well i am pleased to report that after a long wait for replacement parts i finally have a 100% fully working droid!

so the problems that i had were:

1. the saber tube didnt work - it went up and down once when i first booted it up and that was it.

2. when i tried the projector i only got sound and no image.

3. with the saber tube i also noticed that the lower yellow micro switch wire had caught on the cross brace inside the body at some point and had been snapped off.

i was advised originally on here that i would need to replace the MCU board but if you carry on reading this was not necessary at all.

****WARNING**** make sure to remove all the battery cells before attempting to tinker with the electronics as you could easilly short something out and cause damage.

it took a lot of calling CS and asking on here i eventually got replacement parts issue 37 with the all important micro switches - thank you.

when it arrived i started a strip down of my droid concentrating mainly on these 2 parts. i tested the saber tube and it was dead, so i set about stripping it down to replace the micro switches. after a re test it was still dead, so i tested the motor and that was completely kaput/brown bread too...... very strange as it worked when we originally tested it and also prior to fitting it to the dome. thankfully the motor also comes with issue 37 so i replaced that too, re tested and it works. re fitted to the dome.

i then set about removing the projector and tested it on the original test board. i was happy to see this was still working and projecting the relevant images just as it was when i built it 2 years ago almost, and when i first fitted it into the dome (i decided it was a good idea to re test it prior to fitting as it had been stored for so long). so i did a bit of head scratching as to what was going on as it works on test but not in the droid. i did a little bit of playing around testing and re testing it and i noticed that it would intermittently come on and cut off. so i checked the plug from the power into the circuit board and some of the pins were a little loose. i carefully pushed them into the plug with tweezers and all seems fine. re fitted back into the droid.

after carefully putting everything back together, i replaced the batteries and went to turn it on - HORROR!!!!! totally dead, nothing. i though it was goosed or a dead battery so i removed them all and checked the voltage. all reading 4.1v so they were good. i decided to replace the batteries and carry out the activation process again - plug into the mains for a few moment. after this my r2 sprung into life as it should (it appears that if you remove the batteries you need to carry out the activation process again), i immediately tested the saber with the button on the front and it pops up and down beautifully, same via the app, and both projections now work perfect!

sorry this was a long read but i hope the troubles and findings i have help others here.

all in all, check ALL of your connections, make sure you have carried out the correct activation procedure, and make sure all the pins in all the sockets are fully pressed into the plugs. the latter could well be the case of most of the problems people are suffering. a simple case of methodically checking over everything.

That’s great news, and a fantastic piece of advice to boot
Here’s hoping to hear from more successful R2 builders