Day 1 (4th August 2015)
So after throwing around a few ideas for a new project to sink my teeth in to, I decided to go ahead and do my own version of an Astromech Droid, rather an Astromech "Smartdroid". With K-9 being one of my all time favourite on-screen robots, R2-D2 was (and still is) just as much of an all time favourite of mine so building one of my own droids is a logical step for me. As my other robot showcases where posted when the majority of the work was done, this will be a build diary of sorts, with updates throughout the build.
So wanting to get back to building, I had a few ideas floating around for my next BIG project and the thought about doing an R2 style robot came up a few times in the past (the blueprints I drew up that I've posted are 3 years old and was for an R/C version), and after encountering a few design issues for a large custom robot (which I will get back to one day), it was @Robot56's fantastic Astromech Droid project that was the final push for me to decide what direction I should go. There are so many great scale replica Astromech builds around that people have done, but much like my K-9 2.0 build, I want to stay away from doing an exact prop replica build and do a custom build with custom paint job (as seen in the blueprints) while still keeping with the overall original design.
So what's with the name E4-B4 (Eiifor-Befour)? Well its kinda based on the EZ-B 4, of which this little'ish guy will have two of them. One master v4 to control motor controllers, ping sensors, v4 soundboard, camera and sensors, while the 2nd slave v4 will be used for all of the servos used as well as additional sensors. E4 will be mainly built using MDF with a plastic covering, and movement will be powered by 12v 30 watt gearbox/motors for the drive system. The "burtt acoustic signaller" and system ventilation vents on R2-D2's chest area (the two silver square'ish panels) will be replaced on E4 with a tablet PC, and the Optical Holographic Projector in R2's head will be something similar to what E4 will have, using a portable projector like the Aiptek or the Pico Genie, so no holograms... yet.
The dimensions will be slightly smaller than the original prob, but not by much so E4 will be plenty big enough. I'm intending to fit a few useful tools that he will be able to deploy, and of course have the fully rotating head which will have all kinds of bells and whistles. I have some of the MDF sheets and 2x4 wood lengths for the frame already, and the motors and head dome (lampshade) should be with me sometime this week, so it will be power tools at the ready. I'm in no rush to finish this project, but I am aiming to have E4-B4 pretty much finished by this December.
I will posting lots of photos and few videos throughout the build process, so I hope anyone reading will find this build dairy interesting and enjoyable. And as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions (especially on the colour scheme). Anyway thanks for reading, and let the build begin...
Steve.
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@Ron.
He sure will
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@David.
Wow, in pleased I could help in that regard. I know you've got a lot going on, and I know for sure that you will iron out the issues you're having and end up with a fantastic product. And I want to thank you for the email about the speech rec recommendation. It works great.
Take it easy my friend and have a good rest. You being healthy is more important than anything else.
Cylon Centenarian! YES! You gotta do that robot next! That would be AWESOME!
I continue to be blown away with this creation. It's going to be hard to top. By anyone. My vote for next robot would be for a Johnny-5 or a Wall-E. Full size, of course.
Then there is the C-3PO. He could be there simply to translate for E4. That would be great, but that walking thing is really hard to make work, so it's probably not practical. OTOH, a C-3PO costume would be great for occasions when you show E4 off at some convention. The two of you could make a smashing team.
@WBS.
Again, thank you for your kind words. I'm continently greatful for your positive comments about my build. Yeah, I can just see SQUEEZING in to a 3PO suit, lol. Nice idea though.
Really though, I'm not really planning on another build just yet (although there's a couple of ideas floating around my head), but when the time is right, and my bank balance, I may go for a more unique build of my own design rather than going for a Sci-fi bot. I deffinatly won't be doing a half or full size biped build... that's way beyond my scope right now.
I would like to stay away from using wood next time. I love working with it, and as you know, it makes great sturdy frames and is easy to work with, but it's takes up room and gets heavy the more is added to a build. So I would like to work with something else that's equally strong and easy to work with. But that for next year... possibly.
Hi Steve, A couple of questions for you. I'm wondering what projection camera you used and what video editor are you using to do your great videos?
Once again nice robot!
@Bob.
The projector is a "Miroir MP-60" connected via HDMI to the Acer W3. The Acer has a neat setting where you can choose if you want the screen to automatically switch to landscape when the projector is powered on.
So the way I have it set up, ARC is displayed in portrait mode. If I want a movie played, a script is run to move a micro servo that will switch the projector on that in turn reorientates the screen to landscape, a short Sleep() runs while the projector powers up, then the movie will play in landscape.
When the movie is finished (using a speech rec command or a sleep() for the length of the clip), the servo turns the projector off that again, that in turn reorientates the tablets screen back to portrait. It's a pretty neat option.
As for the videos, they are filmed on an iPhone, and the title pages I either do with a picture editor, and/or use a few iOS intro designer apps. The editor itself believe or not, is plain ol' Windows movie maker. I've used it for ages so I know how far I can push it's limits. I should really upgrade to something else with more features, but it does what I need it to for now. It can be temperamental at times as I film everything on my iPhone, and every now and then WMV will say that certain .MOV files are corrupt. A quick restart, and all is well again. I also have iMovie installed on my iPhone which is handy for throwing together and cleaning up smaller videos on the fly.
Hope that helps, Bob.
Just a quick FYI. The free version of Videopad (http://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/index.html) is pretty good with a number of transition effects, plus video on video overlay capabilities. Also multi-track audio mixer built in. I'm not certain it's still free though, having just looked at the site.
Also, some of the video stuff I do is creating swf files. I translate them to avi using the free version of Recool SWF to Video Converter (http://www.swf-video.com/swf-video-converter/index.html) I then use Videopad to put everything together. Like this example: https://vimeo.com/71411621 The sound is somewhat low on here, so you may have to crank up your volume control.
Thanks for the info, guys.