BT-1 the Blastomech

This is such an awesome project - exceptionally well done and documented. And the weapons array is the icing on the cake! I just love it :love
 
Thanks for the compliments guys. I'm glad everyone is enjoying seeing this build almost as much as I am enjoying building him.

I finally designed and printed what I needed to do the shoulder hub/weapon quick change system.


The hubs do stick out further than they should. That has to do with my failing when the legs were CNC cut. The circuit was slightly off center which won't let the hubs recess fully. I also altered the hub to be shallower than stock. Eagle eye builders will notice. The general public probably isn't. If they do...well...BeeTee has ways of dealing with that.
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Here's a shot of how the quick change system works. I am not convinced the brackets are up to the job but we'll see. I can always make them out of some angled steel down the road.
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I also finished the mounting clamps for the left missile salvo.
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Here's a video of how the quick change works. It's so easy I can swap out weapons with one hand. It is possible to do through the door as well but for video purposes I left his dome off.
 

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I haven't been able to do much to BeeTee with the weather around here acting up. I've finally committed to cleaning out my storage room so I can do some work inside the house instead of in the garage.

Before the cold snap I managed to get the utility arms mounted.
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I cut down and modified the Halloween decoration for his eye. Yes...that is a coffee can lid bolted to the toilet flange. Don't worry, the flange is unused. It was in my junk bin from when I used it for a Mr Fusion support on my DeLorean for a Christmas parade a few years back.
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I'm working on the foot drives now. I've got a mock up of what I want to do with these Harbor Freight casters. The sprocket is 3d printed and fits the belt for an E100 scooter. I know another droid that weighs a lot more that has been running a set of 3d printed sprockets for well over a year on E200 motors so I'm not expecting trouble from these. Once I get the motor holders how I like them I'll print up the final sprockets with holes to mount them to the wheels.
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I'm aiming to have him mobile for Pensacon at the end of February. I do not know if that is a realistic goal with the amount of work I have left.
 
The eye is still probably my favorite part. Today I tackled the front logic displays since I got my parts in to tinker. It works better than I expected.

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The prototype light capture cone is a KCup from a Keurig and some electrical tape. I'm going to print a proper one now that I know this works.
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Halloween, Halley for short, was trying to help but kept getting distracted by the lights on BB-8's dome.
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Here's a video of it in action. I changed the files a bit after this so the orange and purple are changing faster. The orange is a lot more orange so it has better contrast. I think it's the color set I am going to go with for the front logics.


Now to figure out where I put the rear logic parts...
 

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Hopefully all I have is a horrible cold but since Pensacon is looming I worked through it. It slowed me down but I was still able to get BeeTee up on his feet today...well, two of them anyway. I left my center foot shell at a fellow builder's house. I wanted to get it tomorrow but with how I feel I don't want to leave the house. Hopefully I can guess my way though to a rolling center foot tomorrow. With any luck my belts will be here so I can get the motors mounted and start wiring. I can't wait to see this guy moving.


I'm so glad I cleaned up my storage room and started turning it into a workshop. It still needs to be painted but at least I have a place inside to work on the droids instead of my cold garage.
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I hadn't seen him with together with the dome lights on until today. It's very evil.
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I'm down to the wire on BeeTee. One week until Pensacon and when I would love to debut him. He won't have any firing weapons at the con but he will be a moving droid...I hope.


Getting the foot drives sorted. I think they will be functional. We'll see.
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Blurry photo of their install:
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In my haste I caused a pretty nasty clear coat run. I can fix this but that will wait until after the convention.
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I doubt the battery boxes are going to get finished. It all depends on the weather between now and then. I painted the power cables gold under recommendation from a fellow builder. I like them...except for my fingerprints all over them. Once again, something I can fix after the convention.
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Operating system install...No, wait. That's just my evil calico investigating the evil droid.
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Haley was evicted shortly after the photo. BeeTee is evil but not THAT evil. Even the vet is convinced she's a little demon.

Today was wiring day with BeeTee. First I cut a large cutting board in half and cut a section of aluminum channel from a shower stall that I was given into lengths the same width as the board. I bolted those down and then screwed the cutting board in after pushing it into the channel.
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With a good base to work from I started mounting my boards and wiring them up. The speakers are Chopper's old ones. I'll probably dig through my box of discarded speakers later to get a couple of nicer ones but for now this will work.
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I also built a mount for the battery with velcro and angle aluminum. It's only 12v but it is the largest battery I've ever put in a droid.
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After all that work I tested each and every bit before this...


