Shigure's MSE-6 Mouse Droid

[Murasaki]

When I started high school in Perth, Western Australia in the 1980's, we had the basic classes of English(British), Maths, Social Studies, and Science, then we had to select another five. I decided to take computing, typing, electronics, photography and cooking, I kept the same classes for the 3 years in high school.

I continued to play with electronics and built a number of projects until I turned 18 and joined the military, then it all stopped, until I moved to Japan in 2003. I got in to RC Jets for a while and built several, there was a little bit of electronic work involved with them but not much. That all came to a end in 2006 when my newly finished 1:5 Skymaster F-18 went dead stick, crashed and turned in to a huge ¥650,000 fireball of jet fuel and plastic. My now ex-wife put a end to building RC Jets.

So having no hobby, I started messing about with little toy battle bots, and remembered back when I was a kid and got my first RC robot. It was a RC R2-D2 by Kenner, later on I got myself a Tomy Omnibot. It got me thinking and I started researching R2 builds as I loved R2 as a kid. ... ... Long story short, got in to Star Wars Droids which brings me to here.

Here in Japan kids are starting robotic coding at 6 years old, so I decided to start my son early and got him two vortexbots, CHIP robotic dog, and currently collecting and building Robi 2 by Deagostini. I have been collecting parts for a R2 series droid, and have about ¼ of the items I need, but decided to build a MSE-6 as it would be faster to complete and my son can have it sooner. But it was not the case and I ran in to medical problem which are ongoing.

This is the MSE-6 Plan :-

Styrene Shell - Granite Earth
Resurrection Chassis - Guy Vardaman
Chassis to Body Frame - 3D Printed - Tiny Panganiban (3D Files)
Drive System - Castle Sidewinder SCT waterproof combo with 1410-3800KV 5mm sensored motor
Drive Electronics - Arduino & Xbee Controlled
Sound Electronics - Arduino & Xbee Controlled MP3 Trigger, Amp, and Speaker
Rims -  3D Printed - Tiny Panganiban (3D Files)
Donuts - TMRacing
PCBs - Joy Monkey
PCBs Items - Dai Buckley Fam
Top Greeblies Racks - Mike Kelly
Top Greeblies Items - Locally sourced or custom built.
Paint - Rustoleum Flat Black.

I got my shell in August 2016, my son at the time just turned 2 and decided it was his new boat for the next few days.
   
This shell is special as Darren from Granite Earth had made it for himself to be screen accurate and had the folds at the rear of the shell added like the original prop. Well that is what I was told.
   
   
So because of this I am going out of my way to make this MSE-6 as accurate as possible.
Drive System.
   
Chassis with Drive System installed. Just using the temp wheels until I have the new rims 3D printed.
   

[Murasaki]

I like to keep the controller as small as possible and concealable, so I will first start off by modifying a PS3 controller to accept a XBee as someone has done before.
   
But later on I will have my own smaller controller made. This was my 1st idea for the design, but now working on a smaller design.
   
This is my wiring diagram for the MSE-6 .. Xbee and Xbee shield not shown in the diagram.
   

[savagecreature]

this is really cool! I enjoyed hearing your history, too. Fun to hear how people end up involved in this stuff. Thanks for sharing and I really look forward to seeing more

[Murasaki]

The cost of this build up to now
   
¥121,122 JPY is $1400 Australian or $1065 US or £826 GBP

[Murasaki]

Not much happening with the MSE, as waiting on parts from a few people, so filling in time building the Degostini 1:43 scale Falcon.

   
85 of 100 issues

3 hours and 40 issues later, the bottom hull is completed, but found out there are a lot of mistakes on this model, so I will need to buy new parts from Shapeways and also a hell of a lot of fiberoptics.

   
Early photo before completion of bottom hull

And this was not a smart thing to say
Feeling all Star Warsy, a few nights ago after building the Falcon, I said to the wife that we should have her mother 3D scanned and when she falls off the perch, I can put her in carbonite, and hang her off the wall in the new house.

   
Good Idea

And been sleeping in the spare room since.    

[savagecreature]

OMG. that's pretty funny!  I hope the spare room is comfortable, though

[Murasaki]

Two futons on the floor .. ummm nope, not comfy

[kresty]

Two futons on the floor .. ummm nope, not comfy

AFAICT from what you say, you do bring this about yourself ;-)