R2D2 Build

[Darth Mawr]

Man you're flying though this build, at least for an R2 build. I've gotten my wooden frame and legs and I'm waiting on one of Crash's fiberglass skirts and I hope to order a set of Chani's Budget Skins next week. I haven't even given the dome much thought other than to drool over others such as yours. Keep up the great work.

 

[KrangPrime]

I'm finding most of the old timers at astromech place don't seem to take well to people asking alot of basic questions when one can 'so easily search'. As I've been browsing blogs, each person builds there's with different materials, takes different steps, does things in different order, and most already know what they are doing. It gets frustrating at times. So it's easier to ask questions as I think of them...

Lots of information overload to process...and I tend to work better figuring things out as I go along. You don't ask, you don't learn... What I really think would be a nice addition is one giant sticky thread for a 'master build' that goes in part order. One for metal, one for wood, one for styrene. All one has to do is go to that thread, search the part they are up to and follow the instructions, hence no pesky question overload from new people like me who are like a kid in a candy shop and can't help themselves ..
But, maybe that is just me and OCD talking .

thanks for the compliment btw..and the adventure continues!

 

[Engelnicht]

Neil, Looking great so far! I'll be subscribing to this to see your progress!

 

[KrangPrime]

I expect to be fully laughed off the board for this ...

I tried for half an hour to get this thing to go on one part only. for whatever reason, the solder did not want to stay in place, it kept on sticking to the soldering iron. The only way I could get it to stay on the board was to put it on in blobs. It may not look nice and neat, but will it still work properly that way?

Back to square one!

-edit again, if anyone knows how to shrink pics, I'll go back and scale 'em down

 

[wannab]

Are you using flux when you solder?


Doug

 

[phez]

Um the globs with all of the pins soldered together may not work as well as you would like :lol. Use small gauge solder and flux and all should work out well. It almost looks like you are using really thick solder and it is not getting hot enough to melt to the contacts. The second photo looks perfect, how did you do that one.

 

[KrangPrime]

Um the globs with all of the pins soldered together may not work as well as you would like :lol. Use small gauge solder and flux and all should work out well. The second photo looks perfect, how did you do that one.

No Flux....I've seen it might not be a bad idea to have it handy....maybe I should stop by radio shack or sears....

For the second one, I just lightly dragged the solder over all the pins, and then put the tip in between them so they didn't connect. For some reason, that seems far easier than trying to do it pin by pin. This solder seems to like to stick to the soldering iron for some reason rather than the board....

 

[phez]

The tip on the soldering iron could have gone bad. I have had that happen a few times. I remeber soldering all of those LED's on my JEDI boards, what a drag :lol

 

[wannab]

Try this tutorial.

How and WHY to Solder Correctly - YouTube



Doug

 

[familyman]

love the build man, great job.

 

[vtswordfish]

Looking good thus far, I can tell you that the wholes in the inner dome will need to be larger to fit your HP's, PSI, and Logic displays. I know the resin surrounds for the logics that i have fit like a glove to the openings on the outer dome, I even remember filing down a little to get them to fit in there.

 

[KrangPrime]

Well, I messed up... I finally got the idea down, and I noticed half way one of the pins had bent and didn't go into the board. On the other one, somehow the solder had gone all the way through the pins and out the other side. If anyone knows the name of this type of board and the connectors, I need to order one board replacement and two pinout replacements... I doubt I can find it on amazon...

As for the rest... I did much better on the PSI lights...

After about two hours, my stopping point was the five pin connector at the top. Maybe on monday, I'll start tackling adding in all those lights... It'll probably take all day just for one!

Well, one set back, and two success... not bad...

 

[KrangPrime]

Well, I'm getting a replacement of the bigger Board... we wrecked that one pretty good. But as you can see, the other four are going rather smoothly, despite putting in the less bright resistor. But that should be easy enough to fix.

Now begins the super slow process of led's..

 

[KrangPrime]

astro spare surrounds! yay!

 

[KrangPrime]

Another 10 minutes to place the LED's..half of them at least..
- edit Got them all in now, but going to wait till my replacement board comes in so I can test them before soldering them in..

-edit The holes for the front Surrounds are finalized... The Logic holders fit now perfectly. Now for the rear surround.

-edit The rear surround has been cut.. needs some work to get it to fit though... That just leaves 5 more to cut..

 

[KrangPrime]

Well, it fits...Sort of.. A bit of fine tuning is needed. I guess I shouldn't drill the holes for it yet since the lights need to be attached to it somehow.

This is pretty much all I can do on the dome. hopefully the holo Projectors will get here in Early march. The Radar Eye will go on sale by then...and my replacement light board will be here today... then we can start finalizing things.

 

[KrangPrime]

For folks who have installed their surrounds....Any pictures on how it looks complete with lights? I THINK all you have to do is line it up and drill a hole through the inner dome. would like to see some pictures on the process if possible .

 

[DOGFOX2109]

Ill try and take some photos later of mine if that helps and post here. If I remember correctly you are correct and they fit quite snug to the dome. I have a jedi display on my 300mm alu dome but I think its all the same.

 

[KrangPrime]

Ill try and take some photos later of mine if that helps and post here. If I remember correctly you are correct and they fit quite snug to the dome. I have a jedi display on my 300mm alu dome but I think its all the same.

Hmm, Good to hear. I might have a little problem with the rear surround.. I widened the hole a bit too far, and it's going to be a tight fit to get both screws in place. Either that, or I'll have to have one screw in right, and leave the other side swinging free..

 

[phez]

For folks who have installed their surrounds....Any pictures on how it looks complete with lights? I THINK all you have to do is line it up and drill a hole through the inner dome. would like to see some pictures on the process if possible .

Here you go. Tape all three of those outer dome plates into place so they are lined up and then trace them onto the inner dome. I used a Dremel tool to make a slot and then cut the inner dome using a jig saw. Cut the hole a bit small and fine tune the fit with a file. If you go a bit big you should be alright, the outside dome piece (surround plate) fits tight and should hide any gaps.