DIY Beauty and the Beast Enchanted Rose - Remote Controlled and Beginner Friendly Special Effect

Project Overview:

For this project, electromagnets will be used to control the petal drops. A remote that will control a wireless switch that turns the electromagnets off and on. Washers will be added to the back of each petal and electromagnets will be hidden in the petals of the rose. When the electromagnet is on, it will hold the petal in place with a magnetic pull to the washer. Once the electromagnet is turned off, the magnetic pull will disappear, and the petal will drop.

General Build Overview:

Build Time - 9 hours including dry time

Budget - $60 for the mechanism and $100 for all materials total (most of the materials can be found in shops or theater storage, this is the price if purchasing everything from scratch).

Skill Level - Beginner (no prior electronic experience needed)

Understanding the electric component:

An electromagnet is a type of magnet that gets its magnetic field from electricity. When it's connected to power, the magnet works, and when the power is turned off, the magnet stops. In this case, the electromagnet needs to hold its magnetic force until the petal drops, so it requires a latching switch. A switch controls the flow of electricity, turning a device on or off depending on its state. There are two main types of switches: momentary and latching. A momentary switch works only while the button is pressed and goes back to its original state once released. A latching switch, however, switches between two states (reusually on and off), changing each time it is pressed. For this project, a latching switch is needed so the electromagnet stays on when the button is pressed and only turns off when the button is pressed again.

To control the switch wirelessly, a wireless switch will be used. To make this work, a relay—a type of switch that works using electrical signals—is needed. Because a relay can be controlled by electrical signals, it can be controlled wireless by a remote. If a one-channel remote is used, it can only send signals to one device, in this case, it would only send signals to the relays, turning them off and on. However, a one-channel remote can control multiple relays, so for this project, a one-channel remote with four relays can be used to control each electromagnet with a different button on the remote.

Material:

1. Cloche
2. (1) 2 Liter Bottle
3. (1) Decanter Top
4. (1) Metal Bowl
5. (1) Scrap Piece of Ply or Lauan
6. (1) Museum Wax
7. (1) Fairy Lights (Optional)

1. Electronic Component
2. (1) Remote Switch- 4 way, 1 channel
3. (2) 25mm x 11mm Electro Magnet
4. (1) 27mm x 12mm Electro Magnet
5. (3) 9v Battery Connector
6. (16) Solder shrink

1. Rose
2. (1 tube) J-B Weld SteelStik Epoxy Putty
3. (1) ⅜” Aluminum Tube
4. (1) 8-Gauge Aluminum Hobby Wire
5. (1) Faux Rose
6. (3) Washer
7. (1 roll) Floral Tape
8. Green Paint
9. Red Paint

Tools:

1. Box Cutter
2. Diagonal Cutting Pliers
3. Drill
4. ⅜” Drill Bit
5. ⅛” Drill Bit
6. Hair Drier
7. Hot Glue Gun
8. Jig Saw
9. Wire Strippers

1. Take a two-liter soda bottle with a fully rounded shape (avoid brands like Coca-Cola, as they have a curved shape) and remove the label.
2. Use a utility knife to cut the bottom off the two-liter bottle, just enough to remove the corrugated section.
3. Use a utility knife to cut off part of the top of the two-liter bottle, just enough to remove the spiral screw-top, while keeping most of the top intact.
4. Take an old pan and heat it on the stove for a short period of time, just enough for the pan to get slightly warm.
5. Place the cut bottom of the two-liter bottle onto the pan and let it sit until the bottom flattens out and the cut edges curve upward.
6. Place the cut top of the two-liter bottle onto the pan and let it sit until the top flattens out and the cut edges curve upward.
7. Take a decanter top and place inside the top of the two liter bottle
8. Find a small decorative bowl, either from a thrift store or in stock, with a bottom diameter similar to that of the bottom of the two-liter bottle.
9. Take a piece of thin wood and mark it to the size of the top of the bowl.
10. Cut the wood and place it on top of the bowl.
11. Use a temporary attachment method to attach wood to the bowl. This could be screws, velcro, magnets, or museum wax.
12. Place the altered two-liter bottle on top of the bowl. The two-liter bottle will serve as your cloche, and the bowl with wood pieces will act as the base.
13. Take ¾ of the total height of your cloche and ¾ of the total height of your base and add the two measurements together.
14. Take a ⅜” aluminum tube and cut to the measurement above. Mark the point where the ¾” the cloche height is and where ¾” of the base height is.
15. Mark the spot where you want the steam to emerge from the base. Since the rose needs to be angled, the tube cannot be placed in the center. Use your ⅜” aluminum tube, long electromagnet, and fake rose to determine the desired angle for the rose. Then, mark where the aluminum tube should be positioned.
16. Take a ⅜” drill bit (black and gold drill bits are generally recommended for drilling into metal) and drill in the base where the aluminum tube marking is.
17. Insert the tube so that ¾” of the cloche height is on the top side of the bowl, and the ¾” of the base height is inside the bowl.
18. Use J-B Weld SteelStik Epoxy Putty to secure the aluminum tube in place. This will be your steam.
19. If you are adding fairy lights, take a ⅛” drill bit and drill on top of the base off to the side, where you want the lights to emerge.
20. Weave the fairy lights through the hole and use double sided tape, museum wax, or clear adhesive dots to attach fairy lights to cloche.

