Dome: complete

So tonight was the night to finish work on the dome. I mounted the lights inside the dome, and got everything together. There's a coupe of little bitty details, but I'm basically rocking.

I made a couple of these as mounts/diffusers for the front and rear PSIs. This one is the rear.

Here you can see the one for the front PSI. The diffuser is hot glued to the MDF ring; the blue tape is holding the PSI in place inside it.

Unfortunately (as you see here) I had accidentally put one of the ring holes right where the rear PSI is,so I had to attach the rear diffuser to the dome instead of the MDF ring. I'm using paint tape here, but that's just a temporary measure until I get some more permanent mount. Like duct tape.

It's all good, though. It came out looking nice:

Here, you can see the rear assembly. From left to right: rear PSI, rear holoprojector, rear logic display, and battery pack velcroed to the MDF ring so I can pop it off when I need to swap out the batteries.

The front assembly:  cable from rear logic display, the front logic displays, the front PSI, and front holoprojector.

Rear view:

Front view:

And here's a video of it in action:

So, that's the dome. Not sure what's going to be next. I've got the frame coming, and will be getting a set of legs before long. I may just rest until they show up, concentrating on more 3D printing, but I'm nearly there. I might also do the skins, laser cutting them at the maker space. In any case, this is a pretty big milestone considering I only started about six weeks ago. In any case, I'm having a blast.

let there be more light

So this evening I sat down to do the Rear Logic Display. I figured I'd get 2 rows done, maybe. I somehow managed to get 4. I was waiting on a print of my first attempt at a 3d printed diffuser for the front and rear PSIs, so I went ahead and kept on soldering. I would have got all 5 rows, but I goofed in putting an LED in the wrong way so I had to take it out and unplug the holes.

Lessons learned:

• double-check the pins before you solder.
• If you have to remove one, use the iron to melt the solder and take it out a little at a time.
• If you have solder in a hole, put a little solder in it and get it all nice and liquid then tap it on a flat surface (I had missed the bit about adding a little extra solder when the guy at the makerspace showed me the other night)
• DO NOT hold the iron to the hole in hopes of melting it out, as you may well gunk it up and destroy the connection. I now have one LED that won't light up anymore because of this.

 Anyway. Other than that one bulb, it's all good. I tried the diffuser, and found that A) it blocks too much light, B) the inside radius is too big--I want the PSIs to fit snugly inside, and C) It's too shallow. I want it to tuck in there nicely. I'll redesign and print again tomorrow night. Fortunately, Autocad 123D is proving to be very simple to use, and even exports straight to STL. It's not perfect, but whaddya want fer nothin'?

Anyway, got home and was disconcerted to find that the lights wouldn't work. Funny thing. The chain with the rear PSI was fine. But the one with the FLDs and front PSI was kaput. It was either all-on or all-off. Taking instruction from the FAQ, I removed and reseated a few of the LED controllers, which didn't help, then reseated the Arduino Pro Mini, which did. So thank goodness for that. It's pretty impressive.. can't wait to show it off. Hopefully tomorrow.

Another paint & prep day

Well, it's MLK day, so a lot of my stuff is in postal limbo. No worries. I did a little work on the dome, first boring out the holes on the MDF ring a little so I could fit it more accurately to the dome ring (I'm not one to pitch products, generally, but I gotta admit that el cheapo file set I got a while back ahs been paying for itself like crazy on this project). I may just glue them down, actually, in the end. But right now I'm just using the bolts that come up through the rockler into the dome ring and up into the MDF rings. I need to get some nuts and wingnuts to do the proper spacing, but no rush.

After that, I formally decommissioned the last sad little plastic carton of egg nog in the fridge (protip: egg nog should not go "clunk") and cut a couple of covers for the front and rear PSIs:

(actually the Royal Engineers of Naboo were very big on old milk bottles and scotch tape.)

Anyhow, after that I broke out the XTC-3D and laid it to the front and rear coin returns, as well as the front and rear logic displays. After they dried, I sanded them down and gave 'em a does of paint:

I swear, I through a lot of Rustoleum, but when it comes to metal-look paint, Valspar's silver beats the crap out of everything.

Anyway, with any luck the holoprojectors will show up tomorrow. Maybe some bits from China, the other LEDs at the very least. SO I'll be able to get those all nice and prepped, and maybe have them ready in time for Thursday night. If not, then that will be an ideal opportunity to take care of them. What the hey.

More domity, and a side order of solder

Realized I had forgotten to mount the blue ring around the dome before securing the radar eye, so this evening when I get home I went ahead & took care of that. Ordered my holo projectors and related items, and they should be along next week. This ol' feller is really taking shape.

That's better.

Anyway, it was open house night at the makerspace. I gotta make sure to bring the dome next week so the visitors can see it as Dave (the head honcho) was telling folks about it. Pretty pleased with how it's coming out. I kinda wound up giving impromptu discussions on 3D printing and arduinos to visitors, and did manage to get some soldering in on the front logic displays while waiting on a print of the front coin return (wound up being extra-long, so I just went home. I'll pick it up tomorrow).

Got home today to find that the first batch of stuff from China made it. 3 sets of flangeless 3mm LEDs, all ready to go. They even threw in a bunch of resistors which I don't need but what the hey, nice to have.

Anyhow, tomorrow I'm meant to get my arduino, so I'll be able to take care of the pinouts and dump the program to it. Heck, if the LED controllers show up, I may even be able to smoke test the rear logic display. Would be nice.

Teeces and related things

Not a lot done today. I wound up ordering the last bits and pieces I will need for the Teeces lighting system. Unfortunately, several bits are on various slow boats from China, but hopefully by the end of the month I'll have everything. In the meantime, I've got enough to at least start soldering.

Interesting note: according to my part spreadsheet, I have expended $125 in Teeces parts including the PC Boards, resisters, IC sockets, LED controllers, the Arduino and of course the LEDs themselves. This sounds like a lot, but if I go on to Astromech, I can buy a kit pre-assembled... for $275.

Yeah.

Anyway, not my first soldering job and almost certainly not my last. So no worries there.

In the meantime, I did some more work ont he front logic frames. I printed them out, but the top one needed to be tapered a bit because of the dome shape. So I stopped by the makerspace real quick to make use of their belt sander, and had it fitting in no time. Check it out:

As you can see, they fit nicely in the inner dome, and will flush up with the blue frame just fine. Obviously I'm going to have to smooth them out a bit and paint them before mounting the actual LED grids behind them, but that's no big. Tempting though it is to leave 'em green ;)

Anyway. I need to get things measured up and nailed down properly as far as meshing the inner and outer domes. When I do that, I can secure the radar eye and use that to secure them. I should be getting static holoprojectors before too long, with any luck, as well as a rear logic display (he hasn't released those 3D models to the public yet, alas). Anyway, at this rate, I reckon I'll be done with the dome sometime in February and off and running on the body. We shall see...