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’.

The Age of Plastic 3D - website R5-D4 history info etc.

 May 2nd 2023

https://sites.google.com/site/theageofplastic3d/all-about-r5-d4

R5’s bad motivator smoke system PAGE

Just remembered I hadn’t uploaded the page that documents my R5’s bad motivator smoke system.

It has links yo my YouTube channel for the videos on there, including the latest test design.

This was the current setup, before I redesigned the electronics/electrical and motivator activation system.

R5’s Bad Motivator : reincarnation (Part 2)

March 2022

Planning out the electronics/electrical connections etc.

This has been the most concentrated effort of work to get things ready for Birmingham's event @MegaCONlive [26th March 2022].

….well…..I got it working on the bench, but there was a problem once installed in R5’s dome.

The smoke system worked ✅

But the magnetic actuator didn’t have enough to move the motivator assembly ❌

So back to the drawing board & a new lighter motivator assembly .........

October 2022

I eventually returned to this project as have time. I thought I’d try out an idea that Brad 'BHD' had a few years ago to activate HIS bad motivator’s on his droids.

It utilised a servo, pivot arm and a track system. His droids are gone, but his webpage Blog is still lives on 😎👍🏽

Link: Brad’s R2-X2 Droid build

For lightness I dug out a rail and bearing carriage I'd salvaged from a 3D printer.

Next up was to measure the carriage’s holes position, so that I could draw up in Inventor CAD, an adapter to a-fix to it for the Bad Motivator. I then needed a bracket to secure the servo to and also the rail. So again I CAD’ed up a design and 3D printed it off. It was a Friday, so I knew that this would have to be ‘modified’ lol. Sure enough, with the help of my soldering iron, (melting plastic to reshape areas, the servo fitted into place.

I’m using a metal gear servo for strength, the new motivator isn’t overly heavy, but just to be safe as it will see a lot of action.

As this setup is in R5’s dome, my standard arrangement to activate the bad motivator, is via a remote control fob.

I have been toying with and have tested out using, one of the other transmitter’s receiver’s (I have a few spare and connected it up using the last free channel on my transmitter). This is still a work in progress idea.

After printing the components, I test fitted the assembly unit into R5’s dome, only to find that the rail was further over than existing setup. The new assembly is fitted inside the dome, the old one, resting on the top of it. the 'white' component is the original 'Bad Motivator' location piece, the inside 'black' component is the new 'BMs' location piece. So I had to do some CAD alterations.

The next set of prints worked much better, fit wise. On test fitting, I had trouble with the actual motivator fitting up through the pie hole, without it catching on the new rail. This was due to orientation.

I’ve always accepted this motivator design as (at the time) was the only version available. But I think its now time I stopped wrestling with that nagging feeling and CAD up the motivator ‘that I envisioned years ago when I first sketched it up from what/how I saw it from screen caps’. (Said in Moff Tarkin’s tone of voice 😂).

…….So that’s Mondays project!

Next was to install the brass inserts, drill a few holes to secure parts and wait for a dual relay switch to arrive.....

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).

R5-D4's Bad Motivator system 2021 - Part 1.3

June 2021

Decided (last month May) that I was going to be the start of getting R5's

'Bad Motivator'

…….back installed again.

It all started waaaaay back in 2019 (part 1.0)........

....the door actuator needed replacing...... again!

The following past Blog links:

• Part 1.1
• Part 1.2

The design's were all from my early days of 3D designing components, so they needed some slight modifications and alterations for printing on my Tevo printer.

This new idea is to combine all the components onto the one assembly bracket, which is secured to the inside of the dome.

The solenoid holder needed a few changes, but the knowledge I have gained meant that the design itself was sound.

The bracket which supports the motivator and rail, had a notch in it from an earlier design. This I could use as a location point for the solenoid support bracket.

One thing I did have to change was the pivot position on the bracket arm. The solenoid activates in the pull position when powered on.

*****************************

The electricals needed re-doing as I will also be replacing the original 4 channel remote control with a two channel one.

This will operate the original Bad Motivator pop actuation, smoke/vape system....... and new for 2021.... (if all goes well)..... an amplifier/speaker/sound card to play the sound effects!

