Inquisitive Inferno

I was trying to troubleshoot L3-G0's sprayer a while back and Inferno the Cat decided to help out. Unfortunately L3-G0's shoulder doesn't support a 24lb/11kg cat:

His adventure caused a little damage:

Inferno has a small album on Flickr.

L3-G0 and Terrain

Artoo is a terrible mechanical design.  You can see that in some of Lucasfilm's R2-D2 Extras where they talk about building him and stuff.

For starters, the front foot appears to merely be there as something for him to trip over.  In the replica droid business this leads what is known as a "faceplant." Yes, L3-G0 has faceplanted (fortunately without the dome).

Lego R2-D2 doing the "Faceplant"

Basically, there's not enough distance in the front foot from the center of gravity to provide good leverage when you run into an obstacle.  In this case a sidewalk crack as I was trying to get in out of a light drizzle.

In order for the front wheel to turn, it's on casters, and those can't be very big because they'll hit the foot shell.  So the small diameter also makes it hard to cross cracks like the one at the bottom of the picture.  (I thought all of the cracks would be as small as the earlier cracks). 

L3-G0 is "worse" in this regard because the Lego bricks make his front foot shell pretty thick on the bottom, reducing the available wheel diameter to about 2" (about 5cm).  Another problem is that his front foot is hinged at the ankle (thinking about 2-3-2 mode), which means that if the front wheel drops in, then it stays.

 

Types of terrain that gives L3-G0 trouble

Any kind of bump is potentially disastrous.  So I really look out for those.  If the caster drops in or has to climb over, it leads to tripping.  If its "small enough" I try ramming it gently and seeing if he'll make it.  If not, then I either back over the obstacle or lift the front over it.

The gap in an elevator is usually "OK" and about the maximum that he can travel over.  Small door sills like on a front door are iffy, sometimes they work sometimes they don't.  Something like an extension cable at an event may be traversable, though high bumps can cause me to drag on the foot shell (he has about 1cm or 3/8th inch clearance)

If the terrain is too soft, then his wheels dig in.  This happens on padded carpet.  He either can't climb out or the foot shells can even ride on whatever it is.

Another problem is "rough" terrain.  The drive train can handle a sidewalk or pavement, but most exterior surfaces are pebbly and cause a lot of vibration, which wants to shake him (literally) to pieces.

There's also a limit to the incline L3-G0 can safely traverse.  Especially ramps going down he wants to coast and we have to use power to brake him.

So is there anything L3-G0 CAN drive on?

Fortunately most convention halls and public spaces have big flat smooth concrete floors.  I just have to watch for the expansion gaps between slabs and cable runs.  Most houses have similarly smooth slabs in their garages, but watch for the crack!  Driveways or streets are often too rough or steep.  (For Halloween we put out mats for him on our driveway).

He can usually climb the 1/4" onto the carpet some folks put down for their booths (like when he visited the Lego booth at Celebration).  The wood floor in our house is fine, though we have a 1/4" rise between rooms I have to watch.

Tile is another scary area because it has lots of little cracks, and can be rough on top depending on the style.  Close fitted tile or linoleum tiles are fine.

Industrial carpeted areas are usually OK, though they can drain the battery a bit more than concrete.  However the carpet in the lobby at Rose City (Oregon Convention Center) seems padded more than normal.  A typical house carpet is too soft to really be passable.

Wheelchair ramps are often a good path for him, not being too steep. 

What can be done?

As a practical thing, if I have complicated terrain, then I drive over it backwards.  The load is better distributed on the back feet that way, and he can drag the problematic front foot over whatever it is.  For the foot shell clearance issue, I raised the shell a tiny amount, which helped a lot.  (Some of the "real" Artoos have a gaping 1" or more clearance, but I think that looks funny)

Tracks (like a tank) could help some, but you still have steering issues.  Some builders have created a system that can navigate a grass yard (though that would shake L3-G0 apart).

