If you are considering undertaking your own droid electronics build, please watch this entire playlist before you start. Some of the components I use change as my system evolves. The videos explain the reasoning behind the changes. This is how I intended this video series to be - it’s a document of the process I undertook to learn and understand the WHY, rather than just focus on the HOW. As always, product links that are provided may change over time. I will try to maintain them, but please feel free to leave a comment if you find something that is no longer available or that needs to be updated. Thanks for watching and happy building!
Jason your videos they have been so helpful. Thanks for the links to parts as well it has saved me hours. I building an aluminum build but your electronic setup and has be the best.
Looks great! Thanks for the links and tips! I'm starting to collect more electronic components. The layout on foam core is a great tip. I think I'm going to have to break my board up into 2 or more because of the 2-3-2. Can't wait to see yours moving!
Yeah... I probably bit off more than I can chew. I've got the dome innards (Swartz) mostly done, (I am going to redo the boards now that I printed out Makerdan's board) some of the other dome innards planned, and I've got 6 arms, the zapper, and the saw to do. I figured out I needed to reengineer the arms and the I need to finish figuring out how to create a folding mechanism for the zapper and saw. Those are a work in progress. Plus the 2-3-2. I am going to split the body electronics up as you did. Did you work out the board for the motor controllers yet?
If you mean a sub-board the body electronics (voltage step downs, body marcduino, etc.) then no - but I do have some ideas. I'm also considering adding a trading card dispenser behind the LDP. I have a feeling I will wind up with a second, smaller board mounted somewhere lower front - behind the coin slots maybe. It will take 24v from the main board (via the unused connector), and step down and distribute as needed for the various body systems (and lights).
These videos are a big help. Thank you. Can you show us how you charge your batteries and if you can do pass though charging so R2 remains live in some form while charging.
For charging, I remove the batteries from R2 and charge each one separately using a standard Dakota Lithium 12v/3A charger. The batteries have a 10Ah capacity, so if they were fully discharged, it would take 3.3 hours at 3A charge speed to get each one back to 100%. As far as being able to use/operate R2 while the batteries are being charged, I'm not really sure how to go about doing that (or even if it's feasible to do so).
@jasonsR2D2 - Finally got to a decent point where everything powered on over the weekend following mostly along with your videos. One thing I noticed was that the amp you have (and linked) seems to have a startup beep it plays: Does yours do that, or did you somehow disable it?
Mine does the beeps when it starts up - I think it's two sequences of three beeps? I'm also running the standard Shadow audio setup, so I get a little bit of the THX sweep sound as well before R2 starts his regular sounds. I admit it would be nice to get rid of the beeps, but that only lasts a second or two, so I find it tolerable. Glad to hear your setup is coming along!
First, check if sounds play when you manually activate the toggle switch on the board. Make sure the SD card is 32GB in size or smaller, and formatted as FAT32. Larger capacity SD cards are not supported. Sounds like you have the required .ini file, which is good. Ensure that all the sound filenames begin with a 3 digit number (001, 002, etc.) anything after the 3 digits is up to you - it doesn't have any impact. If none of this helps, let me know.
If you are considering undertaking your own droid electronics build, please watch this entire playlist before you start. Some of the components I use change as my system evolves. The videos explain the reasoning behind the changes. This is how I intended this video series to be - it’s a document of the process I undertook to learn and understand the WHY, rather than just focus on the HOW.
As always, product links that are provided may change over time. I will try to maintain them, but please feel free to leave a comment if you find something that is no longer available or that needs to be updated.
Thanks for watching and happy building!
Jason your videos they have been so helpful. Thanks for the links to parts as well it has saved me hours. I building an aluminum build but your electronic setup and has be the best.
Fantastic job Jason! Great tips, especially using foam core for prototyping.
Brilliant work & tips Jason - looks fabulous! 👍
Looking good. Your videos are very helpful.
Your build and attention to detail is inspiring. I'm loving your videos. Even taking notes 😁.
Looks great! Super neat.
I must say that looks really good
Thanks!
love your videos man helps me understand the electronics step by step. heavily basing my setup off of yours just a different mounting method.
Thank you! The sharing of ideas is what really makes the droid building community so great - I wouldn't have gotten this far without help.
Looks great! Thanks for the links and tips! I'm starting to collect more electronic components. The layout on foam core is a great tip. I think I'm going to have to break my board up into 2 or more because of the 2-3-2.
Can't wait to see yours moving!
I can't begin to imagine the challenge of fitting all of this PLUS a center leg lift into an R2. Best of luck to you!
Yeah... I probably bit off more than I can chew. I've got the dome innards (Swartz) mostly done, (I am going to redo the boards now that I printed out Makerdan's board) some of the other dome innards planned, and I've got 6 arms, the zapper, and the saw to do. I figured out I needed to reengineer the arms and the I need to finish figuring out how to create a folding mechanism for the zapper and saw. Those are a work in progress. Plus the 2-3-2.
I am going to split the body electronics up as you did.
Did you work out the board for the motor controllers yet?
If you mean a sub-board the body electronics (voltage step downs, body marcduino, etc.) then no - but I do have some ideas. I'm also considering adding a trading card dispenser behind the LDP. I have a feeling I will wind up with a second, smaller board mounted somewhere lower front - behind the coin slots maybe. It will take 24v from the main board (via the unused connector), and step down and distribute as needed for the various body systems (and lights).
These videos are a big help. Thank you. Can you show us how you charge your batteries and if you can do pass though charging so R2 remains live in some form while charging.
For charging, I remove the batteries from R2 and charge each one separately using a standard Dakota Lithium 12v/3A charger. The batteries have a 10Ah capacity, so if they were fully discharged, it would take 3.3 hours at 3A charge speed to get each one back to 100%.
As far as being able to use/operate R2 while the batteries are being charged, I'm not really sure how to go about doing that (or even if it's feasible to do so).
@jasonsR2D2 - Finally got to a decent point where everything powered on over the weekend following mostly along with your videos. One thing I noticed was that the amp you have (and linked) seems to have a startup beep it plays: Does yours do that, or did you somehow disable it?
Mine does the beeps when it starts up - I think it's two sequences of three beeps? I'm also running the standard Shadow audio setup, so I get a little bit of the THX sweep sound as well before R2 starts his regular sounds. I admit it would be nice to get rid of the beeps, but that only lasts a second or two, so I find it tolerable. Glad to hear your setup is coming along!
I have MP3TRIGR included with sound files on my sd card ,but no sound would not play,any suggestions.
First, check if sounds play when you manually activate the toggle switch on the board. Make sure the SD card is 32GB in size or smaller, and formatted as FAT32. Larger capacity SD cards are not supported. Sounds like you have the required .ini file, which is good. Ensure that all the sound filenames begin with a 3 digit number (001, 002, etc.) anything after the 3 digits is up to you - it doesn't have any impact. If none of this helps, let me know.
Ok I check later today.