Today was a surprisingly good day for me under self-imposed lockdown restriction. I slept in a bit longer than usual. The morning scale reading was not higher than expected and there was a new GeoCache within a half mile from the house. The temperature was only 84, and I felt good. My normal routine now is to get my pills, eat a hard-boiled egg, load up with water, and head out the door for a five-mile walk. I decided to go after the new GeoCache instead of walking on the section of the Tucson bike loop that is near my house. It’s Sunday, and there were probably a good number of people on the “Loop.” Besides, the GeoCache was new and there was an outside chance that I’d get a “First to Find.” I didn’t PhilBeer beat me to it, but that didn’t make the activity any less fun. After swapping swag and marking the log in the GeoCache, I still had some distance to go to get to my normal 5-mile distance. I headed out to find a few more local caches that were nearby. Luck was with me throughout the hunt and not a single DNF (Did Not Find). I got all five of them without bleeding a bit which is quite a feat given our kind of vegetation. I did get a thorn through the shoe, but that only held me up for a bit to remove it. No blood involved.
The rest of the day went normally. I made a new batch of T.J. Miracle Soup and watched some YouTube videos. Dinner was good. We finished watching Briarpatch. (I love it when gets cancelled and I get to see it finish up.) In all, a good day. I handed over the remote control to my wife, grabbed a Blue Moon, and headed to the computer room to finish out the waking part of the day. Did I mention that it was a good day?
The bottle cap jar on the bar was full and I had to empty it out. I have a friend that makes Beer Pong tables that use bottle caps, so I needed to bag up the contents and store them away. That’s when a 59-year-old memory surfaced…It was a memory about a time when I ran into a shortage of bottle caps.
At age 8, I was a Boy Scout and my mother was one of the leaders—a Den Mother. A den consisted of around 8 boys. The den met once a week. On meeting days, we wore our uniforms to school. Our mission in life was to gain rank, earn arrowhead patches, and work on crafts. The Boy Scouts of America had leader guides that suggested projects. The den mothers found interesting crafts for us to do. I enjoyed the craft portion of the program more than the other parts.
At this point, I need to thank my mother and other den leaders for picking this project. For any of my friends and others that read this blog, this might answer a few questions you have about me. This Robot Marionette craft project set the stage for my entire life.
The first part of the project involved collecting cans and bottle caps. We needed a variety of specific cans that, at that time, most people used. As I remember, the body was made of a 3-pound coffee can. We needed 4 tall juice cans for the legs. Concentrated orange juice cans were necessary for the arms, and the head was a large fruit can. Tuna cans were used for the hands. The feet were sardine cans. The robot sported a boy scout hat and a paper neckerchief worn around the neck. All the cans were tied together with small pieces of twine. Strings were connected to the knees, elbows, top of the head, the hands, and the feet. Only a small quantity of the cans was required. However, the fingers of the hands required a boatload of bottle caps! No one had them. As I bagged the several hundred beer caps, I remembered how many of our tin can marionette robots went unfinished because all our dads drank their beer from cans.
So, my dear readers, do you now know how this project affected my life?
https://azatheist.com/2020/04/18/38-days-of-quarantine-another-robot-unboxed/, https://azatheist.com/2020/05/08/im-itching-to-build/, https://azatheist.com/2020/05/08/r2d2-build-first-day/, https://azatheist.com/2020/05/10/r2d2-build-final/, https://azatheist.com/2019/08/06/international-aerial-robotics-competition-mission-8/, https://azatheist.com/2019/06/10/camp-quest-arizona-2019/, https://azatheist.com/2018/07/24/camp-quest-az-2018-and-what-keeps-me-coming-back/
You get the idea: My interest in Robots, Youth Activity, and Upcycling all started back then in 1961.
The is a great project! It gets a little “fiddly” at times but it is one that starts with 
cut out with a razor blade on plexiglass and applied. The arms were assembled from FireBall mini bottles and automotive air fresheners. I also painted the fabric softener dome top.
the inside of the soup can. A belt sander makes this particularly easy since it can remove a lot of material quickly. I placed sticky hook and loop fasteners (Velcro) to the battery pack and the mounting platform and hot glued the assembly to the front of the robot. I may want to replace the batteries in the future and having the holder mounted on Velcro will allow me to remove the holder when required.
I bought D.C. power sockets and plugs in the past for previous projects, so I knew that they were available—somewhere. After a short search that felt longer than it was, I came up with the socket and plug combination. I also had an Apple USB charger adaptor that someone conveniently left for me on the side of my walking path. Finally, a quick rummage through the “wire box” and I had the needed USB wire. Once again, I had the pleasure of using materials that I had on hand.
wiring this little robot toy is terribly confusing, and it shouldn’t be. There are only a couple of components and a few connections. Even though this was my fourth one, I had to get out my pencil and paper and turn down the radio so that I could concentrate. I’ll include the diagram here but it’s hard to follow. The secret appears to be that the ground connection is the one that is switched. In my experience, it is usually the positive lead that is switched. In this case, the battery positive lead, the socket positive lead, and the LED positive lead are solidly connected without an interrupting switch. The pushbutton switch on the back of R2 interrupts the ground to the LEDs. One end is connected to the LEDs and other end is connected to the socket negative lead. On my socket there was a connection without a wire, a bare connection. I checked with an Ohmmeter and found that when the plug is not in the socket this bare connection and the ground connection are shorted. Once the plug is inserted, the bare connection and the socket ground connection are disconnected, and the ground provided to the LEDs is from the external power supply.
The first step in building the R2D2 tin can robot is collecting a few things. This is my fourth one so I’m familiar with what I need for materials. The one luxury that we have these days is plenty of time. I’m not in a hurry. I have no deadline to meet. I’m going to enjoy every part of the build.
