....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:-

A single, geared motor drives it all
Crosshead between two slide rails moved up and down by...
toothed belt drive number one
The platform, where the fairy stands, is driven sideways by....
Lead screw and nut with a toothed pulley driven by...
Toothed belt number two which is tensioned by a strong spring.
Shows direction of travel for the fairy.
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.

Step 2: The Bits

Power is supplied by plug in battery packs used in cordless drills as there are always a few charged sets knocking around in the office.
there is an extended aerial attached to the tree to ensure good communication with the wireless remote, the socket to connect it up can be seen in the pictures.

Step 3: The Bobs

The wings were cut from UV reactive paper then encapsulated in plastic, they are flapped using an old RC servo with the end stops removed for constant rotation.

Step 4: The Bits and Bobs

Photo's of
UV lamp control circuits
Main geared motor and relay
The internals........

Step 5: Packing Her Away

Nuff does not spend the whole time outside, she sleeps in a purpose built case until she needs to perform.

Step 6: The Movie!

Rough and ready (as usual) video may be found here...
https://vimeo.com/41785260

The way Nuff is used is that the party leader arrives at a nearby path and stands with her back toward the tree. The children hear how it is that adults cannot see fairies.... suddenly a fairy appears!
Trouble is everytime the adult turns to look for it, the fairy has vanished...repeat as required :)