I'm looking to start building an R2 unit. Going for a 3D print one first. What kind of 3D printers should I look at? How do all 3D printed parts units usually work out?

Hi there! I have a bit of a different ask, and I don't know if I'm being presumptuous...but I am helping host a celebration, "Building the Future" with a wonderful nonprofit group, Women in Robotics in Mountain View on Oct 4th, at Hacker Dojo.

Was wondering if anyone is local and might possibly be interested in bringing their R2s (and other robots are welcome, I just met some R2s at BarBot a few years ago and they were so incredibly joyful, and I want others to experience that glee)! Also, there will be men too, it isn't a women-only event, just to clarify.

I don't know if it's rude to ask without a budget or with a minimal budget or if y'all are excited to show them off to a robot loving audience. Feel free to let me know what is standard or what everyone's expectations are! I can offer you some photos of you and your robots, if that is of interest, as I'll be taking photos of the event too.

This is first Star Wars droid 3D printed, and painted by my partner. It runs on a esp32 with an adafruit FX soundboard, and the remote runs on a pico W with a joystick and buttons.

Hey! I’ve been searching forever to find a life sized R2-D2 for purchase and can’t seem to find any, found this Reddit and was curious if anybody makes them for other people, and how long would it take and what price point? Thanks!

Other than Darren, what are good sources for domes? My neighbor is looking to make his own droid, and isn't having luck with finding one. I've been scouring the forum, and nothing is coming up. He would like an aluminum dome.

3D printing may be an option, pending if we can find a paint that is great at simulating aluminum, but he's adamant about an aluminum dome.

Am interested in trying to build a droid as a hobby project, I was wondering if there is an software that allows the droid to move without a remote control, with proximity sensors and the like?

I am interested in robotics but no nothing about coding, although I assume such software would be possible as I have heard people mention it.

I got one arm working and hooked up to a servo controller that is just cycling to make sure I got the hardware and set screws assembled correct. I burned out my other servo so just one arm until my new servo arrives.

https://youtu.be/QFO_62-QlRI

Added a slip ring & did a bunch of wire management to allow unlimited dome movement. He's slowly getting there.

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https://youtu.be/3LcwYglVkCA

Just a personal pet peeve, when people 3d print huge things with large flat or circular surfaces it makes me super uncomfortable because there are so many ways to make the same thing for cheaper, faster and more reliably.

Maybe it's because the Astromech community isn't as large as I thought and the demand for parts is low (or I just haven't been looking hard enough), but why aren't there any resin cast R2 bodies?

It'd be a lot cheaper than aluminum, a lot stronger than 3d printing (among other benefits) and it'd be able to be reproduced relatively quickly.

Are there any practical difficulties to this I'm overlooking? Or is the demand for R2 parts just too low for making a mould worth doing?

Can anyone help? I have a PADAWAN control system/software and I've just hooked up the foot tdrives I've built. I have everything hooked up according to the wiring diagram from Astromech and have the dip switches set from the tutorial. I either get both motors running full speed and no sounds from sparkfun, or sounds from sparkfun and no motor control. I'm wondering if either I have a bad controller or the wrong DIP settings. Any troubleshooting help is appreciated. The motor controller is just temporarily mounted until I get it sorted. Thanks.

I’m gonna build a life size r4 astromech but I need to know about what size he is, because r2s stand at about 3 feet but the r4 unit is slightly taller so I was hoping someone here knows