A wirless vibrating box!!!!!

[Arad Goch]

Hello! Got a show coming up where I need to get a cardboard box to vibrate/shake. The box is carried around on stage so wires would be a problem and when it begins to shake the performers will be other side of stage so need to operate it off stage. I was thinking of putting one of those remote control cars that do back-flips and stuff in it, problem is the noise from the car. Any tips/advice would be of a great help.

Cheers in advance for any assistance.

[charl.ie]

I once took apart some gaming controllers, and the way they vibrate is having a motor with a semicircular weight on the axle. If you could weight the wheels of the car on only one side, that might work?

Food for thought, anyway.

[Unfathomable]

I built one for someone's art project once with a RC car that I canabalised and used blutac to weigh the wheel off balence. It worked ok but it needs to be a resonabley good car that gets ripped up or it won't have the power.

 

Perhaps replacing the cars motor with one more powerful, and a bigger battery, but with the same switching.

[Wol]

Does it have to vibrate, or shake? Vibrations would be felt by whoever was holding it, but wouldn't be obviously visible to anyone watching. Shaking I guess would be visible to the audience as though there was like..... some animal or something inside the box.

 

Maybe have a google search for "wireless vibrator" ...... >.> unless it needs to be significantly more powerful!

[boswell]

Mobile phone on Vibrate inside a box, ring it when reqd!!

[Arad Goch]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. Having had further discussions with the director it appears that the box needs to shake more than vibrate it needs to portray that there is something angry in the box. Sometimes it will be held by the actor when it shakes but will also need to be activated when no one is near it.

[Unfathomable]

Is it on a table? in that case it could be done with someone shaking it from underneath.

[MarkPAman]

This switch, 12V worth of batteries, 12V motor. Then possibly cogs or belt drive to an off centre weight rotating at a relatively slow speed.

 

Can you still get proper Meccano?

[GRisdale]

Can you still get proper Meccano?

Nope :)

[Jivemaster]

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=43357

 

Might yield a motor, to which you could apply an eccentric load to make it wobble when the motor rotated. There is going to be some operator skill needed to make a totally regular motorised vibrator look like a angry "animal" which may be more rhythmic than a "Whacker Plate" solution.

 

Added

Two motors at different speeds, each with their own eccentric load but run off the same switch may help.

[Brian]

Forget motors with off-centre loads. The amount of energy required to shake a box so that the audience can see it is enormous. In all likelihood all you'll do is tear the motor off it's mounts and/or kill its bearings and/or kill its commutator.

 

The RC car *might* work; you'll have to try it.

 

Or, a motor with a crank which extends out the bottom of the box to physically push the box up will need a lot less energy.

[Ynot]

Maybe have a google search for "wireless vibrator" ...... >.>

First look through this thread, and have nothing concrete to offer as such, but nearly choked on the coffee here...

You're really suggesting that as a search term.....???

 

:) :)

[Wol]

Maybe have a google search for "wireless vibrator" ...... >.>

First look through this thread, and have nothing concrete to offer as such, but nearly choked on the coffee here...

You're really suggesting that as a search term.....???

 

:) :)

 

 

Well originally was unsure whether the OP wanted a vibration or a proper shake ( it now appears he wants the latter )!

 

I'm sure that some of the items returned in the google search I suggested could do a good job of making a "wireless vibrating box" if someone ever did need one! Some of those things can be quite powerful ;-) :-p..... Simple to buy, discreet, and all the functionality required in a pre packaged item, for not *that* bad a price!

 

..... although I'd get worried if during the show the thing randomly started going off ..... and then you hear odd noises from an audience member when you actually triggered the box to vibrate!

[dbuckley]

Can you still get proper Meccano?

Yes, you can, but its not made be Meccano any more.

 

Look here or here. There are a couple more specialist manufacturers, one in Italy, from memory.

 

On the other hand, its not like it was when I was a kid when Meccano was cheap and plentiful ;)

 

Cant remember the part numbers: The Christchurch Meccano CLub (of New Zealand!) to the rescue! (you can download and print that image out on A3)

[TomHoward]

I think they even did an RC unit for some meccano - if you picked up the RC Meccano Car (I'm sure they made one) you could easily re-use the same bits to make a mounted motor with a cam on it. Or use an RC servo (or others).

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

They do still make it - a quick google search shows you can pick up an RC Meccano Truck for about £40-50, (or I assume less if you could find used on eBay), which should have all the appropriate parts to provide an RC motor. Then a bit of playing with cams/legs may yeild some results.