This is version 1 of my BB-8 droid from the new Star Wars movies. It had pretty much no budget and acted as a great learning ground before I spent more money. A video of it in action is below.

For more about this droid, along with general design details, see my main BB-8 droid page.

BB-8 droid from the 1st Star Wars - The Force Awakens trailer.

My first BB-8 droid with a cardboard head.

Video - BB-8 Droid Build from Star Wars - Homemade (v1)

Here's a video showing mine in action, as well as talking about some of the issues in getting one to work.

How the BB-8 droid (v1) was made

Starting from a toy remote control truck I made the complex "truck" shown below, which I refer to as the internals.

Toy remote control truck.

The BB-8 internals.

The BB-8 internals on the table.

The brass tube extending up from the truck goes to a plastic disk that contains four magnets (see photos below.) Those magnets attract four other magnets attached to the bottom of a plastic cross. That plastic cross is what goes on the outside of the ball and acts as the base for any dome or head, such as the cardboard one shown at the top of the page above.

The magnets on the plastic disk and under the cross.

Showing how the magnets attract.

The cross on the ball.

The magnets were purchased from a hardware store (Home Hardware) and the packaging is shown below. They are neodymium magnets with dimensions 0.47 inches (12mm) in diameter and .11 inches (3mm) thick.

The packaging the magnets came in.

Due to the weight of the plate at the top of the brass tube and the things mounted on it, the truck would sometimes tip over inside and the wheels would lose traction (see photos below). The solution to that was to add the side supports. At the end of each side support was a roller with a ball (a marble) in it that could move in any direction along the inner surface of the globe.

Truck and other internals tipped over.

Side supports to fix the problem.

A roller on a side support.

The roller was made by using a pipe cutter to cut one end of a brass tube. That left a burr which kept the ball, a marble, from coming out. A piece of wooden dowel was then inserted into the tube to prevent the ball from coming out the other end and for the ball to roll against.

Cutting with a pipe cutter.

The burr keeping the ball in.

Inserting the wooden dowel.

The result was that the truck would no longer tip over.

No more tipping over.

Video - How to Make BB-8 Droid Build (v1) from Star Wars

Here's a video showing the making of this BB-8 droid version 1 going through it step-by-step, including a lot of the experimenting and reasoning involved.

rimstar.org