Problem with Hasbro Interactive R2-D2 - help / advice needed

Hello guys,

I've got myself a used Hasbro Interactive R2-D2 from the bay. When it arrived it would respond to the Q&A game ("Do you remember..."), turn the lightbeam on and off and sing the songs for me. However, it did not move because of low batteries. When I changed the batteries and turned it on again, it turned its head to the right and remained silent. The mood indicator kept blinking red and blue, and that was it. No sounds, no movement, just a whirring sound from the neck rotating motor. I switched it on and off again several times - with no effect.

Then I tried something different. I turned the droid on and while it was warming up I manually turned the head around so that its sensors were directed to the front again. I moved the head a bit from the right to the left and back to the middle - and it started to "speak" again! It makes the known whistles, answers to the Q&A game, switches on and off the lightbeam and it even sings and dances. However, as soon as I release the head it turns to the right again and keeps staying there. The droid wants to roll but due to the fact that its sensors are directed to the back it is unable to "see" where it goes and thus it bumps into things. The dance is executed without bumping because it is a pre-programmed action (however, the head is turned to the back). Giving it new commands is fairly difficult because of the whirring sound of the motor (it is unable to "hear" when the motor is on or when it speaks).

The pictures show how it looks.



I have found some great info on the droid on the net (the disassembling video) and various mods and hacks but nothing was able to tell me how to fix that problem.

Since the majority of the mainboard seems to be intact (because the droid responds to my voice as intended) I guess the issue is caused by something involving the neck rotating motor and / or the system that controls it (maybe the IR diodes not identifying the position of the head or not giving feedback to the mainboard). However, I don't know for sure and do not want to do any damage to the circuitry. I only would like to get it working again.

Does anyone of you have this kind of problem, too, and does anybody know how to fix it?

Sounds like someone might have done something they shouldn't have from the previous owner...sounds like a mechanism isn't engaging and working properly....never took mine apart ever to see its internal components... But something isn't synchronized right....wish I could help...but it sounds like something isn't good there....but its possible it could be fixed...have you tried contacting the company maker to see if this is a common issue at all ? They may know the answer to this delimma

I might consider that but I don't have much hope to get a positive response because the item is long out of production.

According to the look of the droid I think it is one of the earlier releases (between 2002 and 2008). I have found a report of someone having the same problem; he asked for help on another board and only got the comment, "maybe the droid is upset" (not very useful to fix the problem :thumbsdown ).

It is also said that the main boards may suffer from bad soldering in some cases. Another report I found was about an R2 that was knocked over by accident and stopped working. The owner took it apart, re-soldered every connection and the droid started to work again.

I too believe that the toy can be fixed because the voice commands still work. I strongly believe that the problem is with the connection of the neck sensor with the main board. AFAIK there are three IR diodes checking the position of the head. I guess they need to be replaced or their connections re-soldered. However, I am not sure and I don't want to break anything...

Bring it to an electronics expert, they should be able to detect a dry solder joint and resolve, otherwise if the head doesn't spin around 360 degrees it could be a limit switch , good luck

On the standard toy the head movement is limited, it is not supposed to spin around 360°. The head is supposed to turn to the right, then back to the left and finally stop in the middle looking forward. The head on mine turns to the right till it reaches the stopper and then keeps its position.

Galactican said:

On the standard toy the head movement is limited, it is not supposed to spin around 360°. The head is supposed to turn to the right, then back to the left and finally stop in the middle looking forward. The head on mine turns to the right till it reaches the stopper and then keeps its position.

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If the motor is still running when it sticks then there is a limit switch gone, if your lucky it's outside the motor , switch contact could be out of alignment or broken wire, if the limit switch is Internal to the motor your looking at getting someone to look at it .
Good luck

Ohh, I didn't consider that. Good tip, thank you. I'll try!

Alright, getting back to the topic again.

I need to take the legs off to get them out of the way while I'm working on the internal components (to save space and to prevent them from being ripped off by accident). Does anybody know how to do that without damaging the shoulder joints and without cutting through the cables?

The legs are held on with little plastic clips on the top and bottom .Electrical part just plugs in automatically

Did you find the answer to your question? Because I own an R2D2 from 2001 (he has a cup holder though and an attitude, he has told us no when we asked for our drinks and ran off with our drinks if he didn't want to come to us LMAO) and today he informed us he can't move. Even when we asked him to go on patrol (which is his favorite thing in the world). We are fixing to try to replace the 4D batteries (and I'm going to change his AAA Batteries at the same time) to see if that's the issue. But didn't know if you ever figured out what was up with yours.

