Front Skin work (Body Unit)

I spent last weekend rewiring the body.  4 of the door servos attached to the skins no problems, but the CBI didn't have the space around it, so i was forced to mount that one to the back of the CBI pan.

When the base was done, i offered up the skins to the frame and found that i would need to cut a lot of the frame to fit it.  So after a bit of a ponder i decided to move the long door servos to the top of the hinges so that the frame wouldn't need as much adjustment.

If i were starting fresh, i think that with the right arm carrier one could fit all 5 servos to the skins, with the long doors and the big door and CBI servos above the doors, and only the small door below, then the frame would only need one cut out and would be a really neat setup.

So with the body rewired again i marked and cut the frame to accommodate the other servos, and the front skins were again able to be fitted.  I also cut access to the master Arduino port. :)

That left the wiring connections.  So after a lot of thought, i added an arm to the back of the pocket vent, then glued a 2 pin servo type lead to the top of an Anderson connector and hey presto, one connection for all 4 wires. :D That is accessed via the back when the front skins are fitted, or can be pulled out for off droid testing, i even made up an extension to allow it to be used more easily when the legs are on. 

So all was looking good, by Sunday morning i was ready to test.  This new setup allows the body to be tested off droid, so servo testing was easy.  But the 8A UBEC cant cope with the Utility arm servos, especially when run with the springs.

While testing the servos i tried the servos on 6v, and they are SO much nicer, more solid, quieter and faster.  So i looked about and found myself a 15A variable buck stepdown, i will run the body servos at 6v.  I have disabled the arms for now, and have finished the rest, but will redo the servo supply when it arrives.  

But mid Sunday i wasn't feeling well so decided to stop for a bit.  3 days later i was still in bed and couldn't face R2, so i decided to wait for the weekend.  

When the weekend arrived, i recoded the body code to added the changes to the layout and add servo positions, and started testing.  A couple of wiring issues later i had the door servos, CBI, Vegas kit and charge port working well.

The body unit still needs a little TLC, but i ran out of cable ties, and i need that stepdown, so i will finish that off when i can complete it.

The frame looks so empty!  Really pleased with progress.  The droid is now much easier to run, with the dome and body being standalone testable units.  Id like to make the master unit removable, and improve MP3 and 2-3-2 disconnects from that, but that can wait for now.

While doing all this, it has made me think about the Vegas kit, it is a great effect, but the cheap kits arent great, the wiring and voulme used is rubbish.  So ive been looking about, i can fit 33 Neopixels in the LDP and redo the  Coinslots too, all to be low profile and neat and tidy.  Just the cost and removing the glue from my current setup. :(  Will save that for next year, and when i do droid 2 i will redo both kits.

But it has left me thinking.  All 3 legs could be better and easier to remove.  I am going to do a similar thing to Flipside and add a quick release to the Centre leg, that can be a Christmas job.  But im having trouble thinking of a suitable method for the outer leg release, they need to be so solid. :(  But i do have a plan to do away with the need to strip as much of the leg and allow the wires to connect automatically, so maybe better but not perfect.

I now have room for all the dome and body gadgets, and space for my docking screen.  It is a great step forward and will make future mods a lot easier.

More Rewiring Progress

More steady progress.  The droid, all apart from 2-3-2 was totally stripped of all electronics.  With the aim to look at it all a fresh and try to make it easier to use, less likely to shake stuff loose and to use spaces that are currently wasted, freeing up space for more future goodness.

I have wired up a panel that will mount to and behind the Rigrunner.  This attaches to the top ring of the frame and holds:
Rigrunner
Master Arduino with Xbee shield
Slip ring and connector board (Acting as I2C and 5v Bus for Master, 232 and MP3 Arduino)
UBEC for board 5v supply
Feet and Dome ESC
Relays for Dome and Feet
Dome Motor

It all fits great but it is more difficult to access, unless i remove the top ring.  I may revisit the access at a later date depending on the needs.  The good thing about this approach is that i can test it as a standalone unit, making sure the dome motor and the relays are under control, then add the dome and debug that, and then add the remaining units as required.

Then I returned to the dome and finished off all the cable ties and neatened it all up.  I'm really pleased, it is the best that the dome has been.  Really neat and tidy.  More than 70 cable ties for 1 dome!  I thought I was reducing the weight, not increasing it!  :D

Next up was the audio elements.  The MP3 shield has a 3.5mm stereo jack, this connects to the Ground loop isolator that uses dual RCA connections.  I was using a 30cm adaptor lead.  But i had a thought the other night, got on-line and found a right angle 3.5mm stereo jack.  When that arrived i cut the GLI wiring back, added some heat shrink and wired it up to remove all the unnecessary wiring and really neaten it up.  Very pleased with that little change, it has removed a lot of unnecessary material, and it is shiny. :D  The MP3 Arduino and Shield and the GLI have been mounted to a small styrene board and will be moved to sit behind the right side panel.  It was dead space, but using it for this will free up the front for gadgets etc.