Some of the fanciest systems have a single large diameter rotating wheel up front, sometimes even powered, but that typically requires complicated mechanical systems.

L3-G0 could also have a more rigid front ankle, however that can lead to other issues.  I've limited it's play a little, but he was designed to have it be flexible so stiffening it is tough.

Oliver and Lee came up with a system using a hub motor for Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, which seems to help a lot.  Some of the other builders are trying that. (I confess that it's on L3-G0's to-do list).

In the meantime I watch out for rough surfaces.

And cracks.

Brickcon 2015!

Subtitle: how to be completely out-of-sync since I haven't even posted about (much) earlier events....  Oh well.

This weekend was Brickcon 2015, one of the biggest Lego conventions around.  Tons of "well known" Lego artists show stuff there, and we've been going most recent years.  We represented the R2-D2 Builder's Club, showing off the banner we picked up at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim.


L3-G0 and MCK-Y, Lego Droids at BrickCon 2015

MCK-Y the Mouse Droid and I had tons of fun entertaining folks 

Entertaining kids at BrickCon

On Saturday we had some excitement when the fire alarm went off.  Apparently some mom had her kiddo in one of those backpack things, and was leaning against the wall to rest.  When she went to leave, the kid was apparently really curious about this thing attached to the wall and tried to hang on.
Lara was wrangling L3-G0 at the time and was wondering what kind of whacky noise she'd triggered!

 

MCK-Y also took it upon himself to go entertain some of the folks in the crowd outside waiting to get tickets (there's often a line, particularly in the morning).  Unfortunately, he also tried to test the strength of this wall by backing into it!
The line curved around this shallow fountain, so MCK-Y decided to show off his off-road skillz!



Lego Mouse Droid driving through fountain!

Here are some of the other MOCs (My Own Creation, 'cept that these other people's creations, it's a Lego Builder acronym for things they make).

Cool Lighthouse, 2nd place in People's Choice



Nifty Lego Mosaic, Our Neighbor won an Mosaic award



These computers were also our neighbors, Look at those Lego cases!

On Sunday we were privileged to receive the BrickCon 2015 People's Choice Award.  What a cool honor!  We're glad you liked L3-G0 and MCK-Y, and thanks to everyone who voted for us.  We go to the cons because like showing off the droids for the crowds, especially when folks are excited and curious, but we don't mind winning prizes :)  There were tons of other great and deserving Lego Creations at the show, so we're thrilled and humbled that you chose us.

L3-G0 with People's Choice Award

L3-G0 trying the People's Choice Trophy on as a hat!

Now maybe I'll get around to posting some of the things that happened earlier in the year...

 

Star Wars Day, May the 4th be With You!

(General L3-G0 Video is at http://youtube.com/myL3G0 if you are just looking for Lego R2D2 videos)

@()$*&)(*& Sandpeople!



L3-G0 faceplant, @#$_()* Sandpeople!

I was running a little bit late, so I let us be a little rushed and didn't watch for sidewalk cracks close enough (I even thought about it and figured the 2 I could see were OK so the 3rd was probably good), and L3-G0's body tripped as I was trying to get it out of the slight drizzle. 

His right shoulder got mangled again, and one of the front panels screws got pulled out.  A few bricks were scratched or dented and I'll probably replace them.

On the plus side, I don't think I have another picture of the bottom of his feet, and from the label I can now clearly tell which one is the Right Foot!  (As if I didn't know).

Fortunately the 501st was there, though where an Imperial learned to repair Lego Astromechs is beyond me.



L3-G0 the Lego R2-D2 and a 501st Jawa

501st trying to repair L3-G0 the Lego R2D2

Unfortunately he missed the group photo while I put his shoulder back together, but I got a couple more photos with the 501st.

L3-G0 the Lego R2D2 with some of the 501st

L3-G0 considering a Tuskan Raider

Probably even more dangerous than the face plant was a run-in with a Sarlacc, I mean Gus Lopez, a Star Wars... collector!  Fortunately the endorphin rush Gus got from bagging a stuffed Bantha allowed L3-G0 to slip away...


