Toy bin junk yard build. Pics.

So I recently spent some time doing something with my son that I used to do as a kid. It was great. I highly recommend this hobby for several reasons but mostly you get to reuse old and BROKEN toys.

Basically, you can "spruce" up a lame, cheap toy or you can upgrade a broken or about to be tossed junk toy into a new awesome favorite.

Anyways here are the details about the build:

It's a PJ masks troop carrier and dinosaur safari vehicle.

There was a need for such. LoL.

It has a laser pointer lens built into the arm of the mount for a working pen-based missile launcher. It fires a pen and dart based projectile on a string.

The string leads through a small hole in the upper deck under the missile clip into a working hand cranked spool in a drum in front of the troop compartment. When you crank it all the way back it actually locks the projectile into place on the deck.

The second crank spool and string are built into the turret mount above the cab. It is a hook on a string that winds into the base of the turret itself.

The truck has one blue LED for the moment built into the base of turret mount. Its powered by 6 large watch batteries in a cut highlighter tube and attached to the back of the roof mount.

The laser pointer lens has its own power from 6 watch batteries mounted inside the arm of the turret itself.

Both the laser pointer and blue LED have independent switches wired separately and independently of each other's battery packs.

The back compartment closes and fits 4 PJ masks figures. The cab fits 2 more. The entire back deck and rear door lift to open the rear compartment

It was an old cement truck for toddlers. My son hadn't played with it in a while. Now it's his favorite. The best part is we made it together.

































I have other builds I might take pictures of and upload later. I've actually made a few of these so far. It's lots of fun.

You don't need much beyond basic tools and junk. Any junk. I used anything and everything. Not just toy parts.

The mechanical pieces and different components may need to be made from scratch or found in the damndest of things. Start taking junk apart and make a mess.

Have a good one and good luck!

always wanted to see a dumper truck take on a t-rex.

Now that's quality time I don't care who you are!

Should you ever decide to buy weapons grade uranium, the world would never be the same...

Duplicate post... or maybe it is an isotope...

Here are some pics of another. It has a hook on a spring recoiled string that winds back up into the grill. It still needs more paint.

The figure gets locked in by the wing section flipping down and locking it in place.

It was made with parts from a toddlers tow truck and bobble figure car. It has bits of computer casing, hardware drawer scraps of metal and plastic. And more. LoL













It's a PJ Mask /Cat Boy rescue racer car. In case you were wondering.

Great thread! Indeed quality time, especially if you build it together

Is it okay if we post our stuff, too?

a reply to: tadaman

Good news everyone, Macguver has been found alive and well.

That is the most badass truck i've ever seen,and i've watched Mad Max.If your son shares your passion and knowledge he may end up on robot wars in the future. I had a similar idea about push bikes, rescuing old bikes at the tip, sanding the rust off, realigning the derailleurs and brakes, a fresh coat of paint, it's like restoring old cars but much lamer.

a reply to: tadaman

You...you spend time with your son, and teach him things?

Hmm. It's a rather odd technique for parenting that I'VE never seen before, but you know, it just might be crazy enough to work.

I give you an A for not being afraid to try new and crazy things

Just don't let CPS catch wind of this. They don't really like it when parents involve themselves in their childs development, no, just step back and let "nature" (aka pop culture) take it's course, that's what they want.

a reply to: verschickter

Yeah man. Post anything you want. I would enjoy seeing other builds.

a reply to: tadaman

Alright, still a long way to go, "I tend to overdo things", I was told...

My granddaughter loves "driving" this thing, problem is, we live at a hill and the main street is the lowest point on most of the town so everything that once begins to roll, will end up on a busy main street. Of course we always supervise her but if you know how fast these things can pick up speed... anyways..

At first, I just wanted to install a remote brake system. It will bring the thing to a stop if it get´s too fast down a slope and also, if I hit the button on the remote control I made.