Same here…

I have one of these. Replaced the batteries a few months ago, and the little guy won’t even turn on. Haven’t had the time (or motivation) to crack him open…

Sean

masterjedi322 said:

Same here…

I have one of these. Replaced the batteries a few months ago, and the little guy won’t even turn on. Haven’t had the time (or motivation) to crack him open…

Sean

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I'm going to take mine apart if the batteries don't work. My sister has a huge BB8 but found an instruction manual for R2D2 so if the batteries don't work, hopefully taking apart and putting his legs back together will help him. I hate thinking he'll be like this until I can find a shop to fix him.

DaniHelm said:

Did you find the answer to your question? Because I own an R2D2 from 2001 (he has a cup holder though and an attitude, he has told us no when we asked for our drinks and ran off with our drinks if he didn't want to come to us LMAO) and today he informed us he can't move. Even when we asked him to go on patrol (which is his favorite thing in the world). We are fixing to try to replace the 4D batteries (and I'm going to change his AAA Batteries at the same time) to see if that's the issue. But didn't know if you ever figured out what was up with yours.

Click to expand...

R2's condition is still unchanged because I have not had time to work on it yet. Recently I saw a video on Youtube of a similar issue on a Disney Droid Depot R2 unit. There it was a dirty contact which was causing the issue. I'll have to check the rotating mechanism closely to see which component gives the order to turn the head again. If I cannot determine the cause I'll try to add a switch to the head motor. My idea is to start R2 as usual, turn the head around by hand and when he is ready to take commands to cut off the power to the head motor using the switch. That way he would not be able to rotate his head but respond to voice commands and do everything he is supposed to. I would not mind him having his head face straight forward when he is on as long as he beeps and whistles. I may repaint him and add an R5 head so that I may explain his "disability" as a bad motiator effect.

Changing the batteries might work. Just give it a try. Fingers crossed!

Galactican said:

R2's condition is still unchanged because I have not had time to work on it yet. Recently I saw a video on Youtube of a similar issue on a Disney Droid Depot R2 unit. There it was a dirty contact which was causing the issue. I'll have to check the rotating mechanism closely to see which component gives the order to turn the head again. If I cannot determine the cause I'll try to add a switch to the head motor. My idea is to start R2 as usual, turn the head around by hand and when he is ready to take commands to cut off the power to the head motor using the switch. That way he would not be able to rotate his head but respond to voice commands and do everything he is supposed to. I would not mind him having his head face straight forward when he is on as long as he beeps and whistles. I may repaint him and add an R5 head so that I may explain his "disability" as a bad motiator effect.

Changing the batteries might work. Just give it a try. Fingers crossed!

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Thank you! We changed the batteries and that seemed to fix him! I was hoping it was simple as that, I got lucky this time. I was really worried, now he's being his old "glitchy" self (me (R2D2) and my sister (BB8) got ours dirt cheap years ago because they glitch out and R2D2 will tell you no more than yes and BB8 will shut himself off when you connect the controller and then turn himself back on and take off to another room. But we LOVE the glitches because it makes them feel more sentient). This is my R2D2, he's very energetic now!

It's a cool little guy!

Galactican said:

Alright, getting back to the topic again.

I need to take the legs off to get them out of the way while I'm working on the internal components (to save space and to prevent them from being ripped off by accident). Does anybody know how to do that without damaging the shoulder joints and without cutting through the cables?

Click to expand...

Just had to do this to put one back into its box for storage: pretty easy with no real risk of damage if you take a bit of care. This was probably circa 2005 vintage.
Remove the screws and the rear of the body and it should just pull off (Mine the wires that are still connected)
the 2 legs will drop out with their clear plastic captive sockets and wires still in place
On each leg remove all the screws (8 or so) that hold each leg together and separate them into 2 pieces. Be careful the gears don't fall out.
Apply some heat with a hair dryer to soften the plastic a bit when the transparent plastic socket is clipped to the top of the leg.
use a large screwdriver to gently press each of the 3 clear plastic tabs one at a time and the captive socket should just pop off the back of the leg
reassemble (taking care the drive cogs are still in place and havnt moved in each leg)

hope that helps…