Muramator Base Selection

The original Muramator vehicle (yellow skateboard) is no longer available. A good substitute is the radio-controlled "Clownie" from Radio Shack. You can unscrew most of the plastic pieces and remove the radio receiver to get a nice turn-in-place drive system. Alternatively, you can adapt a twin motor vehicle such as Red Fox or Power Trakk. These are made by Echopro and are available (in the Northeast, at least) from ToyWorks, an outlet store associated with KayBee Toys. If you are unable to find any of these locally, Johuco usually has a small stock of suitable bases for resale.

If you are adventurous you can mount the Muramator board on a variety of other vehicles as well. We have used things such as a toy airplane (the original Piro-jette) and a wire-controlled dinosaur (the original Dizzy Lizzy). The features you should look for to ensure compatibility are:

• Turn in place
  The vehicle should turn around its own center or in a very small arc. Do not get one that "turns while backing" since this kind generally has a very large turning circle. If the box says "spins" this is a good clue the vehicle will work.

• 3 volt operation
  The board applies 3 volts to the motor through the relay. If your candidate vehicle takes only two batteries then it is likely to be okay. If it takes four batteries it might still be suitable if you find a center tap on the battery case (i.e. half-bridge drivers). If there are more batteries, or a special battery pack, you can probably forget it.

Good luck!

Gallery

Amphipod	Hammer Head	Whirligig
Radio Shack 60-2592	Kay Bee / Toy Works 084012	Radio Shack 60-2298
"Clownie"	"Echopro Red Fox"	"Skateboard"
C1 = 0.1uf, C2 = 3.3uf, D1 = jumper	C1 = 0.1uf, C2 = 2.2uf, D1 = 1N4001	C1 = 0.1uf, C2 = 4.7uf, D1 = 1N4001
add 1M from pin 13 to pin 11 of LM339	special twin motor wiring	original base
2 x AA (internal) + 9V	2 x AA + 9V	2 x C + 9V
smooth floors only, 3.5" long	works on light carpet, 8.3" long	smooth floors only, 6" long
Available	Available	No longer made

Return to Muramator - Back to Johuco

Last updated 8/18/98