Electronics make over.

As well as working on K9 this weekend Emy has also had an electronics make over. Emy is now a bit of an old girl. Because she was the first mobile Astromech I built some of the electronics were a bit crude. The sound card and sound trigger board have now been neatly added onto the back door electronics board, as opposed to just being Velcro to one of the internal batteries. The compressed air cylinder has also moved from the head to the main body, making the head lighter. The head wiring has also been simplified and made much simpler. When my slip ring arrives from china this will be added to Emy giving her head a 360 ability. The top utility arm switch now triggers a sound as opposed to the extinguisher: this is now triggered directly from the RF switch. The RF switch has completely been rewired and switches reallocated. From the pictures it does not look like it but there is now more room inside the main body which means I might add a bigger third 12v battery giving Emy a longer run time.

Warning

Unfortunately due to certain people feeling they have the right to steal my work and call it their own all of my new images and Videos will be watermarked with the Podpadstudio watermark. I am sorry if this  compromises the quality of the final images, but there seems to be no other way.

Stars of time 2012.

Another great Stars of time event at the Helicopter museum at Weston Super Mare.
Thanks to Julia for the photos. I must try to get more photos taken at events and spend less time driving Droids around.

Collectormainia 10 Milton Keyens

A brilliant day. Another successful meeting of the UK R2D2 Builders club.

Not a Droid

http://podpadstudiodalek.blogspot.co.uk/
Not a Droid but just as much fun.

What a phenomenal day. The total raised for charity was over £6,000, not bad for a couple of hours work.

Because it was our own event I decided to bring all four Droids and K9, plus I was joined this year by Ian who has now completed Arthur(R4) after a five year build. It was brilliant having so many Droids whizzing around. Emy and Zoe did there normal thing, K9 came out to play when the crowds has calmed down a bit and R2D2 sat on the stage and looked proud. 

Events like this are so much fun. I talked with so many people ranging from a very nice young lady about RC helicopter controls to how to build sound systems inside a Wookies head. It was so nice to meet so many great people who share such a passion for Sci-fi. It was also great to catch up with other builders and people passionate about robotics. I must apologise to all those who I meant to talk more with but was simple so busy that I did not get the chance to sit down.

South West model show

Emy and Zoe out playing and raising money for charity at the Bath and West show ground. 

Weston Super Mare

Great event at the Grand Pier at Weston this weekend, loads raised for charity. 

A new beginning

A new friend for Zoe and Emy.

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New Head drive wheel

Zoe seems to be getting all the attention lately so I thought I might do some general maintenance on Emy. It was a good job I did as I noticed that the rubber wheel that drives the MDF ring that moves the head had completely worm away. I noticed that Emys head was not moving as fast as normal at the ASDA event but I put that down to low battery power as Emy had not been fully charged up for that event. On closer inspection though it looks like the rubber on the drive wheel has worn away, I suppose than is not bad considering that Emy will be two years old this christmas.
A new rubber drive wheel has now been constructed and fitted, new bearings fitted in the main head bearing and now she is as good as new with a very fast moving head.

When I have some real time I will get a decent video edited together, but for now some fun with iMovie. Extended movie added to video section at bottom of blog page

Raising money for Charity

Charity Sci-fi had our annual event at the Swindon Orbital Centre, this year at the massive ASDA/Wallmart. You need a Droid in this place just to get from one end of the store to the other, lucky I had two, Zoe and Emy.  A great day with loads of money raised for Tickled pink Breast Caner charity.

A day out at B & Q

An interesting event at the opening of a new B&Q store in Devizes. Emy, Zoe and Charity Sci-fi were invited along to add to the festivities . Emy serving on the checkout went down a storm, however I am not sure the young girl on the checkout next to her could tell the difference between Emy's beeping sound and the stores door alarm, as she kept looking behind her to see if anyone was leaving the store with goods they had not paid for.

Stars of Time Event

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Even though Zoe was definitely in popular demand here for photos Emy still had her fair share of fun at this event. The location was very good for this event which was at the WSM Helicopter museum, or at least it was for running Droids as the floor was perfect.