The MarcDuino system is based on Arduino. It controls animatronics (panel movement, lights and sound) of the droid. It was developed by Mowee/Curiousmarc.
Original code rights on the Marcduino V2 firmware belong to CuriousMarc & Neil Hutchison and Marcduino V3 firmware rights belong to Neil Hutchison.
I have developed an alternative that is perhaps a little cheaper, simpler and more elegant: Benduino (available at shop.printed-droid.com)
Marcduino v1.5 PCB
This is a Marcduino v1.5 PCB:
(front/bottom/soldered)
The developers site can be found here:
https://www.curiousmarc.com/r2-d2/marcduino-system
Master and Slave Boards
The Marcduino v1 and v2.0 are outdated. You should go with the v1.5 (Marcduino compact). It runs the latest Firmware and is pretty small. The main system uses 2 Marcduino boards: the Master and the Slave board. Hardware is the same, they differ by the flashed firmware.
The Master controls the Dome panels and Sound. The Slave controls the Holo Projectors and Lights.
Buying and Building
You can buy Marcduino Boards on the Astromech Forum or solder them by yourself.
The support thread on Astromech: https://astromech.net/forums/showthread.php?28414-Support-Thread-for-MarcDuino-v1-5-s
If you want to solder them by yourself, here’s the needed component list:
Software for the MarcDuino
Firmware for MarcDuino:
https://www.curiousmarc.com/r2-d2/marcduino-system/marcduino-boards/firmware-upload
Just follow the instructions.
To upload Marcduino Firmware follow this guide:
https://www.curiousmarc.com/r2-d2/marcduino-system/marcduino-boards/firmware-upload
During upload remove all connected Servos!
V2 (1.8) Firmware:
L: 0xff
H: 0xdf
E: 0x07
V3 Firmware:
L: 0xFF
H: 0xD7
E: 0xFC
Infos about Marcduino V3 Software:
https://astromech.net/forums/showthread.php?40790-MarcDuino-V3-Support-Thread