Robotic Halloween Crow

thingiverse

I'll start by saying that although it's a cool project, and with all due respect to the original creators, it's a project that's a bit of a pain in the ass. The files were not really designed in a good and dedicated way for this kind of project. I spent hours and hours! To try to change and play with the model as much as possible so that the printing and assembly would be convenient and simple, but I gave up at a certain point and had to stop and settle for what I was able to do. The main changes I made: - Holes for magnets at the bottom, to create an easy, fast and strong connection of the tail to the body. - I slightly reduced the gap between the head and the body. - I created a designated place inside the head to insert a shaft that connects to the servo motor, in order to position the head in an optimal way in relation to the body and the motor. This is actually a kind of union between two projects: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1861928/files (the body parts and the original Arduino code), and: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3156377 (from where the crow's's head and beak were taken). I used a SG90 mini servo motor, and magnets that I just had at home measuring about 12mm X 4mm. I cut the bottom of the body with a knife and scissors (because it is a thin layer it is easily cut). I also designed small holes and pins so that the attachment of the tail with the magnet would always be straight and precise. For the servo motor I created a shaft and glued it with a little hot glue, with the inscription facing up and the letter R symbolizing the word right - that is, on the right side in relation to the crow's body. I improvised a motor mount using a roll of toilet paper and a piece of old sponge. Undoubtedly the most complicated and annoying part of the project is to find a solution for how to connect the motor inside the body and how to ensure that it is in the right place and aligned with the head. I created a spacer (it also has an inscription on its parts that faces upwards and is marked with the words "top right", "bottom right"). The spacer is designed to maintain the correct distance between the body and the head to allow easy movement. In the end it didn't work with 100% accuracy but it still helped to fix the head in a relatively comfortable place. The spacer is made in two parts so that it is easy to separate them after placing the head in the desired position. Insert the servo shaft through the spacer and connect the spacer to the body with masking tape, then insert the head and stabilize it and glue it in place with a drop of hot glue. To cover the gap between the head and the body I designed feathers and printed a nice amount of them according to the instructions in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5I2hBg0qHo&ab_channel=BillieRuben They didn't turn out perfect because they are smaller than the ones in the video, but they still turned out pretty nice and good enough to do the job. Print settings: Body- layer height 0.2mm, Infill 0% (NOT vase mode!), 0 Top solid layers, manual supports only in the part of the calves (look at the picture). Tail - layer height 0.2mm, Infill 0% (NOT vase mode!). Head, beak, legs, shaft - layer height 0.2mm, Infill 15% Spacer- layer height 0.15mm, Infill 15% Feathers (sliced in cura) - according to the video instructions, layer height 0.15mm.