Vibrating fishing lure project

Thread Starter

dsummersl

Joined Mar 14, 2011
1
Hello all,

A friend of mine is interesting in building his own vibrating fishing lure. He wants to make something vaguely guppy shaped that would vibrate intermittently. Since I happen to know a little about electronics he has roped me into helping him figure out how to do it.

My initial idea is to cobble something together like the following: use the output of a 555 timer configured to produce an astable wave form, to drive a cell phone vibrator motor. My friend was thinking of encasing the entire thing in a rubber tube/casing commonly found in bait and tackle stores. I thought perhaps a pressure sensitive trigger or a hall effect sensor + magnet could be used to turn the circuit on.

My concerns is mainly about size. How can I make this circuit so that it is physically small?

- If I want the motor to turn on for 1 second and off for 3-4 seconds (or variable)...doesn't that require a physically/capactively large capacitor?

- I'm not sure about the power requirements. I think the 555 requires at least 3V and I was thinking the battery can't be much bigger than a couple of hearing aid batteries. I'm just not sure if that'll drive both the 555 timer and the motor.

Anyway, if anyone has suggestions pertinent to power or size I'd love some suggestions. Maybe the smaller form factor 555 requires less power? Suggestions for a switching mechanism? Maybe there is a simpler circuit for generating that intermittent signal I require...

Thanks!
 

toninph

Joined Dec 10, 2010
14
What about a small DC motor with an unbalanced flywheel? It would be easy to turn on/off and regulate the vibration by motor speed. Below such a small motor from a small rc car. It runs on 3V. Maybe you can control the vibration speed easily by a variable resistor. It only requires two thin wires.
 

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Maketronic

Joined Mar 21, 2009
49
Hi, Have you considered using a microcontroller?
Microchip make the 12f683 which is an 8 pin device and is available in dip and surface mount. I have used this device on a number of project successfully. (It even supports pwm I believe for dc motor speed control) If you were to use this all you would need is a 5v regulator (depending on your battery voltage) a 12f683, a hall effect switch, and a mosfet to drive your motor) This circuit could easily fit on a teaspoon sized pcb.
Best of luck
 

BMorse

Joined Sep 26, 2009
2,675
I had actually designed a similar device (well practically the same since it was also a fishing lure).... what I used was the small motors from those miniature RC cars called Zip Zaps, anyways, I used a couple of solar cells to charge a memory capacitor, and used a solar photopopper circuit typically used in BEAM robotics to drive the motor at random intervals when ever the capacitor reached a certain voltage level...... plus I added a couple of really small RGB LED's to add a "shimmering" effect......
 

BMorse

Joined Sep 26, 2009
2,675
you dont have to use 555 if you want simplicity and size can be smaller potentially, with a greater degree of operation..
Simple PWM Circuit(s)

I just don't see the necessity of using PWM to turn a motor on at random bursts?? He is not trying to control the speed of the motor, he just wants it to come on at full blast for a brief period, at random intervals.....
 

Sparky49

Joined Jul 16, 2011
833
I'd go with toninph on this.

You really want to make the circuit as small and as simple as possible. Although weight isn't normally a problem with electronics, the different of just a few grams can totally ruin the action of a rod which is designed to cast at said weight.

I'd consider buying a lure (along the lines of a toby, not a spoon) or making one which is lighter than the rod is designed to cast at. Make a simple circuit with as few components as possible and then sandwhich it up again.

How are you going to make it watertight? I'd look into using some sort of heat shrinking tubing, but even that might not work.

Also, what about power? The weight of a battery will seriously hamper the casting action of the rod. Even a simple AAA will double the weight of some lures.
 

chrisw1990

Joined Oct 22, 2011
551
I just don't see the necessity of using PWM to turn a motor on at random bursts?? He is not trying to control the speed of the motor, he just wants it to come on at full blast for a brief period, at random intervals.....
indeed, but he mentionned a speed control using 555
 

GetDeviceInfo

Joined Jun 7, 2009
2,192
Along with the vibrator, a bit of flash helps. Those rotating blade lures, mepps and similar could be fashioned so that the blade runs a miniature generator which charges a capacitor. At some charge level it's dumped through your pager motor, and the charge / dump cycle repeats.

If I go through my lure box, I can find lures that vibrate at different frequencies due to thier physical construction. I can't imagine electronics improving them.
 

BMorse

Joined Sep 26, 2009
2,675
Along with the vibrator, a bit of flash helps. Those rotating blade lures, mepps and similar could be fashioned so that the blade runs a miniature generator which charges a capacitor. At some charge level it's dumped through your pager motor, and the charge / dump cycle repeats.
That would actually be very doable, maybe fashion some kind of induction charging using a rotating magnet inside a coil to produce the charge that can then be stored in a memory cap, using a voltage level detector IC such as the Panasonic 1381x voltage trigger(select the voltage threshold needed for this application), once the capacitor is charged enough this IC can be used to turn on an NPN transistor to power the motor for a brief moment.....

here is a circuit used in solar engines, the solar cell can be replaced with any power source such as a small generator motor or induction charger circuit >>> http://www.solarbotics.net/library/circuits/se_t1_mse.html
 

iONic

Joined Nov 16, 2007
1,662
Think SMT parts aside from the 555. The only real issue is calculating how long the chosen button-cell batteries will last and how to replace them...
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
How about a bio-fuel powered, single use, ultra-realistic lure with a variety of sizes and looks? It's called live bait. :p

Really, whatever happened to actually ...fishing? If you want a moving lure, work it manually with a skilled hand on the rod.
 

GetDeviceInfo

Joined Jun 7, 2009
2,192
...And sonar with a heat sinking dart gun!
except fish are cold blooded. Sounds like trouble when you real in to check your hook. Ouch, speared again.

In our neck of the woods, electronic hooks are banned. It's been proven that a simple blinking light produces an unfair advantage.
 

Bernard

Joined Aug 7, 2008
5,784
I made such a device for sturgeon fish inventory housed in a Otter Box. Prototype # 2 was to be smaller, housed in a Chapstick tube, but order never came. Think it was to use a 4060, 74AC00, surface mt. PNP & 3V battery, with phone vibrator motor; was only partially tested.
 
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