No Gus, you may not collect L3-G0 the Lego R2-D2 :)

(I'm not quite sure what's up with the pigeon-toed Sandtrooper, I guess he's still looking for the right droids :-)

 

After going back home (and finding my daughter who managed to vanish) we went back out to the mall for a few minutes.  Apparently the Minifig he bought at Comicon wasn't enough for him.

 

First stop was to check out the Lego store. I tried explaining the birds and the bees, but apparently I didn't make the right beeps and whistles, so L3-G0's still trying to figure out where he came from.

L3-G0, the Lego R2-D2 trying to figure out from whence he came

After my earlier wipe out (and random stranger kids wonder why we don't let them at the remote control), my daughter insisted that she be the one with the controls.  I'm not quite sure if it was her or L3-G0 that wanted to look at XBox One games...



L3-G0 the Lego R2D2 perusing a shelf of XBox One games

 Since it was Star Wars Day, we ran into the obligatory Princess Leia hairdo of course!


L3-G0 with a fan on Star Wars Day

And as if L3-G0's ''where did I come from?" question wasn't confusing enough already, we ended up at the Disney store.  (Looking for one of those Banthas Gus had showed us.)  Everyone there learned that, in addition to several Star Wars classics, L3-G0 already knows the Disney production logo theme "When You Wish Upon a Star" as well as "Let it Go".


L3-G0 at the local Disney Store



 Anyway, that was L3-G0's Star Wars Day, May the 4th be With You!

Emerald City Comicon 2014

L3-G0, a life size Lego R2-D2 attended ECCC (Emerald City Comicon) in 2014.  It took me a bit to get the video and stuff organized, I've been busy, so the post's been delayed.

In case you're new here, as far as I know this is the first time a complete full sized Lego R2-D2 has been displayed in public.  L3-G0's been "out" a couple times (at Microsoft, Lowe's and a Sealug meeting), but not with all his bits.

By completed I mean that as in "just completed."  The last bit got complicated and he didn't show up until nearly the last minute before the doors opened.

We had tons of fun with L3-G0 at Comic Con, here's the aforementioned video:

The video has several short segments I thought showed pretty much the experience, skip ahead if you don't like a piece, the parts get better.

• L3-G0 with some of the fans taking pictures, even Unikitty!
• The astromech parade with other Pacific NW R2 Builders Club R2-D2s and other droids.
• The crowd and going back to "Brick Nation" where the Lego exhibits were.
• A short encounter with a taller pirate.
• Darth Lily, one of L3-G0's more enthusiastic fans.
• L3-G0's shopping spree, it is a con after all, you've gotta buy something!
• Keeping all those pesky Daleks away from Brick Nation.

People don't seem to be getting past the first bits so I might post individual videos later, however if you want to share only one bit with your friends, YouTube lets you share starting at a certain time.  Or just ask them to skip to 3:57 or whatever.

I forgot to include a bit on packing him up :(  Too bad you can't edit YouTube videos.

Some photos as well:

Darth Lily comforting R2-D2 after she scared him so badly.  She was cute enough she has her own post

Darth Lily comforting R2-D2 after she scared him so badly.

L3-G0's on the right with the other club droids.  It's kinda cool to see him next to the other droids.
The ankle details on his right ankle are backwards, fortunately it's hiding in this photo.  I was so mortified when I noticed that a couple weeks after the con.

Pacific NW R2 Builder's Club droids all lined up

I liked this nook while waiting for the droid parade.  Reminds me of Jabba's Palace for whatever reason.  (Not saying anyone else would make that jump, but I did).


L3-G0, Lego R2-D2 in a nook

What's a Lego exhibition without a Unikitty?  Unikitty came to see L3-G0.

Unikitty posing with L3-G0

Eventually it all ended :(


L3-G0 packed up and ready to go home

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed the ECCC 2014 report.

