Cricket's Cosplay

A few weeks ago, our 14 year old sheltie, Piper, crossed the Rainbow Bridge after being diagnosed with kidney failure. She was a very loved member of our family, and we still can't believe she is gone. This is one of my favorite videos taken of Piper, and it makes me smile every time I see it. I'd like to think that she's running like that somewhere over the Rainbow Bridge now. ❤️

Finished mounting the Electronics Control Panel in the front. All electronics are connected and functional. This is a quick tour of the outside of the shell, showcasing the main audio functions and the Control Panel features. Wall-E Builder's Club: https://wallebuilders.club/ Kyber Control System- https://www.facebook.com/groups/1341505756182087/

A quick test to verify that everything is connected! The Electronics Control Panel runs on two separate Arduino Nano boards. One board runs the TFT display and driver board. The other Nano runs the buttons, button lights, and audio. There is a small speaker installed within the panel that runs off of its own small amplifier board inside the control panel as well. As far as coding goes, I can't take any credit for it! I know absolutely nothing about how to code Arduino. I have had assistance from other generous builders in the Wall-E Builder's Club that have been incredibly helpful with sharing their code with me. :) Wall-E Builder's Club: https://wallebuilders.club/ Kyber Control System- https://www.facebook.com/groups/1341505756182087/

Finally finished the bulk of the wiring and mounting for Wall-E's Solar Charge Display Panel. I was completely out of my comfort zone with this, but I made it all work! I still have lots of weathering to do on this part, but happy with things so far. 😉 Many thanks to the builders at the Wall-E Builder's Club for their help! https://wallebuilders.club

Super exited to share that I finally have my speakers hooked up! I thought the song "I'm Alive" was fitting for this stage of the build. :) I'm using transduction speakers; they need to be fully secured to the surface for best sound. I'll be mounting two to the inside front of the door, and two to the inside back of the trash compactor door. I am using the Kyber Control System to streamline the process of programming the audio. Eventually I'll incorporate servo movements into things, too.

Milestone achieved! I've successfully connected my 4s, 6s, and 12v batteries into Wall-E's frame. This video briefly shows the initial components within the 1:1 aluminum frame. Still more needs to be done, but I am thrilled with my progress so far. 😁

I am in the process of slowly putting together the electronics portion of Wall-E. I am completely out of my comfort zone, but am making progress! Today I succeeded with installing the 12v 60a battery to the components that will control the motors. Part of that installation included two solid state relays- one for each motor. These relays will allow me to have an Emergency Off switch (Deadman's Switch) from my transmitter that will kill the motors, but still allow Wall-E to have all other functions operational. This is an important safety feature; Wall-E is a very, very heavy robot, and a curious child wanting to touch his treads while he's in motion could cause a serious injury. Being able to make him immediately stop in case of an emergency is invaluable for me. Many thanks to Mike Senna (@TheMikeSenna ) for the initial idea, Matt Hobbs (@matthobbs7350 ) for the recommendations to improve it, and Dan Coe ( @rendermandan2820 ) for being ever patient with all of my questions!

It's been a huge hassle to work on the inner frame of Wall-E on the floor. It is kind of heavy now, and will only get heavier as I add the electronics and batteries. Inspired from Mike Senna's setup, I decided to build a rotating work platform. I'm using a 12" bearing ($10, Amazon) and a 24" wood round piece ($18, Home Depot). This was a quick and super easy build. It's solid and perfect for what I need!

So I made some adjustments to my transmitter settings and thought I might be ready for another Wall-E motor test. This time, I decided it was time to try running both motors at one time. This was the very first time I connected the tracks and both motors to the cross bar. It may be a slow test, but it's a successful one! Please excuse the crazy wiring on the cross bar. Remember, this was only for testing purposes! I get a 'spaghetti' pass for this one. :) And apologies for the terrible framing that cropped my head out of frame. I was too focused on making sure Wall-E's treads/motors were in the shot!

