The Challenges of Building a Dalek: Part 23
Be sure to read the previous parts of The Challenges of Building a Dalek. Since the last update, our progress has slowed down once again as we are focusing on finishing the dome and starting the electronics for the voice modulator. Our progress has slowed down to start spreading out the expense; as building a dalek can be expensive as it depends on what you want to build it out of.
With the start of hurricane season, we have also started to take better protective precautions for our dalek as it is still currently outside on our covered deck. As the damages from last year, set us back and spend more money in our dalek budget.
The Dome
All sections have been 3D printed and are fully attached to one another. To attach each section, we had to super glue them first to create the bond, then hot stapled each section to its neighboring section with 2 staples a piece. To seal the holes from the hot staple we used a soldering iron and spare filament to create a smooth finish. When we finished our work, we proceeded to use bondo on the outside and sanded it down to a smooth finish before adding a grey primer seal. Then sanded it down again using 2000 grit sandpaper. We have been debating on what color we should paint the dome; a standard black or a very much dark hunter green. If we use a dark hunter green our fear is that the dalek will look like a bush.
Voice Modulator
With our 3-D printer have been able to print up the treys and holders for all the circuit boards to power up the dalek. On Project Dalek, you can already buy the circuit boards and the plans. We have decided to go a different route and build our own, be did buy the project plans to give us an idea of what exactly we needed. As it comes with a parts list and what those parts are for. We have managed to get all of the circuit board parts and now all we are missing is the LED lights, some of the wiring, and the power supply for the board. We didn’t want to buy all the parts at once to spread the expense.
Dad has found an app where he can play the voice of the dalek from his phone. One of our plans is to add speakers in our dalek and have Dad Bluetooth the voice from his phone to the speakers. Project Dalek has plans where you can use your voice and make it sound like the dalek so that you can interact with people. Which dad says it could be fun for Halloween.
Current Design
Currently, the neck is about 10 inches in height; and about 16 inches in diameter. When you add it to the base it stands at 62.5 inches, 1587.5 millimeters, including the wheels. Derek the Dalek is a bright hunter green and will have soul-sucking black hemispheres around the base. Since we are playing with a 3D printer, we are currently for another electric wheelchair so that we can print another type of dalek.
