I did it.

OK, so the bracket from yesterday didn't quite work, as the angle made it push the shell up at an awkward angle, so I fabbed up a new bracket, with the ankle mount hold up higher. This gives it a bit more wiggle room, so to speak.

Anyway, once that was on, there was nothing left but to put the side panels on (gorilla tape, just in case I need to take 'em off again), and that was it:

(cue Star Wars music)

Woo-hoo! Got it. Very pleased, can't wait to show it off. One week shy of ten months, start to finish. Lookin' good.

Actually, lookin' a little too good... (ominous foreshadowing)

Center foot redux

OK, remember when I "sewed" the temp foot drive on the center foot with wire? Yeah, that sucked. It's too loose and has a tendency to fall backwards if I try to reverse, plus it's tiled at a bad angle. So instead I'm going to do it a bracket just like the other feet.

Note the "damage" on the flat part closest to the camera. That's actually intentional; the bolts on the front wheel mount are kind of close quarters, so I had to notch this section out so that the bracket would lay flat against it.

Right foot staging...

Got the right foot assembled, and ready for installation:

BTW, the hose is just regular copper braiding that has been "filled in" with vinyl tubing to give it bulk. I also taped down the ends and glued 'em into the receptacles on the battery box but they're friction-mounted on the foot shell side, in case I need to disassemble them for whatever reason.

Left foot complete

Once I was satisfied the bracket would work, I went ahead & drilled some holes going through the bracket into the motor drives. I then lock-tited some bolts sticking up through the holes in the drive so I could lower the bracket down onto them and secure them with lock nuts. It came together quite nicely:

(notice also I got the foot hoses attached, yay :)

Here you can see the complete left leg assembly (except the side panel, which I'll attach last) and the right leg, still using the temp wooden bracket. Getting close.

Rear foot shell mount test

So I took the metal bracket I made the other night home and bolted it to the ankle with the foot shell inside. As you can see, it fits nicely, and I was able to get the bolt threaded in and everything. I do believe this will do the trick.

Rear foot-shell mounts

After talking to some local club members, I decided to mount the foot shells using some angled aluminum cut to shape. It's basically a 3' long bit of aluminum bent into an L with 1-1/2" length for each "leg". So, I got some at the Home Depot, and went to Hammerspace to commence cutting & drilling:

First I cut to size and trimmed at a 45-degree angle so it would fit within the shell:

Then I took it home and marked a pilot hole for where the bolt goes through the ankle:

And then I took it back and drilled that through:

This should hold the drive very securely to the ankle, but still provide enough room for me to work in the securing bolts, knock wood.

Foot shell time

OK, set myself the new goal of being done by Halloween. At this point ,that basically means the foot shells, but that's going to be a pain because I can't get them mounted properly.

Experimenting with the front one now, thinking I might just use the temp wooden one I got for rolling around with pre-shell, but I can't work a bolt up into the hole because the shell is in the way. So for now, I'm taking some wire and "sewing" it in, thus:

It works OK for now; we'll see if it's a viable long-term solution (spoiler alert: nope, it wasn't).

Battery boxes for the feet

So I've got the PVC battery boxes for the feet, and commenced to work on getting them ready. I had the cutout points marked on the foot shells, so I transferred 'em to the battery boxes and got 'em opened up, thus:

Couple bolt holes going through, and I can fasten them on. Tada:

Also, check out what was parked at the hair place next to the hackerspace: a Tesla!

(one for me too, please)

5 months down, 7 to go: and we are MOVING!!!

Went by the hammerspace today to pick up the last prints for the foot--actually the last prints period, I believe--and got into a conversation with the others about the shells. They helped me do some smoothing on the joins, and I did some repairs and things here and there. Going to reinforce the back with some E6000 (I already tacked some braising back there). I think I'm ready to saw open the holes and start working on the actual mountings. Should be pretty soonish. The feet are looking okay:

(Though you can tell this is definitely my first time doing any kind of braising or similar.)

The print jobs were the foot strips and plugs for the braided copper hose. I went by Home Depot but they didn't have any, so I'll have to shop around, alas. Meantime, I can paint and prep as usual.

The big news is we've got a con this weekend. I dunno if I'm going or not, but I might because (drumroll please) R2 is rolling! I figured out the connections and everything, got it all together, and he rolls great--at least on a solid floor. Carpets, not so much. Still, it's pretty exciting.

Dig my main bot's moves:

Oh, and the skins came today--but there was no one to sign for them, so back they went. Yet another delay. Honest to pete.

More fancy footwork

Got some stuff done this weekend: got the foot shells all braised together all right. Also printed off some parts and got them prepped & painted. I won't show the shells just yet, as my braising is kind of grody, but hopefully I'll be able to clean them up soon.

