Shawn & Lara need a Toolbox... Droid?

[kresty]

Threading the rods was also quite challenging. I saw a jig/holder for a die on Thingiverse and decided to try something like that to keep the die perpendicular to the bar. Then I had a hard time finding a good enough vice - but there's one at the garage that worked.

My printed jig thing is designed to go over the rod and keep the cheap-o harbor freight tool aligned to the rod.

One interesting gotcha with this plan is that the tool's die is offset 1mm within it's handle. Fortunately I caught this before printing.

It fit on the tool and rod perfectly the first try.

I neglected to realize that I'd push my printed part off of the tool (and let the tool get cattywompus.) The first time it didn't do that, but it tried for the second end. I ended up being careful with starting it to make sure the tool fit in the jig.

After 6 ends my little guide thingy is getting a little stressed. Only 2 more ends to do - but I don't have another rod. I'll leave it for now, those wheels are optional anyhoo.

[kresty]

Ugh, the ends I'd carefully sanded down so the bearings fit... now the bearings don't fit. I guess the end got a hair thicker when I added the threads? (it's OK where the threads are, just where they stop it won't pass.)

[kresty]

A couple more bits for the toolbox droid. For the lower part we still need motor mounts (on the printer now) and a support bracket for the upper bit (on the printer tomorrow I hope).

These are supports for the road wheels that also hopefully hold the battery. And two fin things that I hope will help keep the upper track from drooping.

Battery Box and Upper Track Support for Lego Toolbox Droid

This sure is turning out to be a colorful droid!

[kresty]

A bit more progress.  Actually starting to feel like we're getting somewhere, it's been a lot of work to get to this point.

We get to see the first 2 pix 'cause Savage likes pix of the cat.

And here it is with the tracks test-fitted. The tracks still are mostly incomplete, needing an extra layer, but they're getting there.

Lego Toolbox Droid Tracks

There's supposed to be motor mounts, gears, chains, a battery and probably some electronics in here. You can see the battery tray here, but the motor mounts are still printing and I don't have the electronics started yet. The idea is that if everything can fit in here, then it'll be easier to keep the "toolbox" clean for tools. (Well, or whatever we put up there).

Interestingly, I turned one of the wheels by it's gear and that track actually made it want to turn. Granted it's way lighter than it'll be when it's finished and it's on a slippery surface, but maybe it'll have a chance? I haven't even put the inner wheels on that I wanted to help with that, nor does it have the traction
stuff we planned for.

But I could also hear the thump... this is going to be a rough driving droid.

[kresty]

Working on the droids:

Swapping out the frames on the Toolbox Droid.  Old frame was a bit too short, the cross beams hit the tracks.

[kresty]

Then I worked on the electronics - extremely simple at this point, stole the remote from L3-G0 and paired a spare receiver to that.  Uses the tank drive outputs from L3-G0's program to turn the motor controllers.

Rx -> Motor Controllers.  Battery -> Fuse & Ground Buss -> Motor Controllers.  Very trivial.  It'd probably be a really, really good idea to add an on/off switch though!

Note I printed a little "spare fuse holder" - of course it has slots I'm not using anyway, but I wanted a fuse holder for the other droids.  Keep needing a spare fuse in L3-G0 and not having one easy to find.

I don't expect it to run very fast, so I set the limit on the Pololu controllers a little low.  We'll see how it does when it's happy.

One problem was that I managed to install the one motor controller such that it couldn't plug in the USB cable without loosening the screws holding down the board  Hopefully I don't have to program it much.

Shot a quick video proving that the electronics all work, making sure the motors turn the direction I want them to.  As you could see from earlier posts, a chain drive will turn the actual drive wheels that turn the tracks.

[kresty]

Lest you think we'd completely forgotten about it, testing the corner of the top of the toolbox droid

Trial Corner of Toolbox Droid top

Trial Corner of Toolbox Droid top

This'd be one of the corners on the top that the stuff's sitting on.  I was so thrilled I was getting the curve to behave (kinda) that I totally forgot it's got another curve just under the next section...

Toolbox Droid
First Droid Lee Towersey made for The Force Awakens
Used in background somewhere, not sure where.

[Dyne]

Looks good. I didn't even realize Lego came in all of those earth tones, but I shouldn't be surprised.

[kresty]

Looks good.  I didn't even realize Lego came in all of those earth tones, but I shouldn't be surprised.

Trouble is that all colors don't come in all shapes and sizes, so that makes things more challenging.  And some of the colors are pretty rare and hard to find.  Then finding the ones that go well together.  I haven't really done anything quite like this before, so it's been interesting trying to figure out the colors.

[kresty]

Working on the toolbox some.  Hope the mottled colors look OK to folks.

Lego Toolbox Droid Top Platform Construction
Working on the tippy top of the Toolbox Droid

There are a few 1x4's missing from the top (on order), but the other holes are intentional, figured it's like chipped paint.  

Top edge is still only about 1/4 of the way done

Lego Toolbox Droid Top Platform Construction
Working on the tippy top of the Toolbox Droid

About where it goes over the wheels

Lego Toolbox Droid Top Platform Construction
Holding the top of the droid over the wheels about where it goes.

One of the tracks is pretty much done.  

Lego Toolbox Droid Top Platform Construction
One of the tracks is on, mostly assembled.

Second track was missing one of the drive wheel rims.  Not entirely sure what happened to it (it was red in previous photos, so I know it used to exist).  Reprinting is a decent test of the CR-10 enclosure.

Lego Toolbox Droid Printing Last Wheel
Somehow one of the wheels got missing.  Good test of the new cabinet for the CR-10, my Flashforge isn't big enough for this.  Worked well until I decided it was done a little too soon.  (It'll be usable though).