Farscape DRDs.
- Thread starter jason1976
- Start date
jackdoud
Sr Member
There was only one kit ever made, by MiM, and it was subsequently recast by Golden Armor. It's not very accurate and definitely too small.
If you want dimensions you'll have to work out your own from reference. I have a ton of screencaps and photos, some of them are posted here: DRD pictures by jackdoud - Photobucket
I've always planned to make one someday but it's still a future project.
Ok, so I actually looked it up, and a Roomba heavy duty "Dirt Dog" model is actually under $200, and there's the same units on sale on ebay for about $180 after shipping.
Which means someone here could buy a basic robot core that trundles around and sweeps up (this unit doesn't use a vacuum, it uses counter-rotating brushes so it's not meant for carpets, it's designed for shops and garages) and use that to build a actual maintenance DRD that even wanders off and recharges itself at it's docking station.
All they need to do is build a vacuformed shell, maybe reposition some sensors so it is "artificially aware" of it's new shape and add all the fun doodads.
And by someone i hopefully mean "eventually me". Because i still totally want to do this.
Which means someone here could buy a basic robot core that trundles around and sweeps up (this unit doesn't use a vacuum, it uses counter-rotating brushes so it's not meant for carpets, it's designed for shops and garages) and use that to build a actual maintenance DRD that even wanders off and recharges itself at it's docking station.
All they need to do is build a vacuformed shell, maybe reposition some sensors so it is "artificially aware" of it's new shape and add all the fun doodads.
And by someone i hopefully mean "eventually me". Because i still totally want to do this.
Well, I was going to point out how heavy the current kit's are, but then I saw where you talked about a vacuum formed shell, and that would work. 
I wanted to put a remote controlled car in my kit, but I think the kit is way too heavy. I'm a member of the Imperial Mouse Droid Yahoo group (another little droid I hope to build one of these days.) And even though their kit's are often vacuum formed, the are always complaining how those droid eat up, the battery power, in the remote control cars they put in their kits. (I mean some of them have to recharge their droid like crazy. )
I have always like the Roomba idea, but it's still way out of my price range. If I could get a vacuum formed DRD shell, I think I might pick up another one of those crazy, glitchy, "interactive" R2-D2 toys, and try that. It would be a lot cheaper then a roomba, and it would be just as glitchy, and crazy as a real DRD.
I wanted to put a remote controlled car in my kit, but I think the kit is way too heavy. I'm a member of the Imperial Mouse Droid Yahoo group (another little droid I hope to build one of these days.) And even though their kit's are often vacuum formed, the are always complaining how those droid eat up, the battery power, in the remote control cars they put in their kits. (I mean some of them have to recharge their droid like crazy. )
I have always like the Roomba idea, but it's still way out of my price range. If I could get a vacuum formed DRD shell, I think I might pick up another one of those crazy, glitchy, "interactive" R2-D2 toys, and try that. It would be a lot cheaper then a roomba, and it would be just as glitchy, and crazy as a real DRD.
Well, since you have a kit, you could always use that as an excuse to build yourself a vacu-forming table and make your own shell directly cast off your kit.
Or, if the kit's just too small, figure out the correct size and then use the kit as a guide to carve your own at the right size out of insulation foam or something along those lines.
If that works out, then you can either vacuform that sculpt, or you can bondo or fiberglass it (fiberglass works on insulation foam without melting it, right? Hmm, better check that.) and then carve out the foam from the inside.
You can do it!
Or, if the kit's just too small, figure out the correct size and then use the kit as a guide to carve your own at the right size out of insulation foam or something along those lines.
If that works out, then you can either vacuform that sculpt, or you can bondo or fiberglass it (fiberglass works on insulation foam without melting it, right? Hmm, better check that.) and then carve out the foam from the inside.
You can do it!
Those are all good ideas. But I personally wont be doing any of them.
I got this this kit when I started this thread (like 2, years ago) And I have yet to finish it.
