{"id":631,"date":"2017-07-05T22:08:08","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T22:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/z303.org\/?p=631"},"modified":"2025-03-17T22:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T22:04:11","slug":"building-an-animatronic-tail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/?p=631","title":{"rendered":"Building an Animatronic Tail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My friend <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rah_rah\/status\/882607947020414976\">Rah<\/a> and I were chatting and she happened to mention how cool it would be to have a tail. I joked that I bet someone had built one using an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arduino.cc\/\">Arduino<\/a>. A quick search showed that indeed a <a href=\"https:\/\/learn.adafruit.com\/really-simple-animatronic-tail\/introduction\">few<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/id\/Arduino-Controlled-Wolf-Tail\/\">people<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/id\/Pulse-Sensor-Controlled-Tail\/\">had<\/a> and even a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/id\/Animatronic-Tentacles-with-Arduino\/\">tentacle<\/a>. Rah&#8217;s next question was would I built one, fast forward a couple of years and I&#8217;ve finally got around to starting. Taking a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thingiverse.com\/thing:13522\">3D printable design<\/a> as my starting point.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>Parts<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>3D Printed\n<ul>\n<li>10 x <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thingiverse.com\/download:44096\">Vertebra<\/a><\/li>\n<li>1 x <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thingiverse.com\/download:44098\">Tail<\/a><\/li>\n<li>1 x <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thingiverse.com\/download:44100\">Arm<\/a><\/li>\n<li>1 x <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thingiverse.com\/download:44102\">Buckle<\/a><\/li>\n<li>1 x <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thingiverse.com\/download:44104\">Servo Brace<\/a><\/li>\n<li>1 x <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thingiverse.com\/download:44106\">Servo Wheel<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Connectors\n<ul>\n<li>0.7mm by 250m <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ebay.co.uk\/itm\/360803731278\">Fishing Line<\/a><\/li>\n<li>1.5mm by 5m <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ebay.co.uk\/itm\/172521100873\">Black Rubber Cord<\/a><\/li>\n<li>0.8mm by 100m <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/product\/B06XJNNGMC\/\">Elastic Cord<\/a><\/li>\n<li>1 x <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Toolzone-Small-Picture-Hanging-Storage\/dp\/B002NH0OC2\/\">Picture Hanging Kit<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Various nuts, bolts and washers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Electronics\n<ul>\n<li>1 x <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nexusmodels.co.uk\/futaba-servo-standard-boxed-0-19s-4-1kg-p-s3003-4513886013928.html\">Futaba S3003 Servo<\/a><\/li>\n<li>1 x <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/product\/B00CGU1VOG\/\">Arduino Uno R3<\/a><\/li>\n<li>1 x <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/product\/B00KUY0GH8\/\">Case for Arduino Uno R3<\/a><\/li>\n<li>1 x <a href=\"https:\/\/shop.pimoroni.com\/products\/adafruit-usb-cable-with-switch\">USB Power Switch<\/a><\/li>\n<li>1 x <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/product\/B019GJLER8\/\">Battery Pack<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Hardware Build<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/z303.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/001-parts.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/z303.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/001-parts.jpg\" alt=\"3D Printed Tail Parts\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-634\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/001-parts.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.z303.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/001-parts-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The design didn&#8217;t come with instructions, so I needed to guess how the part fit together.<\/p>\n<p>Assembling the tail involved threading the Rubber cord on the vertical holes. Tieing knots at each end. The Elastic cord in the hortizontal holes. I left out the fishing cord until later.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/z303.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/003-servo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/z303.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/003-servo.jpg\" alt=\"Servo\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-636\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/003-servo.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.z303.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/003-servo-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I bolted on the servo horn, then marked out the holes in the wheel. Drilled holes with a Dremel<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/z303.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/004-wheel.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/z303.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/004-wheel.jpg\" alt=\"Servo and Wheel\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-637\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/004-wheel.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.z303.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/004-wheel-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Seeing how the Buckle, Arm and Brace was simple.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/z303.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/002-mount.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/z303.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/002-mount.jpg\" alt=\"Assembled Mount\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-635\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/002-mount.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.z303.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/002-mount-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>One thing I did wrong was gluing those three parts together before attaching the servo. Pulling them apart. Fitted the servo and glued it all back together.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/z303.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/005-mounted.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/z303.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/005-mounted.jpg\" alt=\"Mounted Servo\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-638\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/005-mounted.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.z303.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/005-mounted-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Threading the fishing wire. Adding two eye hooks on ether side of the servo wheel as cable guides. A single nail at the top as an attachment point.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/z303.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/006-tail.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/z303.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/006-tail.jpg\" alt=\"Assembled Tail\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-639\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/006-tail.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.z303.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/006-tail-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Electronics<\/h3>\n<p>Most parts are USB, so simple plug together. Battery to switch to Arduino. The servo is a little bit more work, a quick Google showed<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>brown or black = ground (GND, battery negative terminal)<br \/>\nred = servo power (Vservo, battery positive terminal)<br \/>\norange, yellow, white, or blue = servo control signal line<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The signal line connect to digital pin 9 on the Arduino and that was everything assembled.<\/p>\n<h3>Software<\/h3>\n<p>I started with the <a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.thingiverse.com\/assets\/19\/5d\/26\/34\/0a\/Servo_Tail_program..txt\">sample code<\/a> and played around with various timing. In the end most of them didn&#8217;t look right, so I reverted the changes. The <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/Z303\/animatronic-tail\">current code is on GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Things that didn&#8217;t work<\/h3>\n<p>My original plan was to use a <a href=\"http:\/\/pulsesensor.com\/\">pulse sensor<\/a> to control the speed of the tail. I used the <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/WorldFamousElectronics\/PulseSensor_Amped_Processing_Visualizer\">advanced example<\/a>, reading the BPM was fine but does not vary enough to have a noticable effect.<\/p>\n<p>If I was building this again. I&#8217;d look at an <a href=\"https:\/\/shop.pimoroni.com\/products\/adafruit-lis3dh-triple-axis-accelerometer-2g-4g-8g-16g\">accelerometer<\/a> to use as input to the Arduino. That would give variation required to produce more interesting movement from the tail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My friend Rah and I were chatting and she happened to mention how cool it would be to have a tail. I joked that I bet someone had built one using an Arduino. A quick search showed that indeed a few people had and even a tentacle. Rah&#8217;s next question was would I built one, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_block_theme_hide_title":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-uncategorized","8":"without-featured-image"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Zoe","author_link":"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/?author=1"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.z303.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}