Honus
Sr Member
I was contacted by my friend Carl to build this for the Monsterpalooza Jamie Hall Predator tribute suit build. Carl did a phenomenal job sculpting and casting the backpack and cannon- it is easily one of the most beautiful prop replicas I've ever seen. My job was to make it move. Once I received the necessary parts to build the mechanics and electronics I had four nights and one day to build the animatronic mechanism and electronic control system w/ sound effects. There is a single fingertip button that when pushed causes the cannon to move through a pre programmed routine. Two other buttons trigger Predator sounds. There is also a cable that plugs into the side of the helmet that provides power to the targeting laser so it turns on as soon as the cannon activates and raises to its firing position.
Unfortunately it was damaged during shipping (broken linkage and cracked gear drive) so it was only partially functional for the suit up. Note to self- use metal gears next time- LOL! The linkage breaking was actually a good thing as if it hadn't broken the servo gears probably would have been damaged given the hit it took.
There will certainly be quite a few changes on future builds to make it more screen accurate. I would have liked to mold a cover for servo in the arm and added the arm side details but there just wasn't time. On future builds I'll use a smaller digital servo in the arm so I can make the arm a bit smaller- this one is too wide and is about 1/8" too thick. I'll also use a more powerful digital servo to raise the arm mechanism so I can change the gear reduction ratio. That way I can use a larger stronger metal pinion gear and the arm will raise a bit faster.
Enjoy!
Video- Animatronic Predator cannon - YouTube
Unfortunately it was damaged during shipping (broken linkage and cracked gear drive) so it was only partially functional for the suit up. Note to self- use metal gears next time- LOL! The linkage breaking was actually a good thing as if it hadn't broken the servo gears probably would have been damaged given the hit it took.
There will certainly be quite a few changes on future builds to make it more screen accurate. I would have liked to mold a cover for servo in the arm and added the arm side details but there just wasn't time. On future builds I'll use a smaller digital servo in the arm so I can make the arm a bit smaller- this one is too wide and is about 1/8" too thick. I'll also use a more powerful digital servo to raise the arm mechanism so I can change the gear reduction ratio. That way I can use a larger stronger metal pinion gear and the arm will raise a bit faster.
Enjoy!
Video- Animatronic Predator cannon - YouTube
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