Then i added the new variable step up converter in-line on the supply to the amp, and mounted it to the back of the Amp PCB.  I should now be able to up the voltage as required.  

Then the body.  This was becoming a problem, the more i changed the more problems i could see.  I kept coming back to the idea of mounting everything onto the skins to allow it to all be tested off droid, and to neaten all the wiring, and also get rid of those servo rods.  Eventually the front skins will have just 4 wires and everything mounted to the skins, only connections for 12v and GND and the 2 I2C lines are needed, im intending to mount Anderson connectors to the skinsnaps, so it should just click on and off. :D

I decided i was too far in to turn back and cut corners now.  So first up was how to mount pans to the skins and the servos for the doors.

I had the perfect T extrusion, i cut it to length and bent the pans to fit, making new bits from 1mm sheet where needed.  Then just used trim tape to fix it into position, should be sound.  The hinges with the 2nd hole cut off can work inside the pan, so the pans can be solid. :D  I hope it works. :D  I bodged the pans for now, more ali is ordered and i will redo them before final fit.

Turns out that a std micro servo fits with an almost identical pivot to the JAG hinges if mount directly onto the skins.  From there a simple offset to the hinge will connect them beautifully.  They will have to be glued in, but they should be sweet.  That will be fine for 4 of them, but space on the CBI door is tight, so that will be a different setup.  I only had one for messing about with, so jumped on ebay and ordered 5 metal geared high torque ones, but of very similar dimensions.  Fingers crossed they are delivered ASAP.

The body will look so empty when the skins aren't mounted. :(  But I'm really pleased with the touches that seem to be working out.  The dome attachment connector is brilliant.  One of my best ideas so far, and if I can sort the master panel removal, that will be brilliant too.  It feels like i am taking it from base prototype to a more complete version. 

Dome Tweaks and Slipring Hands Free Connector

I saw a great droid at FACTs that had 2 serial connectors (9 pin i think), on a dome cross member.  These dropped into the females on the rockler.  This had 2 main advantages.  Obviously you dont need to connect the slipring by hand, but 2nd was that the dome location is set so the wiring can be better controlled.

So i had a look at my setup while i had him apart again.  After a bit of a think, and a play with a template to find the sizing and position, i decided to go for it.  I cut a small section from the dome baseplate, to allow a fixed point to be added to the rockler.  Then made an arm to carry the slip ring wire and keep it well positioned, i then fixed this to the rockler  Next i used some M4 hardware to mount the Slip ring end of the serial port connection to the arm, ready to take the PCB.

This seemed sweet, the PCB would just sit on the Derlin ring, but the connection was stiff and wouldn't quite sit right.  So removed the male surround from the pcb side and opened it up as best i could, then removed some of the side material to clear the M4 button heads and opened it a little more.  Eventually the PCB would slip on and off with minimal force, and sat tight to the connector.

Then made an Ali bracket and mounted the PCB properly to the Derlin ring.  It works really well, with the actual dome on it drops on really easily, the 3 long studs align the dome, and the arm slots in to the hole in the baseplate and connects the dome to the body.

This is going to make a big difference to the running of the droid. 

While i was doing that bit it seemed logical to rewire the UBEC.  To keep it neat and simple, i removed the metre and switch.  Then had a look at the wiring for the Adafruit, Relays and Servo/HP Arduino.  Im pretty chuffed with the results so far.  I have run out of cable ties, so will have to finish another time.  But it is a much nicer looking set-up for the changes so far.  I just hope it works, it is almost what was wired up last time, so should be ok,

I will glue the dome to the ring eventually, but will do the lifters and stuff first, so gaffa tape will hold it, on just in case, for now.

The battery was posted to Deban on Tuesday and is already on it's way back to me after it's check up. :)  Great customer service.  I also ordered a couple more T-Bars, i think mine is dodgy, and id like to be able to use the battery in either droid when Droid 2 gets a look in.

Body is still in bits, but i have a few plans for that too and im waiting for components.  But MP3 and GLI are moved and will be rewired.  Body unit wiring will need consideration, but im hoping to make things more accessible and use some dead space while freeing up more room for the gadgets.