Then of course, after I finished and tested this before I installed it, I thought, that´s way to easy... I need to optimize a bit if I´m at it. Since I already hat a 54+16 channel arduino on board, I thought I may as well install some gadgetery.

So I began to buy and wire together sensors that would give me the steering angle and I built a spring loaded potentiometer (that I used for another project, see signature). So now it can also control RC toys because I hacked the remote controls with some NPN transistors.

It´s all sloppy and in test phase but the software is running, connection is stable and the basic functions work. Because I was at it, I slapped a few leftover pneumatic valces into it, too. You can never have enough of those. It enables me other stuff like popup water canons.

What´s left to do is finally order the PCB and bring it all together on one board to downsize it and install the accelerometer, BT module, brakesystem (a springloaded brake that is activated my the safe lock you can see in the last picture) and all the sensors.

It will then have:
- remote emergency brake system
- ability to control a 2channel RC toy (steering and speed+brake) via the steering wheel and a finger pedal.
- popup water canon on the front white part that you can see through the spokes of the steering wheel.
- maybe some force-feedback.

I learned from previous projects to wait until everything runs smooth and then I start taking off material where I need it and bolt stuff into it. That´s why you won´t see much changes currently and my granddaughter uses it daily. So it will be an overnight job to install everything.






Your´s is awesome, I like the adhoc approach. My granddaughter also has a cleaning simulator (toy vacuum cleaner) and the part that moves over the floor is fixed so I 3D printed a hinge like the original ones have so she can simulate propperly.

Overkill?

To add: The brake systems job is a last line of defense should anything happen, not to make life easier for me. She´s of course also not always at a slope but sometimes we take long walks and it´s a nice feature to have a little bit of speed and distance control.

Range is more than 100m outdoors with a failsafe should the connection cut out for more than 500ms.

Edit: Cycle time is ~10ms and during a several day test, it never once cut out when I was sending strings back and forth, not one false or missing string.

a reply to: verschickter

My God, it's going to be awesome. No that's not overkill. That's just the right amount of fraking great!

Keep us updated I would love to see it completed.

I used to plan my builds more. I moved a lot recently and lost most of my junk. My wife slowly eliminates it little by little I am sure. She denies it but I don't trust her with my junk. LoL

One day I will have all my treasures again.

It's cool to see what other people do to solve problems or make improvements to things. Good stuff

Have a good one.
Hold it down.

a reply to: tadaman

Thank you for the kind words. I learned that if I spend to long in the planing stage, it wont succeed. So the last few years with some toys that allow me rapid prototyping, I just iterate through instead of trying to force the perferct layout.

That remote control, I´ve actually done it for another project. I started after dinner and I finished buying the 9V block the second the shops opened at 7am. I love that. Normally I´m OCD about arangements on my desk. Not since this time.

I was 3D printing, soldering, writing firmware all multitasked the whole time. You should have seen my desk, I had a few cm to move my mouse and I had to overreach on the keyboard to not get poked by tools, and hardware bits all the time.

Just love it. That´s why I like your adhoc approach. Just do it. Keep on rocking, seems you are a great dad.

Have a nice day

a reply to: tadaman

You win at parenting, and being an awesome dad!!
Kudos.

So I wanted to give an update. The laser pointer lens was eating through watch batteries. So I changed the battery to a rechargeable one from an old Ryobi drill. Now we can charge the laser battery with the old drill's power adapter.

I have yet to find a pretty casing or make one but for now its in place.

Last update for a bit.

I just cleaned up the lousy tape job I did last time around the new battery and redid the bulky wiring. I'm not using a casing for it since aesthetically the wires are better left exposed.








I added a small green aluminum cap at the end of the battery to protect the anode and battery edges.

Added a stabilizer for the turret and changed the clamp. Added thicker tape for better protection. The stabilizer has the added bonus of guiding the string for the missile. It also looks like horns so woohoo.

Slap a flux compensator and some activated plutonium on it... if my calculations are correct and this baby hit´s 88 miles per hour, you´re going to see some serious #!