A fellow Wall-E builder had asked me to share the techniques for what I'm doing to weather Wall-E's treads. This is a short tutorial for how I applied powdered pigments to create an organic dirty effect. If you are interested in building your own Wall-E, be sure to join us over at the Wall-E Builder's Club! https://wallebuilders.club/forums/

Quick test to see how well the axle would spin before adding the chains to the sprockets. Very satisfying!

Both NPC-2212 motors are connected to the Sabertooth controller and working as they should! I still need to dial in my exponential speed settings. I have no experience with transmitters and receivers. It's easy to say that I'm learning a lot during this stage of the build!

I stuck one side of Wall-E's steel motor assembly so that it could be supported by the cross bar. This allowed me to test drive the motor with my updated controller settings. This test is much better than my first one! I feel like I can actually control this thing now. :)

First test of Wall-E's motor. I need to refine my driving skills. And adjust some settings!

I'd been struggling to make EC5 connectors, which resulted in many, many fails. Brute force just wasn't working for me. A lot of research later, and I found a much easier way to get the EC5 connectors installed for both the male and female ends. Best part is that you don't have to hammer the connectors in!

One of my husband's favorite movies is 2001: A Space Odyssey. For Valentine's Day this year, I decided that I would make him his very own Hal 9000 to watch over him. Because homicidal computers are all about love, right? ;) My husband made a short video after he opened it... https://youtu.be/h8oOxOxbz1s Music under Creative Commons License by scottholmesmusic.com. Printer: Prusa i3 mk3s Filament: Hatchbox ABS Black 1.75 Layer height: .25 Perimeters: 3 Infill: 10% 3D print files for this project can be found here (and they're free!): https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1805762

Another test fitting of my son's 3d printed First Order Stormtrooper armor taken almost one year after finishing it. He had grown since I made this for him, and I wasn't sure if it would all still fit! Thankfully, most of it still fit. He reported that his shins were too tight around the ankles, so I ended up reprinting and finishing a larger set. Aside from that, the biggest challenge he was having was holstering his blaster. The blaster was also 3d printed to the same 76% scale as the armor.

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays of the year. We installed a Ring doorbell this year, and took advantage of it to catch some reactions to one of the simplest - and scariest!- Halloween props I've ever made. Here is a compilation of the best door reactions from this year. Enjoy the show! :) Music Artist: Computer All-Stars Title: Club Transylvania Licensed under Creative Commons: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Computer_Music_All-Stars/Halloween_1182/CMAllstars_-_Club_Transylvania_1102

I had the privilege of participating in a Children's Hospital Fundraising Celebration last week in my Stormtrooper armor with the amazing members of the 501st Legion's Georgia Garrison, Rebel Legion, and Droid Builders Club. It's so much fun to see grown adults turn into 12 year olds when they see us. :) Video credit to @pal2tech (Chris Lee).

While on vacation this summer, I brought along my 3D printed Shoretrooper to do some serious dawn patrol while at the beach. The beach was secured for the Empire. Remember Scarif! Edited by Cricket's Cosplay with Adobe Premiere Pro. Music under Creative Commons License by scottholmesmusic.com. Armor and blaster 3D printed on a Prusa i3 MK3s with Hatchbox ABS filament. Armor files: Mr. Paul's Shoretrooper Build Helmet files: Nico Henderson Armor files scaled down to fit using Armorsmith software. E-22 Blaster files: Sean Fields Blaster light and sound: BlastFX 501st Pathfinders Detachment: https://www.501stpathfinders.com/ Shoretrooper Fam: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1742353536003671 Raw photos and drone video: pal2tech (go check out his channel if you're a photo-gear nerd!) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBT6ZUFLWSkghYRzPQkWbhA

This Shoretrooper Squad Leader has been approved in the 501st Legion for trooping! This is a 3D printed helmet and armor set scaled down to fit my 5'4" frame. I spent almost two years printing, reprinting, sanding, painting, sanding, sanding, sanding, and more painting to build this armor. I even made my own pants and shirt. Very excited to be assigned to Beach Patrol!