James via a chat with Roger mentioned a new concept for connecting the legs, if that works this will be a very different droid to take apart and assemble.   Deffo looking in to that one, real potential and not seen it done before. 

Still cant quite believe im redoing and undoing a lot of the work i had just finished.  But it is all in the name of a better droid long term and testing a few more concepts and set-ups.  Too late to turn back now. 

I2C Issues Fixed and Dome rewired

Man what a long weekend!  Painful.

I thought id fixed the I2C issues, so i started a little rewiring.

I  tried to rewire the Adafruit to bypass the power on the board and use a direct supply for each relay supply, and swap from the dome 5v supply to all run on the 12v main battery.

Only to find that the Adafruit Servo driver wouldn't boot. Could I work out why?  No!  I didn't think about the library at first!  :(  So i tried to fix that and rewire at the same time, i tried all sorts.  :(  Eventually i found the issues, partly the library, partly bad connections.  Sorted them and rewired the dome using a UBEC (3a with 5A peak) to power the whole dome. Then i had crashing on the Adafruit.  Nightmare.

Also a few power issues initially, one servo not moving well and intermittent issues, so i added a capacitor to the supply and that helped sort some of the problems.  But the crashing was still happening.

After a lot of head scratching, and trying lots with the library to fix it, i realized what was happening.  The crashes were only after or part way through commands sent from the master, so the issue was passing I2C from the body.  The I2C was loosing the network and freezing the adafruit.  I had forgotten to tie the GND to the 12v into the dome, with all the problems i had overlooked it, with that re-added it is spot on. :D  So i went back to the library and reverted to an earlier attempt at the library fix.

Basically, lesson learned.  Test and fix one bug at a time, but make sure you test it fully!

The fix for the I2C was too severe initially, i needed a longer time out.  My new TWI.c file is great.  The master and ESC control is constant regardless of what happens on the I2C network, and the Adafruit works seamlessly.  :D  I will finish my rewire and run it for a week or so and post when im happy.

But the dome is now running powered by the main battery, so I have lost a lot of weight in the dome and managed to drop the dome battery.  All for £6 of ubec. :D  Here you can see my daughter boards for the power and mu UBEC fitted:

Body rewire next.  Im still not sure im doing the best thing, but im learning as i go, so having tried both i can make an informed decision.

FACTS Fallout - MAJOR I2C Arduino Issue

If you use any I2C Arduino based elements in your droid please read on.  The way the default Arduino Wire library works may cause significant issues if power is lost to any end unit. 

FACTS was a great weekend.  Loved it.  But R2 had a few issues, and James' B4 had a few too.

Before lunch on day one, my dome battery came lose and pulled a ton of wires out.  But no harm done, re connected and added more support for the battery.  He seemed fine after that for the rest of Saturday and Sunday morning.

At one point James' droid drove on without any control!  First time id seen it do that with the master powered and relays fitted.  He said it was when the dome battery died on him.  Not something i had expected, and not what id seen in testing, but im not sure i had tested that order of issues/events. But this had to be taken very seriously and investigated ASAP.

When i got back i got straight on the case to solve it.  Testing it showed that if you boot up, then pull the power on any I2C unit, then drive dome or feet and while driving, trigger any script call, the master has then either crashed or is frozen and cant stop the ESCs.

After some analysis I found that if any device on the I2C network looses power that will freeze the master on the next I2C send.  Meaning that if driving when you trigger, it will carry on driving!!!!!  Any unit failing, or any lose wires could cause it.  Not good.  

Was this a general I2C issue?

I looked on-line for solutions and to see if i could find any others with similar issues.  All i found was Mosfet and Isolator options and level shifters, that would have added a lot of complexity to the setup, and not been ideal for my problem.  After 2 nights of research i finally bit the bullet and ordered some MOSFETs.  

But then i had a brain wave!  What if the issues were possibly code related, and could be tweaked to fix it, or at least make it safe if there is an issue.  So researching from a different start point it soon became clear that the default 'Wire' library has some pretty major issues and would wait forever for the communication to complete if there was a problem.

So i tried to use a couple of custom alternative libraries.  No joy, they wouldn't work with the higher level I2CEasyTransfer library from Bill Porter.  So i had a good read of the library files of the alternatives, and did a bit more reading.  Eventually i found that i could edit the default library, adding timeouts to stop the freezing.  All i did was to edit the 'TWI.ccp' file and add a few counters to return a 0 if the timers' max was reached to break the while loops that kept it locked.

Looks like it is sorted.  Pull the power on any I2C item and the master will not freeze on script call, so the Feet and Dome can still be controlled no matter what happens.  The network still stalls, and the first script you send is actioned if you reconnect power, but that is no bother as you will likely turn the droid off before trying to fix the issue.

