New Year, New Challenges; Bring It!!!

Welcome to 2011! We're only 17 days into the year and already it's shaping up to be a fun and challenging one. Many things to report so without further delay, on with the show!

To start, my Dad was able to rent a space to setup the woodwork shop again. Its only half the size of my Grandparents garage, but it should work just fine. So once Spring comes I can jump right back into working in the shop.

This year I have some extra motivation to get more work done on R6. This May will be the very first DroidCon, a national 3-day R2 Builders gathering. It's purpose is for all members who can to be able to get together and learn from each other. Basically a geeky classroom show-and-tell. The location for this gathering of nut jobs will be Indianapolis Indiana so of course I'll be going (I live there after all).

Then in June the Mid-West Droid Builders Gathering will take place in Illinois. I plan on attending this as well if I can manage it.

Since Christmas, I've been tweaking the wiring in the body. First I installed these special high amperage connectors called Power Pole connectors. I used them for the main power to the fuse block and for the wiring going to the foot and head motors.


In this above shot, you can see the wiring for the foot motors on each side wrapping around to the other side of the shoulder supports where they will connect to the wiring that will be inside the legs. You can also see another set of wires hanging on the left side. That is for the head rotation motor.


Last week I finally received the scooter wheels I ordered. They're a bit bigger than I thought but should fit fine in the foot shell. These wheels came with brakes on them, but those are not needed so I easily removed them.


I couldn't resist hooking up the motor and testing the wheel on it.


Next up for the foot drive is buying the material to make the bracket to attach the motors and wheels to. I will need the shop to make this bracket so maybe in March I can start on that. Other goals before the DroidCon are getting the skins finished and installed, skinning the head, possibly remaking the head, and finishing the lights for the head. As far as the light go all I really have left to do is get more optical fiber for the rear Logic Display and make mounting plates for the optical fiber.

Link for the Power Pole connectors: http://www.robotmarketplace.com/products/connectors_powerpole.html

Link for the Scooter Wheels: http://www.monsterscooterparts.com/curewhasbedr.html

Later,

John