Candy Bowl Button Hack

[Sickie Ickie]

I found a great candy bowl at Michael's for $20 that I want to dress up some and use for handing out candy from my graveyard. I usuallu don't spend that much, but I love the action of it.

It is constructed so a switch can be turned on for motion activation or left off for pressing a button on the nose. When it is activated a skeleton hand comes out the back and makes a grab at the TOT's hand inside. What fun!

Problem is, I'm soft hearted and don't want to scare the crap out of kids who have a difficult time even handling my display. Also, if the bowl activates everytime someone reaches in, where's the surprise value in a group? It may even get a little monotonous...

The solution? Make it so the candy bowl activates only on MY say so! The KISS method (Keep It Simple Stupid) suggests the easiest way to acheive this is to move the button to where only I can activate it and it is out of sight.

So, here is my simple little how-to for my solution:

You'll need:

a philips screwdriver

a drill with a small drill bit and a 1/2" drill bit

two small lengths of insulated wire (destroy a motorized toy from a thrift store and you'll get lots of small length wire)

a glue gun or tape

and a push button.

This is what the bowl does before any hacking:

candy bowl :: 100_2274.flv video by Sickie_Ickie - Photobucket

candy bowl :: 100_2274.flv video by Sickie_Ickie - Photobucket

Pretty cool, huh?

Okay, let's take it apart, so it is easily put back together.



Take out the batteries by undoing the battery lid screw on the bottom and remove the battery lid. Also on the bottom are four screws. Unscrew these screws with your philips screwdriver. Careful turning it over as the screws may tumble out.



(Never having done this before, I also undid the screws on the back of the bowl, but I don't think that's needed.)

Here's a bird's eye view of the open bowl:

[Sickie Ickie]

You'll see the bottom plate is connected to the upper bowl by a bunch of wrapped wires. These wires are for the motion sensors, LEDs and the nose button.



The wires coming from the nose button are what we are interested in. Make sure you have the correct wires, because these are the ones we are going to cut. In this case, they are yellow:



Here, we cut the two yellow wires. Leave enough wire that you can reconnect to the nose button if you want to in the future, but leave enough coming from the circuit board when you unwrap the yellow wires, too. This will make more sense later on.



On the inside of the bottom plate there is a round circle ridge area by the switch. This is the place we are going to drill a 1/2" hole, since the back of our button box said that is the size of the mounting hole needed.

[Sickie Ickie]

First drill a small pilot hole, so the larger 1/2" bit will have a place to grab onto.



Now drill the larger 1/2" hole there.



Here is the button I used. It's black in color and costs about $2.50 from Radio Shack. You can see the part number in the picture. I know, I know...I spend too much for parts, but for me it's the convenience factor of RS here down the street without waiting for shipping.



Here's the button out of the box.

[Sickie Ickie]

It is like a screw that has a plastic ring nut on the outside of it. You have to unscrew the "nut" and slip the button in from the OUTSIDE of the bottomplate. Then screw on the nut from the inside of the plate to hold this button on.



Split the cut yellow wires coming from the board.



The inside of the button we added has prongs. Take a piece of our wire we are going to add and remove some insulation on both ends. Twist the ends of the wire showing as if you were going to thread a needle, and thread it through one of the holes in a prong. Wrap the wires around the prong. Now do the same to the other prong with another wire. You should have one wire wrapped around each prong with the insulation off the ends of the wires. (Make sure the individual wire around prong 1 and 2 don't touch each other.)



You could solder them, but I'm out of solder. heh So, I just did a drop of hot glue on each prong to hold the wires and to insulate them.

Now remove some insulation from the tips of the yellow wires we split and twist one wire to one added wire coming from the button. Use the other wire coming from the button and do the same to the remaining yellow wire. A drop of hot glue will keep them from unraveling, as well as insulate them. It doesn't matter which button wire goes to which yellow wire. Isn't that nice?



(If you want to, you can hold the bowl upright up and make sure the button works, before you go any further.)

[Sickie Ickie]

Hot glue the wire down to the bottom plate to keep them out of the way of the motor for the hand.



Replace the four screws in the bottom plate, batteries, battery cover and screw. You can see the black button that was added.



The profile of the button should be shallow enough that the legs on the bottom plate keep the bowl from setting off the action.



And the front still looks like the original, so nobody is the wiser. Just remember to keep the motion switch set to off.



Now I can hold out the bowl of candy to whomever I want. Then, when the time is right, press the button under the bowl to scare a TARGETED unsuspecting victim.

[Terrormaster]

Sickie that is way cool. Those were at Michaels?! Guess I gotta make another trip out there and get one - love it, even without the hack that rocks so much more than the smacky little hand that sits in the middle which is sooooooo obvious what it does.

And as usual, excellent how-to!

-TM

[Sickie Ickie]

Thanks TM.

[Scary Godmother]

Sickie, I bought that candy bowl also. The hack looks great, way beyond my capabilities though. I am going to have two separate candy bowls so that the little tots that look afraid can grab from the old glow in the dark harmless bowl, and the brave ones who love the display, and are unafraid can get grabbed. If the bowl doesn't get them, the old drop down spider will!

[Lotus]

great how-to might do the hack for fun

[Wyatt Furr]

You getting quite good at this hacking business.