In the meantime, I did some prints as I said, so here are those. First, the shoulder hubs. I did them on two different days, so one came out orange and the other white. Of course, since they'll be painted anyway, there would be no way for people to tell if I were to, oh, I dunno, swap the parts around...

MUAHAHAHAHAAAAA! NOBODY WILL EVER KNOW!!!!!

*ahem* Anyway. Printed out the top and bottom front vents as well, managed to get those painted before dark:

And got the foot strips and knurled hose fittings queued up so they should be done tomorrow. I believe that will make the last of the 3D-printed parts. When my skin shows up (possibly tomorrow) and I can track down some copper hose, that should make me parts-complete--oh, except for the skirt. Forgot about that. But that's on order too, so yeah. Getting pretty close to a major milestone, which is good as tomorrow makes it 5 months down, 7 to go. Cruising right along, I gotta say.

Ouch.

So I came in tonight to get some braising done on the feet. Got a few edges done--it's coming along nicely, really--but at one point I was closing up the hole in one point and managed to splash some molten braising on my fingers. Now, I don't know if you've had molten metal splash all over you, but on the whole it is a sensation I cannot in good conscience recommend. Seriously, I wouldn't try it. Not as much fun as it sounds.

Anyway, that pretty much brought the evening's activities to an end, but the bits for the front foot shell are ready for painting and assembly, so I think I may go ahead and do that thing. Also printing off a few more parts in anticipation of the skin showing up soon.

Foot shell braising

So tonight I went to the hammerspace to get a lesson in braising. Braising is basically using a metal allow to connect two pieces of metal together. Basically, if you'e ever done soldering, it's very similar. Think of it as soldering supersized, with a propane torch instead of an iron. We wired up the joins on the foot shells, used handheld and pneumatic tools to buff and clean the edges really good (which is VERY important in braising aluminum, as you want to be connecting to the actual metal, not the oxidized layer on top), then Joseph (the metal shop mentor) showed me how to braise. Most of it is getting the aluminum to temperature, which can take a while. But once it's there you just lay the braising rod to it, and melt it into the edge or wherever. Works great.

Works better than the quick steel putty one of the other folks there mentioned. I tried some last night and it seemed to be solid enough until I tested in the morning--came right apart. Brittle as heck, too. Perhaps I needed to buff it as well, but in any case, the braising is working and I can go ahead and do the feet that way.

Legs and drives: getting closer

Well, I've been working to get the legs together. And they're coming together pretty decent, all things considered. Still trying to decide how I want to attach some of the various bits.  I did manage to get some work on them done, however:

First I painted the outer legs...

...and then the middle one.
 

 Just for fun, I laid out all the stuff on one of the legs:

Eee, can't wait.

Anyway, tonight I got some bolts from the hardware store, and one of the wooden hubs that I sawed in half to make two proper sized ones. In any case, I was able to drill some holes using the hub as a guide and was able to bolt in one of the legs as a proof of concept. Very cool.

 Meanwhile, my drives and things came. The DDRII drives came from the same guys who do the temp wheels and mounting kits for Midwest R2, so they combined shipments for me. I got two full motorized drives, two mounting blocks to attach to the drives until I get my shells (the white things on the right), a stand-in center foot (the white thing in the top right-hand corner), and a wheel system for when I get the foot shell (top left). Lots of good stuff in here, solid as a rock too. Very glad I went with these guys.

3 down, 9 to go

So, a quick update: Planet ComiCon went rather well, though I do feel that I have a hell of a long way to go compared to everyone else's stuff. It was so much fun being there, answering questions, explaining how everything worked.

Anyway, looks like the next one is going to be the Maker Faire in June or July, I forget which. I've been thinking about then, and trying to decide what I want to have ready by then. Now, there's no sign of a skin run on the horizon, but I do have the legs more or less, and so I have decided to see if I can have R2 up and rolling around by then. Toward that end, I picked up a Sabertooth 2x32 driver for the motors, slipped in to the latest DDR2 foot driver run after there was a cancellation, and have begun soliciting info from other builders on how to put it all together.

I think probably the Sabertooth will not be going on the motherboard, if only because of the sheer size. Also, there is a heatsink on it, so I will probably mount it to the frame, let the heat dissipate. Still on the fence on 12v vs 24v. When the drives and things arrive, I'll have about 67 pounds of robot tooling around, so 12 should in theory do it, but I suppose in any case we'll see. The system I'm getting is easily adaptable either way.

In the meantime, I'm working on the legs. Got the horseshoes sanded down the other day and have begun to paint. I've got some nice white gloss which should do the trick. Then this weekend I'll see about sanding and painting the legs, possibly even starting to work on attaching the bits together. Come to think of it, need to print up some more ankle cylinders. Get a full set. Hopefully, the drives and things will ship out next week (I got some mounting hardware and a center foot mount as well so they can roll around until I get a foot shell) and I should be rolling along in the not too distant future.