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

[Dyne]

This is such a good cute fun droid I would love to get the files you have to work on this when I can.

Sorry I haven't replied for awhile.  I've been distracted by IRL stuff and my Mouse and new Scrubber builds.

I've been intending to release the files for a long time, but something always comes up, or there's some tweak or change that I want to do that would make things a lot better.  Right now the biggest issue is that both the drive mechanism and the head animatronics are a bit flaky.

I kind of have a deadline for doing it because Fusion is going to stop supporting Windows 10 in October (even if you get the microsoft extended support) and I loathe Windows 11, so once my install breaks it is likely broken permanently.  I need to get not just this droid but all of my projects exported before that happens.  We'll see.  

If anyone is following my build thread on Astromech, I've also got a lot of work ahead of me on that project as I intend to get it rolling before the 50th anniversary in 2027.


Back to LD-F1, I need to do a lot more thinking about the head animatronics to improve that.  As I mentioned last time, at Droid Con 2024, the mechanism Dave Ferreira made for Professor Huyang was inspiring.  I just haven't had time to focus on this aspect.


For LD-F1's drives: I've tried two stage belts (albeit DIY versions, so not the best).  I've tried hybrid belt/gear.  Based on my research so far, I can't really do an off-the-shelf chain drive, which was going to be my next attempt ... mostly because to get the needed gear ratio, the final sprocket diameter would be larger in diameter than the tracks are.  

But I think I might finally have a possible solution.  I was at Droid Con 2025 a few weeks ago, and one of the things I saw in more detail there was Tim Hebel's B2EMO pro drive.  I also saw a foot drive for R-series Astromechs.  

What these two things have in common is that they (as well as Tim's R-Duo drive) use the same SVH4D 4 inch hub motor (wheel with integrated motor) made by UUMotor.  It's strong, but less ridiculously overpowered and costly than the Q85s commonly used in Astromechs, and also doesn't require internal modification.




The tracks on LD-F1 are also 4 inches in diameter, but removing the tire from the hubmotor makes the diameter a fair bit smaller.  Exactly how small I don't know, because the CAD on their site doesn't specify some of the dimensions, and I don't have one to measure.  Maybe I'll toss Tim a message and see if he happens to know.  If removing the tire allows enough clearance, then it may be possible to integrate these motors into the main drive sprockets of LD-F1's drive, similar to how Tim embeds them into the B2 Mecanum wheels.  It would be a bit overkill for such a small droid, but I guarantee you that these things will never skip and they have enough torque for a droid several times larger.

Uumotor also lists a 3 inch hubmotor, which is probably more likely to fit. Judging by my CAD, the motor (sans tire) would need to have a maximum diameter of 75 mm, ideally 70 or less, to accommodate the centering feature on the track.  Since their CAD shows that the whole motor with tire is 70 mm, I think it'll fit.  This size would also be a lot cheaper, but I'm unclear if it's still sold.  I'd use the version that only has the axle on one side (HB3GL-B), as that matches the way the existing sprockets are mounted.


While I'm here, I also had additional thoughts on the head lift mechanism.  Specifically, I learned more about capstan mechanisms.  I still think the droid is a little bit too compact to implement it, but it's a direction I could go with that.