Dome Changes

Further work on the body continues with me bondo and filing as I go...
All the while I performed some more head tests with the SHADOW code I built and found that the PWM calls to the head to spin in place does not work as expected... what occurs is the servo will turn in a particular direction continuously...

So... I re-wrote the code to allow for detach and attach of the servos for the gimble head spin.  This also brought to light another issue.

With the club head that I had painted and setup... the entire unit would spin thus requiring the 3 wheels to fight against the magnets.  This works for moving left, right and front and back... but for rotating it was difficult for the servo to fight against the magnets.

So...  I started to build the 2 piece dome that allowed the skirt to connect to the wheels and the upper part to spin on an axel that was connected to the magnets...

This also required Patrick Stefanski to figure out the remaining pieces of connecting the shaft between the lower magnets and the upper dome assembly... his holes were larger than the bottom shaft holes (6m) so this was now creating some issue...

I started printing the pieces and noticed the "ringing" that occurs with the printer... when its doing any sort of circle (hole) or line on the side it will create echos of it like water ripples from the line outward...

As you can see from this photo above... at 80% complete the larger radar eye circle has ripples coming from it... the lower HP hole also had it although not as clear in this photo.  This presented a large problem with having to file and bondo the thing...

Note here the lower lines that are vertical are even worse..... argh!

I spent days filing and sanding and filing... and started to spray it with several coats of primer.

Also connecting the lower skirt ring together...

Oh oh... forgot to insert Patricks wheel assembly in... oh crap!

ok I pulled one end apart and inserted the piece back in and re-glued it.

I used very strong rubber bands to hold them tight together while it dried.

Ok while that was drying I started the ever familiar bondoing the dome... 

Trouble in Paradise!

This one was terrible... lost sleep lastnight thinking of how I was going to fix this.

What a PICKLE I got myself into this time.

Lets document what occurred after I finished painting.

I added the opposite side onto the cheese to finish the ball structure.  each side has a complete circle panel on it so I can get into the inside to work on the mechanicals.  At this point I think only Kenny Baker could have done that.

Here is a close up of the space I have to work on things... NOT

I placed all the triangles on it and placed the first circle panel on the top... wait a tick.

looking closer you can see that the curvature of the ball (cheese) and the panels did not match.  Infact it was clear the 500mm ball I was using was too wide... it was actually more like 495mm round but there was no such thing...  so... lost sleep on this one.

Reached out to fellow builder Patrick Stefanski who asked... maybe cut it down and create a slice out of the panel to sharpen its curvature... yes it will leave a seam.. but what else could we do?

I had a few circle panels laying around for spares (eventually would have used them for the creation of doors to open close for special effects etc... everyone asks me about the thumbs up piece.

Measured out straight lines... cut it... making a single cut.  Layed it over the ball... overlapping the edges... traced where it was overlapping and cut out the slice.  This will be my template.  You can see me using this template and tracing on another test panel under it.

Wow - perfect fit

There is a slight gap closer to the center, I will compensate for that on the LIVE cutting of the panels.

ok now to cut one of the real panels... here we go!

ok this time when cutting it I left the top without a gap and made my way out from mid point of the cut to create the slice.  oh I hate the fact that I am cutting into my art work!  hate it.

Oh my!  it worked... thanks Patrick, will begin doing the others now.  definitely will have gaps still on the outsides too so will need lots of bondo... tape and paint!

Finishing up the gray/silver areas

Started masking and painting the gray areas on the body panels..
This was a little more tedious given there are smaller areas to mask off as well as more space to cover.

Also was worried about the orange coming off... not a problem.

Neat to see all the symbology masked off... this sucker was difficult

This one was probably the easiest

Comparing it to the photos it was close enough... although many of these were manually drawn.

Here is another one... I ended up fixing the off angle portion of the one arm in this photo.

This one was probably the hardest... lets watch the masking occur.

There you have it... ready to paint

oh wait... nope this one was the hardest... :)  they were all hard.

After drying and pulling the masks off... I think it looks awesome?

This one came out not too bad some running under the tape occurred.

Here is another one...

After spraying the 3 coats and letting dry I also did the dome piece too.  I will use the silverleaf silver putty to cover this - just wanted to see what it would look like.

Also painted the Eye and the HP too.

Smells like Paint and Wood

Dennis the Menace quote...

However painting the panels and dome were the primary focus this weekend... my approach was slightly different than most builders... I started like normal with the primer, bondo, sand and then prime once again...

Steps involved with painting

Primer > white > mask > orange > gray/silver > touch up white...

