So there was this spazzy, little droid.....

So Dan and I are having way too much fun with a completed droid to run around with.  But you guys wouldn't know anything about that since I haven't blogged about it!  So here it goes......

We have feet......

So now we need brains.......so the soldering begins.....

In pure Dan fashion, his brains needed to look a certain way too.  So he spent a lot of time planning out where everything would go on the board.  I have been told, in length, what everything does.  Do I remember any of it?  Nope.  But Dan insists it is easier than it looks and it is really not that difficult to build.  Uh huh...suuuuure.  

We had a clear board but it cracked.  I kinda like the blue though.

Speakers!  We actually hooked R2 up to our phones and listened to music.  Heehee.

Dan wanted to make sure the R2 had lots of power and easy access to said power.  So he has two batteries with the switch in the front behind one of his doors.  Easy switching from one battery to the other.

Braaaaiiiinnnsssssssss...........

With all these brains comes some serious computer programming.  We had a lot of help from some friends (I don't know if they want their names posted, but you know who you are!) and we couldn't have gotten R2 running without their help!

I wanted to post a video of R2's first steps (for those that haven't seen it on my facebook) but apparently Blogger has a limit on video size and I haven't figured out how to change that yet.  Yes, my computer skills are seriously lacking.  

Next up.....skins!!!!!!!!!

Every time we added something we said, "holy crap, he's really starting to look real!" and the skins really did that!  

 Now we just need a head.........

I am so very far behind

Hello, everyone!  And welcome to "Tiffany is a horrible blogger - part 2!"  I am so very far behind on this wonderful little blog I started about mine and Dan's R2 build.  So far behind in fact, that I don't even know where to begin to start to catch up.  So let me start by giving away a huge spoiler.  R2 is done!!!!  We debuted him at Megacon this past weekend and he was true to form being a spazzy and sassy little droid that couldn't keep still.  It was an absolute blast and we were so very depressed to see it end.  I will have a dedicated post just for Mega but for now let's get back to the nitty gritty stuff about the build.  

This is the point in the build where Dan just kinda...took off...and went build crazy.  So I didn't have a lot of "here, look at this" and explanations about what was going on, because everything was happening so fast.  I also am totally off now chronologically speaking so pics and things will most likely be totally out of whack (told you, I'm really bad at this!).  So I'll just post a bunch of pictures and hope it's self explanatory!  Ha!  I kid.  Even though I honestly have no idea what he is doing build wise, he knows every inch of this machine.  So if you have any questions at all, please feel free to drop me a line and I will pass it along.  In pure Dan fashion, he will explain every nook and cranny.  :)

Here's some pics of the foot motors and shells.  

I thought this was really cool.  Using spray cans to bend the styrine to the correct shape.

Did I mention we like bondo?

Hooray, feets!!!!  More to come soon.  And by soon, I actually mean soon.  I had some people at Mega ask me if we had a blog about the build, to which Dan responded by giving me super evil eyes, so I gotta get this baby back on track!  And I have lots of Mega pics to share.  

Happy Halloween!!!!

I know.  I'm late.  Story of my life.  But Halloween is a year long event for me anyway, so maybe I'm not late at all!!!!  Just wanted to show you all R2's Halloween costume.  Even without his costume on he made quite an impression with the trick or treaters.  :)

Happy Halloween from me, Dan, and R2!!!

The day was 10-11-12

Remember how I said we had a monumental day in the build?  Well 10-11-12 was that day.  (I'm way behind, I know...I know...)  We didn't plan the date, as some people are crazy about the numerology dates that the last few years have brought upon us, it just kind of happened.  But here it is!

R2 is on 3 legs!!!!!!!!!!!

At this time we just have temporary back feet and placed him on scraps of wood so we could move him around the linoleum.  

Something about this stance really makes him start looking real.

Of course I had to put baby R2 beside him.  :)

Starting work on the skirt.  (Wait, R2 wears a skirt????)

We ordered skins too, so pretty soon (and by pretty soon in my blogger time frame, I mean most likely in a few months) R2 will have skin!

I want to make another shout out to the R2 builders club.  These guys are amazingly helpful and we (me by proxy) feel honored to be a part of this organization.  And now we (again, me by proxy) are part of the Southern R2 builders club.  This subset of builders is really something else.  In the short time that Dan has been a member he has talked to so many helpful people and found out so many fun tid bits of information.  One really awesome part of this club is their involvement with MegaCon.  For those of you that have been, last year they had a huge booth area in the back and ran the Hoth photo op.  So hopefully by March we will have R2 moving (he may be headless, however) and rolling around MegaCon showing off and supporting the Southern R2 builders!!!  And we (hopefully WE this time) will be volunteering and helping out with the booth set up/breakdown and the photo op.  March can't get here quickly enough!!!!

R2 builders club info -   www.astromech.net

October is just too much fun!

I've been slacking on the blog lately, tis true.  But I blame October and all it's amazing fun times.  (guess what I'm blogging about next??)  Between birthdays and house guests and parties...oh my....it's been a little rough getting to the blog.  But alas, more picture progress fun is coming today!

The last pic I posted was that R2 now has 2 legs.  Dan likes to surprise me with progress, so seeing his second leg done was pretty awesome.  But wait...it gets better!

He surprised me with R2's eye and coin slots too!  Finding the correct color blue has proven difficult.  Mixing colors is the only way to get what we want.

So now that the legs are built (and bondo-ed, primed, painted, repeat) now it is time to do a bunch of work that no one will ever notice.  Internal structure support, extra weight bearing blah blah blah.  When I come home Dan has something super awesome to show me and it honestly doesn't look all that different.  But it is stuff that needs to be done to make R2 run properly and not fall apart.  So bravo, Dan!  :)  

Once all the boring stuff is done (have you noticed the horse shoes are 2mm taller? I didn't either) we can paint and add fun R2 details.

You see that stuff around the edges.  Know what it is?  It's carbon scoring!  Looks like R2 has seen a lot of action. 

More mechanical stuff.  Like making R2 be able to move from 2 legs to 3.  

2 leg stance 

3 leg stance

At this point in the build Dan has shown me things day in and day out where I have to ask him to show me the detail he has worked on.  For about a week I haven't noticed much of a difference besides structural (aka boring) stuff.  So on this day I'm driving home from work getting text after text saying, "Are you almost home?" "When will you be home?" (Don't worry...I only responded at red lights.) After being throughly confused and intrigued as to why he was so anxious for me to get home, I walk in the door (to which he barely lets me enter) and he shows me this.....

Don't feel bad.  I have no idea what the big deal was either.  Something added to the ankle.  Yayyyyy....sarcasm...yayyy....

And then I walk in further.....

Holy crap!  R2 has a body!!!!!!!  And is standing!!!!!!!

See?  He likes to surprise me.  

He is standing on temporary feet next to our pool table.  But he is the correct height, so you can see how big he really is!  Somehow he doesn't look that big in the movies.  

For over a week he had been working on the frame (to which he did purchase and put together - I have to ask him who he bought it from.  The quality is amazing and this guy deserves mention!) and I had no idea.  What is even funnier is I actually saw the frame put together in his closet and didn't realize what it was.  My view was this (minus all the screws) and I actually put some of Dan's junk (I mean stuff, very important stuff) on top of it while I was cleaning.  

So R2 has a body.  And!!!  Guess who got a baby R2 for her birthday????  He is way too much fun to play with!  Just makes me even more excited for the big one!  :)

I tried to post a video of him but it wouldn't post for some reason.  Sad face.  

Thanks for reading!  More to come soon!