Success! YMCA Elmo is functioning again!

After hours of frustration and days of trial and error YMCA Elmo is again functioning as normal - word of advice - be extremely careful when you complete a vivisection especially when working with sensors of any sort that can become mixed up - enough said.

I decided to execute a series of trial and error situations which I documented along the way to attempt to figure out what each sensor's purpose was but also more importantly where the sensor should be and how it needed to be activated. I knew that the sensor's were paired together giving me 3 sets of 2 - purple, green - orange, red - purple, gray. Each set of sensors could be reversed so for example the purple could be to the left of the green or visa versa or gray could be above the purple - this was depending on their configuration within the poured plastic torso shell. I then mapped out the 3 locations for the sensor pairs and began switching out one set at a time and recording the changes as I went -

Trial 1 -
This combination allowed Elmo to function but he seemed to not be performing the correct corresponding actions to E-L-M-O, each letter had an incorrect response.






Trial 2 -
This combination allowed Elmo to function although his actions still seemed to be mixed up. His state of confusion with this combination seemed worse than before. He is now only completing actions according to two of the letters listed - L & E.





Trial 3 -
Within this combination Elmo does not do the M action and doesn't complete the dance in full, he stops somewhere mid 2nd verse. Elmo also gets caught in a seizure like state before he is able to start signing the song where his arms seem to be getting jammed on one of the gears within.




Trial 4 -
This combination of sensors allows Elmo to complete the first part of the song and dance correctly without a repetitive action at the beginning but causes the song to stop suddenly mid E-L-M-O verse. There seems to be a problem with the neck action in that it is activated correctly but doesn't return to its original positioning.




Trial 5 -
Within this combination of sensors everything seems to be functioning correctly in terms of sensor placement but it is seeming as though the arm gears have an effect on the sensors according to their positioning during and beginning the set of actions, there may be a problem with the way the gears are interlocking with one another.



Trial 6 -
This combination of sensors seems to be a step backwards - Elmo is no longer performing the O action, he is skipping it altogether and is becoming extremely difficult to activate - at some points he will not begin the sequence at all, yet I can hear the motor making a faint buzzing noise, something may be jammed?




Trial 7 -
This combination is proving to be the most successful to this point. Elmo is completing all of his E-L-M-O actions and has again began to end his song and dance with an end statement, he still however has issues with moving his arms into the "up" position.



After the sensors appeared that they were positioned in the correct locations I began to adjust other elements that were possible to adjust in hopes that I had the sensors in the correct locations but maybe it was something else causing the sequence of events to not function properly.

I knew from detaching the front red and orange sensors that one of them activated the song and dance and this was done by the inner gear behind them touching up against their side pressing the small red button in. I activated Elmo twice and each time either pressed the red or orange sensor to try and draw a conclusion regarding what their correct positioning was. From this I discovered that it was the red sensor that needed to be in the lower slot so that Elmo danced and sang when his hand sensor was pushed

Once the front sensors were positioned correctly I was then able to tweak the gear positioning which in turn decided the started position of the arms. I looked back to original photos and realized that Elmo's arms were always straightened when the sequence began so I then attempted several times to place the arms correctly with the gears properly interlocked.

Finally I was able to achieve correct sensor placement and arm placement which allowed the gears to properly rotate which activated the neck action which reset the sequence allowing Elmo to finish his song and dance as well as perform his final saying at the end! In short Elmo is now fully functioning correctly again with no gear jamming or misplaced actions according to the song. Below is a final diagram and conclusions I was able to draw about the positioning of the 6 sensors -