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Could use some help on how to do this.

tbfoto

Aug 12, 2011
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Hello all. I joined this forum because I have a small project that I need help with. I'm a fairly mechanical guy but electronics is NOT my strong suit. Anyway, here is my project.

I have 4 little toy mechanical monkeys that I'm using in a display. Each monkey dances and plays music when turned on. I have gotten inside of them and disconnected the speakers because I only want them to dance, not sing. That all went well.

Each monkey has its own battery box that holds 3 AA batteries with an on and off switch on the side of each battery box.

Now...for my display I want to be able to turn on all 4 monkeys at the same time from a seperate switch located away from the monkeys in the back of the display. I will also be setting this display up and taking it down quite frequently so I was kind of hoping to come up with some kind of "plug-n play" type wiring harness???
I hope I explained this clearly enough. I could sure use some help. Any ideas (in real plain terms) would be great.
 

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jackorocko

Apr 4, 2010
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Wire each battery box in parallel and then wire up one switch for all the monkeys.
 

daddles

Jun 10, 2011
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If it was me, I'd eliminate the batteries if possible and use a wall wart. Then just use a standard light switch to turn power on and off to the wart.

If you have to use batteries, why not just use three D batteries and wire the monkeys in parallel?

I'd also get some simple connectors such as the crimp-on terminals shown in the attached photo. Make the + connections one sex and the - connections the other sex so you can't hook the monkeys up backwards. Those pictures are from All Electronics.
 

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tbfoto

Aug 12, 2011
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If you have to use batteries, why not just use three D batteries and wire the monkeys in parallel?

.


Can you draw me a simple drawing as to what that might look like?

I forgot to mention that I will still need to run these off of battery power since I will be outside.
 

donkey

Feb 26, 2011
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hey tbfoto, was wondering if you can do basic soldering? if so this can be done real easy.
use a battery pack (d batteries will last longest) 3 will supply the same voltage. run the 2 leads from the battery pack into a switch (doesn't matter if its spst or dpst) out of the switch connect wire to each of the monkeys making sure positve to positive, negative to neagative. turn the new switch OFF. turn all the monkeys switches ON (you could even solder them to be permanently on) then the new switch will provide power to all the monkeys at once and turn them off too. depending on how professional you want it to look determines the place to solder. I personally would remove all the battery packs leaving the wires and make a base to put the new battery pack into AND stand the monkeys on. you could then do the wiring underneath and run it up to each monkey individually.
let me know if you would like a pic cos I could use paint to make a very bad one that will help you out.
If you go for a wall power pack it'll be pretty much the same concept but without the 3 D's

edit. here is a pic i did up showing the battery pack. top one is if you connect one wire to the switch bottom is if you connect 2.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/97/batteriesandswitch.png/
the 2 leads you are left with then goto the positive and negative of each monkey. as i said before just make sure they are turned on at the monkey and then use the new switch to turn them on/off together
 
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davelectronic

Dec 13, 2010
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RE monkey display

I would opt for the power adaptor option and some low voltage dc plugs and line sockets, otherwise your have to keep replacing batterys, expensive i think, if you use rechargable batterys you only get 1.2 volts per cell, these monkeys must draw some current as they must be motor and gear diven. Dave.
 

donkey

Feb 26, 2011
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tbfoto's last post said it was for outdoors so its batteries (rechargable i gather) or long extension leads
 

mechtronics

Aug 7, 2011
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if you are using just batteries id do the same thing as in get one battery pack using D batteries wiring the positive lead coming out of the battery pack to a switch (SPST) and feeding the other switch lead to all the positive leads on the monkeys maybe using some kind of a common block connection to run all of the positive wires into it from the monkeys. you will have one switch wire connecting to the positive wire on the battery pack and the other switch wire will connect to the positive common block where all of the positive monkey switch leads are.

i would do the same thing for the negative wires wiring them all into one common block which connects them all together and also running the negative from the battery pack to the negative common block making the circuit complete. then just turn on your switch and they all should turn on provided you have it wired properly!!

this is paralell wiring therefore all getting the same voltage.

hope this helps!
 
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mechtronics

Aug 7, 2011
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here is a very rough diagram for the wiring.

hope it helps!
 

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tbfoto

Aug 12, 2011
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here is a very rough diagram for the wiring.

hope it helps!

This looks good to me. Thank you VERY much for the drawing. It makes sense to me when I can see it drawn out like that. This should be simple enough to do.

This forum was very helpful....I might have to hang out here more often to see what else I can learn.

Thank you all.
 

davelectronic

Dec 13, 2010
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Hi Tbfoto
Pop an in line fuse and holder on the positive side as it leaves the battery, see what the current or watts of one monkey is then x 4 for all of them, if its watts divide one monkey by the supply voltage it needs, this will give you the working current x 4 is the total, use a fuse 0.250 to 0.5 over the 4 monkeys total current. Dave. :)
 
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