instagram page, leave a like/comment saying that the Blog brought you there lol.

Treadwell WED-15 droid build : Part 5 - 3D printing lenses

So this week I have been redesigning the neck (head plate to mast) adaptor, to allow for head movement (rotation) from side to side.

I found some thrust bearings on eBay and also ordered some 3mm Aluminium plate. The new neck adaptor, comes in two parts. One to hold the bearings in place and the other to fit inside the tube. This needed to be extended (miscalculated) and the print fitted perfectly & so did the motor. So much so that I may not now need the bearing, but will see as they will take the weight off the motor shaft.

A new cap was printed for the top neck, this fits in the neck plate connection hole.

With this Sunday’s event coming I wanted to finish up the eyes. So i drew up the lens from Dyne’s excellent plans and using clear’ish PP filament I printed out a lens. And with standard PLA a slightly modified holder, less depth. Think I’ll still get the lenses done in clear resin though, but for now, this will do.

……well, everything is now on pause after my work accident on Friday. I won’t be going to Weston on Sunday now 😢 was really looking forward to going. I don’t like letting people down, but i need to rest fully.

Full accident story see previous post.

On a plus note, I managed to grab a bargain. EBay: a found part, is a grabber, one of WED’s utility arms.

Wedding Ring Utility unit...... (box)

I thought it would be a cool idea to have a box that would open up via remote control, via the transmitter. A nano servo was to be installed that could then be plugged in, to switch from utility arm activation, to opening the lid.

Started working on this idea, [the offset of the inner box, was space for the lid opening arm], but then Mike reminded me he doesn’t have utility arm activation…..so I shelved this idea and carried on with #3dprinting the parts.

Three boxes later (slight variations), I had what I needed……I then added some rings to the front…..and a lid tab to manually open the lid.

I sanded and then applied filler primer, more sanding and repeat. I bought some A4 size sheets of felt and some larger sheets of thin mat, and a spray can of white paint, and a gold coloured pen.

Once the box and lid were painted and had dried. I lined the box with the felt, blue, and also applied some to the inside of the lid. Original idea was just this, but then I thought about a ‘cushion’ for the rings to sit on.

Next I cut and shaped the thin mat to be the ring bed. I then added two locations for the rings to sit on, to help keep them secure.

I added some of the felt to the curved rear of the box where it would be in contact with the droid, to protect its paint work.

Finally I used the gold pen to paint the boxes front design.

Internal lined with felt material and a foam cushion

Rear felt patch to protect the Astromech's paint finish

As most requests are for an R2-D2 unit, I choose blue as the main colour. I did get some red, if ever anyone wanted R5 to do the honours.

Utility arm UPPER socket screen (Part 4)

 Can’t believe it’s been two months since I fitted the upper utility arm socket screen!

In my attempt to finish off unfinished parts, I got on with weathering it. So far I have just added matt black , but like the lower one, I will add burnt umber & ochre yellow to give it that Tatooine sandy feel.

Utility arm UPPER socket screen (Part 3)

 Test fitting of the panel identified that a few things needed tweaking.

• The utility arm wouldn’t close properly.
• The screen was still a bit tight.

So firstly, the utility arm was not closing properly. This I found was down to the pivot pin not having enough clearance below it. It was being restricted by the lower frame panel. Before fitting the socket screens, there was a bit more space. As the pivot pin had left a rub mark on the new paint, I could see where to make a recess with a 10mm diameter drill bit.

Next was the socket screen itself. I had to clean off over spray paint from the top and bottom faces & trim a bit more off the pivot arm end. This was stopping the screen from going back far enough, which was restricting the utility arm from closing fully.

Really pleased with how this is looking. Just need to weather the screen and finally fit it in place.

Utility arm UPPER socket screen (Part 2)

Before spaying up the screen white & then getting to work on weathering it.....see below.

The piece of wood that sits between the two utility arms, needed to be thinned down for the screen to fit. My original measurement was for a snug fit, but the print was just a bit higher than expected, so rather than take a blade to the 3D screen print (loosing details) I decided to trim the wood piece. This then needed some wood filler before repainting. It was black and I did respray it matt black again, but am thinking white so it all blends together.....

Once all dryer I’ll start weathering this piece and the screen before re-installing.

James’ R5-D4 YouTube channel 2020

 Had this congratulations email today from YouTube for all my videos uploaded in 2020 lol......all 12 minutes of them :D . Not exactly ground breaking mind you, and a few million off any YouTube awards lol, but I appreciate everyone who has watched etc and I hope they have been entertaining or educational.

See screenshots below.... then head on over to my channel to contribute to the ‘ups’  & likes and shares, thanks everyone.

My YouTube channel link below:

https://youtube.com/channel/UCVWPGuMi4c6ngsx5xwH0kGg

Utility arm UPPER socket screen

As mentioned in previous post, I needed an upper utility arm socket screen. I CAD reversed the 3D files and had to do some height changes, as due to my wood build, the dividing shelf between the two utility arms & the Large Data Port, mean less height than the lower section.

I made a design change to remove the opening for the Trading Card Dispenser, and some other alterations so it differed from the lower screen.

Started the print Sunday afternoon around 3pm (UK time), layer height of 0.4, and it eventually finished Monday morning 9am (UK) lol. 17hrs 39mins.

I had supports on but only touching build plate.... I think?? So apart from one ‘not seen area’ the print came out great!

Not sure if bed or extrusion needs adjusting as I get this on the first few layers of the print. Nothing a knife can’t sort but still lol. It was extrusion, wasn’t hot enough for the initial layers.

After cleaning up work, it was time for primer/filler painting. Once dried, a bit more cleaning up before top coat.

