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A project log for Star Wars Rebels: Chopper

Chopper is a C1-10P droid from the tv show Star Wars Rebels. He's a very grumpy droid and should be a lot of fun at conventions.

kenneth-zabornyKenneth Zaborny 02/28/2016 at 16:400 Comments

Please pardon the mess. The electronics portion of Chopper was thrown together in the span of a week so it's a wiring nightmare. It won't stay like this.

The Arduino Mega (which can't be seen in this image) runs a bluetooth dongle that connects to the PS3 Navigation controllers. I used a single controller for Chopper since there is an issue with dome jumps with two controllers connected. Since I'm using a power wheels drive motor and gears for the dome drive this jump is a real issue. The motor goes from 0 to full speed in half a second and can not only scare kids it can damage Chopper.

The Arduino connects to a Syren10 for the dome drive, a Sabretooth 2x32 for the foot drives, and a Sparkfun MP3trigger for sounds. The AMP is a Sure 2X25. I power the droid with 2 standard 7Ah batteries connected in parallel since I want the run time. Chopper recently went to his first convention and I was able to get about 7 hours moderate use from this configuration. I consider moderate use as mostly stationary but with a lot of dome movement and sound.

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