The size look good to me, but I have had to do a lot of work to make it more accurate, and I still have a ways to go on it. I'll just bee happy to get-r-done. :lol
And as for vacuum forming, I would LOVE to have my own table, as I'm kind of all alone prop wise where I live, and have a lot of stuff I would like to vacuum formed. (including a small arm of DRDs.) Unfortunately, I live in a little, TINY, 1 bedroom apartment, that is filled to the gills with stuff. (collectable's. ) I have no room at all for any kind of vac table, and even if by some miracle I could find a place, I'm sure it would be against a number of rules, to have a large, amateurly wired, table that gets very hot, in the middle of a over stuffed, carpeted apartment.
This place makes if very, VERY, hard to do much of anything in this hoby really. I all most all my work in my very little kitchen, nad i have to wait for just the right temperature, so I can go out side an paint stuff.(and I have to put up with all the glares, and questions from the old ladies in my building when I do. ) I think if there were a contest on thesze forums, for the worst place to have to work on your props, I would win. :lol
Oh, well, I love props too much to give it up.
I guess it falls to someone else, to do the vacuum forming.
I got this this kit when I started this thread (like 2, years ago) And I have yet to finish it.
The size look good to me, but I have had to do a lot of work to make it more accurate, and I still have a ways to go on it. I'll just bee happy to get-r-done. :lol
And as for vacuum forming, I would LOVE to have my own table, as I'm kind of all alone prop wise where I live, and have a lot of stuff I would like to vacuum formed. (including a small arm of DRDs.
) Unfortunately, I live in a little, TINY, 1 bedroom apartment, that is filled to the gills with stuff. (collectable's. ) I have no room at all for any kind of vac table, and even if by some miracle I could find a place, I'm sure it would be against a number of rules, to have a large, amateurly wired, table that gets very hot, in the middle of a over stuffed, carpeted apartment. This place makes if very, VERY, hard to do much of anything in this hoby really. I all most all my work in my very little kitchen, nad i have to wait for just the right temperature, so I can go out side an paint stuff.(and I have to put up with all the glares, and questions from the old ladies in my building when I do.
) I think if there were a contest on thesze forums, for the worst place to have to work on your props, I would win. :lol Oh, well, I love props too much to give it up.
I guess it falls to someone else, to do the vacuum forming.
Here are some images of my first attempt at creating a DRD. As a few have pointed out previously, the models and dimensions available online are not entirely exact...but I figured this was a good starting point to begin with to test various ideas.
DRD - a set on Flickr
After getting it signed by Raelee Hill, Virginia Hey and Ben Browder, we donated the DRD to the Dragon*Con 2010 charity auction...where it was won for $500.
DRD - a set on Flickr
After getting it signed by Raelee Hill, Virginia Hey and Ben Browder, we donated the DRD to the Dragon*Con 2010 charity auction...where it was won for $500.
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Can you tell us more about your DRD? What did you use for the eye stocks? What did you use for the arm/probe silvery thing coming out of the left hand side port. Was this one of those ebay kits, or a scratch build. (I konw the pics show it in resin, but I didn't konw if that was a casting of your own doing, or not.)
What did you use for the skirt, and do the lights down there flash, like the ones one the show, or do they just all stay on at once? (witch would still be very cool. )
What did you use for the skirt, and do the lights down there flash, like the ones one the show, or do they just all stay on at once? (witch would still be very cool.
)Sorry for the delay in responding, I've been consumed by other projects recently. I'm more than happy to answer your questions...
Yes, the DRD shell was acquired from an original kit (used) that I purchased on ebay (Golden Armory sells a recast of this kit, which I also bought for comparison). The cast itself was not very accurate, but as this was my first attempt at a build, I was more concerned with getting it accomplished cheaply, quickly, and testing ideas. I still ended up making some modifications to the shell though (enlarging cut outs, trimming the base so that it didn't appear to sit lopsided, and a lot of edge refining).
The "laser probe" was actually the narrow insert end of a toilet paper holder that I painted silver, distressed, and wired with a red LED.
