This document provides instructions for building a Polynesian-inspired Pit Droid named Koa 380. It took 380 hours to 3D print all the necessary parts. The builder lists the supplies used, including an Arduino Nano, speaker, lights, and other electronics. Assembly instructions are provided for the 3D printed parts, including printing times. The builder also describes the painting and weathering process used to achieve the Polynesian/Star Wars hybrid aesthetic. A backstory is given that Koa 380 ended up on Earth at a Disney resort and now maintains the builder's property.
This document provides instructions for building a Polynesian-inspired Pit Droid named Koa 380. It took 380 hours to 3D print all the necessary parts. The builder lists the supplies used, including an Arduino Nano, speaker, lights, and other electronics. Assembly instructions are provided for the 3D printed parts, including printing times. The builder also describes the painting and weathering process used to achieve the Polynesian/Star Wars hybrid aesthetic. A backstory is given that Koa 380 ended up on Earth at a Disney resort and now maintains the builder's property.
This document provides instructions for building a Polynesian-inspired Pit Droid named Koa 380. It took 380 hours to 3D print all the necessary parts. The builder lists the supplies used, including an Arduino Nano, speaker, lights, and other electronics. Assembly instructions are provided for the 3D printed parts, including printing times. The builder also describes the painting and weathering process used to achieve the Polynesian/Star Wars hybrid aesthetic. A backstory is given that Koa 380 ended up on Earth at a Disney resort and now maintains the builder's property.
This document provides instructions for building a Polynesian-inspired Pit Droid named Koa 380. It took 380 hours to 3D print all the necessary parts. The builder lists the supplies used, including an Arduino Nano, speaker, lights, and other electronics. Assembly instructions are provided for the 3D printed parts, including printing times. The builder also describes the painting and weathering process used to achieve the Polynesian/Star Wars hybrid aesthetic. A backstory is given that Koa 380 ended up on Earth at a Disney resort and now maintains the builder's property.
KOA 380 Welcome: This is a tutorial on how I went about building my Pit Droid. There are many ways to accomplish this wonderful project, and this is the way I felt comfortable finishing the project based on my skill level. Feel free to copy any of my methods if it will help you with your build.
FYI: his name is Koa 380.
Koa means Brave in Hawaiian. 380 – The number of hours it took to print all of his parts.
Thank You: Below, I have listed a few sites that gave me the ideas and help I needed to finish my Pit Droid. I would like to thank the following people: SpaceBobs Pit Droid Movie Styled 3D printable files https://www.etsy.com/listing/738096855/
Logan Tarasoff (Master Engineer) for help with some of the code Supplies I used for the Electronics (the links are for reference only so you can get an idea of what the parts look like. You may find a better source for these closer to where you live): 1. 2” diameter speaker (4 or 8 ohm)
SPEAKER LINK
2. PIR Sensor PIR LINK
3. Arduino Nano
NANO LINK
4. 12 segment Neopixel Ring
NEOPIXEL LINK
5. DF Player Mini (with micro SD card)
DF PLAYER MINI LINK
6. 5-volt wall transformer (around 500 mA to 1 amp)
TRANSFORMER LINK
7. 1- 1k ohm resistors 8. 1-680-ohm resistor 9. 1- 470 ohm resistor 10. 2 post terminal strip (for connecting power from the transformer to the circuit)
TERMINAL STRIP LINK
11. 9- #4 x 3/8” screws (for the Chest Plate)
12. 2- #4 x 3/4” screws (for the Upper Arm Split Loom Holder)
13. JST Connectors (Optional in case you want to be able to easily plug in parts
JST CONNECTORS LINK
14. Small switch to fit onto the back plate to turn the circuit on or off.
15. 3/8” Split Loom tubing (approximately 22 cm)
Part 1: Printing the Parts
I printed the files provided by Droid Division on 4 rolls of ABS+. I adapted a few of the files to suit my needs as well as created a chest plate that will house the PIR sensor that detects motion. I may have gotten away with only 3 rolls but had to re-print a few parts to get the settings correct. I used Cura and a .4 mm nozzle at .2 mm layer height. The large parts were printed with 4 walls (1.6 mm) and 8% infill in a Gyroid pattern. The speed was set to 50 mm/s with the first layer printing at 20 mm/s. Side Note: I have CR10-S in an enclosure which helps me maintain a proper internal temperature of about 40 degrees F to help with printing ABS. Here is a record of the printing times and the amount of plastic I used: Print Times: Roll #1 • Elbows 3.5 hr • Fingers 18.3 hr • Forearms 26 hr • Shoulders 2 hr • Feet 31 hr • Shins 22 hr • Outer Eye 12 hr • Inner Eye 3.5 hr • Head Details for Large Bolts 3.2 hr • Head Details (mount removed) 2.8 hr
Roll #2 • Mid Head Detail 9 hr • Neck Top 3 hr • Neck Bottom 10.3 hr • Torso Middle 16.2 hr • Thighs 45 hr • Hip 17.5 hr • Back Plate (with speaker) 6 hr • Upper Arms 15
Roll #3 • Head Back 15.4 hr • Torso Top 39.4 hr • Torso Lower 22.7 hr Roll #4 • Head Front 50.5 hr • Misc. small parts 5 hr • Spanner 18 hr
Total Print Time: 397.3 hrs
Extra 3D printed parts I created for this build: (I am not providing STLs for the first two models as these designs belongs to Droid Division. However, I have provided STLs for all the remaining models shown below)
1. Back plate (houses a speaker holder, place for a switch and slot for the power cord) a. Glue the speaker to the back of this as well as the switch if you are using one. The power cord enters through the slot in the lower right-hand corner. You can also just drill holes into the existing back plate.