‘Trading Card Dispenser’ utility arm inside panel 1.4

The rear utility socket screen is 99% complete. Finished off painting it today and fitted (glued) the rear piece in place (not in the picture below).

Next up was re-fitting this into R5’s utility socket......see below picture.

Need to do a panel now for the top socket.

‘Trading Card Dispenser’ utility arm inside panel 1.3

 This was the next item that needed spraying up.

I bagged the led leads, and applied a small piece of masking tape over the front of the LED. And applied the filler primer. Once dried I sprayed it up white.

Next up is to add detail and weathering.

‘Trading Card Dispenser’ utility arm inside panel 1.2

So whilst designing the rear screen for the TCD, ‘Trading Card Dispenser’, utility socket area. One thing came to me & that was the shape of the ‘hand/grip’ of the arm. I made a recess that matched it in the screen. The idea being that when opened anyone viewing inside would see it and think it was like this for a reason. This was part of the second design lol.

The third and final design, I had an idea. Rather than just have a recess there, make it into an actual ‘thing’. Thinking about events etc and when the droids are just parked up, how about making a power charging/data transfer plug. So I measured up depth, plus other dimensions and got designing.

I remembered I had some magnets that would help hold the plug in place. These magnets are fitted with wire for upto 8amps, not that I’ll be going there lol (Heat shrink was added to the fly leads). But it meant that I could wire up an LED to illuminate when the magnets made contact with them the plug.

I printed the plug in two halves to ensure good surface finish all over. I designed and printed an end cap that I would connect up to a fake power/data tube.

*** UPDATE ***

As per usual, I did some more re-designing as I wasn’t 100% happy with what I had done. I’m not a perfectionist, but if I’m not happy with what I’ve designed, I keep tinkering until I am. I was happy with the update, but not so once printed, due to the slicing I had done. So there’ll be some more work on it.

‘Trading Card Dispenser’ utility arm inside panel 1.1

Progress, after a few design changes (as mentioned in post: 1.0) I finished it and printed the screen on the Tevo at home. 0.15 layer height and took hours to print!

Above pic shows print with support still in place.

After cleaning it up, test fitting showed that I still needed to make some adjustments to get it to fit. Also, there were some areas that protruded to far out and these prevented the utility arm from fully closing. These parts were cut away and I’ll update the CAD file to match.

I’ve also been working on a something extra, just as a bit of fun which will be incorporated into the utility arm recess.

Utility arm - servo installation update 1.1

November 9th 2020 

One thing with servos that has bugged me since starting to use them with R5's build, is the twitching that sometimes happens. So I did a search for the cause of this and found loads of, mostly old, YouTube video's referencing 'Glitch Busters'.

So after having a search online and ultimately looking on eBay lol, I decided I'd have a go at making one myself. Capacitors ordered and I already have the connectors.

Connected up a capacitor and plugged it into the system......no noticeable difference, but I'll leave it in just in case lol :D

November 16th 2020

Worked on the servo fitment. Cut the four screw threads down to correct length needed. Also opened up the upper axle hole in the wood, to allow the utility arm to move more freely. I fitted the white 3D printed bracket, which I screwed into position, but the thickness of the base, pushed the utility arm up and it rubbed then on the skin opening.

................So I removed this part of the bracket

I had test printed off a new 3D piece of the screen which would allow the servo linkage to pass through it.

This piece would require a bit more alteration as I had not left space for the bracket, once in the closed position.

Next design change is to give a bit more space top/bottom of opening and to fill in the original smaller opening, seen in above picture. You can see I also tested out fitting springs to the servo arm.

Final design of the one piece screen has been drawn up and will be printed shortly. Hopefully I've got everything right lol.

Utility arm - servo installation update 1.0

Now to sort out the utility arm activation, allowing the TCD to dispense cards.

Dug out all servo box again and re-using what I already had, located a position for the servo to be installed.

I cut up a small piece of wood and drilled fixing holes into it. These holes were then countersunk'd to take the nylon locking nuts for the M3 screws.

I cut up a piece of rubber mat to act as a flexible surface for the wood to be screwed to. I also added some rubber strips between the wood panel and the servo.

Once I marked the position, on the Utility arm's mounting bracket, I screwed the wood panel onto it. The M3's needed to be trimmed down in length a bit, so as to not foul against the 'UA' mounting bracket.

Then it was on with a test fitting of the servo.....

I had test printed a small part of the rear panel to check height position of the servo linkage arm. The printer had failed on a layer, which wasn't a big deal as it actually helped with working out where the opening position should be.

So the new upgraded panel has been 3D drawn up and is ready for printing.

‘Trading Card Dispenser’ utility arm inside panel 1.0

Since installing the bracket that holds the TCD, ‘Trading Card Dispenser’, the idea of making/replacing the rear metal screen with something more fitting has been something I’ve been working on.

I upgraded the original piece to have a curved front and increased the thickness to act as a stop for the utility arm when it’s closed. I need to recess some details a bit more on one side.

 Next up was the sides and top. I drew up these in autocad inventor, longer than needed, and 3D printed one side off. Took this piece home and got to measuring and trimming it to fit around the utility arms pivot point bracket. See above picture.

As my droid is custom built, using the plans is only a guide lol.

After designing up a full screen, to save printing time I only printed the new part, seen in red, as it was a Friday afternoon and wanted to take it home to work on over the weekend.

The above picture shows the two pieces, which will eventually be printed/printable as one. I need to ad more rear fixing points as R5’s frame is wood.

The recesses in the red part are for future greeblies to be fitted. But rather than them being curved, I’ll make them flat so that the inserts can be printed in a flat orientation for better print results.

There is also a need for a hole to allow the servo arm to pass through to activate the utility arm. But one step at a time lol. I will of course upload this to my Thingiverse page.

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.