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DECAL From Scratch

A project log for DECAL

Decal Evolved-Composite Application Layer for robotics

morningstarMorning.Star 06/27/2017 at 13:190 Comments

About 6 hours uninterrupted hacking.

While Bea is on respite for a few days I can put linear hours into building and concentrate fully on what I'm doing. I only get this once a month so I make the most of it.

I decided to build a limb from scratch, photograph the templated parts and then video the final assembly. I'm also working on a better foot, I'm not happy with it and it needs another servo in the ankle anyway.



Laminating the printed skin with transparent plastic...

Cutting out the templated parts in sections for their procedures...

Adhesive goes on the bracing parts directly, they dont have any active circuitry...

So they attach straight to the polystyrene...

And can be cut out with a pair of scissors, then glued together with their own adhesive patches...

The finished cross brace parts...

Servo mounts and integrated connectors get the same treatment, they attach directly to the skin...

Then cut them out ready...

And add solderable connectors using double-sided tape... I've used Polyethylene for the bearers themselves, superglue wont touch it.

Connections to the front face are accomplished with a strip of copper... The horizontal foils are isolated from each other, they are covered with sellotape first and then the vertical foil covers that for shielding. I only want the horizontal faces to be visible from the outside to body fields, the 'cables' will interfere so they are behind an isolated foil.

The through-connectors are then soldered together with the front face connection. This wont be necessary when the new tape arrives, just lap it and the adhesive takes care of the circuit...

This is then covered with sellotape to isolate it from the next foil and so on.

... Lunch ...


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