Holoprojectors

Spent most of the day soldering in the wiring for the Holoprojectors and then cleaning up some of the wiring on my electrical panels.  While not the final version of the wiring I have planned, it looks better for the time being and will be more durable as I go forward.

This is the inside of the main electrcal panel in the open position.  I tied the wiring down by drilling two small holes side by side into the ABS then loopng a small black cable tie around them,  It almost disapears into the panel and is easy to remove and re-tie if I add additional wiring.

This view shows the main panel in the closed position.  I still need to come up with a good method to secure the rear door...

The completed dome with all the lights on.  In the future I plan to add more features and hopefully a video projector in the front Holoprojector but for now this looks pretty darn good.

R2 Speaks

Along with getting the Holoprojectors and a few other detail parts finished up one of the other main projects was to get the sound working.  I found a nice small motorcycle amp on eBay and mounted it to a plastic panel on the inside left leg.  I bought a few cheap speakers and tried them but the sound was horrible.  On a hunch I dug around in my garage and found some old stereo speakers that I took apart.  These yeilded two PERFECT speakers that fit perfectly and sound fantastic.  I copied a few extra sound files off my Star Wars music CDs onto a thumb drive and wow!!

This shows the speakers installed on a plate that will be directly begind the front grills.

Also I finished up the Holoprojectors and installed them with a bit of JB Weld.  I still have to hook up the wiring but they look nice and the Dome now has a finished look.

This is an overall shot of what R2 looks like so far without the skins.  In order to get him to a ready to show state I need to wire up the Holoprojectors, add the Power Couplers and manufacture and install the coin returns.  Although the wiring works it's temporary so I need to do a bunch of wiring work soon.

Holoprojectors

This is a painted holoprojector with the lens inserted.  Also shown is the front part of a Brinkman LED flashlight which I disassembled to use for a light.  Wires were soldered to the springs for the battery posts and the rear end of the flaslight was pried off and inserted into the back end for a clean appearance.  I have other lights I tried but many were so bright they hurt my eyes so I like the overall look of this one.

This is a completed holprojector with the light installed.  I just wrapped masking tape around the flashlight housing until it was a tight fit and pressed it in.  I know it is very low tech, but it also cheap and works just fine!!

All three holoprojectors finished and ready to install.

Back to Work

O.K. - I took a break to do some projects and get through the holidays but now its back to work time.  R2 has an appearance at the Museum of Flight in a few weeks so I need to finish the outer detail so he looks done, I can finish some of the other operating features I have planned later.

Above are some power couplers I am putting together out of resin.  I would like aluminum parts but don't have time to make them or find them so a few of the detail parts will be resin for now and hopefully aluminum later.

These are the assembled power couplers and a set of holoprojectors after washing and getting ready to paint.