Markus' H015 from cardboard

[kresty]

Looks cool - yea, maybe we need removable antennae so we can replace them when kids snap them (or we fumble loading the car).

[Markus]

Now that the body and head are done (and painted) I am starting with the details. First comes the display for the front side. I am using five of the MAX7219 8x8 LED matrices, wired in series. These are mounted behind a piece of sanded plexiglas.
           
Now my H015 can display his name - this is, of course, only the first step. Later I will do more programming to display different things here.
   
And this is the full front view.
   

 

[Markus]

Looks cool - yea, maybe we need removable antennae so we can replace them when kids snap them (or we fumble loading the car).

Good idea, ... but too late for me - my antennas are fixed. But the head can be taken off, this make the transport easier.

[Markus]

On the backside I mount a 1602 LCD display (2 rows with 16 characters each).
   
This display is connected to a I2C module, so it only uses two outputs from the Arduino.
   
Here is a detail of the mounted display
   
and this is the backside of the droid
   

[Murasaki]

Look great, what are you going to do for a drive system?

[Markus]

Look great, what are you going to do for a drive system?

I am currently working on this and I think I will have something in a few days. I plan to use a simple two-wheel drive system with two motorized wheels plus a caster wheel. This set from Amazon (without using the actual chassis) worked pretty well with my astromech R3-B9, and it should work even better with my H015 which will be much lighter.

[Markus]

The original H015 in the movie is using a holonomic drive system with four omni wheels, mounted at 45 degree angles close to the corners. For simplicity (and budget), my version will simply use a drive system with two motorized wheels plus a caster wheel. I am using the same (cheap) motors that worked pretty well with my little astromech droid R3-B9. Since my H015 will be significantly lighter than my R3-B9, these motors should work particularly well.
   
For the chassis, I cut a piece of 1/8" plywood to fit exactly below the lower part of the body, plus the pieces which will hold the motors and the caster wheel.
   
The plywood pieces are glued and then the motors and caster wheel are mounted.
   
   
This base plate provides plenty of space for the Arduino and the additional electronics.
   
Now I have started soldering the PCBs, i.e. the shields that will be stacked on the Arduino.
But I got a little slowed down since I have also started building a HAL 9000 replica ...

[kresty]

I'd been wondering about 2wd as well. Part of the reason I filled in the wheel holes for the Greebles file was so that people could cut openings wherever worked for them.

[Markus]

After a longer break, I am now looking at the bottom pieces. There is no way that I will be adding all the LEGO details - but on the other side I want to have something that at least reminds you of this. So, I started gluing cardboard on all four sides of the chassis.
   
Then I added a second layer with some cut-outs, and glued a few smaller pieces in a third layer. 
   
Once this is painted black, it shows a little structure, that vaguely reminds one of the original.
   
To finish the chassis, I also cut a hole for the speaker and glue a few pieces of wood for mounting the electronics and for holding the batteries.
   

With this step I have finished all the outsides of my sentry droid - yeah!

[kresty]

Cool, great progress!