Robo Derby R1 Conversion

[RoboDerby]

Okay gang. So it isn’t much yet. But hopefully this thread will ultimately see the success of my first ever R1 conversion.

 

Inspired by the many wonderful conversions in John’s project book, I recently purchased a few cheap Rocket USA R1 robots myself with the idea of trying my own hand at sprucing up these coffee cans with motors into something more interesting and fun.

 

After receiving some beat up scrap parts that I purchased on eBay, I decided to start dismantling the first R1 and putting together this preliminary mock-up with the scrap parts and a bit of gorilla tape. I intend to remove the astronaut face and put the lit eyes from the R1 behind the clear faceplate. I hope to figure a way to add function to the arms and head as well. One thing that I am unsure of is what to do with the screen area on the chest. I will use the tin chest plate for sure. But I may eliminate the milky plastic screen and replace it with something else. Perhaps a cool light effect. 

 

I also thought it might be cool to put in an actual lcd screen with hdmi input so that I could play clips from classic robot scenes  on the chest via a tethered device. Better if I could put the scenes onto a flash drive and do away with a tethered device if possible. But I’ll need to see if there is a way that I can do this simply and inexpensively. Maybe I can find an existing device to cannibalize for the purpose.

 

I do have the guts from the original robot with the cylinder and light. But I am unlikely to use them for this project and doubt that the mechanism is functional in its current state. 

 

For now, a couple of photos of the mock-up. I do like the color scheme currently. But I will be cleaning up rust and repainting the parts regardless of whether I match the current colors or go in another direction. I’m excited to have taken these first steps in the project and I’m happy to hear suggestions as I go if anyone has ideas.

 

Wish me luck!

 

 

[MetalRobotHead]

Hmmmm, interesting.  , personally not too sure about the current combination of colours, clash against each other, more blended colours IMHO would suit me, anyway work in progress and looking forward to seeing the finished product. 

[Ranger]

Go for it Jeremy, looking forward to seeing the finished robot!

[ROBODUDE]

Looking Good !   Personally, I like the gray and black---Looking forward to a video when you get it completely finished-Good Job!

[Andyman]

Looking good, Jeremy! I like the combo colors. Hope you work it out.

[roboz]

Cool creation, I'd paint the r-1 to match the astronaut colors 

you want it to look like one toy IMHO 

You can repaint the astroanut & r-1 to any color you like 

get some chrome paint for the mouth & ears

Good Luck ! 

[Mick_B]

Looking good, I like the black and gray together.  To give it more of a one toy look, consider some black in the base to blend it more together. 

The part that will really pull it off (IMHO) is getting the red’s of both pieces to match. 

Yes, everyone’s a critic.

I look forward to seeing the finished product and what all actions you get in it. 

[Brian..]

Anyone who can craft real tin has my respect. 

[RoboDerby]

Thanks everyone for the input and encouragement. It looks like there might be some options for me to add the video feature that I mentioned. It would be so cool to see this fella walking about and playing classic robot scenes.
 

As for the color, I am not likely to go with a single color overall. But I do see your point Ozzie in making sure that the color scheme makes for a cohesive robot. I will keep that in mind as I decide on which colors to go with. For clarification, the color of the astronaut is brown, though it does appear black in the photos, I agree.

 

As for crafting in tin, Brian, I don’t know if this really counts. Certainly it doesn’t compare to the work and artistry of real tinsmen like Shibahara, Yamashita, and our pal Paul. But, I’ll get around to tackling my own tin robot someday. Still though I appreciate the kind words from everyone. I am currently working on this project and also a preliminary design on paper of what will hopefully be my first 3D printed project. I’ll be working in DesignSpark over the next few weeks and it is my goal to purchase a 3D printer once I have the design completed.

 

Though I have no background or experience in electronics, mechanics, tincraft, 3D design, or 3D printing, I am studying these topics and slowly but surely learning the necessary skills. 
 

I believe that it is in either John’s Alpha Strider thread or the Jaggernaut thread where John describes 3 types of people, those that code, those that build, and those who simply dream up ideas, never to follow them through to completion. I am determined to be anything but the last one. Lucky for me, Alphadrome is an ongoing source of inspiration and support. Thanks everyone!

