The Making of R2

[miguelazoinfo]

The manuals?

[AwesomeS619]

There was a mr potato head with a storm troopers head on it

[francovd]

@AwesomeS619 Yup, good eye! I also have Darth Tater and Artoo Potatoo.

[joelafrite66]

good work bad music

[soccer7mainiac]

how do you have that much free time?!?

[francovd]

@soccer7mainiac I managed to find free time between 8:00pm - 1:00am on weeknights. I decided that wasn't such a good idea when I built the second one, which is why that one took about twice as long.

[soccer7mainiac]

@francovd lol thats a late time to stay up

[elwood173]

You should be proud. Great droid and great to see you using him for a good cause.

[popisoudure]

Génial ! bravo les gars , super travail .... A fan from paris france

[d6ctorNo]

Amazing job! Did you work with blueprints? if so, where did you get them? Im an industrial designer and i would like to build one too.

Damm! its perfect

[francovd]

Yes, there is an R2 Builders Club, with free blueprints. Check out astromech d o t net, for starters. Sorry for the crazy notation, stupid YouTube does not allow URLs. Also look up the R2 Builders Group on Yahoo Groups. Both require free registration to join. Just a bunch of hobbyists who enjoy building droids.

[sladersoda]

you are awesome

[jojoalways23]

WOW!!!!!! Now that is awesome!..

[mattyjacks89]

this might just be the greatest thing i have ever seen

[francovd]

@mattyjacks89 Thanks!

[iTechnoDylan]

How long did it take to program the robot?

[francovd]

@iTechnoDylan It's remote-controlled, so there really isn't much programming involved. Just a little for the sound system, and that only took a couple of hours.

[kimt4977]

your so luky to meat lucas

[RozhkovFree]

Huge respect to you for such colossal work!

[francovd]

@RozhkovFree Thanks!  :-)

[SamuraiPirate88]

Very Impressive! How much did it cost you to build that thing if you dont mind me asking?

[francovd]

@SamuraiPirate88 I did not keep close track, but it's fair to say a few thousand bucks. Lots of it spent on mistakes, and stuff I never used as well.

[MrRodolfo612]

Hey! Look! The R2 also is Brazilian! Look at 2:10, in the assembly of the dome, the inscription "... in Brazil". Is upside down, but if you see the inscription!!

[francovd]

@MrRodolfo612 That's true! My R2 is part Brazilian, and proudly so.

[MrRodolfo612]

@francovd I am also proud to know that one of the most famous robots of cinema has a little piece of Brazil! That's it! Congratulations to the whole team!

May the force be with you always!

[appleguy1804]

how much? :D

[francovd]

@LEGOcustominifigure5 Thanks!!

[Sto0pidPenguinPro]

were you at NYCC '10? There was an R2 there, just wondering if it was yours

[francovd]

@Sto0pidPenguinPro No, that wasn't mine. If I had to guess, I'd guess that was either Jon Stokes' or Dana Powers' droid. It's a small world, so we kind of know who we all are around the country. Thanks for asking though.

[Sto0pidPenguinPro]

@francovd oh alright. That's really good that you all have a sense of community, if you want to call it that i suppose. Great worksmanship!

[10laughungtears]

I am VERY impressed! Freaking great job! :)

[Briare0sh]

Really great job!!

[brokassqcislander]

Absolutely awesome!!!

I have always wanted an R2 unit, shoot me cold beers and maybe a hamimer and basically follow me around making hillarious beeping sounds... I might just build one of these baby`s....one day. Good for you, has it met the real R2É oh yeah and is Lucas always callin wantin to borrow it

[44448a]

honestyly dude, your the best! AMAZING!

[francovd]

The body is 19.35 inches tall. I can't help you build using comments on YouTube. You need to join the R2 Builders group. Start by going to astromech (dot) net and read the FAQ. There you will learn how to get the full blueprints for free.

[fxmanaz]

i am going to build my own r2d2 what is the body height not including the dome from bottom to top ? help

[audiovorax]

Increible, felicitaciones !

[supaaustinman178]

Lol can i bbuy 1 of you?

[MrToiletclogger]

1:12.. feb 3rd thats ma bday >:D

[Lego32Boy]

@MrToiletclogger and the birth of R2-D2's lol happy b-day to both of you :D

[nvbjubjub]

Nerds FTW!

[pulchinelo]

Muy muy bueno..yo empiezo ha construir el mio ahora, gracias por toda la ayuda visual, un saludo desde España.

