# Spirit Night Crawler electrical issues?



## Teresa6138 (Oct 19, 2020)

I purchased a Floor model Night Crawler from Spirit Halloween. It was broken so they gave us 50% off. I heard an obnoxious clicking when he moved back to the crouching position I figured ok I hear a clicking sound so something is likely stuck preventing it from resuming the lowered position...hopefully an easy fix. I found one of the wires tightly wrapped around the neck coil. I thought that was it. I put it back together and realized they forgot to give me the adapter. I went back and tried to plug it in...nada...I realized they gave me a 12v instead of the 6v2a.... They were closed at this point so my husband said he had adapters and brought a 6v up. It stared to work...then..smelled like burning plastic and made a loud pop. We realized he brought up a 6V not a 6V2A. I went back and got the CORRECT adapter with limited hope thinking we fried it using the wrong adapter. To my surprise, it actually turned on and worked. Unfortuately, I didnt fix whatever was wrong with it originally. The clicking was still there. I took apart the box where turning knob was located thinking it was coming from there. The gears seemed to be all working and the lever that is connected to the knob turned and hit the tabs with the metal ends. Now his eyes light up but he doesnt move. The knob turns by itself every 10 seconds or so but nothing else happens. I know this is a long shot but any advice is from someone that knows about this stuff is GREATLY appreciated! I clearly did some damage to it but it ended up going back to its original issue so I'm not sure if theres any hope lol


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

Welcome to the forum. I'm going to try and break this down - if I interpret some thing wrong, just let me know.



Teresa6138 said:


> I purchased a Floor model Night Crawler from Spirit Halloween. It was broken so they gave us 50% off. I heard an obnoxious clicking when he moved back to the crouching position


So in the store the prop was moving, but just making a clicking near the end of the travel?



> I figured ok I hear a clicking sound so something is likely stuck preventing it from resuming the lowered position...hopefully an easy fix. I found one of the wires tightly wrapped around the neck coil. I thought that was it.


So this was an electrical wire? (sorry, I don't know if this prop has any cable wires to run it?)



> I put it back together and realized they forgot to give me the adapter. I went back and tried to plug it in...nada...I realized they gave me a 12v instead of the 6v2a....


So they gave you a 12 volt adapter instead of 6 volt? Typically, that would be bad and would have the possibility of damaging circuit boards / microcontrollers / LED lights, etc. But you say nothing happened...so no pops, burning smell, quick jerks of the movement, etc when plugging in the 12V adapter?



> They were closed at this point so my husband said he had adapters and brought a 6v up. It stared to work...then..smelled like burning plastic and made a loud pop. We realized he brought up a 6V not a 6V2A.


So at least these are both 6 volt adapters - which is fine. You don't mention an amp rating on the first one - it should say somewhere. Possibly it wasn't a full 2 amps. So when you say 'it' started to work - you mean the prop? "...then smelled like plastic and made a pop" - meaning the adapter? So guessing that adapter couldn't supply a full 2 amps and the prop overloaded it, possibly damaged it. Though likely that would not damage the prop further.



> I went back and got the CORRECT adapter with limited hope thinking we fried it using the wrong adapter. To my surprise, it actually turned on and worked. Unfortuately, I didnt fix whatever was wrong with it originally. The clicking was still there.


OK - so now we're essentially back to square one... the prop is still clicking at the end of travel? but otherwise working normally?



> I took apart the box where turning knob was located thinking it was coming from there. The gears seemed to be all working and the lever that is connected to the knob turned and hit the tabs with the metal ends. Now his eyes light up but he doesnt move. The knob turns by itself every 10 seconds or so but nothing else happens. I know this is a long shot but any advice is from someone that knows about this stuff is GREATLY appreciated! I clearly did some damage to it but it ended up going back to its original issue so I'm not sure if theres any hope lol


So ultimately, it sounds like something in the box didn't go back together the same way it was? Unfortunately, I don't know much about the box of the actual prop. I suspect there would be some sort of limit switch to tell it how far to move. Possibly the tabs with metal ends you mention. Is there any chance the prop needs to be in some specific position to start?

If you can post some detailed pics, that might help. Otherwise, I'd say try to look at it step by step. What should be happening at any given time, what, if anything, is preventing or allowing that to happen. Any loose wires? Does the movement make contact with a switch and not stop? Does it need to make contact with a switch to start?

Sorry I can't offer much more - hope this helps by some small amount.


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## Teresa6138 (Oct 19, 2020)

So in the store the prop was moving, but just making a clicking near the end of the travel?

Yes it was making the clicking sound and it was stuck in that lowered position and clicking non stop so the employee said he can do 50% off


Quote:
I figured ok I hear a clicking sound so something is likely stuck preventing it from resuming the lowered position...hopefully an easy fix. I found one of the wires tightly wrapped around the neck coil. I thought that was it.
So this was an electrical wire? (sorry, I don't know if this prop has any cable wires to run it?)

Yes it was an electrical wire/cord similar to the infrared cord/cable

Quote:
I put it back together and realized they forgot to give me the adapter. I went back and tried to plug it in...nada...I realized they gave me a 12v instead of the 6v2a....
So they gave you a 12 volt adapter instead of 6 volt? Typically, that would be bad and would have the possibility of damaging circuit boards / microcontrollers / LED lights, etc. But you say nothing happened...so no pops, burning smell, quick jerks of the movement, etc when plugging in the 12V adapter?

