I've had my Sideshow Grogu for a while now. I originally made him poseable with a metal wire and biscuit foam, but the wire was always a bit too stiff and bounced back quite a lot. I'd been meaning to swap it out for the tripod limbs but since seeing the Grogu at Galaxy's Edge, I thought I'd take it a step further.
I kept the feet as metal wire, given how sunk in to the foam and resin, removing them was going to be nigh on impossible. But I replaced the arms with the tripod limbs, giving me a lot more range of movement than I had before. I also wired up a servo controller to two 35kg servos on a pan and tilt kit, powered by a 5V USB power bank.
The pan/tilt kit came with two HiTec 422 servos which were far too underpowered at 4kg. I originally swapped them out for HiTec 645 servos at 9kg but even they weren't enough. Eventually I bought the 35kg servos which may or may not have been overkill. This is my first time using servos so I didn't know how to calculate the required torque.
I completely gutted the head of expanding foam in a bid to cut the weight of the head down and give the servos a better chance (fun fact, the eyes are only half spheres presumably attached from the outside, which I wasn't expecting). I did the same for the body, taking out most of the biscuit foam I'd put in a year ago with my first attempt at pose-ability. This definitely gave me more work than I needed, but at least I could sand out a flat base for the servos to sit on once I had taken enough out for the neck to sit flush. I also had to trim a lot of the collar on the body away to get a decent range of motion with the servos.
I 3D printed a collar for the head and the servo base, so no gluing was required, I just screwed the neck collar directly into the mounting holes on the pan/tilt mount and screwed down into the body for the servo housing.
I'm currently printing another servo housing that will also mount the servo controller and now I need to figure out how to get a 5V battery inside the body and how to add sound. I'll also need to replace his dickie. After taking out so much of the collar, it keeps bunching up. I think the solution is to make a t-shirt that velcros up the back, tight to the neck.
I want to eventually cosplay as Mando with Grogu in the bag making all the movements, but I also want to add in direct joystick control. Say a kid runs up to me and wants to talk to Grogu, I could press a button to override the movements and have a small joystick on a gauntlet move the servos to control Grogu directly in response to the kid. Then once they've gone, press the button again and it goes back to the programmed motion. Whether that's possible with this controller though, I don't know.
I kept the feet as metal wire, given how sunk in to the foam and resin, removing them was going to be nigh on impossible. But I replaced the arms with the tripod limbs, giving me a lot more range of movement than I had before. I also wired up a servo controller to two 35kg servos on a pan and tilt kit, powered by a 5V USB power bank.
The pan/tilt kit came with two HiTec 422 servos which were far too underpowered at 4kg. I originally swapped them out for HiTec 645 servos at 9kg but even they weren't enough. Eventually I bought the 35kg servos which may or may not have been overkill. This is my first time using servos so I didn't know how to calculate the required torque.
I completely gutted the head of expanding foam in a bid to cut the weight of the head down and give the servos a better chance (fun fact, the eyes are only half spheres presumably attached from the outside, which I wasn't expecting). I did the same for the body, taking out most of the biscuit foam I'd put in a year ago with my first attempt at pose-ability. This definitely gave me more work than I needed, but at least I could sand out a flat base for the servos to sit on once I had taken enough out for the neck to sit flush. I also had to trim a lot of the collar on the body away to get a decent range of motion with the servos.
I 3D printed a collar for the head and the servo base, so no gluing was required, I just screwed the neck collar directly into the mounting holes on the pan/tilt mount and screwed down into the body for the servo housing.
I'm currently printing another servo housing that will also mount the servo controller and now I need to figure out how to get a 5V battery inside the body and how to add sound. I'll also need to replace his dickie. After taking out so much of the collar, it keeps bunching up. I think the solution is to make a t-shirt that velcros up the back, tight to the neck.
I want to eventually cosplay as Mando with Grogu in the bag making all the movements, but I also want to add in direct joystick control. Say a kid runs up to me and wants to talk to Grogu, I could press a button to override the movements and have a small joystick on a gauntlet move the servos to control Grogu directly in response to the kid. Then once they've gone, press the button again and it goes back to the programmed motion. Whether that's possible with this controller though, I don't know.
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