R2-D2 Dome Mechanism Part 1 by Matt Zwarts

Ever wanted the ultimate dome lift mechanism for your full scale astromech droid?... well look no further!

UPDATE: (31/7/19) Added Bill Of Materials (BOM) to the post printing section and where I purchased the parts from.

WARNING!...I'll say it up front, this is a complex build that will involve a lot of work, from yourself, to make it work after the printing is completed, electronics etc, unless you want to add it as an addition to your static prop which will only require the printed parts.
Having put the onus on you, lets begin...

This is part 1 of the design and is the main lift body only. Part 2 - 7 will be the mechanisms and the electronics mount, you can build all or none of those parts as you like. At a minimum you will need Part 1 and the electronics mount to get it moving, your choice for the other parts you want to animate.
I have designed a custom dome hinge mechanism as well, that I will also upload that gives clearance on the lifter mechanisms to the dome... it's a lot of stuff in there hence the new dome pie panel hinge!

The design is intended to be used with full a scale R2-D2 or similar astromech droids, my droid build is based on the amazing work of Mr Michael Baddeley and his dome design Mk 1, the lift mechanism allows for the following...

See the PDF document attached in the files for assembly details:

• Periscope Lifter and rotation 45 degrees, you could modify it for full rotation if you want.
• Lifeform scanner lifter and 45 degree rotation
• Dome Zapper lift, lift the zapper mechanism and 45 degree rotation
• Light sabre lift with a 68% scale Luke ROTJ lightsaber, removable, sorry full scale won't fit (movie magic)
• Bad motivator lifter, lights in the bad motivator can be lit up once lifted and you could add
  smoke through the centre as well if you want... you know you want to! (electric e-cigarette on eBay)
• Electronics mount integrated within the same design, no I won't be managing or helping with that part as there are too many variables to everyones particular design and electronics needs. I will release eventually my code and list of parts I used, code will be noted to hopefully make it easier.

As I said this is a tricky build but should be fairly straight forward if you already have a droid, it is pretty awesome seeing it all working and it did take quite a few tries to get it to this stage, hope you enjoy!

Feel free to send some support my way if you like, it will just aid in the development of other R2 related mechanisms as I continue my build, I mean there's still more room in the dome ;)... then the body begins!

Please give credit where it is due if modifying my design, and post a picture of your finished build.

Happy Building,
Matt Zwarts