Yes nothing happened when I plugged the 12v in it wouldn't even turn on. Thats the only reason I even looked at it lol I saw the assembly directions and it showed a battery operated adapter. I noticed the difference and saw that it was a 12V. The 6V is the one that blew out making the popping noise and burning smell. We are unsure of where the noise came from but Im assuming you are correct and it blew the adapter not the control box because it still ended up working after that.

Quote:
They were closed at this point so my husband said he had adapters and brought a 6v up. It stared to work...then..smelled like burning plastic and made a loud pop. We realized he brought up a 6V not a 6V2A.
So at least these are both 6 volt adapters - which is fine. You don't mention an amp rating on the first one - it should say somewhere. Possibly it wasn't a full 2 amps. So when you say 'it' started to work - you mean the prop? "...then smelled like plastic and made a pop" - meaning the adapter? So guessing that adapter couldn't supply a full 2 amps and the prop overloaded it, possibly damaged it. Though likely that would not damage the prop further. 
I am not sure of the amp on the 6V my husband put it somewhere in a big box of adapters that he has sorry

Quote:
I went back and got the CORRECT adapter with limited hope thinking we fried it using the wrong adapter. To my surprise, it actually turned on and worked. Unfortuately, I didnt fix whatever was wrong with it originally. The clicking was still there.
OK - so now we're essentially back to square one... the prop is still clicking at the end of travel? but otherwise working normally?

Yes back to square one with a slight difference in movement ( I took almost everything apart to inspect movement while the parts were open and free








Quote:
I took apart the box where turning knob was located thinking it was coming from there. The gears seemed to be all working and the lever that is connected to the knob turned and hit the tabs with the metal ends. Now his eyes light up but he doesnt move. The knob turns by itself every 10 seconds or so but nothing else happens. I know this is a long shot but any advice is from someone that knows about this stuff is GREATLY appreciated! I clearly did some damage to it but it ended up going back to its original issue so I'm not sure if theres any hope lol
So ultimately, it sounds like something in the box didn't go back together the same way it was? Unfortunately, I don't know much about the box of the actual prop. I suspect there would be some sort of limit switch to tell it how far to move. Possibly the tabs with metal ends you mention. Is there any chance the prop needs to be in some specific position to start?

So when I took the pop up mechanism apart I can tell there is something going on with the large gears. I think this is where the clicking is coming from. It seems the casing it too tight maybe...or it is not in the correct position to start as you mentioned. Maybe its going down too low? I removed the violent clamp spring things and holy hell that almost took an eye out lol but that stopped the clicking. I tried to shim the casing and loosen it but it is held by a hex bolt of some sort and I cant even attempt to reach it ... its about the size of an ant and in a very awkward spot. That is holding all of it together and I cannot view the gears openly without that casing off. I just don't know how to remove it. The pop up isn't nearly as aggressive as it originally was either.....most likely its something I didn't tighten enough?

If you can post some detailed pics, that might help. Otherwise, I'd say try to look at it step by step. What should be happening at any given time, what, if anything, is preventing or allowing that to happen. Any loose wires? Does the movement make contact with a switch and not stop? Does it need to make contact with a switch to start?

I included some pics and a super short vid (if it uploads) No wires are loose I checked every one. I connected and reconnected just to be sure No frayed wires. There is no sound coming from the control box either...which it was at the store so I can assume that when I plugged in the the 6V it ruined that lol I am not too worried about that though.

Sorry I can't offer much more - hope this helps by some small amount.
You have been super helpful!!! Thank you for replying!!!! I am trying to insert a picture but its telling me I need a URL for it? I cant just upload for some reason. I do not see any paperclip or any other option.


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## Teresa6138 (Oct 19, 2020)

teresa6138 said:


> so in the store the prop was moving, but just making a clicking near the end of the travel?
> 
> yes it was making the clicking sound and it was stuck in that lowered position and clicking non stop so the employee said he can do 50% off
> 
> ...


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## Teresa6138 (Oct 19, 2020)

.2


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

I believe new users need to hit 10 posts to be able to attach a photo from the actual forum. Though you should be able to link photos / video from a third party site. It looks like the one you tried to link might be on a local c: drive.

In some additional 'wild guessing' - it seems like this prop may slowly wind itself down to a 'crouched' position and wait there, then when an infra-red or possibly sound sensor trips it springs up, does a scare, then retracts again?

So you'd possibly be looking at a mechanism to wind down against the spring, some switch to let it know that it has 'bottomed out' and to stop/wait, the IR sensor to spring it up, and possibly one more switch to let it know it's in the up position?

It sounds like the prop wasn't properly registering the down/crouched position and was continuing to run, trying to lower - which was likely causing the gears to slip - making the clicking. So I'd keep an eye out for any type of switch or contact that is tripped when the prop is low. You should see some sort of electrical contact or signal from that. Possibly it is mis-adjusted or has a broken wire so the signal is not making the controller shut down.

As for the spring - I've let a few similar springs go - and WOW, your aren't kidding. Lucky to still have both eyes. Sometimes they can be tricky to get back into place, but what generally seems to help is to get the spring all put back together and fairly 'wound up' on its own, then bolt it back in place with the prop at the most 'extended' (up in this case) position, then when the prop crouches back down it will wind the spring even further, giving a good amount of tension. 

Hope that sort of makes sense - but basically, you want to wind the spring by hand install it then let the prop do the rest of the winding during normal movement - as opposed to trying to wind the spring tight by hand and stuff it in the already retracted prop. There is often some sort of 'trick' to it, after all, it was likely designed for assembly line construction. But once you find the 'trick' it should be fairly easy.

Hope to see some pics and maybe we can get this thing working!!


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