2. Front Detail with a slot for the wires. Alternatively,
you could just run the wires around this part.
3. Chest plate (houses a spot for the PIR sensor)
a. Cut a rectangular hole out behind this circle and then glue in the PIR cover from behind. Then drill a hole inside to feed the 3 wires through to the inside of the Torso (more photos below).
4. Neck tube (provides a place to run wires through from the head to the torso). a. Glue this onto the back of the neck and run the wires from the eye through this. At the bottom, drill a small hole into the Torso for the wires to run through. 5. NeoPixel ring holder (inside inner eye). a. The NeoPixel ring can be glued to the this. There are 3 slots for the wires to run through.
6. NeoPixel diffuser (diffuses the light from the NeoPixel ring).
a. This covers the NeoPixel ring if you want to diffuse the light. I used a flexible translucent cutting mat cut to just fit inside this and glued it in.
7. Eye lens holder (allows you to remove the lens to get at the inside of the eye). a. I used a plastic Christmas globe and cut it down to size to just fit inside this ring. After gluing these two together, you can now remove the lens if needed.
8. Upper arm split loom holder (provides a place to attach the split loom to the upper arm). a. Using a #4 x 3/8”” screw, attach this to the location on the Upper Arm where you want the split loom to be attached. I glued the split loom onto this with E600 glue.
9. Elbow split loom holder (provides a place to attach the bottom end of the split loom). a. Note: this only attaches to an M6 nut. Glue the split loom onto this as you did above and then push the end onto the M6 nut (more photos below).
10. M6 bolt heads and nut caps (provides a cover for the M6 hardware to give it a more Star Warzy look). 11. Printed circuit board (provides a place to attach the necessary electronic components).
Hardware: I couldn’t purchase furniture connector bolts or cap nuts where I live so I had to go with M6 bolts and nuts. I was able to acquire the proper barrel nuts however, so I used them in the hip and upper arm joints. I modeled “caps” (see above) to cover the bolt heads and nuts to give them a better look. Here are the sizes of bolts I used: Ankles: M6 x 45 bolts and nuts Knees: M6 x 50 bolts and nuts Hip/Shoulders: M6 x 35 bolts and barrel nuts. Fingers: M6 x 65 bolts and nuts Elbows: M6 x 30 bolts and nuts Lower Neck: M6 x 80 bolt and nut Upper Neck: M6 x 90 threaded rod with a nut on both ends Chest and Back Plate: #4-3/8” screw Split Loom Connector: #4-1/2” screw
Back Story:
Through a complicated series of events, Koa 380 was re-assigned and ended up on Earth in a place called “Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort”. His duties were to blend in with the locals there and perform maintenance on mechanical items. It was there, that he also began to learn some of the English language and started recounting quotes from his favourite movies (all Star Wars obviously). Once the Pandemic hit, Koa 380 needed a place to continue feeling useful and ended up at my home where he was welcomed by many other droids. His main task is to maintain our tropical lanai and take care of the grounds. Koa 380 was originally made of metal and then painted several times over the years. His painting scheme mixes two worlds (Star Wars and Polynesia). Part 2: Painting and Weathering Here is how I finished the 3D parts: (don’t tell Koa!) 1. Putty, sand, and primer all parts. 2. Paint all parts with a gloss black (on many of the smaller parts I used an airbrush and Alclad Chrome paint). 3. Paint all parts with a metallic finish. 4. Add masking fluid to all parts where you want the metallic finish to show through. 5. Paint all parts with the final colors (I used mainly brown, red, green and orange). 6. Rub off the masking fluid to expose the metal look underneath (this shows where the droid would have scraped off its paint over the years). 7. Add any final artwork such as decals etc… (I used my Cricut di-cutter to make some stencils onto temporary vinyl and then airbrushed the markings). 8. Use paint washes and dry brush techniques to weather all the parts. 9. Finish off with a topcoat of matte sealer.
Part 3: Adding Electronics
I created a circuit design that will allow me to play several sound clips stored on a DF Player Mini through a speaker mounted on the back of the torso of the Pit Droid (I created a revised version of the back plate). You could just as easily use the original back plate and modify it with a few holes.
