Wallace the Animatronic Alien Creature
Introduction: Wallace the Animatronic Alien Creature
Welcome!
Today I will be showing you how to build <PERSON>, an animatronic alien creature.
To get started, you will need:
x 1 Fur Real Friends dog (like this: https://www.ebay.com/p/1903566719)
x 5 MG996R Servos
x 1 Pololu Maestro 6-Channel Servo Controller
x 1 20mm Half round realistic eye
x 2 Big Boxes (the total height, length, & width of the 2 combined boxes should be greater than 12"/1 ft.
x 1 Small Box for the creature to sit on and store the electrical components in.
A Hot Glue Gun
A Strong Cardboard Corner/Cardboard Edge Protector
A 6V Power Supply (preferably high in amperage, at least 20A)
Some Springs(I used 2 long springs from an assorted pack which I acquired from Princess Auto)
Some Air Craft/Steel Cable (You could use fishing line or thin rope, but I prefer Steel Cable as it is stronger and more reliable).
Some Aluminium Swag Sleeves for the Steel Cable.
Some 3D Printed Parts from my Thingiverse Page
Some Bolts and Screws
Step 1: Getting Started
First you will need the fur from the toy dog. Carefully remove the fur from the animal, starting from the underside/belly. You should notice Velcro holding it together. Open the Velcro and fell for little plastic hooks that hold the fur to the body. Carefully remove the plastic hooks off (these hooks are located all over the body but mostly in the joints. Be sure not to rip the fur). and then remove the fur from the body (The fur is securly attached to the eyes, so you may have to rip that part off and you will be left with 2 eye holes in the fur (Don't worry as you can glue the holes/gaps shut, stick the ears inside them, or cover them with the ears).
Once you have successfully extract the fur from the toy dog, you can either keep its body or throw it out.
Now take the 3D printed eyeball and cut a portion of it off such that the 20mm half round eye can fit inside it. 997
Then glue the 20mm eye to the 3D printed eyeball, and insert the eye into the mouth of the creature's fur. Once you have the eye at the position you desire glue the fur to the 3D printed portion of the eye, leaving the 20mm eye exposed (Refer to the image above).
Step 2: Creating the Joints/Arms
Take your 3D printed parts (these 3D printed parts were form a movable hand, but the finger parts worked really well as joints for this animatronic) and search for the long Finger set piece and the Knuckle (I refer to it as an L-bracket).
Now, take the 2 pieces and add a 12-24 bolt through them and weld them together.
(Refer to the images above)
Step 3: Creating the Joints/Arms Part 2
Now, attach another L-bracket on top of the current mechanism to act as a guide for the cable.
Once you have done that, I highly recommend you add a spring across the mechanism so it can easily return to its home position, and help you avoid further complications. I used 2 servo screws to hold my spring in place.
Now, take a long cable (It's better to have it too long than too short. We can always cut off the extra length afterwards, but it's a lot harder to add extra length afterwards) and feed it through the joint mechanism, add your stopper to the end of the cable, and crimp it. If you look closely at the images you should be able to see my aluminium swag sleeve (my cable stopper) crimped, and hiding inside the long 3D printed finger part. You should also notice that my servo screw is also holding it in place.
(Refer to the images above)
Step 4: Creating the Joints/Arms Part 3
Attach another L-bracket to the L-bracket on the joint mechanism, to allow for a bigger surface area to bolt the servo horn to.
Repeat the previous steps to create the other arm. But this time, attach you servo horn vertically (facing up) so the joint can move left and right, not up and down like the previous servo. You will have to add another L-bracket to the mechanism so you can bolt the servo horn to the joint. 259