R2D2 3D Printing Building

R2D2 time!

I have been busy printing a new project - the R2D2 3D full scale droid.   

This is using the excellent designs by Michael Baddeley, you can find the designs and loads more information on his Patreon page here.   Support Michael on Patreon if you can afford to do so!

There is also a 3D printing site called appropriately enough 3DPrintedDroids here [link Edited 26 Oct 2019]

For in depth knowledge on the whole R2D2 world, no better place to go the Astromech site here and also check out the various UK sites associated with them. 

For an in depth R2D2 R6 droid build, check out James Brutons 3D printed 2-3-2 droid build here

Also there is a Dalek site here!!   If I had the workshop space, I would be building one of these as well.   You can view all the plans for many different Dalek's when you register on the site.

I am not going to show any structural build drawings for the R2D2 as there are strict club/forum rules about sharing layouts outside of the community, so join the forums for detailed information.  I will be doing detailed layouts for the software and electronics side of things.

The Printing time

These prints are really big and take a long time, so far the the dome pieces times are between 24-hours and 30-hours each.  The main body pieces look to take even longer.  I accidentally sliced the DOME  sections at 0.15 and not 0.3 layer height as advised, so future printing times look shorter.

I have seen one estimate of the printing times and parts to be [phul007 blog comments]
25 kilos of filament [approx]
2500 plus hours printing [approx]

I am not sure how this compares to the InMoov build as I have not kept accurate records unfortunately, but I have kept records of the InMoov leg build so will add that all up and update this page later.

Update to InMoov printing times.   I did not keep records when I printed the arms, torso & head, but I did record the amount of filament and printing time for the LEGS.  2000-meters PLA [6-reels approx] and 642-hours of printing time. I would guess that the rest of the InMoov took 2-3 times that amount of time & plastic again. 

Control systems

The long printing time will at least will give me time to continue with other build projects and also think about the control system for this R2D2. 

There are several ways to automate the Droid and have a read through some of the really good blogs on the Astromech.net site.   They have developed the PADAWAN control system so that seems a great place to start.   Several versions of this systems with PS3 and 360 control handsets exist. 

James Bruton has also shown and published his control systems for the R6 Droid [see part-7 of his video build series on the R6], this using Arduinos and a modified RC handset.

I think I am going to use the Ez-Robot control system however, the main reason being is that I have a spare V4 controller that came with a kit I bought in the sales over Christmas.    Also I see that I can control the system using my iPhone [or Android] and also with the Sony handsets.   The Handsets will be the best way I think to control the droid.  The kit also comes with two continuous HD servos that will come in handy.  Plus four normal HD servos, a sensor and a camera, so a bargain kit.



BryanBot keeping an eye on the build...






loosely bolted together for the moment...

January 2018..

Here is a picture of the order that the gear rings are assembled in.  Note they run anti-clockwise