SWTOR Companion Droid Astromech M4-QT build WIP pic heavy

[B1ondeange1]

So I have been quiet here for a bit- partly due to my ankle, partly due to the fact I haven't gotten decent pics of my outfits as I've adjusted them and with my ankle it is too much of a pain to just get dressed up into it for photos! I have been working on my newest SWTOR Jedi Robes- these are going to be about as screen accurate as I can manage and will be my aim at approval for Rebel Legion, however I will start another thread for that. This thread is for my little buddy that hubby Jobe Devian has started working on.

Let me introduce to you M4-QT- because he is gonna be a real little 'cutie' when he is built! For anyone who knows the game SWTOR, he is based on MT-4T companion droid specifically, however there is a large group of different companion droids (including M4, MT, M8 and other designations) that have the same basic build. He's going to have a slightly different colour scheme as I also want black on mine.

 

This is MT-4T:






This is our first foray into astromech building. Eventually we will be building a T3, then an R2 or R3 unit- and maybe a T7 later down the track (another local astromech builder has plans for a T7 so for now we are letting him build that first). Anyone who has seen these companion pets in game know they are small, somewhere around knee height. He is an 'on the cheap' build, literally for a bit of fun and to start to get a handle on the mechanics, issues and build techniques we will need to upscale when we go full sized- and to get hubby back into robotics.

So far he has a thin MDF skeleton body, thick cardboard skin (this will be built up to multiple layers) and a clear plastic dome head. Yes- that is a plastic salad bowl we are using I told you he was on the cheap! M4 actually started conception when he found the salad bowl in the shops and thought ahah, thats perfect! He has small gearbox motors in each of his front feet, a caster wheel in his back. In the photos below he is only tacked together with hot glue for testing purposes, so we know that he can move on his current motor set up- he has taken off across the floor and run in circles so far. The motor/ gearbox is currently set up for max speed which so far is a slow walk at a lower voltage than we will be finally using. We don't expect him to be fast, he is mainly for photo shoots and to look adorable rather than walking cons, so if we need to change the gearing for more torque we still have plenty to play with

He will have a servo to make his head move 180 degrees (not bothering with full spin head like R units typically have for the sake of this build). He will also have speakers and mp3 trigger board so he has a few beeps and whistles, and a led for his holoprojector. We aren't bothering with any other moving flaps etc (since you don't see them in game anyway and he is a basic build). 

But who else gets to say they have their VERY OWN companion droid from SWTOR while costuming?! And now for build photos so far!

A bowl full of parts- yes, that is hubbys build dimensions scribbled on the back of a bit of xmas wrapping paper we are very technically minded as you can tell.




Legs at test stage- they are a bit different now


Everything balanced in place with an askew head dome


Tacked together:


ITS ALIVE!


Test skin on:


As he comes to life we will update Hubby will do most of the subframe, robotics etc- I'll be doing the skinning and detailing, since thats more his line of work while I love fiddly decorating stuff which he finds frustrating.

[DarthScrub]

That's so cool!

[Spades]

+1 for awesomeness.

I want one of these.....

[Kham-Ryn Kurios]

Adorable, I can't wait to see the finished result.

+1

[skullsquadronx]

That real cool I been looking at an old hot water heater myself to make a droidsout of.

[Zren Tobas]

I know its a droid but I want to give it a hug for some reason Will you guys ever come to America for conventions in the future? Would be cool I live in Ohio so not a lot goes on here convention wise I don't think

[B1ondeange1]

I know its a droid but I want to give it a hug for some reason Will you guys ever come to America for conventions in the future? Would be cool I live in Ohio so not a lot goes on here convention wise I don't think

Maybe. Its certainly something we would love to do just for the experience in the future coz our cons are real small here. Getting costumes there can be difficult, we'd have to restrict ourselves to safer soft costumes not our full armour gigs or arrange to have them sent in advance via a courier and hope they weren't damaged. not so cheap and we have heard some horror stories. We were looking at going to an eastern states con (because we live on the other side of a huge desert in the West) in the Halo suits at the start of this year before we had to scratch that idea due to my ankle and costs. Just to get our armour there was either $150 each, one way, or it was $150 for both one way (cant remember exactly, hubby did the costs) via courier a few weeks earlier to be left with someone there, not to mention flights and hotel cost. And itd still be cheaper than us driving there not to mention we would need a couple of days before and after the con for driving if we did that!

