R5’s Bad Motivator : reincarnation

After months (years) of saying I must get R5’s mojo back, I’ve made a start on getting his motivator system back up and running. Well done James, given myself a week to get it ready for next Saturday’s event at NEC Birmingham 😂😂😂 MegaCON Live.

See previous posts about the issues with the car door actuator failing and then upgrading to the magnetic version.

I dug out the parts bags and laid them out on the bench. There’s half still in the dome, the actual pump to be used….and also the vape tank….

In the above picture, there’s two air pumps, one has a broken terminal, so is salvage at the moment. The magnetic solenoid (left, wrapped in blue) is attached to the pivot arm, the clear plastic bag has some mini voltage regulators, the white board is the original one I used, the orange block below it is the time unit, below that is the new remote control unit, and finally the activation remote control wrist strap (bagged up on the right).

Bad Motivator - Vape / smoke video 2019

So, Sunday morning, I was able to set up and video the vape tank that I had to replace the e-cig unit. This can take more power lol and produce a LOT more ‘smoke’.

This was it set up. The timer, orange square, was not in use as I believe it has actually failed like the other one, shame as they are good. So the setup is voltage regulator, air pump & vape tank (controlled via a switch for testing).

The unit would normally only run for a few seconds when activated with the pop up ‘bad motivator’, but it’s ability to have a longer lifetime is a plus. And the fact it produces more vape is another plus.

Next up is to re-do the electronics etc and also the bad motivator pop-up system and R5 will be back in buisness again.

As mentioned on the video info, I'll be posting up the collar to my Thingiverse page soon.

New e-Cig bracket

The problem I found with the e-Cig bracket is that the single screw didn't hold it in place. Also the position of the screw was actually obscured by the contacts. Plus,there wasn't enough clearance to unscrew it with its collar in place.

So I drew/modified the design to have two screw fixing positions, easier access to fix them. I lowered them as well. I then increased the land that the 'flat top 510' adapter fits into, to allow the e-Cig & it's collar (once pipe is disconnected) to freely unscrew for easier refilling.

I added an angle to the flat, so that it would allow clearance to the e-Cig/Motivator slide unit.

I love all this testing and refining of parts.

'Bad Motivator' - upgrade to power lift 'Blown' status 1.9 [You-Tube]

.......sorted out the Motivator to lower back down after being activated......here's a VERY short video.

I fitted a simple rubber band to the actuator, so retract the motivator after the power switches off.

The noise from the pump vibrating on the inside of the wood dome, was a bit to loud for my liking, regardless of the fact that at an event you probably wouldn't hear it! So I uncliped the cable tie and cut up some foam, wrapped it round the pump and tied it back into place. This is now a lot quieter!

It may not look pretty, but it does the job lol.

I have another small addition for the electrics to make things look and act how I'd really like.......

'Bad Motivator' - upgrade to power lift 'Blown' status 1.7

Last night I trimmed board down the board so it can fit in this position. Will have to reposition the timer relay.

Dome wires previously set up for individual power of lights, motivator and smoke....not now required, so I could use these for other things (???) Only the 12 volt feed is needed to then be distributed to motivator and smoke via dome board.

'Bad Motivator' - upgrade to power lift 'Blown' status 1.6 [You-Tube]

Not had much time to work on this recently, but got back onto Monday.

I'd found a suitable piece of MDF that I could mount the components onto. I then did a bit of re-cutting of wires (see prev post pic) to shorten them to better fit the board and layout of them all.

Once layed out, I marked and drilled securing holes and fixed down with mini cable ties.
Not very pretty, but necessary.

And here's the test video showing the timer relay in action. I connected an LED to the 12 volt output to show power, the voltage regulator has it's own LED power indicator already.

R5's You Tube page

I just need to add some labels to identify what power and where wires go where lol.

Next is to test connect up to the Dome and the Bad Motivator & Smoke system to test for real!!

'Bad Motivator' - upgrade to power lift 'Blown' status 1.5

Components arrived at the weekend, sooner than I'd expected lol. But wasn't able to try them out till Tuesday.

As always the instructions for at least one components wiring diagram are......well, inaccurate......would be putting it mildly! lol. A black& white picture, no colour identities, component picture doesn't actually match the component! But it didn't take long to sort.

So this is the plan for connecting it all up.

And here's it all wired up for testing, using an LED as the motivator/smoke side of things.

The cigarette plug, connects to the 12v power adaptor.

And here it is again, this time with the voltage regulator fitted. Again, this is just a test fitting.

The voltage regulator will be connected up to the smoke system (pump & E-Cig) as this runs at 6 volts. There will be another connection to link up to the 12 volt to the door actuator to activate the Motivator.

The remote triggers the circuit, which activates the timer relay, sending power to the motivator and smoke system. After the set time, the timer switches off and system deactivates. There is a bonus fail safe in that another button has to be pressed to reset the first button......well it's a bonus for now....lol

R5's smoke system - 1.5 - Video Dome Test No2

Although I was happy with the 3volt pump I used originally, I wanted to know if there was something that would move the vapour smoke a bit quicker. So a quick search on eBay and I found this 6volt pump. Wired it up and it works great! Click on You Tube link to view.

I first wired up the pump in 'parallel' with the e-Cig [both running off a 6 volt battery] but it was too powerful for the vapour. So I tried it in 'series' which reduced it's power, but still did a great job of moving the vapour out of the e-Cig.

R5's Sound & Electronics Board

Only been able to do little bits here and there as components arrive and I can then assemble them.

My 2.5mm centre positive, £1 off eBay jack plug arrived the weekend, so was able to Solder up the power wires to it, but the cover wouldn't fit over the cable sleeve, so I didn't fit it and used heat shrink tube.

Also the 6volt air pump arrived so I could see how it performed compared to the 3volt one.

eBay link [click here]

I first wired it up in 'parallel' but it was to powerful for the vapour, so wired it in 'series' which reduced it's power, but still did a great job of moving the vapour out of the e-Cig.