A Transparent BB-8 Build Using Christmas Ornaments

February 13, 2025 by Lewin Day 10 Comments

The cool thing about the droids of Star Wars is that they’re not that hard to recreate in real life. R2-D2 is a popular choice, but you can even build yourself a neat little BB-8 if you’re so inclined. [Piyush] has built a particularly compelling example that’s transparent, which lets you see the internals and how it all works.

The build makes creative use of a pair of Christmas ornaments. They are perhaps the cheapest and easiest way to source a clear plastic sphere. One serves as the “head”, while the other serves as the larger spherical body. Inside, an Arduino Pro Micro is running the show. It’s hooked up to a L293D motor driver which runs the drive motors and the reaction wheel motor which provides stability, while a separate MOSFET is on hand to run the gear motor which controls the head.

There’s also an HC-05 module for Bluetooth communication, and a BNO055 sensor for motion tracking and ensuring the robot stays the right way up. 3D printed components are used prodigiously to cram everything together tightly enough to fit. There’s even a printed charging base to juice up the little droid. Controlling the robot is as simple as using a smartphone with an app created in the MIT App Inventor.

If you’ve never built a spherical rolling robot before—and few of us have—this design is a great reference for your own work. We’ve seen a few BB-8s over the years, most of which dropped shortly after the movie was released. Continue reading “A Transparent BB-8 Build Using Christmas Ornaments” →

Walkie Talkies, Jedi Style: Building A Communicator

December 13, 2024 by Heidi Ulrich 6 Comments

Playing Star Wars Outlaws sparked an idea with [3DSage]: why not recreate the game’s wrist communicator as a functioning gadget? Inspired by the relatively simplistic design, he and his friend Ben set out to build their own device to take to Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland. Armed with an arsenal of tools—3D printers, CNC machines, and soldering irons—he aimed to turn imagination into reality.

After ordering multiple walkie-talkies, they meticulously tested each one for audio quality, circuit board size, and compatibility with custom components. The ‘world’s tiniest walkie-talkie’ had potential but demanded creative modifications, including disassembling and resoldering components. They crafted their own circuit board and designed a 3D printed housing to fit both electronics and style. For the finishing touch, they weathered the device with paints and even glow-in-the-dark accents, making it authentic to the Star Wars universe. Even Chewbacca himself gave one a thumbs-up!

Weathering goes a long way towards creating a convincing prop — it can turn a bundle of pipes and some foam blocks into a movie-ready WWII machine gun.

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Star Wars-Inspired Cosplay Prop Uses Old Vintage Camera

February 17, 2024 by Lewin Day 9 Comments

Lots of people make replica lightsabers from Star Wars or tricorders from Star Trek. Not so many people have tried to recreate the binoculars from The Last Jedi, but [The Smugglers Room] whipped up a pretty rad pair from old parts.

It’s more of an inspired build rather than screen-accurate, but they’re still pretty neat. A Bell & Howell camera was the basis for the binoculars used in the film, in fact, and this build starts with the same tri-lens model. Found vintage objects are often used in sci-fi with some modifications, but more commonly in lower-budget productions. Star Wars can do it too, though, it seems.

Turning them into binoculars requires the construction of a viewfinder, which was made out of hand-cut Sintra PVC foam board. Lots of leather wrap had to be removed from the camera, too, which offered a happy accident—it left a heavily-weathered aluminum surface that looked great for a Star Wars prop. A few random controls were then added to disguise the camera as an advanced pair of futuristic binoculars. LED lighting was also installed internally to make the build glow as if it actually contained some powered sci-fi optics. It also got a hand-made leather strap for that rugged aesthetic so fitting for the film.

It’s not a functional build; we’d love to see someone build a set of AR or rangefinder binoculars that still look the part. However, this would be a great addition to any Poe Dameron costume you might have planned for the next upcoming Comic Con.

Here’s our question, though. Does it suck you out of your suspension of disbelief when filmmakers use found objects as the basis for props? Or is it a neat thing when you spot such an example? Video after the break.

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Star Wars Pit Droid Has A Jetson Brain

August 6, 2023 by Tom Nardi 10 Comments

In the Star Wars universe, pit droids are little foldable robots that perform automated repairs on spacecraft and the like. They were introduced in 1999’s The Phantom Menace, and beyond the podracing scenes, are probably the only good thing to come out of that particular film.

[Goran Vuksic] wanted a pit droid of his own, and reasoned that if he was going to go through the trouble of sanding and painting all the 3D printed components so they look like the real bot, he might as well add some smarts to it. While this droid won’t be fixing podracers anytime soon, its onboard Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit does pack a considerable amount of processing under that dome.

A webcam mounted in the bot’s eye socket is connected to the Jetson, which is running an image detection and identification routine based on the example code provided by NVIDIA. The single-board computer uses a relay to blink some LEDs on and off when a human is detected, and a pair of servos pan-and-tilt the bot’s head towards whoever has caught its gaze.