The tubing that came with the kit was nothing more than split corrugated electrical conduit...just not very good. So I opted against using it for the eye stalks and instead cut it up to make the electrical accent piece for the opening (the mesh inset into the opening came from a speaker cover). I found some scrap electrical wire at a recycling center that had a semi-rigid rubberized coating that also had a corrugated look. It took a bit of effort, but I was able to extract the wire while leaving the rubber coating intact. I used some thick metal wire to shape the curves of the eye stalks and held them in place with attached wooden plugs at each end.
The skirt was made from a 38" silicone led strip that I purchased from Oznium (Flexible LED Strips). It was slightly longer than what was needed, but you can trim the LEDs back in increments of 3. The only issue with these lights is that they are very bright and run @12v. I played with the voltages, settling in around 10, to get the brightness down to a more acceptable level. Because of the way that the strip was assembled, it wasn't possible to give them that "chasing" effect seen on the show. However I did make a circuit that faded the lights on and off altogether. I cheated with the red LED on the electrical accent piece by using one of those blinking LEDS sold at Radio Shack. All the lights on the DRD were functional, and could be turned on and off individually if needed.
The completed shell was mounted and radio controlled, but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to get any video of that before one of the motors locked up a couple days later (turns out it was defective and the company ended up replacing it for free). I actually wasn't even planning on selling the shell, but after getting it autographed at DragonCon my wife and I decided to put it into the charity auction.
EDIT: Another thing to note about the LED strip is that the white color was not nearly as "warm" as those seen on the show, and the amber color LED strips they sell are actually ORANGE. This also affected the color of the LEDs I chose for the eyes because they needed to match with the skirt. I found a supplier online that sells a similar LED strip with warm white lights made to order (a little too late though). I'll see if I can find the bookmark later tonight.
Yes, the DRD shell was acquired from an original kit (used) that I purchased on ebay (Golden Armory sells a recast of this kit, which I also bought for comparison). The cast itself was not very accurate, but as this was my first attempt at a build, I was more concerned with getting it accomplished cheaply, quickly, and testing ideas. I still ended up making some modifications to the shell though (enlarging cut outs, trimming the base so that it didn't appear to sit lopsided, and a lot of edge refining).
The "laser probe" was actually the narrow insert end of a toilet paper holder that I painted silver, distressed, and wired with a red LED.
The tubing that came with the kit was nothing more than split corrugated electrical conduit...just not very good. So I opted against using it for the eye stalks and instead cut it up to make the electrical accent piece for the opening (the mesh inset into the opening came from a speaker cover). I found some scrap electrical wire at a recycling center that had a semi-rigid rubberized coating that also had a corrugated look. It took a bit of effort, but I was able to extract the wire while leaving the rubber coating intact. I used some thick metal wire to shape the curves of the eye stalks and held them in place with attached wooden plugs at each end.
The skirt was made from a 38" silicone led strip that I purchased from Oznium (Flexible LED Strips). It was slightly longer than what was needed, but you can trim the LEDs back in increments of 3. The only issue with these lights is that they are very bright and run @12v. I played with the voltages, settling in around 10, to get the brightness down to a more acceptable level. Because of the way that the strip was assembled, it wasn't possible to give them that "chasing" effect seen on the show. However I did make a circuit that faded the lights on and off altogether. I cheated with the red LED on the electrical accent piece by using one of those blinking LEDS sold at Radio Shack. All the lights on the DRD were functional, and could be turned on and off individually if needed.
The completed shell was mounted and radio controlled, but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to get any video of that before one of the motors locked up a couple days later (turns out it was defective and the company ended up replacing it for free). I actually wasn't even planning on selling the shell, but after getting it autographed at DragonCon my wife and I decided to put it into the charity auction.
EDIT: Another thing to note about the LED strip is that the white color was not nearly as "warm" as those seen on the show, and the amber color LED strips they sell are actually ORANGE. This also affected the color of the LEDs I chose for the eyes because they needed to match with the skirt. I found a supplier online that sells a similar LED strip with warm white lights made to order (a little too late though). I'll see if I can find the bookmark later tonight.