I love CampQuestAZ. It gives me the chance to share the “maker” experience with the young campers. My R2D2 was only an example. They had to come up with their own design made from the parts I brought to camp. Check out the imaginative and creative robots they built!
Unlike their effort, I have a plan and the experience of building 3 previous R2D2s. So during my build today, I skipped around a bit. After collecting all of the necessary materials and tools, I cleaned and painted the can, the dome, the tiny liquor bottles, the air fresheners, and the dental floss container. All of the parts require a multiple coats. The base coat is black.
Next, I painted the can and the dome metallic silver. Finally, I masked a couple of small areas on the can and painted the can and the “arms” an off-white (ivory). The masked areas become the vents on the front of R2. 
The blue highlights are made of vinyl tape applied to a piece of plexiglass and cut out using an Exacto blade.
R2 is starting to take shape! All that remains is to add the wiring and electronics. They are amazingly simple. The model uses only 3 LED bulbs, 3 AA batteries, and a switch. Since the LEDs are different colors, each one will require its own current limiting resistor. The blue LED has a forward voltage drop of 2.8 V; the red LED drops 2.0V, and the “Rainbow” LED drops 2.5V. I calculated the resistance values needed to provide 20 mA through each of the LED (assuming a nominal power supply voltage of 4.5 V). The values only have to be in “the neighborhood. I chose an 85 Ohm resistor for the blue LED, a 100 Ohm resistor for the “Rainbow” LED, and a 125 Ohm resistor for the red LED. If you’re interested in how these calculations are done, leave me a comment.
You may recognize this picture. Especially, if you are a long-time reader of this blog. It is a model of the Star Wars robot R2D2. It has LEDs that light up; it is crude. Most importantly, it is something made almost entirely out of recycled materials. The main body is a Healthy Choice soup can. The dome is from the top of a fabric softener bottle. The arms are made of small liquor bottles. The front foot came from my dentist. It had a small amount of dental floss in it originally, and the main feet are automobile deodorizers that I found on the side of the road. There are parts that I had to purchase, however. I used hot glue, two hex head bolts with matching nuts, multiple colors of spray paint, some vinyl tape, light emitting diodes, a few resistors, a battery holder, 3 AA batteries, and a switch.
This is the first one that I built to use as an example for a Camp Quest AZ activity called “Tin Can Robots.” In all I built 5 examples: A Dr. Who Dalek, this R2D2, Rosie the Robot from the Jetsons cartoon show, Rocket Man, and Robby the Robot from the movie Forbidden Planet.
build in the comments. I’ll do my best to be as descriptive as possible, but I may miss a few details that need clarification.
This should be fun. We’ll start tomorrow with cleaning up the parts…
Yes, it’s another unboxing blog. I’m feeling guilty because perhaps I shouldn’t be having so much fun while on lockdown when others aren’t so lucky.
dedicated, serious peddlers that rode past with that scowl that says, “Don’t bother me I’m doing something really important here!” I get that I guess. People are different. I personally enjoy a “howdy do” during these times of isolation but I understand how others may not. What I don’t understand are the bikers that come from behind and pass at break-neck speed as close possible. There have been times when I step off the trail to let large groups go by. I’m a bit reluctant to do that now because we have some non-human company sharing the path these days.
Normally, these guys don’t bother me much, but “The Loop” is rather busy, and they appear to be rather nervous and noisy. They’re easy to spot on the paved path, but their camouflage is very well matched to the desert on each side. They disappear. On the positive side, I think I get more out of my exercise when I hear the rattle. I’m sure my heart rate goes up a bit. Lately, I’ve seeing two or three every day.
. I have to say that this shelf is not universally appreciated but I still get away with it. Just today I picked up the little green bottle sitting between Rosie and R2D2. It came in handy when I needed a small light weight object to move with my new robotic arm.
By the way, I should end this here. I’ve reached 500 words and came full circle. The box of parts in the beginning is now a working robotic arm capable of holding something that I found on my walk. Nanu nanu!
I bought a few robot kits late last year and early this year. I also bought some robot associated kits. For example, I bought a robotic arm driven by hydraulics. I buy these things for evaluation and get ideas for a robotics program at 
Last May, Nancy and I brought home a beautiful new truck—a 2019 Super Cab Ranger 4×4 with the top-of-line trim and all the goodies. A couple of days ago, my “connected” vehicle sent me a message:
Here in Arizona, the governor finally decided to announce a stay at home order. Governor Doug Ducey is just another example of a person who should not be in the office he is holding. When are we going to realize that the best person in administering a government is not a businessman? I’m happy that he can sell ice cream, but I’m not impressed with his performance as a governor.
What a great day we had at the Capitol! Tory Roberg, our Secular Coalition for Arizona lobbyist put on the best secular day ever. The Secular Coalition for Arizona was created in 2010 so this celebration represented 10 years of effort. We have a small budget but energetic volunteers and have been able to “slow the roll” of the religious groups such as the Center for Arizona Policy and the Alliance Defending Freedom as they try and eliminate the separation of church and state. In fact, we got to march around the capitol saying “Separate: Church and State!” while carrying signs. I don’t know if we changed any minds, but I felt good doing it.
If you’re in Arizona Legislature District fourteen we could use a refresh. I haven’t had a chance to meet with Gail Griffin or David Gowan yet. However, I did see State Senator’s rude performance during a secular invocation last year. All three need to find other ways to spend their time and we should help them out by not voting for them during the next election.
A couple of days ago I sat down to write about Martha McSally and what a disappointment she is. On paper she should be a great representative for me. I live in Arizona and I retired as an officer of the U.S. Air Force. However, she’s such an embarrassment that I’d like her to move to another state and stop bragging about her military service.
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