Test Artie is partially dismantled; I’m preparing to cut the wood everything was mounted to so it will fit under the Pantaloons. As such, I’ve disconnected all the electronics, unsoldered the motor wires, removed the caster, etc. I also have a small amplifier and speaker on order that should arrive today.
I thought now might be a good time to pause and summarize the Artie Deco Project thus far. I’ll go over the Bill of Materials and cost for most of the parts in the current design, since I’m closing in on the end of the build…
As I mentioned back in the first post on the topic, the Artie Deco project began sometime in September 2015 … shortly after returning from DragonCon and a few months before the release of The Force Awakens. I’d spent the previous several years getting a bit more into electronics, and I was looking for something to take to the convention, so a robot seemed like a good project.
I elected to build Artie Deco — the “Space Drone” from Hardware Wars — because it seemed likely to be both less expensive — which is not the same as “inexpensive” — and faster than building a full-fledged R2-D2 style Astromech (let alone BB-8). And it would have the advantage of amusing anyone that knew what it was. Of course, the tradeoff was that I would be blazing my own trail on how to do things. (R2-D2 is kind of a solved problem at this point. Cramming the equivalent of R2 into a vacuum cleaner less than 1/4 the size, not so much.)
The first thing to do was to research the original prop itself, which turned out to be a General Electric Swivel-top Vacuum (model V11 C3). It was manufactured circa 1955-1957. Later models had a plastic instead of metal head.
While researching the prop, I came up with the idea to also make a Hardware Wars version of BB-8, named BBL-BBQ. His source prop is a Hoover Constellation, model 444.
It took a few weeks to source these from eBay. Technically the project officially began on Wednesday October 28, 2015 … the day I received the GE Vacuum. I generally don’t count shipping when I give the costs of a project since it varies so much, but the shipping on a real vacuum cleaner is not so trivial — in fact, it costs more than many of the actual parts. The GE was $30 plus $22 to ship, the Hoover was a bit higher at $40 plus $23.
While I’m at it, there are several other things I’m also not counting. First among these is the cost of 3d printing. I got my own printer in April of 2016, and many of Artie’s parts have been made using that machine. I often do several iterations of a design, might have a failed print or two, might use different materials, etc. … so it’d be difficult to decide what should and should not be included in the final cost of those parts.
I am omitting the sundry miscellaneous parts (nuts, bolts, screws, locknuts, resistors, capacitors, breadboard jumpers, wire spools, ring terminals, etc.) and random tools (wire strippers). I’m also leaving out parts that I bought but which are no longer in the current design (e.g. Arduino Uno, original underpowered motors and motor drivers), and the parts for the Space Drone 2000 (bluetooth modules, joysticks, switches, and buttons).
At any rate, I spent much of the time between DragonCon 2016 and April of this year pondering how to squeeze a drive system under Artie’s Pantaloons, fighting with my printer, obtaining parts, and working on other projects. I picked up Artie again earlier this year and made a concerted effort to get most of his systems working and nail down the rest of his design. I’ve talked about much of this work in great detail in my posts going back to April, so you can refer to those for details.
Artie’s BOM
| Part | Quantity | Unit Cost | Subtotal | Notes |
| GE Vacuum | 1 | $29.99 | $29.99 | |
| Vacuum shipping | 1 | $22.00 | $22.00 | |
| Arduino Mega ADK | 1 | $18.49 | $18.49 | Main processor |
| Turnigy 3S LIPO battery, 5000 mAH | 1 | $26.55 | $26.55 | More capacity or multiples in parallel would improve run time. If you don’t have a charger, you’ll need one (I use an iMax B6 style) |
| Drill motors | 2 | ~$20.00 | $40.00 | e.g. from Harbor Freight drills. Need to lock gearbox. |
| HobbyKing X-Car 45A Brushed ESC | 2 | $11.09 | $22.18 | |
| Class 1 Bluetooth dongle | 1 | $20.97 | $20.97 | |
| Primary PS3 Nav Controller | 1 | $5.00 | $5.00 | |
| Secondary PS3 Nav Controller (optional) | 1 | $5.00 | $5.00 | |
| DS3231 Real-Time Clock (optional) | 1 | $3.50 | $3.50 | For seeding RNG |
| 5mm WS2812 LED (optional) | 1 | $1.00 | $1.00 | Fault indicator |
| Inline fuse holders | 3 | $0.80 | $2.40 | 1 @ battery, 1 between each ESC and motor |
| 608 ZZ Skate Bearings (ideally ABEC-9) | 4 | ~$1.00 | $4.00 | 2 per drive wheel |
| 2″ Everbilt Swivel caster | 1 | $4.37 | $4.37 | |
| 3/8″ x 1′ threaded rod | 1 | 1.37 | 1.37 | You really only need two pieces, each a bit more than 4.5″ but no more than 4.75″ long |
| Arduino Nano | 1 | $2.32 | $2.32 | Neopixel jewel controller |
| Neopixel Jewel | 1 | $5.95 | $5.95 | For data eye |
| Slip Ring | 1 | $7.75 | $7.75 | Connects Jewel to Nano |
| Catalex MP3 board | 1 | $3.06 | $3.06 | Needs MicroSD card if you don’t have a spare |
| Audio Amplifier | 1 | $13.45 | $13.45 | |
| 3-4″ Speaker | 1 | $5.73 | $5.73 | |
| KA2284 Audio Meter module | 1 | $1.01 | $1.01 | For audio modulation of Data Eye |
| Headphone splitter | 1 | ~$2.00 | $2.00 | To split audio between meter and amp |
| Dean’s Connectors | 6+ | $0.80 | $4.79 | 1 @ battery, 1 @ switch, 2 between each ESC and motor to allow disconnection |
| Paint, Blue | 1 | ~$8.00 | $8.00 | Krylon Covermaxx 9131, “Peekaboo Blue” |
| Paint, Peach | 1 | ~$8.00 | $8.00 | Valspar Color Radiance 84501 (or 2005-4B), “Coral Peach” or Krylon Covermaxx 9103/9157 “Ballet Slipper” |
Anything with a ~ is an approximate price because I don’t remember exactly.
The total on all of that stuff comes to $268.88, but it was spread out over nearly three years, so it wasn’t really all that burdensome. Works out to less than $7.50 per month.
That list still doesn’t include a few things, such as the wood to make Test Artie and mount the drive system, parts I haven’t bought yet (e.g. velcro to attach drive unit to pantaloons, stuff for head rotation), and obviously anything I’ve forgotten. But it shouldn’t be too far off.
BBL-BBQ’s BOM is much, much shorter because he isn’t really assembled and the design is in flux (for example, he’ll eventually use SHADOW as well, which means Mega, Nav controller, bluetooth dongle, etc). Many of the parts are similar to or identical to what Artie uses:
| Part | Quantity | Unit Cost | Subtotal | Notes |
| Hoover Vacuum | 1 | $39.99 | $39.99 | |
| Vacuum shipping | 1 | $23.00 | $23.00 | |
| Neopixel Jewel | 1 | $5.95 | $5.95 | Inner data eye |
| Neopixel Ring, 12 LEDs | 1 | $7.50 | $7.50 | Outer Data Eye |
| Catalex MP3 board | 1 | $3.06 | $3.06 | Needs MicroSD card if you don’t have a spare |
| KA2284 Audio Meter module | 1 | $1.01 | $1.01 | For audio modulation of Data Eye |
| Headphone splitter | 1 | ~$2.00 | $2.00 | To split audio between meter and amp |
dyne3d 