I then looked at my big issue.  Starting late Sunday morning, every time i had triggered a big script the body unit would reset, and cause other niggles, pause the I2C network and was really got on my nerves!  I assumed something relating to a low 12v battery maybe? After some mucking about, i found that it was only when the Utility Arms moved that it crashed.  So i unplugged them and he seemed fine.  

The resetting of the Arduino was the puzzler, the voltage for the servos should be from the Stepdown, so them moving shouldn't have caused that issue, especially not mid move.  So i checked a few voltages and found that the 12v body DC/DC supply was reading as 8v in and 5v out, odd.  So i went round the back and there is a big red light on one of the fuses on the rigrunner!  Muppet.  Blown fuse and I guess leaking current from the pwm pins leaking trough the servos making it almost work!  Easy fix, but may look at isolating the servo power more efficiently eventually.

So R2 is working well.  But.......

While researching i kept seeing that the max output power from an Arduino as 500mA.  Knowing that the Master is now powering those big relays, it must be getting close, i will try adding a 2nd feed for the relays and retest to make sure it works as before, but leaving the draw through the master much lower.

I also found that R2 wasnt quite loud enough at FACTs, only a little, but he needed more volume.  So i have ordered a variable step up converter for the amp supply, a little more voltage should help. :D

Im debating moving to UBEC supplies for the 5v and dropping the 5v batteries and other stepdowns.  I did last 2 days on the 12v but not on the 5v ones, so it seems pointless to fight it.  I might add an alternate dome battery that i can switch to, i like the dome to be able to run alone, for when i eventually do other domes. But it might help simplify the setup theory.

Should be a safer system all round now.  Thanks to another couple of real world system issues showing themselves, and figured out, really pleased those are sorted.  I still cant believe it was that easy to address, i suppose i got lucky.  The I2C error hasn't shown it'self before in 2 years on 2 droids, but still great to see and sort it without an incident. 

 I will finish applying and testing these fixes and i have an event on the 16th, so i can do a proper test.  If it passes i will update the doc and code.

Upgrading to 2.1 from 2.0

Upgrading from 2.0 to 2.1 should be easy, and is highly recommended.  Just replace all the mp3 files (overwrite them to make sure) and upload all the new sketches for the units you have.  Obviously swapping for your servo spots, speeds etc.

Download was updated today, it is syncing now, so check that the Master in the download is 2.1 version 4 not 3.  But I may update this week if i make any more changes.  Im playing with him till Thursday, so maybe wise to wait till then for the latest.  Link in the blog page, top right.

I have added a few things worth noting:
1.  60s after last pad interaction (stick move or script call) the feet relays turn off. Start to turn back on.
2.  Circle is now only the short scream not a random group, it also turns off LDP and Coin slot LEDs.
3.  11 More random sounds, plus the Leia snip repeated 4 time so it is more likley to be run.
4.  Music Album has been replaced.
5.  New dances and Dance bases added, and new elements added to old sketches.
6.  Fixed bugs with both dome pot and other things.
7.  Magic panel and DBC code in and tested for triggering via I2C.  DBC button triggering to follow.
8.  New Teeces sketch, this varies the timing and number of leds used.

Door relay wiring should be the same as the doc, if not swap the output of the relay, i got a bit lost on this one, unsure what was me and what was right.

Dome pot was changed to better cope with a stiffer drive.  If this causes issues i will rewrite it to make changing those values easier.

Any problems let me know. :D

PLEASE NOTE:  If using 2.0 Do NOT trigger the Luke message while driving.  It hasn't happened to me or James in over a year, but better to know about it.  The wrong delay type is used and so it may just continue to drive off for 20s.  This is fixed in 2.1.  Sorry.

I will redo the doc after FACTs.

BHD2.1 Update and More Dancing

I finally got to do the news scripts. :D  Slow progress, but the body was a dream, that new wiring is amazing. :)  Dome is still hard work.

I started by looking at what i wanted to achive and the audio i had.  I had 11 clips i wanted to add as extra random sounds.  Several very cool R2 mashups from Trooper Trent on .net, and i was on a mission.  James came over and we started cutting the tunes to make shorter dances,  I also PM'd R2-X2 and borrowed his Addams Family mp3.  Superb stuff. thanks Dudes.  The Gangnam Style audio was easy because we used the start, but the some of the others wouldnt work.  So i decided just to trigger the Vegas and the Audio, then added to the Scream call to stop the Vegas as well as the track.  So at any point you can scream and stop on some.

