R5-D4 - Bad Motivator system upgrade 1.6

It's been a while since my last update, but I have been busy.

I've drilled and tapped the slide so that the 'motivator' can be bolted onto it. The 3D printed adaptor, just needs some silver or black paint to blend it in.

R5-D4's pop-up motivator

I did a test fire of the pop-up of the motivator and it actually got fired right out of the pie hole.....!! I caught it tho. May have to do a video for that lol.

Next up was sorting out the contacts for the e-cig smoke unit. I tried to disassemble it to connect up more thicker wire, but this proved a waste of time as the soldering just wouldn't take to the aluminium of the contact. So I ordered two new components that I hope I can work with and these will then sort this out. I'll just need to design and print off a bracket for this to locate inside the dome.

With all the 3D printed stuff for the motivator pop-up system, the electronics control board was looking a bit naff.... So I drew up a simple'ish board (picture below) that all the components could be fitted onto. I next drew up a bracket so that this could be fitted to the inside of R5's dome.

electronics control board

I designed raised pads for the screws used on the remote board & voltage regulator boards.
The digital readout's have a rear wall around the rectangular holes for a tight fit.
The two orange units are the time delay units, these are just tight fit's into place.

I later installed two status LED's along with a mini switch to help show power and 'power on'. The reason for these is that the board only 'lights-up' when in use and the switch helps if I need to actually turn the motivator system off. Am also waiting for a second digital volt meter, as I couldn't find a spare one in my electronics stash.

With the new board, I needed to also draw up a bracket to hold the smoke pump in place.
So I drew this up...

I made the internal diameters smaller so that they would grip the pump tightly.

Once I've installed the second digital readout, I can then arrange where this is all going to fit.

R5-D4 - Bad Motivator system upgrade 1.5

So it was back to re-designing the pivot arm and linkage points.

I first used a piece of cardboard to gauge the distance after I took photos of the gaps that the pivot arm would need to be extended by.

I then redrew these up in work on Inventor. I countersunk the nut so that it looked good lol, no other reason other than the length of the bolt. Both parts seen in picture one were then reprinted in 3D PLA filament.

Recessing the nut, just makes fitting easier. It's a push fit into the recess, so is help tight.

Next up is the electronics, electrical & the smoke system to be re-installed. This will be next week as this weekend I'll be at the NEC Birmingham.

R5-D4 - Bad Motivator system upgrade 1.4

After printing out the actuator bracket re-design, I found out that I actually had less space than I thought and that the rear of the actuator was interfering with the inside of the dome, so not allowing it to sit in it's needed position.

Next problem was that in order to achieve clearance, I needed extra height (see pic above). Unfortunately tho, the longer version was TOO long (or high) for my mini desktop 3D printer.

So I had a thought and swapped the actuator bracket's location to the other side of the motivator opening. This meant a re-design, again, of the 'bell crank' component.

Am getting the hang of the clearances needed to make things a nice fit. I countersunk the hex hole for the lock nut into the component.

Well, the new position for the actuator fits, but is now at an angle that won't work.....

So looks like it's back to the drawing board (CAD) to look at another way to activate the motivator.

~~~

Next idea was to just mount the actuator directly below the IGUS slide to push/pull the motivator unit. But where to fix it tho. Idea was to mount the bracket to on of the internal wood frame supports.
So I drew up this bracket.

The next thing once this is fitted is to design up the linkage from the actuator to the IGUS slide.

R5-D4 - Bad Motivator system upgrade 1.3

Ive had to do a few more re-designs on the motivator's activator bracket & pivot pieces. This is all new to me and although I sort of know the basics, a linear piston movement connected to a pivoting 'bell crank', didn't go the way I thought it would lol.

I decided to change the bracket for the pivoting bell crank, by making it a separate item. This means the actuator bracket can now be placed independently, maybe until I know where it should actual go lol

Downloaded the IGUS slide an assembled it onto the bracket. Along with nut, bolt and washer. Re-designed bell crank as well.

I found a supplier for the IGUS t-track and the price wasn't bad. I just now need to sort out the location bracket for the actuator.

R5-D4 - Bad Motivator system upgrade 1.0

R5's pop up 'Motivator' system, was deactivated last year for an 'event'. Although the linkage used to lift the motivator is sound, the riser bars were starting to seize up a bit, so making the up and down movement not so smooth. The electronics side also needs a tune up as well, so this will be worked on too.

So after doing some researching, I think I found some new components to upgrade the set-up.

• I found a slide 'sample' unit in work from IGUS.
• I also ordered a cheap bearing loaded kitchen draw rail.

I'll be drawing up some ideas in AutoCAD 3D Inventor (in work) for how best to work these into the dome. But out of the two options listed above, I'm going with the IGUS drylin T miniature guide carriage.

I also looked and was toying with a new DJ Design's 'updated' Motivator resin kit. As he states on his website, he has updated the motivator to look more screen accurate, which it does. He does state that it's still only an interpretation of what it looks like, but it does look close to screen grabs I've seen.

Here's some of the pics of the 3D work.

This was idea Mk1

This needed some refining and was a bit over kill, even with the 'weight savin' cut-outs lol, so this now looks a bit like this.

Idea Mk2

Am already working on a possible Mk3 version, but it's more a 'what if' idea than a change to this design.