Star Wars Mouse Droid

Chris Ellerby

I just added a new project to my plate.  I'm starting on a 1:1 scale RC Star Wars Mouse Droid.

I'll be doing a lot of 3d printing for the greeblies and other components on this one.  Top greeblies, side circuit boards and greeblies, internal frame, wheel hubs, and various mounting brackets.

This project will also include some programming/wiring for an Arduino & MP3 shield for sound effects.

I'll post some more images soon.

/Chris

Chris Ellerby

Here's a quick update on the mouse droid.

I've mounted the side and top greeblies, glued together the top and bottom frames, trimmed down the top and bottom shells, glued the top frame into the top shell, glued together the internal supports, glued together the internal shelf that will hold the electronics, glued together the wheel hubs, cut the foam wheels, mounted the wheels, mounted magnets in the top and bottom frames, mounted capacitors and resistors on the side detail circuit boards, soldered the MP3 shield for the arduino, replaced the RC car's shocks with rigid struts, and marked off the cuts for the wheel wells on the bottom shell.   And also sanding... sooo much sanding!

So far the entire build (aside from the 2 weeks of 3D printing) has been streamed live on Twitch:  https://www.twitch.tv/vexfx   If you subscribe to the channel on Twitch you can get notifications the next time I go live, and then you can join in on the fun!

/Chris

Chris Ellerby

Lot of progress on the mouse droid.  I'm almost done!

Here's the droid before paint and assembly.  You can see a it of my live streaming setup as well.

Here is what the mouse droid looks like when assembled:

And here is a quick look at the insides:

You can see all the custom 3D printed frames and shelves in there to hold the electronics.

And here is the removable shelf that holds the main electronics package:

The shelf is 3D printed and held in place with rare earth magnets.  On the left you can see an Arduino Uno with an Adafruit Music Maker MP3 shield that handles all the sound and music playback.

On top of the MP3 shield is a couple standoffs and a custom 3D printed shelf to house a 4 channel RF receiver that is used to trigger random sounds, random music, and volume up/down.

Along the back is a Bluetooth speaker that is plugged into the MP3 shield.  And along the front is a 12v battery pack comprised of AA batteries.

The latest version has a second Arduino Uno that receives i2c commands when the main Arduino triggers sounds, music, or sound playback stops.  It then triggers custom animated light sequences based on activity.

I'm in the process of wiring up all the LEDs to a 3D printed frame that mounts under the droid, and should have some photos/videos of that soon!

I also removed the factory steering wheel from the RC transmitter and replaced it with a 2 part 3D printed imperial logo.  The main part replaces the old wheel and includes mechanical stops to prevent the wheel from turning too far forward/backward, and then there is a front cap that was solvent welded in place after being painted red.  Having it in 2 parts means no masking to get the red/black details of the logo.

The entire build has been streamed live on my Twitch channel, which has been a lot of fun.

More to come soon!

/Chris