11/13/2005

Hello,
My name is Terry Andrews Jr. I'm 40 years old and live in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. U.S.A. I'm Happily Married "In case the Wife reads this...LOL" with 7 Children (ages 14 thru 21) and work as an aircraft engine assembler for Textron, Lycoming Engines. My current duties included installing the ignition, induction and fuel injection system's on these fine engines.

My interest in robotics goes back to my childhood and continues to present day. I have no formal education in robotics, I am self taught in many areas and have a broad background in many different fields. I am a student of all sciences. I cannot stress the importance of reading and learning those subjects you wish to know more about. Learning is an ongoing lifelong process that does not end with a diploma!

My interest in Johnny Five started of course when I seen the first Short Circuit movie (1986). I was blown away by the elegant complexity and engineering behind Number 5's construction. This was not a man in a suit or an over glorified trash can with wheels, This was a true R.O.V. robotics system and it was amazing! I was hooked but, I lacked the time, money, discipline and knowledge necessary to even attempt anything but the most rudimentary of robotics’ projects. First, I needed to teach myself that which I wanted to know more about. Time to hit the books!

Fast forward to 2002. In that Year, I decided to finally take my ideas of a robot, and build one. I was bursting with literally thousands of cool ideas and now had the necessary resources at my disposal to act on them. I wanted to in some small way incorporate some of the head details and actions from Johnny five into my robot's head design. This was to pay homage to in some small way to Johnny Five. So I started to research J5 and its construction via the Internet.....

Surprise!!!! There was almost nothing to be found! Some pictures, ALOT of guess work and many more rumors. Over 15 years since the first movie came out and no real information on J5..... This would not do! I went to work gathering any and all the information I could get my hands on. I found other like minded people and eventually found John Riggs of the Robot Hut. He was of Great assistance and had access to one of the Stunt-Bot versions of J5. While a huge help, this was still not nearly enough information. The eye lenses that where used for J5's eyes were still a mystery! I researched them and by pure LUCK.... I found them! The copy lenses were rare to say the least. After purchasing all of the copy lenses that the company had, I went to work on getting them to function as they should. I put up a very modest web-site (It sucked) that showed pictures and a video of my prototype eyes in operation. I started to email Eric Allard, Johnny Five's creator, We started communicating via email and later had some phone conversations.

In the fall of 2002, Eric Allard had the idea of shipping Johnny Five to my work shop and our team do a complete rebuild and documentation of J5's construction. The time frame was to be about 90 days to complete the project! That turned out to be cost prohibitive. (Insurance, shipping, possible damage while in transit, ect.) Then Eric Allard said " Why don't you just jump on a plane and come out here for a week and get the information you need."
Well in April of 2003, I did just that! I spent 5 days at Eric Allard's company "All-FX", documenting J5. 21 hours of Hi-8mm video taped documentation, over 1000 still photos and thousands of measurements.

Summary
This J5 project has seen many good people come and go. The project is difficult and requires a level of dedication, teamwork, expertise and resources and has seen changes in membership throughout the project's history. I, along with my teammates continue to work daily on this project. It is not as simple as just replicating EXACTLY how J5 was constructed. Remember....J5 was intended as a movie prop and as such was never designed for exacting up close examination or prolonged operation. The original J5 has its flaws. All of these flaws need to be addressed and solution's found. 5 Days was not nearly enough time to properly document and reassemble J5. Some portions of J5 could not be as thoroughly examined as they should have been. This leaves many gaps in information and requires the team to "figure out" that missing information. Parts are rare or are simply no longer available. Again, this requires a great deal of time and innovative problem solving skills to come to a suitable solution. In the end the blueprints produced will be of the best and most accurate quality that can be produced!
We have a limited supply of the original Raptor copy lenses for the eyes and the original rear caster tires. We have the information, now all we need is time and your continued understanding. We are making good progress. The team has sacrificed a great deal to make building a J5 reality for all of you!

Thanks for Keeping Number Five ALIVE
Terry Andrews Jr.