Cleaning and updates

Have spent the past few days cleaning up the connection points between relays and removing a little more external rust.  Have found no more pressing issues with the machine so this little side project is pretty much done at this point.

~Jacob

Small Fixes

I made a few small fixes today and started cleaning the relays.  The new lock for the system came in so I installed that and replaced the game ball.  I still need to replace the power cord to a grounded plug.  I focused mainly on fixing the left flipper today and i found out that the spring on the actuator is going bad along with the fixture missing 2 screws and not being held in place completely.  I have done the hand calculations to find out what replacement spring i need and will pick up the new parts at my local hardware store tomorrow.

~Jacob

Lights are on and we can start playing!

A lot of work was done today.  After replacing the power supply and checking all the fuses and replacing any that were burnt out, i found a lot of areas in the electronics that the previous owner seem to try to fix and just made things worse.  I found wrong fuses inserted into the system, incorrect and unsafe wiring and multiple bad components as i worked my way through the system schematic.  after a  lot of soldering, rewiring and replacing components the system now turns on and is in a playable condition.  The system still seems to short out occasionally and there are some other improvements still to make.  I found out that the system is shorting out due to the pads on the relays not making a good connection.  I did not know much about relays so i spent a few hours understanding how they work and there function within the system.  after manually resetting the lock and credit relays i was able to get the game back in a working order.  I will need to clean up all these connection points (close to 200) to avoid any further issues.  As for future improvements, the left flipper is not working at 100%, there are still a few lights out that are not due to the bulb itself, and 2 player mode does not register.  It was a very productive day, i never would have guessed that in just 3 days of work i would already have a "working" system.

~Jacob

Plunger and Coin return working

After a lot of cleaning i was able to get all the mechanical parts working.  The buildup of rust causes a lot of components to stick.  I believe this is what causes one of the motors to burn out.  The motor has been replaced with a spare that i had picked up the other day and seems to be working fine.  The coin return button originally was not working as well due to rust buildup.  If you would press the button the shaft would get stuck.  This was filed down and polished as well as the internal coin sorting mechanism (would separate different coins/tokens via a counterweight) to get them in working order.  There were similar issues with the plunger.  The spring was corroded and the shaft was rusted and getting stuck.  While i fixed the shaft i had to order a new compression spring along with a new power source, extra balls and some relays to replace some that were burnt out.



EDIT: by the end of the night i was able to get some of system lights on, getting closer every day!


~Jacob

Fixed Coin Return

Fixed Plunger With Old Spring

System Lights

Pinball Machine is here

Picked up the pinball machine today.  The Thrift Store has no idea what is wrong with it and the system will not turn out.  I took a look inside and found that there are a lot of un-familiar, older parts that I am not sure about.  I am going to need to take some time to figure out what each component is and what its function is.  Luckily, i found the system schematics inside so I have something to go off of.  There is also a lot of rust and dirt buildup so that will probably affect to functionality of the system.  Will spend the day just cleaning up areas.

~Jacob

Front View

Top View of Playfield

New Side Project While We Wait.

I have decided to take up a little side project in my spare time while waiting to get back to working on R2D2.  I picked up a broken ElectroMechanical Pinball machine at a local thrift store and have decided to learn something new in the process.  The machine is a Bally Space Time 1972 ElectroMechanical pinball machine.  Will update here when i make any progress.

~Jacob

Project Put on Hold

R2D2 is currently being put on hold post graduation.  I am currently looking for an entry level position and R2 is being stored in a storage locker until I have a place to go.  While the project has taken a lot more time that i initially expected due to having to take so many breaks, I can not wait to for the chance to start working on my creation again!  Will update the blog again once this break is over.

~Jacob

Still on Break

I am very sorry that no updates have been occurring between senior year in college, senior design, lab research and working as a teaching assistant, i have had no time to work on my R2D2.  I am hoping after this semesters midterms that i will have more time to finally work on R2D2 again.  Here are some of my plans of action once i get started again.

*Order/Make the footshells
     -Once this is done the legs can be mounted and i will have a standing unit

*Finish skinning the legs
     -The last place we left off was finishing the construction of the wooded legs, these still need to be skinned in a thin sheet of styrene

I hope to provide more updates in the near future, until then, may the force be with you.


~Jacob

Update

School year has been a bit more hectic than i initially expected.  I recently contacted the company Musumi and obtained a sponsorship for my work on my Senior Design Project working on R2 voice control (CPU Arm mostly)  Since most of this work has been paper work there is not much i can show my readers in terms of progress or pictures.  Hopefully ill have some pictures of R2D2 for everyone soon!

~Jacob

Marquette Senior Design

With the school year starting back up a group of seniors have come together to work on our senior design project.  tying in with this R2D2 Project my team will be working on  voice control and a pneumatic system which will be used for the CPU arm.  In the mean time a few new members have been added to our group for this project. Our senior design project while not directly related to R2, will hopefully be modified and used internally at a later point in time.

