Introduction
We absolutely LOVE the new LEGO Star Wars sets that have come out over the last couple of years. They're well designed, fun to build, and look great. What would make them even more fun is if they also moved on their own!
We took an off the shelf LEGO X-Wing set and automated it so the wings open and close on their own. Even better, we added sound effects and lighting effects! But if that isn't enough we also added a motion sensor so that it would activate when someone walks by.
Overall this project isn't overly difficult to do, but does take awhile and requires a healthy amount of random Technic LEGO parts to built the gear box area.
Video Overview
Featured Document
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Build your LEGO X-Wing as normal.
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Remove the launchers from the wings as they look weird.
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Take off the rubber bands.
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Pull the two pins that hold the wings onto the body.
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Put the wings to the side.
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Start removing pieces from the bottom of the X-Wing.
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Keep going until you get to the internal gear box.
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Pull off the small back "storage area".
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Set all those pieces aside for later.
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Insert a size 12 Axel through the back rear of the model.
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Carefully, and with some luck, get a 1/2 Brush onto the end of the axel.
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Lastly get the Bevel gear on.
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Push the rod all the way in so that it connects with the other rod.
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Rebuild the entire bottom of your X-Wing. Refer to the box and original directions.
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You'll need 4 x Bushings, 3 x 1/2 Bushings, 1 x 2x4 Plate with holes, 1 x Large Gear.
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Start by pushing one 1/2 Bush down to the end followed by two of the full bushing.
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Add plate, which should stick on the back the X-Wing.
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Then start with a 1/2 Bush, followed by two of the full sized Bushings, then the Gear, and lastly a 1/2 bushing.
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Put the Wings back on the same way you took them off.
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Attach the rubber bands.
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Use a large LEGO plate of some kind as your base. You'll need one with room for the gears on the back.
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We used some tall 1x2x5 bricks (2454) to make supports. You can use whatever you want provided that it gives enough clearance for the wings and Servo.
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We added some 1x4 Technic bricks for the end of our size 12 Axel from the X-Wing to go into. Attach those to the Axel.
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Place the X-Wing onto the base plate so that everything lines up.
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Screw the Servo into a Servo Mount.
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Press on the Horn.
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Using a small gear, two 1/2 Bushings and some size two rods to create the horn adaptor.
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Press a size 6 or 8 Axel and a full sized Bushing into the middle of the gear.
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We used a couple of 1x4 Technic bricks and some 1x4 plates to space everything. You might need to use a different amount of plates.
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Pull the axel off the servo and push it into the worm gear in the gearbox.
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Press the Bushing up next to the worm gear.
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Connect everything to the Servo.
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Adjust your pieces to get the spacing correct.
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Use two 1x6 or 1x8 plates to create a small platform for the Robotics Board to sit on.
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Place your boards on the bottom of each wing.
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Run Conductive Tape from the Positive on one board to the other board.
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Run Conductive Tape from the Negative on one board to the other board.
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Connect your X-Wing back to the base.
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Run Tape from Ground on the Robotics Board to the Ground on the LED Tape.
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Run Tape from Pin 11 to the Positive LED Tape.
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Connect VCC to a 5V Pin.
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Connect Trig to A4.
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Connect Echo to A5.
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Connect GND to a GND Pin.
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Connect GND to a GND Pin.
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Connect VCC to a 5V Pin.
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Connect TX to 5.
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Connect RX to 6.
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We grabbed our sound clip via a YouTube Video. You can use any sound file as long as it's a .WAV or .MP3. (We can't give you a sound clip for Copyright reasons.)
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You'll want to use just one sound clip for our code. Once you find one put it on a micro SD card formatted in FAT.
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Put the Micro SD Card into the MP3 Player.
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Open up your Arduino software and copy our code into a new project window.
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Lines 30 & 31 control how long the Servo will move when opening and closing the wings. We find that 20000 ms is about right. You can change the time by changing those values.
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Line 91 controls how long the Servo pauses to wait for your audio clip. Our Sound Clip is about 25 seconds so we have it set to 25000 MS.
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Attach some Speakers to the MP3 Player and run the code. (Powered Speakers with some Volume Control work best)
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