Dancing Vibro Pig

Did I mention that I love those "Mini Pig Flashlights" you can order at Dealextreme for $0,79? After showing how to make a cool DiskoPig Party Light of 8 Mini Pig Flashlights, now I let them dance. I know there are a lot of VibroBots-Instructables out there, and it is not a new idea, but mine has some special features:

• it has a supersweet pig design
• its made of a keychain flashlight
• it has 2 superbright LEDs to give some extrafun at night!
• its done almost of salvaged parts

It took me a lot of tinkering time to make it, because the parts are so small and I really had to think hard how to get them together. But now I'm finished and proud to present the video:

Parts:

• 1 Mini Pig Flashlight (Dealextreme)
• 1 tiny vibration motor (I salvaged mine from an old broken mobile phone)
• a tiny spring from a batterie holder
• small on-off switch
• some wire

Tools:

• Soldering iron and solder
• Hot glue gun
• Dremel or similar tool
• wire cutter, wire stipper, handy tools

Open the flashlight by removing the snout and the keyring. Bend the cathodes of the LED (the upper leads) aside, we'll solder them later. Remove the tiny metal cap above the batteries, but leave the small white plastic ring.

Use your Dremel tool to mill a gap at the "butt" of the pig case to fit in the switch. Hot glue the switch to the case (see picture #2).

It took me a lot of tinkering time to figure out the best way to get the power from the batteries. In the original design the leads of the LEDs are pressed to the batterie by a button to connect the circuit. This was not a good idea for my project, because I didnt just want a momentary switch. So I needed a better solution. I tried a lot of things, like using a paper clip or even sugru, but I ended up using a spring from a battery holder to connect the batteries to the circuit.

So I glued the "heart" button to the case, soldered a piece of wire to the spring and glued the spring to the "heard" button. If you close the flashlight now, it connects to the negative side of the batteries.

Connect the spring with one lead of the switch (yellow wire in the image), then connect the other lead of the switch (white wire) with the cathodes of the LEDS. Connect the anodes of the LEDs with the motor. Do not connect the motor with the cathodes now as shown in the image (red wire).

This was my first attempt, but it didnt work. The motor sucked all the power and left nothing to the LEDs. So I had to add a resistor to prevent the motor from sucking all the juice.  It was a little try and error to figure out the value of the resistor. I ended up with 39 ohm, but it could be a different value with a different motor.

Solder the resistor to the cathodes of the LEDs. Then connect it to the motor (red wire in the image).

If you're getting confused by my description now, refer to the schematic.

After the wiring is done, you can reassamble the pig flashlight vibrobot. Switch on the power and let it dance!

I hope you enjoyed this instructable and it was entertaining and inspiring for you. Dont forget to rate and leave a comment!