Ever since I received a Blue Robot Man I have toyed with the idea of converting him from mechanical power to electric power so that he would be able to dance forever! Having recently received a package from Element14 for Makevember that contained a Blue Robot Man, I decided that now was the time.
The first step is to remove or disconnected the mechanical power source. This involved the disassembly of the legs and back pieces from the Blue Robot Man. There are two small screws at the bottom of the body that hold it together but the legs (and arms) seem to have pins instead of screws. As I thought these could only be glued or interference fit I made a bold decision and used brute force to extract them. I used a large pair of pliers to twist the pins and they ended up coming out quite easily. I then had to remove the white round Element14 logo from the front which I carefully prised off using a screw driver. This provided enough flexibility to remove the white mechanical power source package from the robot body. Then I prised off the cover plate from that and revealed the spring. It is quite a big spring and provides a relatively large period of mechanical power to the Blue Robot Man. The spring just pulled out and then I was able to re-assemble everything. The small springs that helped with the leg movements were difficult to re-install but eventually I worked out how to do it.
Now all I need to do is to add a small motor to the back round off-centre cam that actuates all the arm, leg and head movements. I could have tried to use the winding spindle but that is geared and the torque seems much higher and I was not sure a small motor would provide enough 'go'.
Dubbie
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