'R0' dome build - 1.2 'Skin'

Monday 11th April

Measured & cut to length inner neck skin. This will be the visible silver recess piece of the neck. I used my old suitcase travel strap to help shape it.

Cut out the dome skin and strapped it as best I could around the frame. This should help when it comes to securing it. Only thing is that this cone has a tighter curve than R5's.....

I wasn't thinking ahead and should of left more on the end to allow for fitting.....see how it goes!

I'll leave this for a few days and come back to tighten the straps some more.

'R0' dome build - 1.1

Saturday 9th April

Bought large sheet of 3mm thick hardbound from B&Q. More on this below.
Drilled holes and screwed verticals into place to test.

test assebly

Cut out the centre disc of the top ring.

Not sure what I did wrong, but the top ring diameter ended up slightly smaller than it should. No big problem as I can pack it out with thin pieces of hardboard strips.


My idea was to cut some lower support crescents out to support the cone skin, and almost cut top off my thumb! (handsaw not jigsaw......phew) blade jumped, ouch, school boy error :-( but that put end to work for the evening :-(

~~~

Sunday 10th April

Using the lower section of the vertical template, I cut out four lower pieces. Drilled holes and screwed them into place. These will help support both the neck skin and the upper 'cone' skin.

I also cut out the crescent quarters of the base ring.

Rain stopped play before I cud mark out the inner & outer neck skins, tho I did stick cone skin down onto board.

More in next update.........

'R0' type dome for R5's body - 1.0

After seeing The Force Awakens, I knew that an 'R0' type dome was something I'd like to make. And I'd like to have it done by Celebration Europe this year!

31. March '16
A member of the Astromech.net forum, Lars-Ake Siggelin 'Sigge', over in Sweden, drew up [in collaboration] and built an 'R0-L0' dome for his R2 bodied droid.
Now, his version is 'R0-L0' and not 'R0-4L0' as his version has been classified as a Prototype! It is accurate as possible to the film/prop version and not so much to the toy, which has generic features.

So I downloaded his plans and made a start on building.......out of wood, again.

03, April '16
Using the plans I already had drawn up for R5's wood dome, I adjusted measurements to accept the 3mm thick wood hardboard skin. And then jigsaw'd out the 'base', pic below.

Pre-cut outs.

I then worked out the dimensions for the vertical struts that were needed to fix the wood skin too. Here are the first four verticals.....

Next was to mark and cut out the top location ring. This sit's on top of the struts, so the skin can be attached to it.
(I did the same when building R5, but without the full length struts)

R0 type Dome for R5..... R0-D4 (un-official)

Here's my build of an 'R0' designation dome for my R5-D4 droid.

Possible change, but until then I'll call him.......

R0-D4

(cross between the two)

I started building this dome in April 2016 after reading up on a post on Astromech.net by Lars-Ake Siggelin 'Sigge'.  link here. He and two others had created and built, in styrene, an R0 dome 'prototype'. Prototype classification as there are no official plans etc for the droid.

I wanted to try to build one myself, but as I wasn't sure things would work out, I didn't post on my Blog until I was happy things [namely the skin] were up and running.

Well, here's my attempt at an R0 dome, more Blog updates to follow

Star Wars Celebration 2016 - Latest ticket news [April]

So, Saturday's tickets are now all gone!!!

This was the second release of tickets that were one day only ones,

released earlier this year.

Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016

tickets

Han Solo costume for my Son....... Boots 1.1 *arrived*

..............Boot's have arrived!

The Boot's came week's ago [March]. But due to family health issue, I've not been able to do much more than for Jay to try them on, briefly.

Hopefully, this project will be able to get going again soon.

Bad Motivator - electronics/electrical work UPDATE

Fitted the XT60 fly lead and plug into R5's dome, then looked at the Motivator electrical system.

When testing the Bad Motivator system, connected to the main body power supply, the actuator's actions were 'pulsing/twitching' as if struggling to get enough power. So I disconnected the actuator and locked the Motivator in the 'blown' popped up position for events. I was baffled and a bit disappointed.....

This is the simple layout of the system:

After some thought, I deduced that the only thing different in the system when connected to R5's main electrical system was the Voltage regulator.

This is a 'switching' type, so no heat build up. This type is obviously fine with LED's, amps etc, but the 'switching' circuit [I believe] is the cause of the actuator's 'pulsing/twitching' problems.

So I've bought a 'normal' voltage regulator [like every one else does] to test out my theory.
Just waiting for it to arrive.....

R5's Slip Ring Upgrade 1.1

Test fitting of slip ring in R5, with XT60 connector fitted.

R5's Slip Ring Upgrade 1.0

I wasn't happy with my original slip rings thin wires! For low level electrical signals they were fine for, but when my Bad Motivator door motor actuator operates.....it doesn't????

Bench testing connected directly to a 12V battery, it all works fine???

I thought it could possibly be the remote part of the circuit, but this is part of the same circuit that's connected to the 12V battery when bench testing, so I can assume this is not a problem.

These are the now 'old' wiring loom etc.

 View up through dome base.

Pin connection, wires to remote (upper right) & R5's eye sensors (left)

A fellow builder on the UK forum, was selling off unwanted parts, so I bagged me the slip ring he was selling. I then bought some XT60 connectors to connect up to the dome wiring.

Next, is out with the old connection and in with the new.

Rogue One - trailer Clip

At last...... New's of Rogue One has come.

I saw the news late last night and watched the 'clip' video via Star Wars UK twitter account.

More news to come later today,

when the trailer(?) will be shown on

GMA in the USA.can't wait!