I spoke with Scott Grey this weekend on FaceTime regarding my persistent JEDI Control problems. I never had dome motor control, and about a month ago I lost all foot motor control. Thanks to FaceTime, Scott was able to determine that all my wiring is correct, my VEX is set properly, and the motors themselves are fine too. This means I probably have a bad Syren10 motor controller. So, Scott has graciously agreed to receive my components back to his lab for diagnostics. I fear my JEDI will not be ready in time for Halloween, which is a real bummer. But, like all things in the R2 building arena, everything takes twice as long and twice as much money as originally planned.
I've moved on to major dome work since the electronics are sidelined for now. Above is a photo of a sheet metal circle cutter I've re-purposed to cutting the inner dome circles. This was a tedious and potentially dangerous endeavor. It was difficult to keep the bit placed on the dome as it cut, because the dome has a radius to it. The bit was designed to be used on a flat plane. Each hole took about 2 hours to do properly. After a week of off and on cutting, with multiple battery charge cycles, I had some nice round holes. I can't imagine doing this freehand or with multiple drill points. The circle cutter, while problematic, is the way to go.
I did some testing with Mother's alum polish, which I am happy with. Other builders have reported it makes the overall alum color darker, but I have found that to be very minimal.
Here's a shot of a hole on the inner dome after marking for cutting, tapped with a guide hole for the bit, and some cutting underway.
This is the result after the circle cutter is done. The rough edges are sharp and need finishing.
I used an empty bottle wrapped in 150 sandpaper to smooth out the circle. Just twist, twist, twist. The edge is so sharp, I went through several sheets of sandpaper in the first few minutes.
Testing some general sanding on the inner dome to see what I want to use on the outer dome. This area on the inner is covered, so experimentation is okay. I decided on using a palm sander with 150 grit to remove spin lines, then 220 and progressively higher. Finally, I use 600 wet grit by hand to achieve a polish. I'm saving the Mother's polish job for the very end, after the two domes are bonded together. That could be a while from now.
My dome is mostly finished. I'm just waiting for my detail bits (Front Logics, Rear Logic, Holos, etc) to make sure all my inner cut holes are big enough and everything is "just so" before bonding those domes together. Bonding the domes is a critical phase, and once it's done, mistakes can't be fixed. So, I'm moving slowly on the dome from here out.
Unfortunately, cold weather has already arrived, and so I've missed my window for painting. I have the panels painted for the dome already, so at least I can get those on, but everything else is going to have to wait. I can get most everything assembled and ready to go for the return of warm weather, sometime in May....? By that time, all I should need to do is paint though, which will go quick.
Project Status: 80% complete!!
No comments:
Post a Comment