[starwarsjunkiie]

my cosin has downsyndrom so i go to the buddy walk every year in minnesota but we never had anything star wars yet : (

[ActiveDreamer1]

Oh man, that was some good music, i was not bored for 10 sec. Fantastic build.

[gemmyfreak2871]

I'm working on an r2 unit right now I hope to have it completed by cousins wedding he is a big star wars fan and he said he wanted r2d2 to bring the ring up the isle so I hope to have it done I'm about 3/4 of the way!

[francovd]

@gemmyfreak2871 Very cool! Good luck with your build, have fun at the wedding!

[twitchd8]

@gemmyfreak2871 that... is awesome!!!!

[mabdazla]

i love it :D 

[viackeysi]

ey cool awesom job =) mmm meavy you make a c3po

[GizmoFilmz]

You gotta be kidding me!

[patracy]

Awesome build! I love it!

[Talk2Luke]

Awesome video, well done for sticking through it!

[shadowthehedgehog959]

Good job! It looks like in the Star Wars series :)

[platinumglitchmint2]

I wish I had an R2D2 of my own.

[yinyang10020]

how much did all that cost you? and how did you get the circuts right?

[francovd]

@yinyang10020 I stopped keeping track of the cost after about six months, but it's certainly expensive. The circuitry wasn't too bad, there are some off-the-shelf blinking circuits for the dome, and the motor electronics came from Vantec. My blog has all the details at vfranco.blogspot.com

[wiredrottie]

Wow guys! Awesome!

[Beys93]

Awesome! tuitutututu

[da0x]

wow! amazing!

[yudiweb]

cool..!

[Mulitfrog]

cute, and fantastic job :D

[R3MUS2007]

nifty song...and totally badass robot! Thats gotta be one of the coolest RC bots of all time...Awesome job dude!

[obiwankohrs]

awesome, how can i get one??? How much?

[xmailinhh]

Nice work! I've always wanted to do this but never had enough money to start. not even with resin pieces =/

[stiktone]

R2 rocks!!!

[CosplayerTheRealLink]

Amazing progress video of just how much work this took. Great job!

[pazzu3]

Awesome clip dude,great sound track as well.

from another kiwi R2 builder. Shane y

[tadexevol]

wait, where is the little man?????

[peteinakl]

You sir are a legend!

[tehblizz]

holy cow, amazing job!

[JediQuinLanVos]

Muchas gracias por haber hecho real a este querido personaje que tantos buenos momentos nos ha dado, y muchas gracias tambien por utilizarlo con fines beneficos, eres una gran persona. Un abrazo muy grande desde España.

PAZ

[omarxxxxx]

excellent :D 5*

[ilordvader]

Good job bro

[PowerBischi]

Great work and it's very cool that you use R2 for charity-events!!!

Christian, Germany

[saminfante]

2:09 Made In Brazil! Lol!

[Modview]

Should have been, "Made in North Korea"

[Roks1979]

Awesome!!!!!

[JominatorXS]

2:48 Oouch...

[francovd]

Yeah, I remember that one. I was drilling a piece of metal on the drill press and it got stuck on the drill bit, and started spinning like a helicopter blade. Now I use a vise on the drill press...

[stamparm]

great job

[maliangkay]

Fantastic! :o)

[intelboy15]

Long live R2-D2!

Beautiful work! Must have been great being able to go to all those events and show it off along side all the other cosplayers and even Hollywood professionals and George Lucas himself.

Would love to see more videos of R2 in action especially if you guys are at a Sci-Fi/Star Wars Con!

[nemephis]

It's great that you use it to help other people!

[johimbin]

Awesome you can run own bussines with R2s

[Venydar]

Build another one - for me! ^^

[DukeFan1971]

That is totally awesome, even if all you did it for was to show it off. But to use it to help with so many charities and events like that, that makes it even better, and more worthwhile. Kudos to everyone involved in this for all your hard--and excellent--work!

[DavidFDM]

Well done. I'd love to do this myself.

[zombielewis]

Full respect !

[mrtkcd77]

This is fantastic, the video shows for sure 1/10 of the hard work you did behind this amazing R2. Love the ending where your R2 is in various events. Thanks for sharing this.

[francovd]

You got that right! The hard part was leaving out 90% of the build. :-)

I wish I could have put more events in at the end, but I don't have much video of them, just still pictures.