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Well, I got a cheep 38" strip of yellow LEDs off of ebay. They are very yellow, but they are close enough for me. I thought about going with the white, and trying to stain, dye, or paint, the clear PVC, to be the right color to match the show, but I think this is close enough, and I think it will go well with the yellow color, I'll be using on the body of the DRD. This sheep LED strip, works very well, with just one little 12v battery I had laying around, so I'm pretty Psyched.
I did notice something about the real screen used DRD. So, I get my LED strip today, and had to look at my reference pics. Well, I knew they didn't use one long strip like I'm using, but I figured this would be a nice way to go for me since I don't know much about wiring. (I figured what ever they did for the show would be really over the top hard) Well, Looking at the behind the seans pics posted early in this thread, it looks like they actually did use off the shelf LED strips like these, they used used a number of shorter strips, and then wired them up to flash in sequence. I'm probably just going to stick with my one long strip. (because it's nice and simple.) But, If you have the skills, you might want to go with a number of shorter (say 4" or 6") strips of LEDs, and then just wired them up to a simple board, so they will flash in sequence.
Really the only things holding me back now is, I need something better then what I have for the eye stocks. (I talked to a guy on ebay a wile back that used some kind of metal fuel like he got at Home Depot, that he painted black, but I haven't been able to find any of that yet.)
And, I need to come up with a way to easily fix up the very inaccurate way they did the sides of my DRD kit. The over all shape is far from perfect, but I'm happy with most of it. It's just that the details on both side should mostly be grooves, and instead, the maker of the kit made them indentations. (i.e. instead of there being to sets of grooves, the area between those grooves is indented as well.) I have sheet plastic that is the right thickness, but it would be a huge pain, to try to cut it to fight that space just right, and still leave a nice even groove. My girl had a good idea. She said, to attach a string, or wire, where the groove should be, with something like rubber cement. Then will the space between with bondo, or something like that, then just carefully pull out the wire/string, leaving the groove. I like this idea, but every time I loob up the string/wire so the bondo wont stick to it, I then can't get it to stick to the kit, that and there isn't enough surface area on the wire/string to get it to stick to the kit.
If I could just fix these up, and take care of a few other little things, I would be close to being able to paint it and call it done.
I did notice something about the real screen used DRD. So, I get my LED strip today, and had to look at my reference pics. Well, I knew they didn't use one long strip like I'm using, but I figured this would be a nice way to go for me since I don't know much about wiring. (I figured what ever they did for the show would be really over the top hard) Well, Looking at the behind the seans pics posted early in this thread, it looks like they actually did use off the shelf LED strips like these, they used used a number of shorter strips, and then wired them up to flash in sequence. I'm probably just going to stick with my one long strip. (because it's nice and simple.) But, If you have the skills, you might want to go with a number of shorter (say 4" or 6") strips of LEDs, and then just wired them up to a simple board, so they will flash in sequence.
Really the only things holding me back now is, I need something better then what I have for the eye stocks. (I talked to a guy on ebay a wile back that used some kind of metal fuel like he got at Home Depot, that he painted black, but I haven't been able to find any of that yet.)
And, I need to come up with a way to easily fix up the very inaccurate way they did the sides of my DRD kit. The over all shape is far from perfect, but I'm happy with most of it. It's just that the details on both side should mostly be grooves, and instead, the maker of the kit made them indentations. (i.e. instead of there being to sets of grooves, the area between those grooves is indented as well.) I have sheet plastic that is the right thickness, but it would be a huge pain, to try to cut it to fight that space just right, and still leave a nice even groove. My girl had a good idea. She said, to attach a string, or wire, where the groove should be, with something like rubber cement. Then will the space between with bondo, or something like that, then just carefully pull out the wire/string, leaving the groove. I like this idea, but every time I loob up the string/wire so the bondo wont stick to it, I then can't get it to stick to the kit, that and there isn't enough surface area on the wire/string to get it to stick to the kit.
If I could just fix these up, and take care of a few other little things, I would be close to being able to paint it and call it done.
Hi, I'm new to this, but here are a couple of links to detail stuff for a DRD build...