I have a one-up on a Tarkin Initiative technician. I activated BT-1 and lived!
 

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BeeTee made it to Pensacon!


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Unfortunately due to some people that cheated the parking system they had set up we ended up over 3 blocks away from the convention center. My hastily designed center foot combined with sidewalk cracks caused my center foot to be obliterated. I don't think I can repair it but it was 3d printed so I can make another one. I am going to go with an omni wheel set up. It's what I wanted initially but the cost made me hold off. Now I see that it would have saved me a lot of trouble. I also have a bad e100 motor in the left foot. It was iffy but I didn't want to just write it off as being bad. I think it's safe to say that motor has a dead spot. I'll look into seeing if I can repair it but most likely I'll be replacing it. Oh, and I need an actual pitman for a dome motor. The motor I have is just too weak and as I move BeeTee the inertia keeps his head in place. It's annoying.


However, I am very happy with how functional he is. Everything that is wrong has an easy (not cheap, just easy) fix. The stuff that had me worried actually worked and his "evil eye" was a hit. Tomorrow he'll get his picture with Vader to send up to Marvel Comics and then he'll be packed away to be fixed up before the next outing.


There's another shot that has E9 and BB-8 in addition to Chop, R2, and BeeTee.
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Here's a short video of BeeTee outside the convention center entertaining the crowds.




As you can see that center footshell is toast. I am definitely upgrading to a set of omniwheels. Shortly after this video my left foot motor stopped working again. It was one of K-9's original motors so it's time to replace it.


I also had to do a couple of face offs between the good guys and BeeTee.


I wonder if we'll get a scene like this in the Doctor Aphra comic.
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Here's a live action reenactment of the first meeting between R2-D2 and BT-1.
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He's not actually complete. I am missing a lot of details. I'm hoping to get those ironed out and a working foam gun before the next outing which is in a month.


About an hour before the convention ended I found another problem with those rockets sticking so far out. Inconsiderate children running around wildly. There was a boy, about 11 I guess, and his friends. No parents to be seen. They were really bothering the droids. Doing that thing where kids jump right in their face and run circles around the droids. The rockets and lack of interest by BeeTee kept them from running circles around him (my left foot motor was done by this point). He nearly knocked over a couple of younger kids a few times. At this point he dodges someone as he's running and ends up slamming into BeeTee causing a rocket to break off. Not a huge deal, I can fix it. He did apologize when I was picking it up. I told him it was okay but he really needs to not run like that because that could have been a little kid. Hopefully he learned a lesson. He spent the rest of the time with his friends and not running around. He apologized again before he left. I'm glad it was BeeTee he ran into. There was a very little child getting her picture taken not 2 feet away from where he would have been stumbling.


Anyway, back to the repairs/things I didn't finish. Today it's the center foot shell. It was obliterated and required a reprint. One of the other builders commented on the infill when they were handing me back a chunk of shell. I realized that I got so into how nice the print and assembly turned out that I forgot this was a prototype. It was extremely weak. I never should have painted it or put it on the droid. The new shells were printed much stronger and hopefully with the omniwheel set up I won't have obliteration issues.


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Vex sells the spacers for 3 dollars each. I can print them for less. I cut them in half for ease of printing and I also enlarged them just a bit so the center wheels had a little more of a gap.
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All of the shells have alignment pins.
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This is why I like ABS and a slurry on a glass bed. The reflection of the glue bottle in the print means all I really need to do is some fine sanding and fix a few pinholes that will pop up on the largest visible sides. The aluminum strips are going to cover the seams.
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Is that the glue you used to glue all these 3d printed parts together?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Some of them like the footshells where I am backing the seams with fiberglass. Usually I weld the ABS using acetone. The superglue gel holds very well and fills seams. I just prefer to acetone weld whenever I have a large surface area of ABS.
 
I've been working on the electronics to make the foam gun work. I think I have it sorted so next time I'll be wiring up the gun. The remote trips the relay to provide voltage to the gun. I've already modified the trigger to be "always on" so as soon as it gets power it starts to shoot. I'm probably going to retain the stock power switch so I can have a safety on the weapon itself. I really hope to get him running for a con next month where the 501st will have a Blast-a-Trooper going. I want some video of BeeTee shooting troopers.




I finally cut the metal for my center foot. I did a lousy job at it but it's cut and it works. I need to learn to do electronics during the night and cut the metal during the day so I can see what I am doing.
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