-Victor

[olaro]

great job man!!!! :)

[Mkiszely]

Congratulations!!!!!!

[blesshiscottonsocks]

:D

amazing work!

[littlebeartoe]

I kept wondering "why is he doing this?", and the end of your video answers. Great stuff!

[PeyoteShort]

That has got to be crafted way better than the original R2. Be neat if you got to inspect the original and compare.

[francovd]

I've been lucky enough to see the real Industrial Light and Magic R2, and it is solid. No wooden frame in that one. :)

One note of interest is the real droids in the movies don't play the sounds on set, those are added in post-production.

[francovd]

Just a quick note to say thanks for all the kind words!

-Victor

[MrTlpizza]

this is awesome, thanks for sharing

[fromaveck]

Awesome !

[MooMoOblah69]

oh my god... nerdgasm

[SeanyPMac]

What a great project and video. You should be very proud.

[mulan229]

wonderfull

[zgdrmlj]

Great job guys!

[ChiefHoot]

That's an incredible amount of work. Truly remarkable.

[selenagirl14]

Who'd known that you would make such a awsome device like that?

[rbml1980]

i want one

and an X-wing

[SHOCKW4W33]

Fun FOR NERDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TheHouseBlog]

That's a great project and work well done. I just came from a video where I guy made a bagpipe out of a goat, so, after that anything seems possible. It's excellent to see you guys support a lot of good causes with your work!

[Time4YouRealityCheck]

Thats awesome, a lot of hard work rewarded by many smiles and loads of admiration :)

[shammon1]

Very enjoyable.

[masyxyt]

Wow, very nice!

[neodos1]

Awesome! good job, its perfect!

[style2ouf21]

Well done!

[mirbez]

Why would Lucas care to take a picture with it? What happen to the original?

[francovd]

There are actually several originals, but most of them are either on display somewhere, or in the Lucasfilm archives, etc. Occasionally Lucasfilm allows/asks the club to provide a droid for an event.

[francovd]

I also meant to mention that Lucas was in a group picture that I cropped.

[ChrisLee007]

Brilliant work, Victor.

[francovd]

Thanks Chris, right back at you. Hope to see you at CV.

[djmedic2008]

This video is awesome... !! What a lot of work you must have done to pull this off! 5 Stars my friend, great joB!

[joangu]

i tried building a robot to get me a beer, but its cheeper to find a women to do it!

[audun50]

^-^ epic :D

[Jimby73]

You sir, are a GOD. It looks absolutely perfect.

Having he dedication to put all that time and effort in, and designing every aspect down to the PCBs is astounding. My hat is off to your sir. Well done.

Also, you made it to hackaday =).

[francovd]

Thanks for the compliments, but I must clarify that several parts of my R2 were not scratch-built. The metal dome and skins, for example. Some of the PCBs were hand-soldered and assembled by me, but I did not design them myself. Other club members do design them, which certainly impresses me.

[SiIverGriever]

If you don't mind me asking... How much did the whole thing cost? Like, material, paint and everything? Awesome build and video!!!

[francovd]

At the start of the build I was keeping track of costs, but that quickly became too much of a headache. It's fair to say it was somewhere in the mid-four-digit area. Not a cheap hobby.

[jabo109k]

Very professional work, great egineering & lovely video. I enjoyed this allot. Thanx ;)

[razr3g]

lol nice...r u an electronic engineer ?

[francovd]

I'm actually a software engineer.  My friend Mike, seen when R2 is taking his first steps, mentored me throughout the build, including electronics. His droid is what inspired me to build mine.

[bonoyeah]

that was the most awesome thing i have seen

[xINVISIGOTHx]

I can't see the video :(

[ObiShawn]

Excellent vid!

Victor, your Astromech is one of the best examples around, and it's always a pleasure for me to troop alongside you at our charity events. Here's to many more years...

[francovd]

Thanks Shawn, much appreciated.

[sensoryhouse]

Epic Win!

[nixonfiles]

Very nice video Victor! Your building tips and trix over the years made it possible for me to build my own Artoo. Thanks for sharing!

[francovd]

Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you've found the information helpful!

[Gunbu]

Great video, Victor!!

[lukenukem1976]

submitted it to Stumble, hopefully get a few more hits.

[francovd]

Thanks!

[lukenukem1976]

No probs, we are making three wood droids at moment, so it is inspiring for the nervous members of the build.

[hotshot4525]

Awesome