Here is the new project group members

Jacob Osborne- Head of Project- Mechatronics
Nate Zastrow-Mechanical Engineer
Andrew Peterson-Mechanical Engineer
Randy Neu- Electrical Engineer
Marcus Evans- Biocomputing

Team Photo from left to right
Nate, Andrew, Jacob, Randy, Marcus

~Jacob

Door Skin for R2D2

The last part of the skins are being attached and drying as I speak.  With the school year starting back up, project updates will be more scarce due to allocation of time.  Updates will consist of lists of smaller things that have been accomplished since any previous updates and will not go as in depth.

~Jacob

Expense Chart Updated

after a long time of putting it off, the expense chart has been updated and added in through a google sheets document.  As of right now $1400 has been spent on R2D2 however around some of this was parent donations as well as items that are being used for other things alongside R2D2.  You can find the link to the expense chart at the bottom of the main screen of this blog.

~Jacob

Senior Design

After talking with my professor for Senior Design, my work on R2D2 has been approved.  I will be able to form a small team in order to work on two subsystems that will work inside of R2.  This projects as of now include a voice control system (being modified from the hasbro toy) and a pneumatic system that will run the CPU arm and the light saber launcher from the dome.  As for the rest of the the R2D2 i will continue to work on it with help from my friend Nate during our spare time.

~Jacob

Painting Some Parts

Took some time this week to carefully paint some of the painted CAD parts and give them the blue detailing.  using the same Ford Blue spray paint i sprayed the paint in a small cup and use a paint brush to carefully apply the paint to the necessary areas.  A few weeks ago i took a sample part and attempted to color match the paint at a few local hardware stores but did not have any success.  The parts ended up turning out very nice and will look good on the finished frame.  The utility arms needed a second coat of paint after the blue spray paint ran out half way through the first coat some time ago.  Also the new front vents received a few coats of the the silver paint and are ready to be added back into the skins.

Finished Utility Arms

Painted Coin Slot

Painted Pocket Vents

Painted Power Coupling and Ankle Details

Painted Side Vents

Painted Front Upper and Lower Vents

~Jacob

Sanding With A Working Dremel

Now that we have a working rotary tool we are able to get the final touches on a few different parts.  Through out this week i was able to do some sanding on the legs in order to get the layers of wood and flush as possible.  During the original manufacturing process there were a few areas that once lined up did not match the rest of the legs.  Due to tracing and then cutting out the legs with a vertical band-saw the tolerances were less than adequate...  With this issue now fixed the legs can no be "skined" with styrene similar to what was done with the frame.

Finished Legs

Fixed Area of Legs

~Jacob

Fourth of July

Got a chance to go to a few hardware stores today.  Picked up my dome bumps at Lowes as well as some rotary tool accessories and some new tips so that the rotary tool can be used again.  Just as a recap the tip inside the rotary tool that i bought earlier this year was to small for any standard bits.  Now that we have the rotary tool up and running again we can finish off the dome and touch up on multiple areas of our droid!

~Jacob

New CAD Parts and Skins Attached

just a quick update our CAD parts we sent off as a work order in the machine shop finally were completed. The front vents were remade due to the makerbot making poor quality prints and under sizing of the vents to the point where they did not fit properly.  Throughout this week the back skins were slowly attached to avoid any mistakes.  Again we ran into a small problem where the original skins where slightly shifted when they were drying in place which caused the new skins to do the same.  This issue was fixed with a little sanding and eventually will be fully fixed when a new CAD piece will be inserted.

~Jacob

Front Vents and Octagon Port

Cleaning up the skins

not much was done this week.  With my family coming up to visit all the was able to get done was a little bit of cleaning by Nate and myself.  Taking some nail polish remover and some q-tips the skins where thoroughly cleaned from any surface defects that might have occured

~Jacob

Fixing Things Up

After our mistake with the skins some time was spend re-positioning the door on the frame in order to fit the skins correctly.  Along with this more sanding work was done to keep the skins flush to the wood.  The issue with the gas pipe assembly being off center is still present, however a feel ideas have been jotted down to fix this issue.

~Jacob

Dry fit skin test (hole is off center)

Door test fitting

Ran into a few more problems

well with the quick meeting today we were meant to attach the second half of the skins.  as we dry fit the skins to R2D2, we noticed that the holes that were previously drilled for the gas pipe are not perfectly center between the two parts of the circle.  It turns out the original skins were slightly shifted during the drying phase, making the hole not center.  This is a fairly big issue due to the unbalanced rotation as r2d2 switches between 2 and 3 legs.  On another note we found out we installed the door wrong, matching it up with the top of the frame, when it should have been matched up with the bottom.  Just to make sure the door will be sanded and moved to make sure the skins fit perfectly.  The good part is, it is all a learning experience and it is an opportunity to learn from our mistakes.

~Jacob