It’s no surprise that [Goran] picked the Jetson Orin over competing SBCs for this task — in our review of the Orin Nano Developer Kit a few months ago, we found it was able to hit nearly 200 frames per second while performing this sort of real-time image analysis. So there’s plenty of room to grow should he want to integrate more complex image recognition tasks.

For example, he could follow in the footsteps of [Kris Kersey], and put a functional data overlay on top of the video to give his bot Iron Man vision.

Continue reading “Star Wars Pit Droid Has A Jetson Brain” →

Ride-on Star Wars Land Speeder Gets A Real Jet Engine

September 20, 2022 by Lewin Day 11 Comments

When it comes to children’s ride-on toys, the Star Wars Land Speeder is one of the cooler examples out there. However, with weedy 12-volt motors, they certainly don’t move quickly. [Joel Creates] decided to fix all that, hopping up his land speeder with a real jet engine.

First, the original drivetrain was removed, with new wheels installed underneath. Initially, it was set up with the front wheels steering, while the rear wheels were left to caster freely. A RC jet engine was installed in the center engine slot on the back of the land speeder, and was controlled via a standard 2-channel RC transmitter.

The jet engine worked, but the wheel configuration led to the speeder simply doing donuts. With the speeder reconfigured with rear wheels locked in place, the speeder handled much more predictably. Testing space was limited to a carpark, so high-speed running was out of the question. However, based on the limited testing achieved, it looks as though the speeder would be capable of a decent clip with the throttle maxed out.

It’s not a practical build, but it sure looks like a fun one. [Joel Creates] has big dreams of adding two more jet engines and taking it out to a runway for high-speed testing, and that’s something we’d love to see.

RC jet engines are a bit of a YouTube fad right now, showing up on everything from RC cars to Teslas. Video after the break.

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2022 Sci-Fi Contest: The Winners Are In

April 28, 2022 by Elliot Williams 4 Comments

The Sci-Fi Contest closed out on Monday, and we put our heads together and picked our favorites. And it was no easy task, because in addition to many of the projects simply looking stellar, many went all-out on the documentation as well, making these stellar examples that we can all learn from, whether you’re into sci-fi or not. But who are we kidding? From the responses we got, you are.

The Winners

[RubenFixit]’s Star Trek Shuttle Console is a Trek themed escape room in a box. The project’s extraordinary attention to detail and exhaustive project logs absolutely won our judges heart. From the LCARS graphics to the 3D printed isolinear chip bays and mimetic crystals, it’s all there. [Ruben] estimates about 300 hours of work went into this one, and it shows.

We had no shortage of robotic projects in the contest, but [RudyAramayo]’s R.O.B. won our judges over. This one is not a joke, weighing in at over 140 lbs of custom metalwork and righteous treads. It’s also made out of some expensive hardware all around, so maybe this isn’t your weekend-build robot. We love the comment on the Arduino test code suite: “For gods sake man, you must test your code when it becomes an autonomous vehicle.”

Finally, [zapwizard]’s Functional Razor Crest Control Lever is a prop and a video game controller in one. We can totally see Grogu playing with this, and we were wowed by the attention to detail in the physical build — with custom gears and a speed limiter — as well as the attention to prop-making detail. Some parts are custom-cut stainless steel plates. 3D printed parts are covered in aluminum tape and chemically aged. Awesome. Oh yeah, it’s also a working USB joystick.

These three winners will be receiving a $150 shopping spree at Digi-Key.

Continue reading “2022 Sci-Fi Contest: The Winners Are In” →

2022 Sci-Fi Contest: A Very Star Wars Door

April 22, 2022 by Lewin Day No comments

Every fan of the original Star Wars trilogy knows the plight of Han Solo, who was so cruelly frozen in carbonite by Imperial forces. [erv.plecter] came into possession of a replica Solo, this time frozen in polyurethane, and set about using it as the door for a home theater setup.

Just like in the movie, there are a series of controls and lights on the side of the door, clearly intended to represent the state of the carbonite block and the smuggler trapped within. This was achieved with the use of a SAMD51 microcontroller, which controls five meters of WS2812B LED strip along with a small OLED display.

There’s also an amazing little smoke effect, built using a vape inhaler. These devices have proved popular for all kinds of theme builds and costumes, as it turns out. They’re a great way to produce a visible fog or smoke in a tiny, compact package.

[erv.plecter] was kind enough to share plenty of details on the build, including how the polyurethane cast was assembled into the door. The final result looks remarkably authentic, and would surely prove a hit at any Star Wars movie night. Just don’t spoil things by forcing everyone to sit through Revenge of the Sith. Video after the break. Continue reading “2022 Sci-Fi Contest: A Very Star Wars Door” →