Fixing your Lego R2-D2's angle for Star Wars 10225- Ultimate Collector's Series (UCS) model

Before I built L3-G0 I built the 10225 Lego UCS R2-D2 ("Ultimate Collector's Series", I guess they haven't thought of L3-G0, is he ultimater?")  Even before I joined the R2-D2 Builders Club, I realized that my new "ultimate" R2 didn't stand right in 3-legged mode.  It drove me nuts, so I fixed it.  Here's what I mean:

R2-D2 is supposed to have an angle between the legs and vertical of about 18 degrees for a total of 36 degrees.  However Lego's instructions for the UCS R2-D2 don't provide the right angle.  I didn't know the exact amount when I build the 10225 Lego kit, but I could tell that it looked wrong. He looks like he's about to fall on his face. 

I drew a red line sort of along the middle of the bad angle Lego kit and a green line in L3-G0's centerline.  As you can see they're pretty far off.  Notice that the back legs aren't too bad, it's just the angle of the body.

To fix it, all we have to do is make the middle leg a little longer.  To do that I moved the stop up one stud to the top of the leg support - and all of the teeth too.

Unfortunately, that means that it hits the stop plate in the center support.  That's the 4x4 plate with a 2x2 hole in the middle.  When it hits the plate, the foot won't retract all the way.

 

The fix is to remove the offending plate, which apparently isn't really needed, so you can use the cool hollow 4x4 plate somewhere else.  Here's a picture showing the removed plate circled and the stop in the space the plate had occupied.

Here's the result of our repaired droid.  A nicely inclined astromech at the same angle of the full size one.

Lego R2-D2's, both L3-G0 and the UCS 10225 Lego Kit

Anyway, I hope this post helps save the world from Lego R2-D2s that look like they're about to fall on their faces!

 

I'll leave you with an annotated copy of on of the R2-D2 Builders Club diagrams showing the correct dimensions of an Astromech Unit.  I've added the 36 & 18 degree angles in blue triangles.

Now I know I'm truly way too much of an R2 geek!

 

 



Transporting L3-G0, the full size Lego R2-D2

People have asked several times how we transport L3-G0.  It's actually really, really easy.

Many MOCs (My Own Creations) are fairly fragile.  I was terrified of figuring out how to move L3-G0 and that was in fact one of my first experiments.  I had tons of bungees and other stuff ready to move, plans for a plywood base and all sorts of stuff.  Moving the Lego Space Needle is pretty challenging.  I feel happy that it only takes 1/2 hour (usually) to get it back together now.  That's only 4500 bricks.  L3-G0 is closer to 16,000 bricks!  So I figured it'd be harder.

He's only 60-65 pounds or so (almost 30kg), so unlike many other R2-D2 builds he's not too hard to lift.

The first part is to take off his head (remembering to unplug the wire helps) and stick it on the car seat, careful of the holoprojectors.  I put the seat back up as far as possible, but don't really worry about strapping it in or anything.

 

Then we pick up L3-G0's body and put it in back.  The front foot shell comes off and the casters get shoved in around the rear seat's mounting point.  Hooking the bungee around the top of the foot is about the only hard part since the hooks don't have much room on the mounting point.

 

 

And then last is to merely hook the back seat belts around the central foot guide post, pulling them to ratchet tight (like you would a child seat).  Again, watch the wire on the top.

The sad thing is that getting the bungee is sometimes tricky, and the last step, the seatbelts, is so simple, that I've forgotten about the seatbelts about three times already.  Fortunately the last two times I caught myself, but on the way to Hosik's science fair we were late & rushing, so I drove down the driveway with them off.  I was reminded to fix it when L3-G0 fell over on his face.  Fortunately it didn't do much damage.

Anyway, once he's secured, the model's ridiculously stable.  It barely moves and I don't need to be nearly as careful driving as with the other models.  (The Space Needle wants the sections I divide it into to fall apart, and the Lego Disney Wonder's nice wooden platform has slippery velvet on it, so it wants to slide around.  The worst part for L3-G0 is putting the front shell back together.