[K-9]

Great start, I really like the overall concept! The astronaut robot's video screen is a perfect match for the upper body of the R-1. It would be nice, no matter how you decide to paint, to preserve the look of the R-1's gauges (just below the video screen). As far as color that's a personal call but I'd tend to agree with MRH and Ozzie. Have you seen any of John's R-1 based creations on the Robohut website, he's done some pretty amazing builds with these in the past.

[RoboDerby]

Okay my friends. I popped the head open on the astronaut and I cut the plastic mounting plate for the eyes on the R1 to fit it inside the astronaut head. Originally I was going to put the eyes behind the clear visor. But now, I am thinking that I like it better with the visor removed and the eyes exposed. If I leave the visor out, I will either paint the plastic mounting plate around the eyes or cut a piece of scrap tin to fit around the eyes and fill the space in the helmet.  What do you all think?  Visor/ no visor or paint the visor and attach it below the eyes as the “mouth”? If I do the mouth version, I will cut the head in such a way that the outer tabs on the visor/ mouth piece slides in behind the cut edges of the helmet, thus not protruding as far out as it appears in the photo.

 

I will need to figure out how to approach the chest screen before I get much further as I need to determine how the pieces will fit inside before I begin to cut tin, design linkage for additional function and work out the routing of the wiring. Progress will be delayed until I obtain the parts for the video screen.
 

 

 

 

 

[Roboto]

What a great project you have begun, Its all about the fun of making it happen and so far its looking great!!

[RoboDerby]

Though I admit this is ambitious considering my current skills, I really want to add a video player to this project to play short clips of classic sci fi/ horror films as part of the function. In the small amount of research that I have done so far, it appears the best option might be to go with a Raspberry Pi setup of some sort, like what might be used in digital signage applications. I need the videos to start playing upon power up without a start up screen or the like. Does anyone have any sort of experience with this sort of project that could offer some guidance or point me in the direction of a resource where I can find the information that I need to set this up?

[astrogonza]

is looking good , , , ,

[RoboDerby]

I have to admit that once I started this project, I am excited to continue working on it. Today I took the plunge and started cutting the slots into the R1 to correspond to the tabs on the head and chest pieces of the Horikawa. For this, I used a dremel with a cutter blade in combination with a small drill bit. Not the cleanest cuts, but this will do and I believe any rough parts will be hidden once all is assembled. It is all fitting together pretty nicely. I intend to work with the bend at the top of the chest to allow the chest piece to sit a little more flush against the R1. Also, when I cut the square into the R1 chest behind the screen, I will leave some excess tin around the sides in order to bend it into the inside of the astronaut chest panel thus filling the gaps on the side created by the upper slope of the chest. I will wait to bend any tabs to lock the pieces in until all closer to the end of the project.

 

As for what to do about function in the chest, I am beginning to lean away from my original idea to incorporate actual video. My plan now is to do one of two things. The first idea is to repurpose an old slide viewer using the lens to replace the plastic screen and possible the lamp inside. Then I will use two old 35mm film sprockets on a motor to cycle through frames of an old film strip or perhaps frames from a 35mm movie that I will attach on a loop between the two sprockets. I have found a cool film strip from Russia with some obscure images of space apes and the like that I think might be perfect. Unfortunately the shipping estimate from Russia doesn’t have the item arriving until late December, early January. So I may have to find something else to work in the meantime. I do intend to build an access panel into the back of the R1 in order to make future repairs, change bulbs and replace the film if necessary.

 

My second idea is to create a sort of Kaleidoscope effect using a stationary cut out in front of a rotating colored spiral design that I will print onto transparency paper.

 

Here are photos of the cut slots and the loosely assembled parts so far.
 

I do think that I will ultimately go with painting the visor and using it as a mouth piece in which case I will cut the top of plastic mounting piece for the eyes and raise them up a bit so they are not obscured by the mouth piece. I think that attaching the “mouthpiece” in this fashion gives this guy the appearance of being a robot athlete in some sort of space sport, perhaps a space sport called Robo Derby.