[B1ondeange1]

A bit more work done today: 'backpack' and rear foot sorted, head dome sorted as well. Hes slowly coming together Still all just tack glued at this point, his backfoot still needs more detail work and his legs need fixing and straightening but he is taking shape. He is gonna be such an adorable bobbleheaded droid! sits somewhere around a foot tall, probably a bit more

[B1ondeange1]

No picture updates today- but QT now has a motorcontroller and Arduino in him and my hubby has programmed him to do a little dance! (well it kinda looks like one- he goes forwards, turns, goes back, turns, goes forwards). At this point still all programming practice and working out little problems which are many and part and par of any robotics. The castor wheel we have used for his rear foot may not be the final one we go with as it doesnt always run smooth, sometimes gets caught/ stuck and dictates his direction and we've been working kinks out of the gearing and getting it down to what we want

These motors came with the gearboxes and are a bit underpowered, he has plenty of speed and torque but it is with the motors running at a higher voltage than they are meant to (3v rated, running about 4-4.2V atm). They will be replaced with higher voltage, stronger motors when these wear out. At the moment his speed has been geared down and everything is running much smoother as a result, hubby is thinking of having a 'turbo mode' on the remote so that if you need to give him a bit extra omph either to keep up with someone or get out of the way of something it overrides his power and speed restrictions but the rest of the time he trundles along cutely at a slow walking speed (he could probably keep pace with a little kid). His wheels will be upgraded as well to something with a bit more tread, currently he is using Lego Mindstorm wheels coz thats what we had on hand for testing at the time QT does burn outs!!!! Bogan little droid!

The little guy is also being powered by a few lithium ion 14500 batteries that I got for my sabers because they are 'high capacity'- but the exact power requirements of the sabers means they do funny things to the colours once they get slightly flat, obviously not rated in the same way as trustfires are! Since I have eight of them, and I have four trustfire chargers it is a handy solution for his power requirements. Out of convenience our Halo Spartan armour also use 14500 batteries When you have as many as we have, it is just convenient and also provides the right voltage requirements for all of our gear.

[Bulvoy]

This is Fantasic. Take a Major Bow for  Creativeness & ingenuity, I'll definately be keeping an eye on this thread.  Thanks for posting the pictures, Great ideas +1 just for starting it. on a side note too bad it would cost you two so much to get itor your armour to the US east coast for display.
                     I guess i take it for granite living in Pennsylvania, the NYC comic-con is less than 2 hrs away and have never been to it, somthing has always come up. ( mainly the time collides with my Hema activities) But will be attending  this year as well as the East coast mini one in April.

[Molina00]

That is so adorable, and absolutely brilliant!  Love the salad bowl dome. 
I will definitely be watching the progress on this one.

[B1ondeange1]

So I believe this is what you call necro posting but it's my thread after all

We have returned to M4 after many months of him sitting on a shelf. The plan is to try and get him done in time for Rogue One premiere- and subsequently it is all hubby is working on now!

M4 now has radio control for his feet motors only- we haven't got the time or parts to make his head move atm, so his head will just be bolted into place. Poor hubby has run into multiple issues with little M4 trying to bring him to life- the lithium batteries we were using apparently aren't protected *NEVER BUY THE GTL BRAND OF LITHIUM BATTERIES!!!!* and as a result they didn't cut out at 3v each but were still running at 1.5V ea- and his step down 5v reg couldn't handle it, it cooked itself, he replaced the batteries thinking they were dead and instead put a butt load of voltage into devices only capable of running 5v.... And cooked his Arduino Nano and motor controllers. Then the replacement Arduino was faulty. Then everything decided to be buggy. Then he replaced the motors only to find out that the new motors can't do the required speed and overheat quickly with our new grippy wheels, then the thumbstick (which notedly was a cheapy) started playing up.... So new motors are on their way and an old controller is going to get hacked up.

Le sigh. The joys of robot building. Glad I'm making his Jedi robes, that is far far easier!! The local droid builders club are great though, various members have offered to lend parts to get him finished in time if we can't get them shipped in soon enough that only works for some things though, most of them are building full scale astromechs- not foot tall baby droids! The problem we have is getting motors tiny enough to fit into his small feet, but powerful enough to move him a bit quicker than snails pace without burning out.

Take home message? Stick with trusted, quality lithium batteries!!!! *throws out the rubbish GTL ones*

I will post some pictures when he is a little less naked... Right now his parts are showing

[scifidude79]

This is a really cool project, I'm glad y'all are finishing it.  It sounds like you two also aren't letting a major setback get you down, which is always commendable.

[B1ondeange1]

Sorry for the delay, but I've been pretty sick for the past week and a bit.

Here are two photos. Not finished by any means, the back wheel section and the leg still need their detail work put on them. But we are making progress. Course, he WAS meant to be finished by the end of today :/ *prays to the Force we get him finished in time*




Note: these pieces have just been roughly put together for the photo, they arent together properly yet hence the gaps

[scifidude79]

It's looking great so far.