Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Getting Ready for Emerald City Comicon (ECCC)

Aiiii, not long before ECCC and MCK-Y the Lego Mouse Droid is having challenges. At Brickcon his paws pretty much fell off in the last hour. So they need fixed. His sound also had a horrid ground loop feedback thing going on. And lastly his ground effect lighting is cool, but it needed more!

So MCK-Y the Mouse Droid was torn apart, and of course when a cat sees a mouse, he wants to help out. 
Cat Catching Lego Mouse Droid.
First order of business was getting the lights replaced.
MCK-Y's LED Light Board
As you can see, the back wheels are missing and MCK-Y's pretty much demolished.  He's heavy, almost 1/3 as much as L3-G0, so normal RC/Lego tires won't cut it.  For Brickcon we filled them full of beans, and then when the beans ground down, we ran to the store and bought split peas.  That gives him an interesting gait, but doesn't work great.

I thought of foaming the tires, and this is what happened.
Lego Tires Imploded After Spray Foam
Ick!  When we release the vacuum, there was a pile of gooey resin. For the rear tires we sprayed again and left an air space, which mostly worked.  For the front tires that also failed, so we ended up drilling air holes in the wheel and then using silicone caulk.  Something reacted with the uncured resin and the silicon exploded, but now they're nice and firm.

You'll notice that the tires and wheels are normal Lego parts.  They're attached to 3D printed hubs that are on the normal car axles.  The front wheels are attached with normal Lego Technic pins, though the rear wheels got #4 screws through the middle of the hubs to press them into their spot (at Brickcon they fell off several times, hopefully this will help).

Front Lego Wheels Pinned to MCK-Y's Hub


Lego Mouse Droid Rear Hub, Tire & Axle
Now he's getting close to back together.  Only a few days to Emerald City Comicon (ECCC), hope to see you there.

MSE-6 Lego Droid Body and Chassis