These were the eventual additions:

Happy Birthday (2 versions), Jingle Bells and Leia snip ('Help me Obi-Wan Kenobie, you;re my only hope' quote, this one is also added as a random) is just the audio call.

Staying Alive, Mahna Mahna, Wookie and R2 Christmas and Gangnam long use the Start and Scream trick, with Gangnam Long also starting with the Gangnam Sort door dance.

The big all singing all dancing additions are the Muppets short, Addams Family, Gangnam style (both short and long start the same, but long doesnt do the dome motion).

Should be more fun with various options instead of just the good old Cantina.

First vis is the Gangnam short, with no input from me, with 2nd half being the Staying alive and me controlling the dome and doors:

This one is the Muppets and Addams Family, R2 and Wookie Christmas:

I would give it a week for me to test and upload fixes to be sure, but seems great, so the code is now on my drive, the link its to the right at the top of the blog page.  This will all run on the BHD2.0 wiring, it is just code and maybe a few tweaks to the relay setup, but im not sure that wasnt due to me wiring it wrong to start, i looks the same as the doc to me. :D

That said, after facts i will update the doc and add the new stuff and features.

He Lives, again. :)

I posted this elsewhere too, so please forgive the copy/paste. :D

The refurbishment/upgrades spell is done for the moment. It has been fun, lots learnt, lots of tinkering and touches I’m pleased with. Took a while to come good, but really feeling like a complete droid now.

I have finally done/added/tested and tweaked the following.

1. Magic Panel, used on lots of calls.
2. Dome Bump Controller – Running rear PSI. This is not currently connected for commands from buttons, but is on I2C for PSI control.
3. Replaced dome servo Mega Arduino, with a Nano and shield
4. New Teeces code that varies the effect
5. Relays for Utility arms, Door Servos, Feet and Dome drive
6. Current and Voltage metres for Body and Dome 5v batteries
7. USB breakout port for Body Arduino programming and rewiring
8. USB charge port connected up and able to charge PS3 pads
9. Dome power switch
10. Connected the 5 body door servos and redid Utility arm setup.
11. Moved volume knob to the front Octo Port
12. Reconditioned and checked over the 2-3-2 system (still not 100% happy, but working OK)
13. Replaced the missing Battery Boxes, Hoses strips and KHFs
14. Removed and replaced all dome doors
15. Fixed all loose door trims and a general service

Just need the Battery Harnesses and he is pretty much done externally and doors etc. Still got the gadgets to go. 

Here is a video of my progress, showing the new bits and them working with the combo scripts. I do love that magic panel, such a cool little thing, shame it’s not that clear in the vid.

TLC and Feet Hoses

I cant believe I hadn't spotted it before now, but the HPs were connected to the wrong points, so they weren't flashing and moving at the same time.  An easy fix. :D

Battery (or one of the options) arrived today, so popped that in place.  So much better.  The battery turns on with current draw.  Meaning the switch is now in control. :D  No more fishing for the battery button.

Long term, if I can improve the slip ring connection and position/configuration then the dome will be great to use and remove when needed.  Only downside will be the need for a new slip-ring on each new dome.

Next up were the hoses.  I had to strip the feet to do this job as the drive train gets in the way.  Same way as before, 10mm rawl plugs inserted into the back of the KHF to retain the hose.  But the cave makes these jobs so much easier.  Less than 2 hours for both sets. :D  Still need battery harnesses, must keep an eye open for the next run. 

So that is him done.  Ready for final assembly tomorrow night, and the last bit of testing.  Then i can relax and tinker with the code and drive him all weekend long. :D  Feeling much better about him today, I glued up a few of the lose door trims and tweaked a few servo spots and revisited the way the dome sits, it all feels much better now.

Expect an update vid of the whole thing over the weekend.

I forgot about the DBC control!  The PSI triggers fine, and the buttons do the colours, but the signal lines aren't connected.  Too late to test that now, enough is enough.  Will wait on that one. :D

Tweaks and Teeces Redo

I got the skins back on after the strip and was pleased to find the Servo positions were still fine. :)  So one less job to do. :D

The Meter looks great and the USB programming port still works fine.

So all back together, busy tweaking timings and uploading code while testing, and I spotted a few key things.

1.  The dome gear change has caused all sorts of issues with the dome pot code.

2.  The relay for the dome didn't have any effect.  Not good.

3.  The relays for the feet draw approx 0.3A for the pair, and only about 0.06A for the dome relay. I am glad I went to so much effort on the 2-3-2 relays to get them off in 3 leg mode. :D

4.  I seem to be having a few random 12v battery connection issues, the T-Bar wont connect perfectly every time.  I will send this back with the battery when it gets serviced.  Once properly connected it seems fine.

