R5’s Bad Motivator 2025

 February 2025.....

Back on it again these last few months, waiting for delivery of different components to get R5’s bad motivator setup all working from one switch off the RC transmitter.

A new receiver paired to use a different channel not used on main body, worked when bench testing, but didn't work when both receivers were powered up. So it's back to the drawing board on this.....

An Adafruit sound board, mini amplifier, voltage regulator and utilising a speaker out of my parts bin lol.

Then 3D printing of brackets to mount these parts.

Then one new momentary servo controlled switch to control the adafruit sound board, and one on/off switch for the ‘Bad Motivator smoke setup’.

Celebration Europe 2023 - Jabba's Gate Door Build - Part 4

February 2023:

More building work from Mike & he has excelled himself!!

He’d finished building the side unit and on Friday 17th, I went up to help him and his brother Mark, assemble the door.

There are three units that are bolted and screwed together to lock everything in place. When I arrived the base was already outside Mike’s place.

Next was bolting the support legs into place.

Then the upper support batons, that support the upper door unit. Mark & myself then lifted the upper section into place whilst Mike secured the batons to the rear.

We then carried out the lightest piece, the end wall. This gets bolted and screwed onto the other two units, making a rigid corner structure.

Mike brought out one of his droids and placed in front for scale and some more photos.

This was when the passing public started putting two and two together lol.

With the build almost completed, it’s just left for me to finish the TT-8Y droid. Mike has made the door flap panel to open up.

I have also made a start on writing up assembly instructions. This display will be handed over to the R2 Builders Club, for further events, so instructions for putting this together will be needed so anyone can do it.

TT-8Y droid progress:

The model components were designed to be static, but I required it to operate opening of the eye lid. So I had to do some thinking. One of the stl’s I didn’t print out as it wasn’t necessary and would of added to the weight. So I had to draw up some pivot point rings to allow the upper eye lid to be able to move.

Here you can see them on the lower fixed eye lid:

I had picked up some spray paint that I had used before and liked the colour of. With it i made a start on the pieces.

I wanted to check out the LED arrangement, so I first hot glued in the lens.

Then the LED holder plate. The LED’s were glued in.

The crystals were fitted in through the opening seen in above picture, one at a time lol.

And here’s the finished crystal assembly:

Then it was a quick hook-up of the LED’s, not all of them are illuminated in the next pictures, it was just to see the effect.

So the next week or so will be more 3D printing of the arm extension.

I opened up part of the neck stl file and re-modelled it to have less material and also for it to be printed in two halves.

I had already printed off the ring that the four tubes fit onto. Next up was to remodel the tubes as the original ones were solid, no need for them to be, waste of material and additional unwanted weight. I used this same model and modified it to be straight, as an extra extension piece for the tubes. These were not actually needed in the end test fitting.

Once glued together and sanded. It was time to test assemble everything so far made.

I found some suitable length bolts and a steel length of rod. I drilled holes through the neck part and through the main PVC tube. Then the inner metal tube which will connect with the wall/door.

The next step was to disassemble it and start spraying up the pieces with the dark grey’ish paint, same colour as the eye lids. And here’s the reassembled parts. I still need to add the silver to these parts, as well as spraying the PVC tube.

The LED wires were trimmed to matched lengths and soldered together. A single fly lead will connect to both positive and negative wires and terminated with a plug.

The connection plug was wired to a lead that is threaded through the PVC tube. So the eye can be removed from the main shaft.

Here’s a YouTube short. If this doesn't work, here's my YouTube Channel link

Some more pictures of the assembly.

I went through my speaker box and after a quick test, decided on one that was rectangular (out of an old laptop), this I will try to incorporate into the neck part of the build so the sounds will seam like they are coming from the eye itself. And here is the test install:

The PVC tube has a slot cut into it so that the speaker sits flush with the surface. I’ll be redoing this speaker holder.

I drew up an adapter that will be glued into the rear of the eye, and then the metal tube will be secured to it. The PVC tube will fit over the eyes rear hub.

The pivot points for the upper eye lid needed to be strengthened, as one already came off. So I’ve had to go away from authenticity and over to practicality and durability with a slight redesign. You can see the semi-circle just above the screws. There is a smaller version on the other side of the iris.

Am not happy about the screw heads, but it is what it is.

Next up was operating the eye lid movement.

I sourced a Pololu maestro 6 channel board…. eventually, off eBay, as everywhere was sold out, or over priced with postage and shipping. But order was cancelled as they didn’t realise there stock level was zero! Refunded but now the hunt was on to find another one.

