Since July 17th, 2015, two new Made with Magic devices have been available at the California parks. The device now sold at the Disneyland Park is the Chernabog Sipper Cup. That's him on the right. It's main function is to serve as a drink container, so you'll find this in the carts and kiosks around the Rivers of America and not in the merchandise stores. You might even catch site of them over at the Blue Bayou as you sail by on your way to a pirate adventure. I've seen them there towards the center of the back wall of the restaurant.
Design
Measuring in at approximately 11.5 inches tall with a wing span around 13 inches, this is one formidible chunk of plastic! And quite a handful to manuever when filled with drink. The head lifts off from the shoulders for filling with beverages. A straw pokes through the top of the head for easier drinking (and also helps keep that pesky head in place - it likes to go wandering).
The piece is held together by four screws. The ones on the bottom are easiest to locate. Follow down the side seems and you'll easily find them. Screw driver access is to the rear. The upper two screws you'll find by examining the elbow region and then tracing towards the rear. Those wings really get in the way. You'll need to torque on them a little to get access to those screws. With screws removed, the two halves separate easily and allow removal of the inner beverage liner and sealing gasket.
The main Made With Magic components are in the base, along with the battery compartment. However, there are two long ribbon cables, one on each side, that run all the way up to about shoulder level. Those cables are glued on with a strong adhesive. The adhesive was strong enough to pull the wire's insulation off when I pulled them from the plastic figure. Once those are removed, the base unit simply slides out of it's containment groove.
There are ample decals providing reminders that the unit is not water tight and can't be put in the dishwasher nor microwaved. Wouldn't that be exciting?
Materials
The decals on the underneath surface of the base don't give a clue as to the materials used for construction. The body is a rigid plastic. The wings are a more pliable plastic. I'm guessing the liner is polyethylene. And the gasket feels like silicone. That's about all I have to offer.
Electronics
Click the image for an enlargement
The PCB, measures approximately 7/8" x 3" and is secured onto the top of the battery compartment with screws. The battery terminals extend through slots in the PCB and are soldered in place. You'll need a screwdriver AND a soldering iron to free up that board.
There are 4 LEDs, two on the PCB and two on ribbon cables attached to the PCB. The PCB LEDs are about 2 3/8" apart.
One of the pins of the male connector in the unit I bought has an annoying habit of coming out of the connector and not making a full electrical connection. That results in the LED displaying the wrong colors. It's correctable by taking the unit apart and pushing the pin fully into the connector. It's just a bit of an unnecessary hassle. Might be worth applying some hot glue to keep things in place. I did use some hot glue to repair the insulation that came off the wires of the ribbon cable when they were taken out of the plastic figure. I was getting sporatic glitches in the color output until I did that. No doubt, the exposed wires were grounding to something they happened to touch.
The CPU used in Chernabog is the same one used in most of the other Made With Magic devices - the TI 430G2553. Also noted are the familiar boost regulator components.
Connections
Taking a stab at the assignment of the wires in the ribbon cable, I get what's shown in the image to the right. The connectors look like JST connectors with a 2mm pin pitch. And the overall length of the ribbon cables and terminating LED boards is roughly 10".
Powering
The battery compartment holds two AAA batteries. Having noted what looks like the usual boost regulator components used in most of the other contemporary MWM devices, the board was tested at 1.2V and 5V and ran fine at both voltages. Current draw measurements when not displaying any color and when sending solid white were: 2.9 mA and 230 mA.
Stored codes
These are the codes emitted by Chernabog in standalone mode (hexidecimal notation):
99 42 00 00 48 00 0C ?? D0 0E 80 CK
99 42 00 00 48 00 0C ?? D0 0E FF CK
99 42 00 00 48 14 0C ?? D0 0E FF CK
99 42 00 00 48 15 0C ?? D0 0E 80 CK
99 42 00 00 48 16 0C ?? D0 0E FF CK
99 42 00 00 48 17 0C ?? D0 0E FF CK
99 42 00 00 48 18 0C ?? D0 0E 80 CK
Hacks
Purchasing options
- Disneyland Park: Check the food serving kiosks around Rivers of America and Blue Bayou. Being a Sipper Cup, this is categorized as a Food & Beverage item and isn't found inside the usual merchandise stores.
- Not available through any of Disney's online stores nor by calling their park merchandise line: 877-560-6477
- Ebay: These do show up there from time to time - usually at a multiple of the original price!
Friends in LA: If you have friendlies that live nearby, maybe you can persuade them to buy one for you and drop it in the mail?