Starting with the dome pot.  It now needs more speed to turn at all, so it isn't as accurate due to having to decrease the sensitivity and adjust the speeds and distances at which it changes speed.  I will see if it runs in, but currently I think it very likely I will go back to the A&A plastic gear eventually.  But I tweaked the code to compensate and it seems OK, but not quite as spot on as before.

Then the dome drive relay. :(  Note to self:  If you tie the GND of all sorts, don't try and add a switch on a GND line!  Syren 10 was in an nasty spot under the 2-3-2, so I tried to cheat and cut the GND with a relay.  That doesn't work due to the signal GND.  Muppet.  Don't cheat, do it right.  So I rewired the dome drive and the relay, it is a horrible fix, I will most likely look at this again when I redo the 2-3-2 wiring and code.  I simply ran an extension of one motor leads to the relay and then back to the syren, ugly, but it works.

Then I added the timeout in the code for the feet relays, when on, 60s after any dome or drive stick move, or any script call sent, they now turn off. :D  That should add a few hours runtime on the 5v. :D

All tested and working fine, I wont say I'm 100% happy yet, it could do with more fiddling, but 'good enough for this job' as they say.

While I was thinking of code, I realized I had uploaded a Teeces version I had only bench tested. :D  It varies the speed and number of LEDs so it looks more like a true processor or memory state, I love it, just makes it that little bit more organic.  Also the PSIs only sweep, but from either direction.  Just a little cleaner.  Here is a vid.  I hate trying to film LEDs, this is the best I could do, sweep is much better in person, but you will get the idea. :D

With regard to physical electronics, it is just the feet left to test.  :D  And id love to add those new scripts and sounds.  9 days to go, 2 being weekend days.  Must get at least 2 evenings driving in before letting him lose too.  It can be done, but I'm starting to run out of momentum now.  I'm sure I will still end up working on him till late the night before!  But feet next, after one last reassembly and test of the body.

10000 Views and more upgrades

Well it seems fitting that the rebuild is still going strong as we pass the 10,000 mark on the blog.

Carrying on from the door servos, next I looked at the dome drive pot setup, to make sure the position control was working on all calls.  I found an issue with the dome drive positioning script calls, not dome random, but just the user based calls.  I had disabled them!  So sorted that in the code and got all the dome pot stuff working well adjusting timings etc.

I've noticed the delay in transmission since moving back from my PS3 test code.   I had a similar thing on the PS3 stuff, so I know it can be addressed. I will have to redo the Master base for that upgrade, so I will fix that then.  This is still fine to control him, but I'm now sure it can be improved for more response, even with the accelerations.

Then I redid the body door relay wiring and sorted the code to stop the boot twitch.  Works beautifully, I also adjusted the timings of the relays, it is only on for a fraction longer than the servo needs and so the droid hardly buzzes even tho the servos are a little too closed to pull the doors up.

It has highlighted the need to add a 'close all doors' call, because when opened by hand when not powered, you currently cant close the doors, because the droid thinks they are closed already. :(

So that was the body done, retested and working well.  Dome time.  Popped it on, Powered it all up, only the Magic Panel worked on I2C.....odd.  DBC had the I2C wires on the wrong way, 1 sorted.  Teeces looked fine. so left that and looked at the Servo Unit, after a bit of research I found I had used the wrong Nano pins for I2C.  After a rewire of the shield to add the right long pins, the servos and the Teeces triggered fine.  So looking back at it all and admiring, I spotted the front HP was dead. :(  After some debugging it was a bad lead, so I added new terminals and that was it. All the physical elements, apart form the feet and legs done.  Sort of.

Dome is now fully tested via I2C, all new and old elements working well, body fully tested with all the servos, vegas kit and dome pot triggering sorted, 2-3-2 tested and serviced. Magic panel and DBC trigger perfectly via I2C.

I then tweaked all the scripts, got the timings sorted and generally played with the current combo calls adding the new elements.  Edited a couple of dome servo spots and decided that was enough of the old.  The new dance scripts were next. This is a WIP vid of some of the early combo timings:

Body Ammeter and Voltage Display:

But again I got side tracked.  The more items I add to these 5v Lipo batteries, the more I am amazed at what they can run.  So I was interested to see how much 5v current the setup is using.  I got online and found some Voltage/Current meters, nice little LED ones, only £4 each. :D  They arrived on Thursday, and i couldn't resist playing.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390799784629?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&var=660222083208&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

First I rigged up a little breakout board, this takes a USB in and out, and powers and feeds the meters.  D  Eventually after some fiddling and a few broken leads, I had the device reading voltage and current, and tested it on the R-Series rear logic, using the brightness pot on the back I could go from nearly 0.9A to 0.1A, but it seemed about right on 0.3A to me.  But concept proven. :)

So i then stripped R2 again, removed my rewired panel and started pondering. :D  By rotating the bus/bridge there was enough room, but where was best?  Looking at the holes i already had and the current locations, i decided simple was best and added it to the centre of the panel and added the bus below. 

