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’.

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 😂

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.