Firstly thanks to Gill for allowing me to post on the forum.
After a post in the Armortek Owners section about my kits ( http://www.armortek.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3140 ) I thought it might be a good idea to explain what is involved in converting a Dragon figure. Also thanks to Mick and Tim for the nice comments, cheers guys.
Below are the instructions for our conversion kit, you will require a donor Dragon figure for the head, hands and right arm. Also included with the kit are bearings, pushrods, clevices, ball joints and tubing. I have modified the resin parts slightly since I originally drafted these instructions but the construction is essentially the same.
Instructions:
Other bits...
You will also need to source servos and some way of operating the finished figure. Thanks to the internet and especially direct sales from China all these parts have become very affordable of the last few years.
Servos...
I personally use Giant Cod in the UK ( http://www.giantcod.co.uk/ ) for my servos, for those international owners try someone like Hobby King in China. On average they are £3.50 each for these figures! Due to available space the choice of servos is a balance between size and torque, the neck servo being the smallest and the arms servos the largest. Below is a list of servos that were recently used for a figure that went to Frankie in Hong Kong, they did require slight enlarging of the mouldings as they are just about as big as you can get away with.
1x 3.7g DYSO201 micro (neck up/down)
1x CS-929MG metal gear )neck left/right)
2x Towerpro MG90 14g 2.5Kg torque metal gear (arms)
If you intend to use multiple layers of clothing or very thick jackets or jumpers then I would strongly suggest washing or soaking the garments in fabric softener to aid movement. Also if you are using lets say a shirt under a jacket then cut the shirt arms off and use just the cuffs on the end of the arms and the main shirt as a sleeveless vest. It is important that you reduce as much resistance as possible to maximise the servos torque. I did suffer from slight interference from 2 of the servos using the parts listed on the last email. This was easily resolved by twisting all cables and wrapping each lead around a ferrite ring - http://www.giantcod.co.uk/ferrite-rings ... 03168.html
Controller Card...
We used to use the Wizard range of cards but now there is a new kid on the block. The Pololu Maestro range are incredibly cheap when compared to the older larger Wizard units. The Pololu Maestro cards are available in 6, 12 and 24 channels, this basically means 1 channel per servo. Unlike the Wizard cards that used a built in potentiometer to input programming the Maestro cards are programmed via your PC, you will require a USB to mini USB lead, commonly used on digital cameras, phones and Satnavs
The software for the Maestro card is downloadable for free here - http://www.technobotsonline.com/pololu- ... oller.html
Here's the instructions download link - http://www.pololu.com/docs/pdf/0J40/maestro.pdf
Other Stuff...
There are a few other items that you may need, depending on your setup. Firstly you need power to the card which in turn powers the servos. You can utilize your tanks 12/24V battery with the voltage reduced to 6V via a Ubec. Here's a link to the last one I used, again from Giant Cod - http://www.giantcod.co.uk/strongpower-u ... 02704.html
Chances are you will find the standard servo leads are too short to comfortable reach the controller card, you can use normal Futaba style servo extension leads to remedy this. Once again I can't recommend Giant Cod enough for a quality cheap option.
Finally...
OK, I've covered the basics. I'll add more over the next few days, or if anyone has a specific query then I'll do my best to help. Our kits are £34.95 with fittings, please look at our website for more info - www.churchillcreations@yahoo.co.uk
All the best,
Sym.
This post of yours is so long overdue on here!!! Glad to see you and hope all is well.
