Saturday, November 21, 2009

Logics Installed - Test

I installed the front logics tonight just to see how they looked. I have the pic cranked at 45v and if the logics are directly facing, it's blinding. I may need to cut the voltage back. This again is only half of the leds, however, I faced a problem as one of my wires broke. It was on the outside row of the leds, and when I connected it again, it worked. This really bothers me and I may only add another string or two and then glue some blanks in. The light from the surrounding leds may illuminate enough to make it look full. At 40 leds, it already looks pretty good. It's a compromise, but it may be necessary to do, just to avoid possible (further...) breakage.


Sunday, November 15, 2009

First Logics Test

Big Update!!! I have been working on the front logics for a while, running into issues with the pic flasher a while back and point to point wiring more leds than I'd like to count. It's been trial and error with led strings breaking and having to be re-welded and/or replaced. I am half way through, which means for me, 40 out of 80 total leds for my front logics. Keith's resin logic surrounds only allows space for 5 rows of 8 leds, instead of 5 rows of 9 leds that my bezels are configured for. From my point of view, it doesn't really matter, it's still going to look good.

I have spent time here and there, working on no more than 2 or 3 leds at any time, to glue the lights to the bezel. It's been a slow process and has taken more than 2 weeks for me to complete due to the cure time for the glue, but I have 4 complete strands. Today, I spent some time wiring the strands to the pic flasher and it tested great!!! I can't wait to complete this as it's been a long time in the works for me. I'm going to have to power it with 9v batteries for the time being, but I will eventually move the power over to a distribution board, connected with a slip ring to allow connection to the dome without the wires getting twisted. This will eventually allow me to run the light operation remotely, and give Artoo a little more realism.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Legs attached

Well I think I figured out how to attach the legs to body. This set up isn't completely set, but it was stable enough to make a display appearance for Halloween at work and then at church for our youth event. Artoo was a big hit!!! I can't wait to get him rolling around for next year!!

Attached are some pics. I attached the legs using the parts included with the A&A frame. There are 4 hubs, two per leg. I have them attached, one to the leg, and then one inside the JAG stop on the shoulder of the frame. This give me about 1/2" from the leg to the body, less the .080" thickness of the skins. I have yet to reinforce the bolts, from both the inside of the leg hub as well as between the inside of the leg and the shoulder hub. I plan on using an additional piece of styrene inside, laminated to beef up the area of the bolts. I plan on doing the same on the opposite side of the leg skin, using metal for added strength.

The builder logo that you see is the cut out from the C&D dome base ring. I think Cole Horton mentioned something about not knowing what to do with this area, but he added the logo there for fun. I'm not sure if anyone had done anything with this yet, but I plan on eventually finishing a frame to fit it and adding a clock movement. The weathering was made to look like scrap metal. I'm pretty happy with the results.