This morning, Spectre Squad had got access to the Preston Laser Quest arena for doing some photo shoots with everyone in their gear. R2 wasn’t going to miss out! Early start (for me), but no real problems. Car quickly loaded and off to Preston.
Got there a little early, and waited for the facilities to be opened, then the problems started…
Managed to get R2 through the door, just, and started wheeling him through to the changing room area so I could put him together properly and get him running.
Unfortunately, half way there his foot fell off. The center foot just decided it no longer wanted to be attached. This coupled with the fact that the main leg nuts weren’t tightened yet led to a very unstable droid. Unable to really move him anywhere, I had to get some help to lay him down, whilst I started figuring out if it was repairable or not.
Thankfully, it seemed there was no real damage, and just the main nuts had worked loose. Probably thanks to the nut rattling floor at Preston Guild Hall during the previous event. It still took a good twenty or thirty minutes to dismantle the foot, bolt it back in place, and reassemble it.
Ok, that was the fun for the event, right? Nope. I powered him up and tried to activate the controller. For some reason, there was no connection made. A bit more faffing with mobile phone hotspots and the laptop and I determined that the controller had just lost its pairing with R2. No problems, I’ll just re-pair.
Darn, need a mini-usb cable, and I’d not brought my bag o’ cables. Asking around, noone had one handy. Plenty of usb-micro, but no mini. Last ditch attempt was to ask the staff of the Laser Quest. To which I got presented a rats nest of cables, with the hope that what I wanted was in there.
Success! One fully functioning droid!
With all the drama over it was time for photos. First one was a full group shot outside. Not the easiest of things to do with cars driving by (we got a fair few honks and waves as they passed), but managed to get a decent shot or two
Then it was into the arena for various posed and group shots.
We eventually got turfed out as they started to get paying customers coming in, including a kids birthday party who got the added bonus of some Star Wars people attending! R2 did get a bit of a mauling from them, but he’s fairly tough for the most part.
It was a really enjoyable morning, despite the difficulties with R2. Was great meeting more of the Squad, and getting to know them a bit better. Hopefully I’ll be able to troop with them more often in the future, as their events are generally in the North West.
So, lessons learnt for next time? Well, first of all I think R2’s feet need a full overhaul, especially the center one. Fingers crossed I’ll be getting my new foot shells next month, and can start on an improved center wheel solution. I also need to make sure I’ve got the right cables with me. A usb-mini is already in my toolkit.
I also need to improve the options for diagnosing issues and connecting to him with my laptop. He will soon be getting a dedicated 3g connection and will be a wifi hotspot so I can connect directly with my laptop. Possibly also a VPN back to home.
Looking forward to my next event! 😀
