R5-D4 bad motivator
- Thread starter BadMotivator
- Start date
BadMotivator
New Member
Thank you! Do you have the measurements, by chance? Sorry for the 20 questions!
BadMotivator
New Member
Got one you're willing to sell? 
I can measure it and model it on CAD.Got one you're willing to sell?
What diameter range does it need to be in to be a contender?
BadMotivator
New Member
No idea. Just curious to compare to the auto socket contender. But I concur that this part would be laying around at the time since the other half was used on so many R2 droids! But looking at this part when fully connected, looks a little small to me. See photo.
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Wicked interesting thanks for sharing
I still haven’t gotten around to tracing the screen grabs up in CAD, but did start taking some measurements during my lunch breaks of the bulb socket I have (though have not finished due to needing to work through my lunch breaks):
I did a super quick and dirty scaling test by cropping the screen grab to the largest diameter of the socket so I could hold it to my screen and get a general idea of if it could be a match (yes I know, this is an incredibly crude method), but it surprisingly made me see a few details I was overlooking that line up between the two. I’ve attempted to circle them here:
Obviously, not considering this conclusive evidence at all, but the similarities are definitely adding up for me.
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BadMotivator
New Member
I’m in!
Vagabond Elf
Well-Known Member
To my relatively novice eye, both the car plug and the vickers socket still seem in contention - they both have the riven that SCREAMINYELLOW has highlighted, and neither has the "funnel" shape underneath. Though the car socket certainly needs fewer additional parts to match up.
Also, when I compare my Astromech holoprojector to my Baddeley R5 dome, and eyeball it, the sizes look okay. I am very aware that neither of those parts is rigourously accurate in dimensions - but it's enough to make me unwilling to give up on the vickers socket just yet, because I really want there to be more instances of Vickers Viscount parts on astro-droids.
For what it's worth, Astromech does have the following as the dimensions of the R5-D4 head panels:
I've been unable to fully source where they got those numbers from, but the impression is that it's based off the original R5-D4 blueprints, and some reverse-engineering from the movies. This isn't enough to give a fully detailed size, I know, but it does at least offer some error-bounds, because it gives a rough size of the hole the motivator has to fit through.
Finally, over on Astromech there's mention of an in-building sprinkler nozzle that was thought to be the base of the original part. I don't have any further detail, alas. So that's not really usuable information as yet. (I have asked to see if anyone remembers what the sprinkler was.) However, assuming that Astromech didn't pull that idea out of no-where, it makes me wonder if the real motivator might have been the Vickers socket inserted into something else that had the funnel shape?
Also, when I compare my Astromech holoprojector to my Baddeley R5 dome, and eyeball it, the sizes look okay. I am very aware that neither of those parts is rigourously accurate in dimensions - but it's enough to make me unwilling to give up on the vickers socket just yet, because I really want there to be more instances of Vickers Viscount parts on astro-droids.
For what it's worth, Astromech does have the following as the dimensions of the R5-D4 head panels:
I've been unable to fully source where they got those numbers from, but the impression is that it's based off the original R5-D4 blueprints, and some reverse-engineering from the movies. This isn't enough to give a fully detailed size, I know, but it does at least offer some error-bounds, because it gives a rough size of the hole the motivator has to fit through.
Finally, over on Astromech there's mention of an in-building sprinkler nozzle that was thought to be the base of the original part. I don't have any further detail, alas. So that's not really usuable information as yet. (I have asked to see if anyone remembers what the sprinkler was.) However, assuming that Astromech didn't pull that idea out of no-where, it makes me wonder if the real motivator might have been the Vickers socket inserted into something else that had the funnel shape?
BadMotivator
New Member
Great intel. Thank you. Such an amazing mystery! Fun to speculate. The vickers part would sure make sense, from a part-on-hand standpoint. The vickers socket would need that center piece removed. Is that removable? And does anyone have the dimensions of the vickers socket to compare to the auto socket and your dome specs?
Dan Efran
Active Member
This is great work! The sockets look spot on to me.