Holes for sound
Hole for Power Switch
Slot for Power Cord
Rear
Here is how the sounds and LEDs are triggered:
1. Motion is detected via a PIR sensor mounted in the chest plate of the droid 2. The motion activates a NeoPixel ring mounted in the eye. The ring turns on 12 LEDs and the colors for the LEDs are randomly selected (a range of thousands of colors can be produced). The LEDs stay on for 10 seconds (adjustable in the code). 3. The motion detector (PIR) also sends a signal to the activate the sound clips stored on the DF Player Mini. Listening to your droid talk is fun at first but could get irritating very quickly so to solve this problem I have added a time delay into the sketch so the droid only plays one of the sound clips (randomly selected) every now and then (time period adjustable in the code) when the PIR detector detects motion. This way, when the droid detects motion, the eye lights up a random color every time, but the sound only happens now and then. The PIR sensor is housed in a chest plate so that the front of it sticks out enough to detect motion (housed inside what looks like a restraining bolt). You can adjust the sensitivity and time delay for the PIR sensor by turning some potentiometers mounted to its circuit board (see diagram below), but I didn’t find this necessary for my application.
This part screws onto the front
of the Torso and holds the PIR Sensor
The original torso of the Pit Droid was altered by cutting out a rectangular hole large enough for the majority of the PIR sensor to rest inside behind the chest plate as shown in the diagram below and then I drilled a hole right through to the inside of the torso for the wires to feed through: Saving Audio Files: In theory you can save thousands of audio files on the SD card but to do this you need to follow some guidelines. If you are interested in this, there are many tutorials on YouTube. For this I saved about 30 sound files to be randomly played back. The files need to be saved as MP3 files and numbered with a 3-digit number (001, 002, 003 etc…). Note: The number of a file is determined by the order that it is copied to the SD card. Renaming files that are already copied to the SD card will not change the order they will be played. In this case, it does not matter which order you drag them onto the card since the program will randomly select each sound file.
The Circuit Board: I usually solder my parts onto a circuit board but for this project I thought I would design a 3D printed platform upon which to mount all the main components and wire them together (I thought this might help some people who don’t usually create circuits on their own). This board fits inside the torso section (using 4 screws). Here is what the board looks like before and after the components are added and wires are soldered directly to them.
Run wires through here for PIR sensor, speaker, and NeoPixel Ring.
Here is a photo of the connections to the speaker, PIR sensor and NeoPixel Ring. I used JST connectors, but you could also just solder the wires directly to the circuit board: Wiring Diagram The following shows where each connection needs to be made on the electronic components, not necessarily where all of the pins are actually located on each component. The diagram of the PIR sensor is looking straight down on it with the plastic bubble facing up. The middle pin is the input, the positive is the bottom pin, and the ground is the top pin.
Arduino Nano Gnd Gnd Pin Pin Pin Pin Pwr 2 3 7 8
1K ohm 680 ohm
Resistor
PIR Motion Sensor
Resistor
470 ohm Resistor
Gnd Rx Tx Input DF Player Mini VCC NeoPixel Ring SPK_1 SPK_2 Gnd Pwr
To power on all 4 components
Speaker Switch
To Ground on all 4 components
Terminal Strip
5 Volt Transformer or Power Supply Part 4: The Sketch The Arduino sketch is rather simple in design. It allows you to control a few things to suit your needs. Before going into those areas, the first thing you should do is open the sketch on your computer and go to “File” –“Preferences” and select “Display Line Numbers”. Note: you need to have 4 libraries installed in your Arduino IDE for this sketch to function correctly (there are many YouTube videos that show you how to install libraries if you are unfamiliar with that). • #include <Wire.h> • #include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h> • #include "SoftwareSerial.h" • #include "DFRobotDFPlayerMini.h" Line #38 is where you type in the number of audio files you have loaded onto the Micro SD card. After loading all your audio files, change this number to reflect the number of files you added. Line #41 is where you type in the number of milliseconds you want the sketch to wait before the next audio track is played. If you want the Pit Droid to play an audio track every time motion is detected, then set this number to zero. Line #43 holds the amount of time the eye stays lit. Change this to the amount you want in milliseconds. Line #54 is where you set the volume of your sounds. You can choose a number between 0 and 30. Lines #87,88,89 select the brightness level of each separate color of Red, Green and Blue (zero = off and 255= full brightness). The sketch randomly selects a brightness level of each of the colors and mixes them together to create the final color and brightness level of the eye. Therefore, if you only want the eye to emit a red right for instance at full brightness, then change line #83 to be (255, 255) and the other two lines to (0, 0).
Note: before testing your Pit Droid, add power to the setup and wait about 45 seconds for the PIR sensor to setup. After this amount of time, you should be able to trigger the animation by moving your hand in front of the PIR sensor (it may make a sound as it warms up).
I created over 30 sound files that are movie quotes from Star Wars movies. They are available for you to use if you would like. Part 5: Building up the Upper Arm Cable The Upper Arm Cable consists of 3 parts. I screwed the Upper Arm Split Loom Holder into the upper arm and then pushed on the Elbow Split Loom Holder onto the M6 nut that holds the elbow together. Then I applied E6000 glue to both ends of the split loom and attached it to the 2 holders with some small zip ties until the glue dried.
Conclusion: Thanks so much for checking out my build tutorial. I really had a lot of fun making this droid and learned a great deal in the process. If you are thinking about doing something similar, I would highly encourage you to take on the challenge. You would be surprised to find out what you are capable of. You Got This!
