R5-D4 bad motivator

[Vagabond Elf]

Here’s a crude kitbashed mockup based on those ideas. I don’t have a socket yet or some of the other things, so I just used vaguely similar-looking model kit parts for this draft. I just wanted to see if my list of color coded parts would add up to what we see or if anything else would be needed. I feel like it’s pretty close. Thoughts?
View attachment 1944684

It does seem to have the right general shape. I wonder about the width, though. Remember that it has to fit through the panel opening, in the photographed orientation, on the narrow dimension of the panel.

Having spent the last fortnight getting a "bad motivator" popup working on my Arfive build, there's a lot less room there than it seems. Now to be sure we don't know how well Mike Baddeley's interpretation of the Astromech.net blueprints match with the on-screen prop's sizes - but there's enough known dimensions in all that to be confident the modern fan builds are at least close. So unless we've badly misjudged the overall size of the head, the gap is pretty narrow.

As you say, this is just a quick mockup so you may be aware of this. But still, the entire thing needs to be only a couple inches wide. (The loose wire might well just be a soft wire that can deform as it passes through the hole, but everything else needs to fit.)

 

[Dan Efran]

As you say, this is just a quick mockup so you may be aware of this. But still, the entire thing needs to be only a couple inches wide. (The loose wire might well just be a soft wire that can deform as it passes through the hole, but everything else needs to fit.)

Yeah, my mockup is about 2.5 inches wide, not counting the loose wire and the meter needle. Probably a bit too much—about two inches would be better. I don’t have an R5 dome to check it against, but I believe there’s about 2” available. Does that match your findings?

Starting from a real lamp socket and variable capacitor would help set the proper scale. I just used whatever I had on hand that seemed close.

At this point I’m really just trying to pin down the list of parts that go into the construction, and see if certain guesses hold up. For example, it does seem to me that the yellow and purple plates are probably two of the same part, one on each side. That’s how I built it, and it seems consistent with what we see on the original.

 

[thd9791]

I dont know if you've got the 4k screenshots from those websites but here they are! I cleaned them up a little.

Also kinda fun to see the practical effect in action

 

[3Dsf]

Hi. Those online images are only 1280 pixels across. The 4K version gives you 3840 pixels across, and you can get details that look like this.

 

[Vagabond Elf]

Yeah, my mockup is about 2.5 inches wide, not counting the loose wire and the meter needle. Probably a bit too much—about two inches would be better. I don’t have an R5 dome to check it against, but I believe there’s about 2” available. Does that match your findings?

Starting from a real lamp socket and variable capacitor would help set the proper scale. I just used whatever I had on hand that seemed close.

At this point I’m really just trying to pin down the list of parts that go into the construction, and see if certain guesses hold up. For example, it does seem to me that the yellow and purple plates are probably two of the same part, one on each side. That’s how I built it, and it seems consistent with what we see on the original.

On the Baddeley version of the flowerpot dome, the panel opening is 2 inches wide about 1/3 of the way in from the outermost edge, which is about where the motivator seems to be popping up in the screenshots.

Based on the high-res images that were just posted, I'd hazard the variable air capacitor thing sticks out no more than a couple mm on either side of the light socket or whatever the cone is.

If the socket is from a Vickers lamp, it can't be more than 1.5 inches across on its own, so between that and the panel width I'd guess the whole structure to be under 1.75 inches wide.

Also - don't underestimate how violent that pop up motion is. I wouldn't be surprised if the metre needle was installed vertically and broke loose during the effect.

 

[Dan Efran]

That all sounds right to me.

 

[Halliwax]

Hi. Those online images are only 1280 pixels across. The 4K version gives you 3840 pixels across, and you can get details that look like this.

View attachment 1944784

Wicked clear

 

[Halliwax]

I see this…

 

[Dan Efran]

I see this…
View attachment 1944946View attachment 1944947

Are you proposing that the part we’re calling a variable air capacitor is actually something corrugated? I think that’s unlikely. First of all the corrugated material in your example won’t curve across the lines—that’s what they’re for! So it would have to be something already corrugated in the other direction, like split loom tubing for example.

That’s possible, but such ridges are usually pretty far apart, and as Vagabond Elf points out, the part can’t be very long. Also it’s closed on the near end, which limits the found objects that would have the right texture—it’s apparently not a tube.

(Compare the real one to my mockup, which does use the equivalent of a corrugated tube. You can clearly see the open end of mine.)

 

[Halliwax]

Are you proposing that the part we’re calling a variable air capacitor is actually something corrugated? I think that’s unlikely. First of all the corrugated material in your example won’t curve across the lines—that’s what they’re for! So it would have to be something already corrugated in the other direction, like split loom tubing for example.
View attachment 1945008
That’s possible, but such ridges are usually pretty far apart, and as Vagabond Elf points out, the part can’t be very long. Also it’s closed on the near end, which limits the found objects that would have the right texture—it’s apparently not a tube.

(Compare the real one to my mockup, which does use the equivalent of a corrugated tube. You can clearly see the open end of mine.)

Was only saying what I see, I never claimed it’s the part…

 

[Dan Efran]

Sure. It’s certainly not impossible. Those could be corrugations on a half cylinder rather than stacked plates.

But most corrugated rounded objects are hollow, so it’s hard to imagine what it would be exactly. I don’t think they fabricated much here; it’s probably almost all found objects.

The main reason I personally like the variable air capacitor theory is this detail:

It looks to me like that is the opposing row of plates. Something like this:

I think I see that matching pretty well. If it isn’t that, then we need to account for that detail some other way.

 

[Dan Efran]

Keep the ideas coming though! Little of this is clear enough to be definitive.

 

[Dan Efran]

I guess I should also make explicit the biggest reason one might doubt the variable air capacitor theory: most of those have an obvious axle and housing, neither of which seems to be visible here.

But they came in many shapes and sizes, and the housing might be easily removed on some. I haven’t handled one in person—or not recently—so I’m not sure about that.