Group photo at ECCC

Photo of L3-G0 with other R2 Builders Club astromechs here at ECCC.

It was great finally meeting other club members up here.

Made it to Emerald City Comicon (finally)

I'll try to post more later, but here's a tiny bit about the first day at ECCC.  Everyone loved the full size Lego R2-D2.  Asking wonderful things like "do you know about the R2-D2 Builder's Club? (yes)  And then L3-G0 would beep and they'd go "oh, he makes sound too!"  When they started to turn away I'd drive him out and run around the show floor and they'd say "No way, he moves?!?!?!"

L3-G0 was supposed to get set up yesterday, but the skirt took too long to get behaving.  I blogged about what he looked like yesterday morning.  That required 3D printing some bricks and stuff, but I still had time.  Unfortunately the skirt's on the bottom, so he had to be upside down with the legs & feet off to work on the skirt. 

 

When I flipped him back over and stuck on the remaining parts I found little things like the dome wouldn't fit: 

• Above the shoulders, I'd fixed a gap that was missing last time, he hadn't had that before, so I didn't know it'd cause clearance issues. Because of the tightness I'd left out a plate of thickness, about 1/8" and forgot it'd make the sides 1/8" too narrow.
• The left battery box hadn't been Kragle'd and tried to disassemble itself when sticking it on.
• Worst, somehow I'd messed up the center caster.  I knew the standards 3" caster didn't fit in my Lego shell, but my custom casters failed miserably.  But in the trials I found a 3" caster that seemed to work well.  I was so fixated on the fore-aft clearance I forgot about sideways, so he couldn't go backwards without the caster jamming or slamming the box to pieces.  So I gave up on Thursday.  Show didn't open 'til Friday @ 10 so I had time.  I used an early prototype and finally got his feet behaving around midnight.

Getting to the convention center was tricky.  His tie-down is actually really trivial in the minivan.  Jam the front casters into the hold-down for the far back seat (after taking out the seat) and throwing a bungee around it.  Then, with the dome off (sitting on the rear seat), stick the way-back seatbelts around the center post and let them click into being tight.  I'm used to Lego MOCs being fragile and insecure, but L3-G0 travels unbelievably well.

 

Of course that's before putting the fragile shell on it.  I thought I could lift it up, but it turned out there wasn't enough room for the bungee, so the shell came off.  That wasn't too hard, but I outsmarted myself and it was harder to put back on than I'd expected once I got to the convention center.

Once there, the fans loved him.  One seems to have found the droid they were looking for!

 



L3-G0 worked really well.  On the previous trials parts fell off and there were other small problems, like when the shoulder broke.  But he was really reliable.  Unfortunately the battery died before lunch, and I let it get really low, so it wouldn't fast-charge.  Fortunately I found a motorcycle shop that had another.  Alternating two seemed to work fine later in the day (though it's annoying to swap), but we'll see tomorrow. 

 

The worst part was the prodding of the fans.  They liked to poke.  And many wanted pictures with their hand resting on the top of his head.  Which is the most fragile part, so his head was dented a few times.  And he had an accident with his front foot, but for the most part L3-G0 was strong and ran well.

 

At the end of the day the sprockets on the bolts I'm using for axles started slipping :(  The best I can do is probably tighten the set screws in the morning and cross my fingers, but I think it'll be OK.  And maybe slow down the acceleration curve a bit.  It looks like the rest of the stuff I did to tighten up the wheels worked OK though, so it should be solvable.

 

Gotta get over to the R2-D2 Builder's Club folks sometime, which should be tricky as they're in the other building, and worse, on the other side of the trade floor.  The alternate route crosses the street and L3-G0 hates pavement (way, way, way too bumpy).

 

Need sleep, two nights up way too late.

Umm, when is ECCC?

Emerald City Comicon's tonight.  L3-G0's gonna be working, flashing lights, sound and everything, right?!!?!?!?