I wanted to make a diagram for the doc while it was fresh in my mind.  Below is the layout of my USB power and programming setup with the display meters, well this is what I would have done, mine differs slightly:

I tested the body battery draw before installing the meter, the body runs at less than 0.4A most of the time with peaks at approx 0.8A when going bonkers. :D  The dome seems similar, 0.25-0.35A with peaks of about 0.9A.  Voltage runs a little lower than id thought, but all seems to be running well, so who cares. :D  The PS3 pad draws 0.33A with a 0.5A jump on connection, phone draws less than 0.2A, so I think I could possibly get away with feeding the dome supply through the slip ring and removing the dome battery.  But not yet, this works, and halves the draw on the batteries, and lets the dome run stand alone.

Dome Gear:

Dome gear arrived, James made a start on it for me, thanks dude.  It is very thin, only 1/8", but nicely cut, with a little tidy it looks the business.  The way I mount my gear and rockler is different, I mount the gear to the bottom, not to the top, as a result it needs approx 2mm off the radius to fit.  Took a few hours, but trimmed back fitted it and got the rockler spinning well. 

The A&A gear was really smooth and a great profile, it was very tolerant to positioning.  With the new gear, both the A&A head and the Ali head's teeth were hitting the main ring teeth not catching them.  The original motor location was too far out for this cog, so I remounted it about 4mm closer to the gear and tried again, position is great, less than 1mm offset so there is almost no slop, but still the Ali ran really rough, and the A&A was a little sticky.  :(  I want the ali one to work, it looks better, so I persisted.

I ended up shortening and reshaping the A&A gear head piece, it now runs pretty well.  I'm going to run it in and see how I feel, it may smooth down with use,  I haven't powered it up as yet, or refitted the front skins, so fingers crossed.

Body Ammeter and Voltage Display:

So while I'm getting side tracked I may as well have a quick look at the dome meters. :D  Same plan as the body, but just power at this stage, not the serial lines.  I made up a 2nd Display breakout, and had a bit of a ponder.  I wanted to be able to see it if working in the dome, but also wanted to be able to see it when he was running.  I decided to mount it at an angle in the silver door to achieve that.  I cut and bent a strip of 1mm ali, shaped the feet, and stuck it to the dome.  Then I thought about how I hate fishing in the dome to turn it off, so I wanted to add the switch again, it was useful.  If I did that and got a power sensing battery (my last ones are pants and not their stated capacity), I could then turn the dome on and off externally. :D

So with that decided, I had a think about the dome battery location, currently it sits on the base plate, but that is a pain because all the electronics are on the dome itself.  The rejig in the dome had unknowingly revealed the perfect spot.  I will order a new battery that will turn on with draw, for now this works, but is on via the button on the pack.

So just need to reassemble the body, finish the feet, do those new combo scripts and I'm pretty much done on the current refurb.  2-3-2, Master and Pad will be the next big set, but that can wait for now. :D  I will post a vid of the revamped R2 when he is rolling and the new scripts are done.

I would love to remount the slip ring the other way up and swap the pot to the dome and wiper to the body, but that seems like a lot to go wrong with less than 2 weeks to FACTs.

Body Doors Working

This is wearing thin at times, everything is a hurdle!  Getting there, but slowly.

The servos put up a fight.  First off the servos wouldn't power up.  I checked all the wiring, tried the relays both ways, checked the step down converter all sorts, fixed a few things that weren't broken, then found a lose connection. :D

So servos working, now time to find the positions.  Powered up, found the top utility arm spots, left it open to be able to open the other the same amount and while mucking about with the bottom one about 7-8mins later the top one gave a twitch and gave up. :(  Fighting that spring for too long isnt good by the look of it.

Bottoms!  I was just about to give up for the night when i had a thought, dug through my stash and found a spare servo, a perfect match for the broken one.  That never happens. :D  So it was broken for all of 10 mins. :D

Tested the uploading and powering from front and back and all works seamlessly.  Popped the body code back in, booted up and spotted a silly mistake.  I had wired the relays the opposite way, and allowed for it in the code, so the relays dont stop the boot twitch as they do on the dome.  That is tomorrow's job!