1. Source a wireless 4-way, 1-channel remote switch
2. Start by sourcing a wireless 4-way, 1-channel remote switch. Be sure to choose one with four individual relays, rather than four relays attached to a single relay board, as each relay needs its own power supply.
3. Source three electromagnets
4. For this project, it's recommended to try to find one longer electromagnet with the magnet component on top, and two wider electromagnets with the magnet component on the side.
5. Account for your relays
6. The relays on the wireless 4-way, 1-channel remote switch should come pre-wired to the remote. Therefore, you only need to wire the relays to the electromagnets and the power supply.
7. Each individual relay should have four wires coming out of the circuit board, usually labeled as input +, input -, output +, and output -. If they’re not labeled, the typical color coding is: red for input +, black for input -, blue for output +, and white for output -.
8. Because we only have three electromagnets we will only be using three of the four relays. Set aside the fourth relay to later be attached to lighting element for the rose
9. Wire relays to power supplies
10. Take three of your 9v battery connectors and strip back their wires.
11. Use your solder shrink and place the positive wire of one of the battery connectors (red) and the input + wire of your reply (red) inside the tubing so both exposed wires are in the middle were the solder (silver) is located.
12. Take a hair dryer and heat up the solder shrink until it strikes to the size of the wires and the solder in the middle melts connecting the two wires.
13. Repeat this step with the negative wire (black) of your battery connector and the input - wire of your relay (black).
14. Repeat for the remaining two relays
15. Separate your relays to the corresponding electromagnets
16. Once you are done wiring the power supplies, attach batteries and use the remote to test each relay. Your relays might already be assigned to specific buttons on your remote, or you may need to "program" them by pressing a button to assign that button to the corresponding relay.
17. Before you begin wiring the electromagnets to the relays, separate the relays with their corresponding electromagnets. This will help ensure the correct relays get attached the correct electromagnets
18. Set one of your wider electromagnets with relay A, the other wider electromagnet with relay B, and the longer electromagnet with relay C.
19. Wire relays to electromagnets
20. Take the electromagnets and thread the wires through the steam ( ⅜ aluminum tube attached to the cloche base) so that the electromagnet and the electromagnet wire ends are at opposite ends of the steam.
21. Strip the end of your electromagnets wires.
22. Use the heat shrink to connect the output + or - wires to the two electromagnet wires. Because electromagnets are not polarized, meaning they do not have a positive or negative, it doesn't matter which of the two wires from the electromagnet are connected to output + or - wires.
23. Repeat for the remaining two relays
24. Wiring fairy lights to your remaining relay (relay D)
25. Take your fairy lights and find the two wires emerging from the battery pack
26. If the fairy lights have clear wires, take a sharpie and draw a line up only one of the wires. The sharpie should help mark which end of the wire goes with end once we cut the wires
27. Cut the two wires near where they are emerging from the battery pack, leaving at least a 3 inch allowance from the battery pack. You should now have two pieces, one with the battery pack and one with the actual fairy lights.
28. Strip the ends of both cut wires on each side.
29. Determine the positive and negative sides of the wires. If the wires are not labeled, you can test by inserting batteries into the battery pack. Then, connect one wire to the input + wire of the relay and the other wire to the input - wire of the relay, and try turning the relay on. If the relay doesn't turn on, swap the wires. The correct orientation will be the one that turns the relay on. The wire connected to the input + is the positive, and the wire connected to the input - is the negative.
30. Use the solder shrink to connect the battery pack to the relay
31. Use your sharpie mark to determine the positive and negative wire of your fairy lights piece.
32. Use solder shrink to wire the corresponding negative and positive wire of the fairy light piece to the output + and output - wire from the relay
33. Add three Double AA Batteries to the battery pack
34. Place relays and batteries inside the bowl and wood base.

1. Take your long electromagnet and set on top of your steams.
2. Set the angle of the long electromagnet and use J-B Weld SteelStik Epoxy Putty to form a ridge on top of the stem that can be used to support the electromagnet in place at said angle. Be sure to remove the electromagnet from the ridge before the epoxy cures, so it remains a separate piece.
3. Once J-B Weld SteelStik Epoxy Putty cures, use either tape and glue to secure electromagnet to the ridge.
4. Add floral tape to the steam, covering the aluminum tube and longer electromagnet
5. Take two fake rose petals and hot glue together, leaving a small opening at the bottom to create a sleeve.
6. Take a small piece of cardboard and place it inside of a petal sleeve to add a small support of structure.
7. Place the wider electromagnet in the sleeve, with the magnet component facing outwards. The side of the leaf the cardboard is one is the backside, the piece where the electromagnetic is facing forward is the frontside.
8. Take a piece of 8 gauge wire that is 1.5x the length of the steams and cover in floral tape.
9. Wrap the 8-gauge wire around the steam, leaving enough extra at the top to match the length of the leaf.
10. Adjust the wire to land where you would like the leaf to be placed. The leaf needs to be placed on either the left or right side of the long electromagnetic.
11. Place the wire inside the leaf sleeve on the backside sleeve behind the cardboard.
12. Glue the leaf sleeve shut.
13. Repeat this step with the other electromagnet and two other fake rose petals. Make sure this leaf sleeve is on the opposite side of the original one.
14. Take a faux rose and divide it into three clusters, a left side, a right side, and the bud.
15. If the petals of each cluster are separate, use hot glue to attach the petals together, leaving
16. you with three pieces.
17. Paint three washers red to match petals
18. Use the leaf placements to determine where the electromagnets will land on the back of the petals.
19. Hot glue the painted washers to the back of the petal clusters, positioning them where the electromagnets will make contact.
20. Paint any exposed wire, magnets, or putty green.