The variable capacitor seems to me to solve the puzzle of the conical section seeming to get wider on one side but narrower on the other. Looks like it’s neither, but rather a curved wedge shape seen from a confusing angle.
I was half convinced by the pulley idea, but when I went through my plumbing box to see if I had any of those sink things…I found this pipe clamp.
Now I’m thinking the “pulley” is more likely something like this (though not exactly—this is just one I happened to have on hand). (There isn’t really room for a pulley anyway—it would intersect the central tube of the socket.)
The variable capacitor seems to me to solve the puzzle of the conical section seeming to get wider on one side but narrower on the other. Looks like it’s neither, but rather a curved wedge shape seen from a confusing angle.
I was half convinced by the pulley idea, but when I went through my plumbing box to see if I had any of those sink things…I found this pipe clamp.
Now I’m thinking the “pulley” is more likely something like this (though not exactly—this is just one I happened to have on hand). (There isn’t really room for a pulley anyway—it would intersect the central tube of the socket.)
Dan Efran
Active Member
Okay, here's what I'm seeing. Descriptions are all guesses, mostly based on this discussion--and very much open to further discussion!
From the top, roughly clockwise:
Light Blue - bolt head
Red - car lamp socket
Green - variable air capacitor
Cyan - loose wire
Purple - eraser shield (or similar)
Orange - coiled wire (or spring?)
Gold - too dark to see
Magenta - panel meter needle assembly? *
Yellow - beveled plate **
Dark blue - conduit clamp ***
Dark green - conduit clamp screw
* Here I'm adding a few more parts to the conversation: the magenta part looks to me like a panel meter needle assembly, something like the one in the middle of this, with a pointer that bends twice in the middle for clearance:
It's possible that the magenta area is multiple parts cobbled together, but if we assume it's one bit glued on, I think it is probably one of these -- maybe from a car dashboard?
** There appears to be a flat plate with a beveled top behind the "pulley" shape (*** that I'm guessing is half a conduit clamp) - plate shown here in yellow. Roughly the shape of a hand plane or chisel blade, though hopefully made from something less dangerous!
By the way, I'm not convinced that the plate on the far right is actually an eraser shield, but I do agree that the coil seems to thread through a slot or holes in it, so it probably does at least resemble one.
From the top, roughly clockwise:
Light Blue - bolt head
Red - car lamp socket
Green - variable air capacitor
Cyan - loose wire
Purple - eraser shield (or similar)
Orange - coiled wire (or spring?)
Gold - too dark to see
Magenta - panel meter needle assembly? *
Yellow - beveled plate **
Dark blue - conduit clamp ***
Dark green - conduit clamp screw
* Here I'm adding a few more parts to the conversation: the magenta part looks to me like a panel meter needle assembly, something like the one in the middle of this, with a pointer that bends twice in the middle for clearance:
It's possible that the magenta area is multiple parts cobbled together, but if we assume it's one bit glued on, I think it is probably one of these -- maybe from a car dashboard?
** There appears to be a flat plate with a beveled top behind the "pulley" shape (*** that I'm guessing is half a conduit clamp) - plate shown here in yellow. Roughly the shape of a hand plane or chisel blade, though hopefully made from something less dangerous!
By the way, I'm not convinced that the plate on the far right is actually an eraser shield, but I do agree that the coil seems to thread through a slot or holes in it, so it probably does at least resemble one.
Dan Efran
Active Member
Now I'm wondering if the yellow and purple plates are duplicate parts, rotated 180 degrees around the central axis of the motivator. The shapes would match up pretty well. After all there must be something on the other side, right? I wonder if there's another coil of wire behind the yellow plate?
Also I feel like I can see a possible trace of the "pen clip" concept at the top of the purple plate--does the part that goes inside the coil protrude from the surface first? There's a highlight there as if the part isn't flat.
Also I feel like I can see a possible trace of the "pen clip" concept at the top of the purple plate--does the part that goes inside the coil protrude from the surface first? There's a highlight there as if the part isn't flat.
Dan Efran
Active Member
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?
I love it!