I printed out an E-22 for my Shoretrooper armor and I added a BlastFX kit. The standard BlastFX is set up with one LED strip in just one barrel. I modified it by adding a few extra LED strips in both barrels for maximum PEWPEWPEW. Want to add lights and sound to your blaster? Contact Paul over at TRamp for your own BlastFX kit! https://www.facebook.com/trooperamp

We will be roping off our front stairs/patio this year for Halloween, but we still wanted to welcome trick-or-treaters to our haunt with candy. We came up with a way to allow trick-or-treaters to get their candy safely this year! Behold the COVID Socially Distanced Halloween Candy Dispensing System! This is the first test run. The jaw of the skull is key for getting the candy to land into the bowl. Without it, the candy simply flies out onto the pathway. I don't want kids hunting all over for their treats in the dark! I will be adding a small LED light inside the roof of the skull's mouth to allow for better visibility inside the bowl at night. An unexpected bonus of this design is how the skull's mouth becomes animated when the candy drops out of the pipe. So the system is pretty simple and quite inexpensive: it's a length of 3" PVC pipe, anchored with zip ties to the railings. The large skull was found at Target. I cut out the bottom back of the skull so it fit better onto the pipe. Once it was in the right spot, I secured it in place with hot glue, EVA foam, and a little gaffer's tape. The bowl is suspended below the pipe through a few small holes in the pipe with black filament. The pipe is covered with creepy cloth, secured in various areas with hot glue. The bowl will be lowered on Halloween night to accommodate smaller trick-or-treaters. I may end up using this setup even after we don't have to do the whole social distancing thing anymore. It's super fun!

Today's event starts about 2 minutes into the call. They robocall starts by and asking to speak to Emily. When you say that there is no Emily here, the bot typically jumps into the pitch of, "Oh, well since I have you on the line, would you be able to answer a few questions about our country?" It sounds like a live person. But it's not. So today instead of telling the bot that there is no Emily here, I replied with, "Which Emily do you want to speak with? There are two here." From there, I wanted to see how much it would take for the bot to hang up on me. Be aware that if you use profanity, the bot will automatically hang up on you, so the game is about being polite, but still trying to confuse the bot until it hangs up. Let me state that I do not wave a political flag. I have never donated to any political party, nor asked to be contacted. I simply hate robocalls. Especially when it's a BOT that totally denies that it's a bot. Unwanted political robocalls are perfectly legal when they're calling a landline, which is where this call happened. Putting the landline on a "Do Not Call" list doesn't help, unfortunately. The call came from caller ID: RNC- (202) 972-1501 So unless you want to block this number, pick it up and have fun! 05AUG21- UPDATE! I still keep getting this same robocall almost one year later. Still asking for Emily. The number changes all the time, but it still comes up as RNC with a (202) prefix, so I can't block it. They are relentless!

This began as a simple idea: go out into the neighborhood in a goofy T-Rex costume, and make people laugh. When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth! I convinced my kids to join me because three dinosaurs are much funnier than just one. We roamed the neighborhood, it was a hit. Life is truly better as a herd of T-Rex's! 🦖 A few weeks later, I was struck with the idea: What about three dinosaurs going to the supermarket? Only during these crazy COVID-times could we pull off something like this at the market. It took a little convincing, but the kids got on board with the idea. My husband came along as handler and to take video of the excursion (HD video here: https://youtu.be/m9JfjVp5nic ). And it was So. Much. Fun!!! We couldn't see much, but we could hear laughter everywhere we went in the store. (And yes, we were actually wearing masks under those dinosaur costumes!) Little did we know that a local news anchor for Atlanta's NBC station was at the market during our adventure. She recorded some video of us, put it on Twitter, we found the video... next thing you know, we're being interviewed for NBC's 11Alive News. (There are two segments of our interview, but this is the only one I've been able to find.) While our intentions were just to make a few people smile at the store, it seems that we've made countless others laugh as well!