[jcopro] is pretty fond of Glade automatic air fresheners. Using a pair of them, he built a simple remote-controlled toy which he shared with us over the weekend. You may remember that he built a remote shutter release system for his camera using these air fresheners, which we featured a few weeks ago.
Instead of throwing away the shell of the air fresheners after gutting them for motors and gears, he decided to use the excess plastic as a robot chassis. Using a pair of pencils for legs, he constructed his robot, “Limpy.” He removed a pair of motors and control board from an old toy, mounting it to his creation with a few strips of electrical tape.
He admits that he’s reluctant to even call the toy a robot, but he had fun building it, and suggests that it would make a great beginner project. We agree – it would make a great project for kids, especially if you are looking to reuse an old remote-controlled toy they no longer play with.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7HSlRRgJbE&w=470]
What’s it with you guys and those air fresheners? :D
The American and world economies stink so bad you need to have an automatic air freshener handy.
Once he makes some more, and eventually starts fighting them, Gladeiators will be the next big thing. Nothing says the smell of battle like winter pine.
Perhaps wheels (a fairly modern invention by all accounts) instead of pencils might make this a little more expandable.
Nice hack.
The machanism does not go fully round, the last gear is just a 90° segment, designed to press the button and release it. I wondered myself, why they did not design just a cam mechanism, which would not need reversing the motor – only one transistor instead of the H-bridge.
@Mike Nathan – thanks for listing my hack! Funny, I saw this one – http://hackaday.com/2011/01/21/fertilizing-a-planted-aquarium-using-air-freshener-hardware/ – on hackaday a while ago and saw a ton of uses for these devices. So thanks HAD for the ideas!
@All – Btw, I’m ashamed I know this, but the automatic version seem to now come with a coupon for a couple bucks off of the sense-and-spray version if anyone finds that useful.
@Sean – Maybe there could be a robot fighting league using only parts from Glade.