Found another one and ordered…..but the Post Office have delayed its delivery 😡 so I had to search for an alternative actuation unit, but again I was at the will of the Post Office 😩😩😩. At this rate the eye lid may not be able to be motorised!

Drew up a servo bracket to fit inside the rear of the eye to activate the upper eye lid. Version 2, fitted better and uses a SG90 servo.

….Pololu still hadn't arrived.

March 5th:

Mike had the angled bracket for the eye, so I drove down to his work for a day of testing and fitting 😄.

We first brought out the three pieces and assembled them together. Mike had marked and colour coded them for easier and future assembly.

We marked the spot on the front and then drilled a hole through. This was the upwards angle point needed. The eye does stick out a fair way from the door when speaking to 3P0, but we wanted to avoid this so as people wouldn’t bump into it when having photos taken. We weren’t happy with the angle either, so the this was adjusted using longer bolts and spacer tubes to increase the angle more.

Here’s a progress picture:

Mike’s a big (tall) lad, so the fact the eye position is not in his head bumping range, is a good thing.

This fitting, figuring out, re-fitting, then cutting down the tube lengths, drilling locking location holes in the tubes…… took us about 5hours!!

Once finished I had started cutting down the tubes to fit. They didn’t need to be as long after all.

The tube can now be finished off with painting. And a collar/back plate, needs to be drawn up and printed to cover the whole in the wall.

I got home and made a start on primer painting the last pieces, the tube ring and the PVC tube.

Late March 18th:

The back plate had been printed and painted, along with the rest of the last pieces.

The PIR sensor unit that will hopefully trigger the sound and lights (& servo if the boards arrive in time), needed a housing and a position for it to be mounted in. I wanted all the electrical/electronics to be combined into one unit for easy of assembly, so using a design I had already, I modified it into a sensor type unit that can be pivoted and rotated to best suit the location.

I had also read that narrowing the line of sight helps with the sensor not triggering unwontedly. So the sensor housing has a tube over the front of it.

Early April:

With weeks left and no sign of some of the electronics, I have had to admit slight defeat. The set up for the sound and light activation wasn't working when triggered at the same time??? So it looks like they will have to be separate. Tried getting the servo to operate, but the circuit board is not a momentary switch, when I saw it I thought it moved and returned the servo when pressed/released.

This is testing the PIR sensor to trigger the sound via relay switch (centre of picture). PIR on the right.

There will be an event report that has/will follow detailing/reviewing Celebration. This will include more photos etc, so don't forget to scroll back through this Blog, like, share etc. I hope this behind the scenes was of interest to you. Please leave a comment below. 

The wiring is there for future upgrades, probably better suited to an Arduino set-up, and for someone who knows what they're doing.

All in all, I am 90% happy with the finished item, minus the not working bits.

I hope you enjoyed attending Celebration and that you were able to have photo's taken with the display.

Sounds for Droid 2020 - 1.9 transmitter

Back in February:

I installed the volume control.

Another thing that has been sat on my workbench, that I needed to fit. I decided to take it out of the little box I made & secure it in place behind the octagon port, with its nut and washer.

The new 3D printed dial’s shaft needed to be cut down a bit as it protruded out too far.

April 2021

Today as part of R5’s system check, I powered him up and tested his functions. More on this in next Blog post.

The sound system & transmitter triggers worked great.

• Red surround digital voltage reader & voltage regulator = power to the adafruit sound board.
• Black surround digital voltage reader = power to the amplifier.
• Relay below it is triggered by the transmitter.
• Board below power switch = Adafruit sound board.
• Board below sound board = amplifier.

Sounds for Droid 2020 - 1.8 installation

Made up a new bracket for holding one speaker, out of some MDF wood. The prev one was perspex and was attached to the old sound board.

I may mount the second speakers in a rear position.

Continuing on with organising the wires, the slip ring underside wires are always annoyed me as they are stiffer due to less strands. This makes it awkward reaching inside as they get in the way. So I decided to cut them short and connect new, more flexible cable. This will also be yellow to match up with identification of the voltages, yellow being 12v positive.

Next up was to install the sound board. I changed my mind about which side to mount it on. Decided that it would be better over on the right hand side. I needed a spacer block, so cut a small piece of wood, marked the boards fixing hole position on it, then drilled clearance holes and screwed the spacer block to the frame.

Next up was to then mount the sound board to the spacer block.

I de-soldered the red power cable on the sound board and replaced it with a yellow one. I had some yellow heat shrink to cover the red wire for the Trading Card Dispenser electronics box.

Next up then is to connect the speaker, route the servo lead which operates the relay switch and test out the amp/speaker. Also need to look at where best to fit the volume control knob.

