Motorising Haunted House

PisceanPet

Hello! I was just wondering if anyone has successfully added the motors to #10273 Haunted House?  I had to wait ages for them to come back into stock, but since I managed to buy them, I can't actually seem to make them work properly.  It doesn't help that the Powered Up app doesn't come with any sort of explanation about what each button is supposed to do.  I can only assume the app runs the motors for a set time, but due to a slipping chain that I can't seem to remedy it virtually never makes the elevator go right to the top.  The app animation implies the elevator is supposed to go to the top, hold for a short time, and then drop but it never does that.  I've given up and taken them off so that at least it works properly when manually operated!  Can anyone advise me?

Cyberdragon

Powered Up sucks, especially for simple things like this, if they'll fit, try some regular PF motors.

Brainslugged

Just finished building mine last night. I'm going to see if I can use the motors from the app-controlled Batmobile.

A couple of other observations though....

There is absolutely no way 148 black chain links plus two bigger grey ones were enough to form a continuous chain around the gears. I had four spare black ones, so added two to make it 150 in total. Did you have this issue as well? I'm 99% sure I had the correct number to start with as I made 14 chains of 10 links to ensure they were all the same length before joining them all up (with two chains of 4 links).

Also... it really needs 5 more dark grey frog 'gargoyles'. It feels incomplete without them so hopefully I have a few in my collection.

PisceanPet

I added two links to start with as it wouldn't join up, but then it stretched and I had to take them out again!

The problem with regular PF motors, which I do have, is that they wouldn't do the same things as the PU motors and app which switches between the motors.  Guess you could just fit one PF to save winding the handle manually, but I'd really like to try and make the app work as it should.

Brainslugged

PisceanPet said:

I added two links to start with as it wouldn't join up, but then it stretched and I had to take them out again!

Mine was working OK with the two extra links, but would slip a bit sometimes and get a little stuck occasionally as well. I just removed the two links, and really felt like I was stretching the chain but managed to connect it. Now it works absolutely perfectly. I should have trusted the instructions! It really didn't seem like it could be stretched in such a way but there seems to be quite a bit of flexibility in the links.

I noticed the Powered Up motors in the instructions are different to the Batmobile ones. So are there two different types of medium PU motors? One seems to have studs and one doesn't. What is the difference between part #21980 and #88008-!? Anyone know if my Batmobile ones will work?

I also noticed it actually only needs 3 more gargoyles. But because the frogs are a little wider than a brick, including those frogs would prevent the building hinges opening out to 180 degrees. I assume that's why they were left out in the first place.

Mynatt

Brainslugged said:

Just finished building mine last night. I'm going to see if I can use the motors from the app-controlled Batmobile.

A couple of other observations though....

There is absolutely no way 148 black chain links plus two bigger grey ones were enough to form a continuous chain around the gears. I had four spare black ones, so added two to make it 150 in total. Did you have this issue as well? I'm 99% sure I had the correct number to start with as I made 14 chains of 10 links to ensure they were all the same length before joining them all up (with two chains of 4 links).

Also... it really needs 5 more dark grey frog 'gargoyles'. It feels incomplete without them so hopefully I have a few in my collection.

I think there is a margin of +/- a few chain links for the set. That is why there is more than one extra chain link added in the set.

It was awhile back but I think with an interview with Jamie for the roller coaster development, he mentioned that some sets may need more or less chain by just a few links to have it work properly.

Brainslugged

@PisceanPet - I've just added the two #88008 PU motors. From what I can tell, the three buttons on the left do the following:
   Skull: takes the ride to the top and drops it.
   Doors: takes the ride to the top and stops with the doors open.
   Camera: takes the ride only up as far as the 6x5 window pane and it makes a camera shutter noise.

The red square on the top right is meant to recalibrate the system, which only takes the ride up behind the Sphynx face (or whatever it is) and then drops the ride.

One problem I have is that after I have run the ride once, none of my three buttons work any more so I have to recalibrate with the red square. There doesn't seem to be a way to just let the ride run continuously.

Occasionally the ride doesn't quite make it all the way to the top, but i haven't really had a problem with it sticking.

It really doesn't seem to be worth £30 for the two motors - especially as it doesn't run continuously. I'd prefer to wind it by hand. Plus it looks tidier without the motors.

Regular Powered Functions might be better. I might try swapping one of the two grey chain links for a black link and see how it is just left to run by itself.

The other thing I wonder is what if all the fairground rides had Powered Up? Could you only have one working at a time if using your phone? That seems like it would be a bit rubbish.

PisceanPet

Brainslugged said:

@PisceanPet - I've just added the two #88008 PU motors. From what I can tell, the three buttons on the left do the following:
   Skull: takes the ride to the top and drops it.
   Doors: takes the ride to the top and stops with the doors open.
   Camera: takes the ride only up as far as the 6x5 window pane and it makes a camera shutter noise.

The red square on the top right is meant to recalibrate the system, which only takes the ride up behind the Sphynx face (or whatever it is) and then drops the ride.

The other thing I wonder is what if all the fairground rides had Powered Up? Could you only have one working at a time if using your phone? That seems like it would be a bit rubbish.

@Brainslugged - that's what I guessed the buttons were meant to do, but the skull only works sometimes and hardly ever reaches the top.  Doors never goes that far and Camera does usually make it to the window.  I think I still need to work on the chain, when it reaches the wheels they seem a bit snug so the chain struggles to pull it through them and slips.  I'll keep tweaking!

Yes, if all the fairground rides were PU it would be rubbish - I've had them all running at the same time with PF and just two battery packs!