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  • Author Author: colporteur
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Going Down anyone

colporteur

I am working with a model railroader to use light, sound and/or motion to create animations in an office tower that is over three feet in height. Plastic people miniatures moving through offices, miniature giant screen TV's in suites and an elevator opening a closing between floors are three. At last count, there were over 10 animations in development.

I primarily use Arduino microcontrollers, supplementing them with some Raspberry Pis for heavier processing. We started the project in October of 2024 and it has become the focus of our efforts ever since. We estimated that the project would take a year to complete. I’m hoping for sooner.

Projects from community leaders like   ,  and   challenge me to improve. I’m rather proud of this accomplishment. I had to learn new skills in drafting using FreeCAD and from bare metal 3D printing using Cura slicer and an obsolete BIBO printer to make it happen.

I would recommend OctoPrint running on a Raspberry Pi as the interface to this 3D printer. This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBWJgo1nHqQ got me started. After using the software for a month, I payPal’ed some money to the developer. Building the software, sharing it and continuing to maintain it, deserved some recognition. The browser interface to my printers allows me to move from sneaker'ing SD cards to just accessing the printer over my network. Now I drag and drop files to print.

The elevator door, the box assembly to make it movable and the servo mounts are some of my first crude 3D printing models. 3D printing is so much faster than cutting and gluing styrene.

I figured I would share this small success with the community, while some window frame boxes are being 3D printed. Something about a canoe display in a window store front like the old department stores. That's new!

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  • That model railway club doesn't half keep you busy.

    Looks like there might be enough space in there for a motor that changes the occupants of the lift via a small turntable.

    I've not seen an animated display in a department store window over here for a long time. It all went downhill since the '87 movie Mannequin starring Kim Cattrall.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    There is a similar animation to what you describe also in the tower on an upper floor. There is a disk with a hole in the centre for a motor shaft. Two groves are cut in the disk for small rectangle magnets. The disk assembly and motor mounts to a bracket below the floor above. On the floor above the disk magnet field attracts figures that are glued to rectangle magnets. The rotation of the disk below picks up the magnet above and moves the figures. Walls divide the space above. It looks like figures move in and out of office space.

    image

    I wanted to try something similar for the front using a revolving door. That got put aside for video of the inside of shopping mall. This is in development. (i.e. I have the hardware and the video, I have to mung the two to get it working.) Two Pi's with 3.5 inch screens are separated by a fireplace. The Pi's loops a video taken at a shopping mall. When you look inside from the front door the two screens are angle to give the perspective of a mall walk, down each side of the fireplace.

    I've searched for years to find someone wanted to help on the project. I'm not a model railroader. That doesn't draw my interest. It would be nice while one person is building the set, another is doing the electronics, while another is working on the code. When the three come together, animation is complete. Other than the brainstorming of ideas, I wear all three hats for the most part today. 

    The designer of the elevator wanted to work in wood. My role was to install the elevator assembly behind the facade.

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  • in reply to beacon_dave

    There is a similar animation to what you describe also in the tower on an upper floor. There is a disk with a hole in the centre for a motor shaft. Two groves are cut in the disk for small rectangle magnets. The disk assembly and motor mounts to a bracket below the floor above. On the floor above the disk magnet field attracts figures that are glued to rectangle magnets. The rotation of the disk below picks up the magnet above and moves the figures. Walls divide the space above. It looks like figures move in and out of office space.

    image

    I wanted to try something similar for the front using a revolving door. That got put aside for video of the inside of shopping mall. This is in development. (i.e. I have the hardware and the video, I have to mung the two to get it working.) Two Pi's with 3.5 inch screens are separated by a fireplace. The Pi's loops a video taken at a shopping mall. When you look inside from the front door the two screens are angle to give the perspective of a mall walk, down each side of the fireplace.

    I've searched for years to find someone wanted to help on the project. I'm not a model railroader. That doesn't draw my interest. It would be nice while one person is building the set, another is doing the electronics, while another is working on the code. When the three come together, animation is complete. Other than the brainstorming of ideas, I wear all three hats for the most part today. 

    The designer of the elevator wanted to work in wood. My role was to install the elevator assembly behind the facade.

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  • in reply to colporteur

    I was going to ask where the line lies between using video and using animatronics to create an effect these days.

    For example, with the elevator, you could have had a small LCD screen behind the wood façade that shows people standing, with doors that animate over them from either side and the floor number and direction arrows changing above, and the light from the elevator showing through the gap as the carriage goes up/down.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    It is balancing act. What I know and what I can do with what I know:) I suspect there are ways to do some of the work I have done a lot more efficient, especially with the newer tools. 

    There was a cartoon from work many years ago showing a duck calmly floating on the water surface but underneath he was paddling like a sinking canoe trying to stay a float. That is me with much of this stuff. The out, it is for fun so if it doesn't work, there no report to write.

  • in reply to colporteur

    Rewinding the clock and I guess at one time that might have been done with a single DC motor, a few linkages and some contact switches activated by cams.

    I recall this working car elevator built using an educational constructor set in the early 70's using a handful of logic gates
    image

    It was redone later with functioning doors.


    Pretty impressive considering it was all done with standard building blocks.