(: 1st "Real" R2 Meeting :)
Winter Park, Florida
08/26/06
NOTE: QUICK PAGE HERE, WILL BE UPDATED LATER OR RE-HOSTED AT ANOTHER SITE AS WE HAVE NOT COLLECTED ANY HI-RESOLUTION PICTURES AS OF YET EXCEPT FOR THE GROUP PHOTO.
We had
another
great meeting
of local
builders. It was a great turnout and we all had a great time
sharing our projects and droids. We had about 20+
members show up enjoying company and pizza. The time went so fast
and I'm sorry if I didn't get to know you a little better. Can't
put all the names to faces quite yet...
Some meeting highlights:
- Our special guest, Daniel Deutsch, brought a original McDonald's "French Fry" droid that he had built a long time ago. He got power to it and fired up the electrical's and the 8-track that was used for the sounds. It was pretty cool to see this thing working again after a long time. Along with a box of his awesome aluminum droid parts, he shared a "Cobot" collectible. Never seen one before and it's cool. Also brought a special R2 with him... and a large picture of an ANH Kenny Baker R2 from the SWR archives for us to gawk at. Thanks for hauling out all the stuff!
- We had our first C3PO and a Jawa at the meeting. Thanks to Jim and Yvonne Quinlan.
- Keith and Carolyn and their now almost complete R&J dome.
- Doug Dixons R2-D2 is looking good. He was scrambling to get R2 further along for DragonCon(sp?) but took the time to make the meeting.
- Running my R2 electronics. Got R2's PCB1, PCB2 and main motor controller talking to a new MiniITX PC, Laptop PC and my Futaba 9CAP RC transmitter.
- Some of us got to drive an R2 for the first time. Thanks Daniel for handing out the controls. Made some of us want to get ours done even sooner.
- Chuck Moore actually got some building done! (The rest of us were just gawking and eating pizza...).
We all
will remember this one, kind of the first "official" Southern Builders
get together. Thanks again to all that came out and lugged/hauled
their droids and parts. More pictures to come. In fact, we
are working on gathering photo's and videos to make a master DVD so all
can have copies of the meeting. Meetings sure have come a long
way since our "mini" meets that we held with a hand full of people.
It's great to see all the local builders get together, AND to
have two functioning R2's was a meeting first!
One of the group photo's, some of us are missing!
Click on the photo for a larger version:
Daniel D. and friends. Need some fries with that
R2 order?
Daniel talking and a bunch of interested builders
are listening!
Here's the Cobot. This thing is really cool.
And here is the R2-D2. Sorry it's a little dark
will update later.
Back side of R2-D2. Daniel said
the dent is the back of the dome is "intentional
from a ball peen hammer". Uncle Don said "do it!"
Don also said "He's still not dirty enough". Looked awesome
to us fellow builders, expecially the House Of Colors blue paint!
Another picture.
The Quinlan's C3PO is looking at Doug's R2 wondering
if the Jawa is going to shoot. The Jawa's eyes were
lit up, but didn't show in this shot very well...
The C3PO had just been plated. Great work.
Another shot of C3PO and Doug's R2
Doug's R2 is coming along...
Some of Keith and Carolyn's parts. Looking good too.
Now just where where were those A&A legs?
Keith's AT-AT. Awesome job on this. How much you
want for it :)
Carolyn and Keith with Dougs R2-D2 (left) and
one of our special guest R2's on the right...
Chuck Moore working on his JAG frame and
rockler bearing mounting.
My R2 finally "lit up":
I let the electronics run all day for "burn-in". If I had the
darn foot drives finished, I would have mounted the
legs and run him. There is a MiniITX PC and laptop just to his
right that were also running some electronics. (rear view).
That's
about it for now, we will have more pictures to add. Thanks to Keith and Carolyn, the Quinlan's and Froghopper for the current pictures (I didn't have time to take many :).
Last updated: Sunday, September 4th, 2006
Time: 2135 EST