But 5 body doors and the redone Utility arms, now all on relays so they can be opened by hand.  This has been a job i have had on the cards for maybe a couple of years, the servos have been in the body and moving for over a year!  So nice to have it done.

Edit:  Not worth a proper update, but scripts edited, dome position call issue fixed.  New scripts to follow. :D

Arduino Hook Up Concept + PS3 Pad Charging via Droid

I powered up the dome and found I'd made a rookie error on the Nano shield, sorted that and finished off the code for the magic panel and DBC.  Powered it up and had a play with the rear PSI colour via the buttons, and setting off DBC combo triggers.  But the magic panel just sat there, powered and working, but no sign of anything special. :(  I had to sort that, so I added quite a subtle a little random flash spell in every 20-40s (after last button press, and timing in the video is different).  It's looking good, assuming the I2C triggering isn't an issue the dome is looking great.

So with the dome now working well off droid, I would need the body working for the next stage of testing.

I had James over last night, he kindly attacked my droid with a scotch bright pad between jobs, it's looking better than ever. :)  Pic at the end. :D  Spoilers. ;)

I decided that we would do the servo positions first.  So new remounted the new 5v body battery, powered the body up, and the battery cut out.  There was a short. :(

After a lot of mucking about and debugging I found the issue; rather embarrassingly it was the shield on the body unit, it had been mounted wrong.  So now working and making noises, I finally had chance to test the volume knob, IT WORKS!!!  So pleased with that little change. :D

So the body was now powering up, but my thoughts turned to how I would upload the code and not have to strip the droid to change cables the next time I need to move the body servo spots  After a lot of head scratching and chatting with James, we had come up with a very cunning plan, bit by bit.  The USB lead is just 4 wires, so if they were broken out somewhere, then they could possibly be connected to the PC instead.  So I made a lead, snipped a USB lead, and added 2 4 way connectors, one male one female and connected an Arduino to the PC and it worked as normal. :D

So with the ability to jack into a lead, what I needed was an easy way to sort all the coding issues, and power all the units from one source, but swap between Arduino serial ports for coding.

The lead from the battery is USB, so that would be one PC connection method, but I wasn't using the Charging ports in the door below the CBI and they were never going to get used.  This seemed like too good a chance to miss.  I converted the top Charge port to a Power and serial USB port, fed that to a manual bridge to allow me to swap between that feed and the 5v battery and so I had choice of supplies.  I had a nice Up/Down USB connector, to do so I flipped the port 180, so officially the USB input is the wrong way up, but it was a nice short wire.

Then I needed to be able to select the Arduino for the serial.  I added a run of double header ports, the first 3 connected as TX and RX rails.  This was fed from the bridge.  Then I added sets of 4 pins for the units.  I then tied the 5v and GND rails to distribute the 5v power.   I only added 5v + GND for the Master, as the xBee has to come off, but i might look into that if this works as well as i hope it will,  So using a jumper piece I can now select between 3 Arduino from 2 locations.   The serial works well on all from all. :D

I then saw the CBI charge output, I hadn't been hooking this up recently, but it would be useful, and thinking about the upgrades, would be great if it charged the PS3 pads as well as any dumb 5v device. So I added 2 more header pins to the bus power rails to power the charge port.  The PCB of the Duracell PS3 charger has little connectors, I removed one and added some pins and ran that to the charge port via USB.  Im pretty sure the PCB will limit the current to .5A per port, so that should help with possible over drain issues connecting hungry devices.

So here it is, from the bottom up is the Selector+Bus/Bridge board, Then USB in port, then PS3 pad charge PCB. Then USB Output port and CBI PCB.

The Bridge is the upper spot for the Port, and the lower for the Battery.  And the Selector is Bottom for Body, Middle for 2-3-2, and Top for MP3.  I will add something to cover the exposed points.

So this is the rewired PS3 pad charging CBI port and USB breakout Input/Output panel. :D

And here is the cleaned up naked body.   Cheers James. :D

So major progress.  No more fishing in the droid to upload code, Hope this makes life a lot easier.  The servo spots are next. :D  But I now know the droid powers up and talks to the PC, and the dome seems fine, so I'm hoping for a smooth run to the finish. We can dream.

R2 print by WIZ

Christmas came early today.  Wiz AKA Paul Johnson AKA PaulJWIZ, call him what you will, this boy has some serious talent.  Has just sent me a copy of his new print.  It is fab, really stunning.  I'm so in love I'm almost tempted to paint R2-BHD.  Thanks dude, love it.