Flipper

A Climbing Photopopper
Light seeking solar engines, attached to toy gear boxes.




I ripped apart two toys from McDonalds to use the gear boxes. I used a small spring to join the motor to the gear box, this allows for a little miss alignment between the two. I used super glue as the adhesive because heat from a solder joint would destroy the plastic gear box. After applying a small drop of super glue at each spring to motor/gear junction, I reducing the excess with the edge of a piece of paper. The gear box output is attached to a large gauge piano wire and is inside a tube. This allows for the motor, drive shaft, gear box, and piano wire "bone" to be sealed up. I had to rebuild the mechanics three times and the circuit twice, so I'm pretty pleased it finally got going. The feelers are still a problem, and it need to be sealed against the environment so there is still work to be done.





I have made a 12M movie of him climbing over some books, but can not get it to upload here.
Even too big zipped. The GIF below is the best I could do. It shows the maximum step flipper could handle, and shows the frames taken every 30 seconds. It shows flipper with two large solar cells for trouble shooting, and the test contact attaching them and without the final coat of RTV.


A flipper time laps GIF.




Flipper was a cross between a photopopper that rolls, and a turbot that tumbles around. The circuit was a pair of solar engines in a popper configuration. Instead of using the motor shaft as a wheel, I used a gearbox to turn an arm/flagella. All was surrounded by RTV, a silicon based window/door sealant that remains pliable in sunlight for 25years. I figured if it lasted five years I'd be happy. Well I finished Flipper in the fall 2001, and he spent the winter outside. After three months in rain and snow, I noticed he was going in circles. Surgery, through the RTV, was a bit emotional but he didn't feel a thing.


Apparently I had left a leak path from his touch sensor straight into the solar engines, where a little moisture was trapped in a micro void creating a rapid corrosion. The damage was beyond repair. So, if you're going to seal it up, seal it up tight. His parts consisted of two photodiode eyes ($1.5/ea), two solar engines to form the photopopper ($2/ea), one 24X33 solar cells ($5.5/ea, he has two 37X66 cells for speedy trouble shooting and the pictures), two 10000uF caps ($3/ea), two cheap motors and gear box ($3.5/ea), 1 pack RTV ($6), and Stainless steel guitar string ($2). Grand total: $35 bucks. He moved about 1.5ft/day and could handle a 0.5" step.


From there I moved on to RTV2.

RTV2

Last updated:
02/16/03

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Contact Marty at mastervulk@yahoo.com
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