Sat the panels on my ole trusty frame and started spraying the primer

Many of us use these for primer.. it fills very well and covers without having to heap it on.  Dries quick too

After a few coats of primer - we sprayed the panels with satin white (same as R2) and applied 3 coats of this.

Also sprayed the dome too... got all 3 coats on the dome.

While the coats were tacky dry I began masking off the parts that were to remain white or gray and then left the areas that were to stay orange.

Another view of a completed masked panel ready to paint

Scary! but without a doubt that orange is not touching the white areas :)

One by one... masked and sprayed each panel's orange area.  3 coats

Here I am masking the white areas off... I press into the seam so I can easily follow it and cut with a very sharp hobby knife.  Also notice I am using the straight edge of the tape to keep the sides of the orange tabs straight and true.

Here I am further into the masking... the corners of course need to be rounded off on the tabs.

Here is the final piece masked and trimmed...  you would think I have done this before... NOT

While I was busy I started to mask off the dome too.... lots of items to mask off.

After 3 coats of orange... we are on our way

Spraying the dome now too.... 2 coats and 1 to go.

Peeling the tape off... while the last coat is tacky... from afar it looks great... however there are some clean ups involved.

Close up... looks ok the edging on the tabs look ok but need cleanups.

And the dome... if you look closely the right side there is bleeding... "runny" which I will have to sand down some of that area and re-paint the white portions... no biggie... OR we weather it to death.

Updated SHADOWBB8 Code

Updated the following and posted out on GitHub...

Adjusted the POTS, IMU and joystick readings and values for proper control of the sway, forward/backward and auto correct functions.  Also adjusted the gimble controls for re-centering faster.

Enjoy

https://github.com/jlvandusen/SHADOWBB8

Anyone interested in converting their James Bruton controllers to this new method here is the hardware you would need:

1.      USB shield (I have a few but SAINSMART is deeee best) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006J4G000/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

2.      USB Bluetooth V4 class 1 module (GMYLE is deeeee best)

https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Ultra-Mini-Broadcom-BCM20702-wireless/dp/B015R7OA1U/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1479489560&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=GMYLE%C2%AE+Ultra-Mini+USB+CSR4.0

3.      2 x Playstation Move Navigation controllers (always get a few extras)  You can find them cheaper on Ebay

https://www.amazon.com/Playstation-Move-Navigation-Controller/dp/B002I0K6X6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479489617&sr=8-1&keywords=playstation+move+navigation+controller

4.      A USB A to mini B to connect the controller to the Arduino/USB shield for pairing.

https://www.amazon.com/Playstation-Move-Navigation-Controller/dp/B002I0K6X6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479489617&sr=8-1&keywords=playstation+move+navigation+controller

Future (sound control from the joysticks as well):

1.      Purchase 2 Bluetooth HC 05 with buttons for AT command programming (1 for dome and 1 for body)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XXALRUG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

BB8 first appearance Rogue One Opening Weekend - Destiny USA Dec 16-18th

Tracking this event here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/704034983084638/

More work on Skins placement and sizing

Making a Shell

I feel like a seamstress where I am re-assembling pieces to form a suite or coat over the outer part of BB-8s drive system.

The difficulty of this process is its not to perfect 1:1 scale for the ball, infact its off by a few mm.
This makes it difficult in using any kind of pattern or template, I ended up in the end using the templates for reference and using common household items as helpers, created the same geometric shapes and such to mimic the original designs on his outer ball.

As we saw previously, I had cut out and shaped the circles and triangles... I traced the initial portions that related to the sides and was planning to work from there around the rest of the ball.  You can see above the outlines of where the circles were placed.

I used a single triangle to form the others... this helped quite a bit.

When all was said and done... I had over 16 pieces of plastic that were used (2 were for spares)

Here is my initial sketching on the circle mimicking one of the pieces... I have to do 6 unique designs in all and try to match as well as can be the original design.  Once I am done sketching, I use a wood carving tool to etch into the plastic to create the illusion of separate pieces.  following all the lines.

After 6 hours of sketching and etching I am done.  These pieces are all ready to be masked and painted.

I ended up doing a loose fit test of all the pieces on the ball, using the tape I used for 3D printing... it didn't hold too well.

I ended up using common 3M masking tape, worked better. Looking good... not too many gaps.

Oh great... look at this gap... the last piece too... ok so I am going to either:

1. Create a custom triangle to fill it

2. Create several custom triangles to fill evenly around the circle.

I will choose 2 I think... I have enough spares.

Again the other sides align great and look awesome... excited.

Very excited to see this coming together.

Here is a closeup of the fitting.

You can see where I overlap the sides so I can make a clean cut between the triangles.

I had to do it... placed the old dome on the body... viola!