SAMPLE Custom Steel Speaker Grill Primed Gray - Made to Order Pre-Primed Metal Speaker Grill Cover SAMPLE
Non-Slit Wire Loom
'answers' to the open cut-out panel underlay, and the eye stalk loom covers...
SAMPLE Custom Steel Speaker Grill Primed Gray - Made to Order Pre-Primed Metal Speaker Grill Cover SAMPLE
Non-Slit Wire Loom
'answers' to the open cut-out panel underlay, and the eye stalk loom covers...
Got my DRD kit from GoldenArmor via e-bay yesterday...have a Roomba 400 series stripped down and will reconfigure to fit...More links to DRD worthy stuff:
PIC LED Flasher
This one I intend on using for the 'skirt lights' -- 32, set up in 4 sets of 8 around the perimeter utilizing warm white LEDs...and:
Sequential Flasher 5 LED
for illumination in the 'open' port, with maybe two reds, a green, a yellow, and a blue LED, all hot glued in at random angles and positions...
PIC LED Flasher
This one I intend on using for the 'skirt lights' -- 32, set up in 4 sets of 8 around the perimeter utilizing warm white LEDs...and:
Sequential Flasher 5 LED
for illumination in the 'open' port, with maybe two reds, a green, a yellow, and a blue LED, all hot glued in at random angles and positions...
violentevo
Member
I really wish that i still had my bucks for the tayln DRD's, never finished the project and some stuff got lost in the move. one day, one day
Talyn626
Member
Loved the Talyn/Peacekeeper DRD. Hope I can build one at some point. Wanted to add my 2-cents as well. I'm pretty certain that the eye stalks are gooseneck lamps for a sound board similar to this
Littlite 12G-HI - Hi Intensity Gooseneck Lamp 12G-HI B&H Photo
I'm just not sure what model or length it could be.
Littlite 12G-HI - Hi Intensity Gooseneck Lamp 12G-HI B&H Photo
I'm just not sure what model or length it could be.
jackdoud
Sr Member
Are you talking about the ends with the lenses? Because it's pretty obvious the stalks are just split loom with rods inserted for the motion.
Talyn626
Member
I'm talking about the acual stalks. I don't think it is obvious that the stalks are split loom. Split loom will certainly work. However, I noticed in several screen caps and a couple other images like the one of the dissasembled DRD on a work bench and one taken at a Austrailia con http://disordered.org/farscape/05/props.jpg that the texture on the stalk is a spiral rather than single ribs. That is a characteristic of these gooseneck lamps and mics which makes them stay in whatever shape you bend them into. It makes sence to me that these could have been the part used because it would allow the operators to bend the stalks in whatever position they wanted them to be in and they would not move for the scene. Also the wiring is already installed and would just need whatever they used for the "eyebud" instead of the shroud.
Not trying to tell you what to use. Just trying to figure out what might have been originally used to build them. I work with the equipment on a daily basis and it struck me that it was a possibility.
Not trying to tell you what to use. Just trying to figure out what might have been originally used to build them. I work with the equipment on a daily basis and it struck me that it was a possibility.
I have been looking for a good DRD shell now and was considering the GOLDENARMOR version but after reading this thread it is starting to sound like building one from scratch that is screen accurate would be a good project. I finally found some measurements here: http://farscape.wikia.com/wiki/Diagnostic_Repair_Drone that read 14"x10"x8"
Does anyone know if this is accurate?
has anyone here made any progress in getting a great shell (If I can buy one rather then building one up from scratch I will)?
Is anyone interested in me actually doing this for the group?
Thanks
Scott
Does anyone know if this is accurate?
has anyone here made any progress in getting a great shell (If I can buy one rather then building one up from scratch I will)?
Is anyone interested in me actually doing this for the group?
Thanks
Scott
TZY did a model of Pilot's den a couple years ago, excellent model BTW, and had a few DRD's that went with it. He scaled them up to about 1/2 size, but was reluctant to go any larger until he found accurate measurements. The DRDs were extremely accurate. I purchased one, but I had a tough time trying to find a R/C car that small, well, because DRDs have to scoot around!