…..March 2022, thought I had posted this up last year 😂

Thingiverse Page - James_R5-D4 = Free downloads

Not done much on R5 these last few days. Have been answering questions about my Adafruit enclosures via my Instagram and Thingiverse pages.

So whilst I was on my Thingiverse page, I thought I'd checkout the views and downloads counts lol.

First up, top 7 Things viewed over the last year:

No.1 top spot, is my Trading card dispenser, lol this is like Top of the Pops 😂.
Next up, top 7 Things downloaded over the last year:

The Fake electronics board parts are what I created to be used for R4-D4's electronic panel on his dome [check out the page at top for the build].

Next up is my Trading Card Dispenser, this one is also No1 in my viewed 'Things'.

In third place are my Frankenstein neck bolts 😄. These I literally drew up and managed to get printed in an afternoon for work college who mentioned he was doing fancy dress the weekend lol.

Thingiverse page - James R5-D4

Since creating my Thingiverse page, it’s inspired me to design more and (I hope) they are useful 3D designs.

Click link to my page which has the Trading Card Dispenser,

'Y' smoke tube adapter, mini pumpkin brackets, Frankenstein neck bolts,

trading card display stands and lots more.

3D printed Vape Collar now on my Thingiverse

Uploaded my 3D collar for the Vape Tank to my Thingiverse account.

It was designed to fit this vape tank pictured below.

Vape Collar - large @ James_R5D4 Thingiverse

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.

Smoke system tutorial - Part 3 Assembly

Last year I was working on an upgrade to the bad motivator system, in that I replaced the e-cig atomiser with a small vape tank. The reason for it was that the atomiser wasn't really up to the task, current going through it and was only good for short burst's of smoke.

Using a vape tank is not my invention, so can't take credit, it just seemed the next step in how to best get more smoke. Also this is STILL on a budget!

Since posting up and sharing of my original set up & 3D collar (on my Thingiverse page) other's have asked about this set up. And I've seen similar collars appear on other  builds. Am happy to share what info I have & have also been asked if it would be ok of them to offer as a kit form to members over in the USA.

(credit given, thanks).

So here's was my latest upgrade:

This is the vape tank I bought.....it was actually the wrong one I was actually looking for, but it was late at night and think I clicked and bought by mistake. The one I wanted had the vent hole in the outside of the body....nevermind lol.

In the above picture:
'A' is where the inlet hole is, just above the thread.
'B' there are four grooves that cross, allowing air flow.

So in order for the collar to to fit and allow air flow, I had to modify my original idea into this version. This I've not posted up yet on my Thingiverse page.The new collar fits directly over the 'flat top 510 spring loaded connector. Which has slots in it. The collar's cut outs, lines up with the 510's slots to allow the air flow through to the vape inlet hole.

I had been working on the electronics etc on this set up, so it's still not put back together lol.
But here's a picture of the collar fitted onto the vape tank.

And how it would all be assembled.

This assembly diagram is missing the bracket, which can be seen in the previous picture. This would fit between the 510 flat top and the terminal connectors underneath.

3D Printed dual smoke bracket

Just posted up on Thingiverse my dual smoke bracket

that I drew up and printed off for testing, before Christmas.

Link also to the You Tube video I posted up of the e-cig unit's in action.

3D Printed duel pump holder

Following on from testing two air pumps for the 'Bad Motivator' smoke system. I drew up in AutoCAD Inventor (works program) and 3D printed off a duel pump holder.

Click on this image to link to actual 3D.stl file via Thingsiverse

It printed out quiet well and is actually a more tighter fit then the single version I had previously made. I think because of the extra supports, they give less flexibility.

And here's a picture of them fitted.

This is still all under development and a bit of fun, so will see if I actually install this set up.
I'll post this up on my Thingiverse account, but check out the single pump via the link.

Smoke system tutorial - Part 2.2 (on hold)

Carrying on from my first post back earlier this year,

part two is to do with the remote

control/power side of the unit.

Smoke system set up at present, soon to be upgraded.

I was going to write this all up,

but am now working on another upgrade...

so will post this ALL at once I've tested it all and it works.