He's decapitated, and the body's upside down!  And doesn't that 3D printer look like its on and running to you?  Hope it's nothing critical.

 

The table's covered with a pile of parts, tools everywhere.

And his legs are off and the insides of his feet are showing.



I'm supposed to be at Emerald City Comicon when!!?  Maybe I should show him as R2-D2 in the droid factory.

Latest Video

Still needs legs and a few other details, but lights and sound are working now!  He went on another test run at work (Microsoft Building 50).  Afterward we took a spin through the café where he got quite a few pictures taken.

Latest video:

Sealug Meeting

L3-G0's not done yet, but he's getting there!  We went on a test run to the Sealug meeting, which was held at ECCC's headquarters.  The kids loved chasing around a life size R2-D2 and were willing to look past his partially completed state.

He's obviously missing his legs/shoulders, skirt, front foot skin and a few other details, but I wanted to test transporting him and see what problems I might encounter, and where he might fall to pieces.  I don't want to be spending all of Emerald City Comicon fixing him!  Sounds are also still on a random loop, and he has no dome LEDs at the moment (which means he can spin his head a ton).

I have some video of his outing, the meeting starts about 40 seconds into the clip.  I took a week off work to make a big push to get him from frame to nearly complete:


I didn't think I was going to get the dome reattached before the meeting, but Lara prodded me and it was mostly reconnected just in time (I was a few minutes late).

The test outing was a great success, we learned tons that we'll need to know for ECCC later in the month:

• He does great with his new shoulders in the car.  Tying down's going to be tricky when the front foot cover gets on, but otherwise much more stable than when I took the frame to work.
• The new shoulders (laminated plywood) seem to be doing OK.  Since he has 4 wheels in each foot, there's a lot of stress when he turns because some of the wheels have to slip.  That pretty much destroyed the old thinner shoulder hub.  I'd expected to need aluminum, but the plywood's doing OK.
• On a related note, when turning hard, the feet can chatter a lot, enough to knock off the battery box (at 60 seconds in the clip one of them is missing).  The outer foot panels chatter too.
• He can spin his head fast enough to throw off a holoprojector, which happens at about 1:20 in the video.
• With the throttle limit off on the motors he has pretty much a perfect amount of power, much faster than walking, but not so quick as to be uncontrollable or unrealistic.  (My previous outing was limiting the motor controllers and he was just under walking speed).
• He looks funny without shoulders :)
• The vibration from pavement or even a sidewalk is a bit scary, he knocked a couple dome panels loose that way.
• The body held up really well.
• L3-G0 knew to expect rain in Seattle, but it started to snow at the end!

We still have a ton to do before ECCC, crossing my fingers that we can get it all done!  L3-G0 will be in "Brick Nation" at ECCC, the biggest Lego display yet at Emerald City Comicon.  Ground floor of The Conference Center building.

Starting to get back together

Update for my L3-G0 build, the full size Lego R2-D2.

It's like cleaning where things get worse before they get better.  Finally he's starting to get back together WITH his frame!

He was upside down a bit while I tried to figure out the skirt (built back on "Day 3", but haven't had anything to attach it to until now.... and now it's not right :(

 

And unfortunately the shim that the dome's bearing is on didn't fit once the body was bolted together.  The original shim was hand cut, but now the body is in a laser cut 12-sided shape.  Apparently without a frame it had more play.

 

Even worse, the (@*&#()*%& bearing didn't come with properly spaced holes, so I had to get at the bearing to transfer the bolt holes correctly.  And the bearing was on the bottom of the dome.  I almost got away with having the dome upside down, but it didn't survive :(



I'm hoping to get the dome back together for the Sealug meeting tomorrow, but it might not happen.  He obviously isn't complete, but I'm hoping to see how well he transports.  I'd rather mess up tomorrow with weeks to fix it than mess up on the way to Emerald City Comicon and have a few hours to fix it!.