Dyne's LD-F1 (D-O concept) build

[Dyne]

Current Status: Rolling & Repair, Debut complete

• Intro and Table of Contents - This post
  
• Initial Track Design - Post #2
  
• Sizing and Lift Geometry - Post #6
  
• Revisiting the build, Belt drive details - Post #9 (and 10)
  
• Lift system (neck design and geometry) - Post #11
  
• Build plan for Dragon Con 2022, Initial head mechanism - Post #13
  
• Upper Stalk structure - Post #14
  
• Actual Physical Evidence - Post #17
  
• Tank Tracks - Post #18
  
• On the topic of levers and trying to position a linear actuator - Post #22
  
• Front chassis design - Post #23
  
• Rear Chassis design - Post #30
  
• Idler structure - Post #32
  
• Larger nozzle and suddenly, a chassis! Details on prints, list of brass inserts and bearings - Post #36
  
• Printing the last parts, notes on wiring, assembly, starting painting - Post #37
  
• Painting, details on radio config, more wiring, the assembly progress - Post #41 (and 42)
  
• Mid-Dragon Con 2022 update - Post #47
  
• Post-Dragon Con 2022 Photos & To-do list - Post #48
  
• Side Plate Design - Post #50
  
• Weathering and Side Plate Printing - Post #54
  
• Side Plate Painting & Weathering - Post #59
  
• Prepping a future file release - Post #63
  
• Working antenna mechanism & updated wiring diagram - Post #68
  
• Musings on the top Bay Door - Post #73
  
• New Neck Design - Post #75 (and #76)
  
• THE GREAT REWIRING - Post #77
  
• Gear Drive Thoughts - Post #87
  
• Gear Drive Implementation - Post #88
  
• Gear Drive Test #1 (benchtop test) - Post #89 (and 90)
  
• Gear Drive Test #2 (failed the Turning Test) - Post #91
  
• Gear Drive Test #3 and thoughts on idler - Post #92
  

Intro

Since my droiditis has been flaring up and I'm never content with just three or four to focus on (Current list: BB-5M, R2, Treadwell, plus revamping Artie Deco), I thought I would also start musing about/planning one of the other droids high on my build list before more droids from Visions start to crowd in.  (Technically I already did some preliminary CAD for this last year but nothing very significant, so I'm starting from scratch.)

It's that D-O concept that I posted about in the D-O forum, the one by Luke D. Fisher (thus my chosen droid name LD-F1, though I waffled over whether to move the hyphen and call it LDF-1).

It's kind of similar to Treadwell, both being tracked droids with spindly necks and a head on top.  The head also resembles BD-1.


Decision Gate

There are a couple of decisions I know I'll need to make early on for this.

Size - The art suggests a smallish Droid, though to me it feels somewhat larger than D-O's final design.  I'll likely decide on a rough size for the radar eye and tracks that seems practical, then scale everything to that.  That coiled cable could also be a guide, assuming a phone handset cord size.

Treadwell's base without tracks is roughly 20 inches wide by 36 long iirc, and I think this droid's base is a fair bit smaller than that with tracks included (which are each about one third of the total width).  Maybe around 12-15 inches wide and 18 inches long?


Tracks - The art suggests that the segments making up the tracks are rigid on a hidden belt (see where they curve around the front), but design wise it might be easier, quieter, and more practical to make them just a flexible outer part of the belt.  Either way, I doubt I can get away with an off the shelf belt part like Treadwell uses.  Maybe something printable in TPU if it's small enough to fit on a print bed.

For simplicity, I'm treating the base and tracks as having a constant height.  They can also be read as having a slight taper front to back that isn't entirely perspective.  That could be more visually interesting for the droid, but I'm inclined to doubt that was the intent.  As an artist, I wouldn't have made those panels on the sides of the tracks look the way they do if it were meant to taper.  Tapering would also complicate the horizontal cover over the concealed portion of the neck.


Neck - The folding neck design is going to be tricky (I need to look more at the design Matt Hobbs and the Wall-E builders are using to deal with Wall-E's neck to see if it'll be applicable, as it does have a sort of 90 degree bend and lifts in a similar fashion).  Look around 6:17 here:





But I also have to resolve some minor artistic ambiguity.  To me, in the right-hand (lifted) illustration, the two arms of the upper neck read as being side-by-side due to how the main joint is drawn, but the upper connection in both images and the base of the neck in the left (non-lifted) image can all be read as one arm being in front of the other.