Sounds for droid 2020 - 1.7 Sound board build

Back in August 2020   

 After lots of design layout ideas, and 3D printing a special holder for the sound components. I decided to just go back to basics and use Perspex.....as I had found some spare. I still utilised the digital voltage meter holders & also the Dual Relay Switch holder, as these don't have there own fixing points.

I dug out all the old nuts and bolts previously used and thought.....naaaa, I don't like the look of them. So I drilled a hole and test fitted a threaded Brass insert. It worked! So positioned the components, marked and drilled holes......all except the sound board (as this requires M2 size thread fittings) and then using my soldering iron tip, melted into place the Brass inserts.

Next up was test fitting all the components on the perspex board.

Just waiting on the M2 thread fittings.....

I started routing and soldering the wiring next. I drilled holes to route the power wires behind the panel and to help identify the voltage, used yellow as positive for the Audio FX sound board as it uses a lower voltage than the amplifier.

The M2 inserts and bolts/screws arrived in a few days via eBay and where inserted into the rear of the board.

October 2020.....update

Got on with refitting the sound system. The extra perspex material has now been removed and a suitable location to mount it has been prioritised. A wood spacer block is needed to raise off the vertical frame support to allow the wires to fit behind. This new location is closer also to the 12v terminal distribution block.

I also fitted some of the new cable clamps I designed and 3D printed.

    

The board just needs terminals for the 12v power.

Sounds for droid 2020 - 1.6 transmitter switch test

 Forgot to post this.....

A few weeks ago I was asked to do a tutorial video for the Droid Builders UK Live 2020 event, check out the website here & the You Tube channel here. It didn't get aired due to time, but whilst I was working on all the electrical's, I swapped over the transmitter switch I had originally fitted, with a momentary version.

The original 'switch' was a dial which wasn't needed so after watching some YouTube videos on how too, I swapped it for a switch.

Here are my Blog links to prev. work done.

• Switch Part 1
• Switch Part 2

I wanted to have a momentary switch, rather than a normal 3 position one.

As I had already done the hard work in Parts 1 & 2, this was just a simple un-solder and re-solder the new switch.....except that what I didn't realise at the time was that the thread is an M6.....not an M5. So I'll have to make a new switch nut.

Sounds for droids 2020 - upgrade 1.5

So after sound testing, I found some better shielded cable and got on with soldering on contacts and also the volume control.

In my last sounds post, I had thought about 3D printing up a sound board to mount the components onto, but thought this was just me having tooooo much free time, so decided to just stick with a simple perspex sheet.

Sounds for droids 2020 - upgrade 1.4

After the last testing and the feedback created being a nightmare and the ground loop isolater circuit just wasn't doing anything. So rather then using standard speaker wires, as can be seen in the video in my last post, I cut down the leads from the RCA leads and swapped the standard cable over for these.

OTHER WORK
Since then I've been working on creating 3D printable enclosures to house all the pieces.
Sorting out the orientations of them so will post up once done.

.......3D printed parts for the utility arms have been done

by a work college and are now in the post to me.

Thanks Will.

Sounds for droids 2020 - upgrade 1.3

Saturday I got round to playing with the sound board & set everything up to test out the new amp.

Rewind a week to the issues I had trying to upload the sounds to the board. I had just grabbed a usb cable I thought I had used before to connect the board to the laptop, but it wouldn’t connect???
After numerous attempts and system checks, I realised the cable was a power one not a power/signal one. Swapped cables and instantly problems solved lol.

After testing the sounds using my phone, i needed to actually test with the sound board. So after some wire soldering/connections, the board, amp, speakers where connected. I had ordered a potentiometer as a volume control, but it still hasn’t come, so I dug out a broken large servo and used the pot out of it. Quick YouTube/internet search, and it was soldered up according.

This might look like a mess lol, but it was only for the purpose of taking the pic.
I opened up the ground loop unit to be able to connect up the speaker wires.
The amp uses 12 Volts, but the sound board runs 3-5 Volts, so has a mini voltage regulator [just seen in picture above it],

The sound output was great! And even more so, when I adjusted the 'volume' via the potentiometer, so much so that the wife told me to turn it down! :D

Here's a short video clip of the sound test, via my You Tube channel.

This new amp was originally going to be used as a separate sound unit for in R5's dome, but I think I might keep it for his main sound setup and get another [possibly] for the bad motivator dome setup.

Here's a size comparison between the two amps:

New amp on the left [small], original amp on the right [large].

The new amp cost about £5 inc P&P, compared to the SURE amp, which cost about £20+

Tuesday 28th and the potentiometer arrived in the post...