Rebel Droids.net

Looks cool - yea, maybe we need removable antennae so we can replace them when kids snap them (or we fumble loading the car).

Now that the body and head are done (and painted) I am starting with the details. First comes the display for the front side. I am using five of the MAX7219 8x8 LED matrices, wired in series. These are mounted behind a piece of sanded plexiglas.
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Now my H015 can display his name - this is, of course, only the first step. Later I will do more programming to display different things here.
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And this is the full front view.
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(08-11-2016, 02:10 PM)kresty Wrote: [ -> ]Looks cool - yea, maybe we need removable antennae so we can replace them when kids snap them (or we fumble loading the car).

Good idea, ... but too late for me - my antennas are fixed. But the head can be taken off, this make the transport easier.

On the backside I mount a 1602 LCD display (2 rows with 16 characters each).
[attachment=78]
This display is connected to a I2C module, so it only uses two outputs from the Arduino.
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Here is a detail of the mounted display
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and this is the backside of the droid
[attachment=81]

Look great, what are you going to do for a drive system?

(08-14-2016, 07:34 PM)Murasaki Wrote: [ -> ]Look great, what are you going to do for a drive system?

I am currently working on this and I think I will have something in a few days. I plan to use a simple two-wheel drive system with two motorized wheels plus a caster wheel. This set from Amazon (without using the actual chassis) worked pretty well with my astromech R3-B9, and it should work even better with my H015 which will be much lighter.

The original H015 in the movie is using a holonomic drive system with four omni wheels, mounted at 45 degree angles close to the corners. For simplicity (and budget), my version will simply use a drive system with two motorized wheels plus a caster wheel. I am using the same (cheap) motors that worked pretty well with my little astromech droid R3-B9. Since my H015 will be significantly lighter than my R3-B9, these motors should work particularly well.
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For the chassis, I cut a piece of 1/8" plywood to fit exactly below the lower part of the body, plus the pieces which will hold the motors and the caster wheel.
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The plywood pieces are glued and then the motors and caster wheel are mounted.
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This base plate provides plenty of space for the Arduino and the additional electronics.
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Now I have started soldering the PCBs, i.e. the shields that will be stacked on the Arduino.
But I got a little slowed down since I have also started building a HAL 9000 replica ...

I'd been wondering about 2wd as well. Part of the reason I filled in the wheel holes for the Greebles file was so that people could cut openings wherever worked for them.

After a longer break, I am now looking at the bottom pieces. There is no way that I will be adding all the LEGO details - but on the other side I want to have something that at least reminds you of this. So, I started gluing cardboard on all four sides of the chassis.
[attachment=119]
Then I added a second layer with some cut-outs, and glued a few smaller pieces in a third layer. 
[attachment=120]
Once this is painted black, it shows a little structure, that vaguely reminds one of the original.
[attachment=121]
To finish the chassis, I also cut a hole for the speaker and glue a few pieces of wood for mounting the electronics and for holding the batteries.
[attachment=122]

With this step I have finished all the outsides of my sentry droid - yeah!

Cool, great progress!