It's Been a While

First off, sorry.  It really has been a while since I posted here.  I really am sorry to those builders out there that have been following for advice and help.  I am also sorry to myself for not getting anything on "paper" for that amount of time.  Hopefully I won't forget anything important that has happened.
        I will say right off the bat that life got busy (this happens to all builders, I have read this exact post multiple times in other blogs).  The end of the school year has come and gone, a vacation to Disney World with the family has come and gone, summer committee work days have come and gone, DroidCon, and fixing some mistakes.  Now back to R2.
       Many exciting things have been purchased for our droid in the past 4 weeks.  At this point I have almost all of the parts that I believe I will be using.  That does not include small minor things like screws and bolts and glue, but the major R2 parts.
       The large parts that I have been able to get since last time are the skins and the skirt.  The skins was a part that I was very worried about getting before August as I missed the run on Astromech.net by an hour.  A new guy in Germany was going to do a run because there hadn't been one on the club site for about a year and a half.  The Builder's Council (BC) for Astromech allowed him to do 30 sets since this was his first and they wanted to test his fabricating and delivery time.  I had not been checking the website very frequently at that time and because the guy was in Germany and it was a Saturday, I missed slot 30 by an hour.  The whole list filled up in less than 4 hours while I was sleeping.  I was crushed, and until I had every part I needed I decided I would check the site almost every hour just in case.
        The skins guy only took three weeks to fabricate, roll, and deliver all 30 sets of skins.  When the guys who had gotten their skins started receiving them I put a post out there that requested a set of skins, just in case someone had another sitting around and bought the new ones.  I was very pleasantly surprised when a gentleman emailed me and told me that he had just that, a set of skins from the last run a year ago and would wait until he received his new set.  He said I could have the old ones soon after that.  I was thrilled and so excited when they arrived the day we got back from our bi-annual Walt Disney World trip.
         There are actually four skins that make up an entire "set", 2 front and 2 rear skins.  The reason for 2 skins each is that the front set has the panels for the doors that will be glued or screwed into the smaller panels in the second skin to create a lip for the doors to rest upon.  You can also bolt on the hinges through the second skin (making sure they are flush by countersinking them) and covering up all of the screw heads with the top skin.  Pretty nifty designing.

        I also received a large delivery of resin parts from WORRparts.com.  These are all of the detail parts on the legs, body and dome.  One of the fun parts for me in this project has been learning what everything is called.  The horseshoes, battery boxes, octoports, exhaust vents, side vents, utility arms, large data port, radar eye, holoprojectors, and such.

How many do you recognize?

       In the next couple of weeks lots of real world events occurred and slowed down any production.  The last week of school was busy and I did not feel like working once I got home most of those nights.  Then we left for Disney the next week.  When we got back I had a couple of full work days with a committee at school and didn't get any work done.  Then we went on a camping trip with our neighbors for two nights.  But, that whole time I was still getting online and buying parts that were still needed and good thing I did.  The biggest scores were the electronics for the drive system (what makes R2-M5 drive around) and the MarcDuinos (that are going to make the sounds and all of my panels open and close with servos).  

        The Marcduinos (named for the guy that created the system, a play on the arduino boards that most robotics people use) were a huge find.  I got on the site one morning and found a guy selling a complete set with sound board, holoprojector lights, wi-fly, and two boards for a very reasonable $300.  I got online two minutes after he posted and I jumped on the chance to buy them.  Right after I posted my reply another guy posted with "Looks like I missed it by 1 minute."  Vigilance was rewarded that morning.  Now R2 has taken over the dining room as well with all of the electronics, speakers, lights and servos that have been purchased.  I needed an area that wasn't being covered with dust every day in the DCB. 

All of my electronics and R2 overseeing the construction.

DPL and CBI connected to an Arduino.