3D printed Y spliter for smoke system - TEST 1

I drew up and 3D printed up the 'Y' splitter as I wasnted to see if the idea would work. Last week I got time to try it out.

My current system setup runs on 6volts, this was mainly due ot the air pump I have, which at the time I could only find at this voltage. I drew up and 3D printed a new 'dual' support bracket to hold two e-cig catomiser units. I also printed off another of my collars to fit around the e-cig base. I then connected up the plastic tubes to them and the pump and test fired it all up.

Click this picture
or the following link
for the
You Tube short video.

Here's some pics.

 

As you can see in the video the unit works, though I perhaps was expecting more lol.

Next.....just as something to try.....I plumbed in a second air pump to power the second e-cig unit.

This made a slight difference, but not as much as I would like lol.

I've got some new bits on order to try a few more ideas. There are a few people now building for sale of this type of unit, so this is still just a fun 'upgrade' project for R5. If this is of help to you then that's a positive bonus to my trial and error work.

3D printed Y spliter for smoke system

As something to try out, I drew up and designed a Y- splitter for connecting up more tube that I have for R5's smoke system.

This was my second design after trying to design a more complex one, which wasn't a very good idea lol.

section view 

solid view

I uploaded it to my Thingiverse account on Friday, just to share. I went on this morning to find it had been viewed 122 times & downloaded 117.

Details can be found via the link above.The single inlet hole was a bit tight, on the second version I printed. As on the first one I forced the tube into the inlet hole, before it had fully cooled, opening up the bore more for the tube.

The idea behind this is to possibly distribute the smoke more out of different area's of R5.

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.

Smoke system tutorial - Part 2 Assembly

Here is my 'How-to' for assembling R5's e-Cig smoke system.

I've created this in picture format, so that it can be easily downloaded (if needed to be) & is therefore easy to save & print off. I've not included the bracket in this layout. The pump and additional electrics, I'll do separately as it is a lot of info to diagram up.

All the info is contained on the guide.

Including a text link to the 3D printable collar.

Here's the link to my Thingiverse page, though you'll have to wait 24hrs (for new users)

This is the easy part, I'm still drawing up a wiring diagram for the relay timers,

voltage regulator & remote control side of the system.

Will post his up next week.

This info will also go up on my Blog on

www.astromech.net & www.astromech.info

Smoke system tutorial - Part 1 introduction

As with most of my Blog, the assumption is that you the reader don't want to read about 'how long I held this in position for' or 'how tight to tighten a bolt'. Most of it is common sense. And I hope I post enough photo's to 'fill in the blanks'.

I have been asked on my Facebook page tho about my latest upgrade of R5's smoke system. So I hope this will explain the work I have done. First tho, a bit of history about how I developed this idea to this stage.

E-Cig Mod: Smoke system info can be found all over the internet and e-Cig hacked/mod for 'fog machines' are plenty. I found videos on YouTube, for Ghostbuster's backpack venting systems, and this gave me the idea to build R5's original smoke system.

This was my first test & it worked great

Link to my You Tube channel showing my first smoke tests.

The problem is the soldering of the wires to the middle contact,

without blocking the hole to allow air through.

The blown wire has to be soldered onto the centre pin,
without blocking the hole with solder

Then you have to file the outside of the atomiser to get bare metal to be able to solder on the negative wire (blue in picture above). But as you can see, the inside still needs to have a tube to cover all of this to channel the air flow.

I managed this, but struggled as the solder joints would break contact, and the unit would of been sealed with hot glue to help the pumped air through the atomiser.

One problem also is that all this is then a fixed item! It you wanted to refill the unit, you had to disconnect wires from the supply etc.

After over a year of not having any smoke, due to the disappointment of it not working after attempts to fix it, I decided to read up a bit more and try a new way to connect everything up. This is not the difinitive way to do this as I'm a novice at e-Cig stuff, but this is how I got mine to work and it's also a LOT easier to assemble, and use/refill the atomiser.

Check out my next post on how I assembled everything, coming soon:
'Smoke system tutorial - Part 2 Assembly'

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.