Remote control animatronic....fairy :)

....yes fairy.  This project came about when the ladies where I work decided that a fairy birthday party would be a nice thing to do.... Now I am a rufty tufty woodsman and so I refused point blank to run said parties, I was let off on the understanding that I made a fairy that would appear with the pull of a string or something similar, fair enough thought me. One of the ladies gave me a seven inch doll to play with.......




Note   Although I have made this a step by step it is only done this way to break up a large amount of waffle writing, I am pretty sure that no one will be rushing to make one of these so this instructable only shows a snapshot of the construction.

Step 1: The design

Well pulling a string is not my thing so my thoughts turned to battery powered remote controlled animatronic fairy.

I found the perfect tree to hide her in and worked out she needed to move up and down diagonally.

 The first picture shows the basic mechanics:-

1. A single, geared motor drives it all
2. Crosshead between two slide rails moved up and down by...
3. toothed belt drive number one
4. The platform, where the fairy stands, is driven sideways by....
5. Lead screw and nut with a toothed pulley driven by...
6. Toothed belt number two which is tensioned by a strong spring.
7. Shows direction of travel for the fairy.
8. Title says it all, I called her Nuff, she is a fairy that makes her  Fairy Nuff!

Various microswitches, relays and a wireless remote get everything moving and stopping in the right places at the right time.
The fairy wings are UV reactive and there are flashing UV lights (controlled by a pair of 555 timer circuits) to light her at night.

Next two pictures show circuit diagram for motor switches and relays and a circuit diagram of the light flasher circuit.

Comments

[mikegalloway]

I think that this is great. Well written and a wonderful idea. Thanks for sharing.

[l8nite]

cool idea...wonder how I can simplify/modify it to work for Halloween... hhhmmmm

[rog8811]

Hence the UV lamps on the wings, for 2 years Nuff has been part of the halloween event in my woodland.... she looks kind of spooky.
BUT, if you were to have a goblin or some more malevolant spirit appearing high in a tree.......

[Hoopajoo]

This would work if there were no Red Bull available.