Ponddude Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Well I am not one to brag usually....YEA RIGHT!...but I thought I would show off my major addition to my display this year.Here are his stats...8ft 2in tall - with hat4ft wide4 robot heavy duty servos1 DIO boardNow you all know why I was pushing for the DIO board to be released!!Video quality isn't great, but I took it with my iPhone. Better videos/pictures coming. There is one servo that wasn't attached and that goes on his belly to make him dance.I actually can't take all the credit for him. Mark Z, from Lights on Display made one of these last year. I saw it an immediately knew I had to have it. The frame is from Valerie and the rest of the work I did. Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rstately Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 That Is Awesome!I am still waiting for my servodog, but I would love to build something like that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cenote Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Don't leave leave us hanging, we need to see guts, wiring, controller, etc...Looks great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 that is great, can't wait to see it this year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted October 21, 2009 Author Share Posted October 21, 2009 Ask and ye' shall receive...Here are his head guts:Here is a bad shot of the robot gear servo:Here is the whole thing:Here is the wireless receiver and the DIO board. The wireless button will be located around the display for people to push. They will either allow the snowman to talk directly to you or to control some aspect of the lights. Again, all wirelessly. This whole unit (DIO board mounts nicely in a PC controller case) will be mounted inside the snowman.Here the the actual wireless transmitter...exploded. The buttons will plug into the side of this and when they are pushed, send a signal to the receiver by the DIO board, thus triggering something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rstately Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 How do I make the pictures bigger? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted October 21, 2009 Author Share Posted October 21, 2009 Sorry about that...post should be fixed now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Greg, that is just unfricken-believable. What a great device! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Mitchell Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 Terrific, fabulous, magnifico!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed P Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 I predict I will be driving up to Pompton Plains to see this for myself come the Holiday Season.Looks really cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speakefamily Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 I really love that snow man. Very nice job.Harold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J_Plak Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 [align=center]I what One [/align]This is Awesome,cool, unfricken-believable, Terrific, fabulous, magnifico!!!What can I say!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cenote Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 J_Plak wrote: [align=center]I what One [/align]This is Awesome,cool, unfricken-believable, Terrific, fabulous, magnifico!!!What can I say!!!!What he said... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted October 22, 2009 Author Share Posted October 22, 2009 Haha...thanks everyone. I am very happy with the way he turned out.Ed, let me know if you come up to see the show, I would love to show you around.Here is a much better video of the whole song in action and HD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff 1S.A.H.D. Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 Looks good , was it hard to do.reminds me of the one that I got a Walmart three years agohttp://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/5-foot-animated-singing-dancing-snowmanthey replace it with the Santahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xxXDaLay7A&feature=PlayList&p=8C81D64DCB94538F&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1Still good job Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cenote Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 Jeff 1S.A.H.D. wrote: they replace it with the Santahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xxXDaLay7A&feature=PlayList&p=8C81D64DCB94538F&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1Thought santa was going to fall over, pretty neat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted October 22, 2009 Author Share Posted October 22, 2009 Building the snowman wasn't hard, it was just time consuming. I have about 3 months of work into him. The delay in the DIO card didn't help matters because I had to guess on how the servos were going to work without being able to control him. Needless to say, there was work involved when I got the DIO board.I was actually going to get one of those snowmen on eBay and hack him. However, they really aren't tall enough to fit in with my display. Everything around this snowman is huge; mega trees, mini mega trees. I decided to make my own and got the frame from Val. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rstately Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 I think if you were going to make a santa, it would be better to buy one and cannibalize it. Unless you know how to make prosthetics, The face would be difficult to make and probably look "scary". I would want to make my own snowman because I could choose the size.and it would be fun to do.Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 rstately wrote:I think if you were going to make a santa, it would be better to buy one and cannibalize it. Unless you know how to make prosthetics, The face would be difficult to make and probably look "scary". I would want to make my own snowman because I could choose the size.and it would be fun to do.Virtually all mechanical santas are 'scary' to me. Not sure why, but the snowman seems a lot easier to pull off without looking freaky. Maybe it's because a talking snowman is already freaky, but we're culturally accustomed to that already I, too saw Mike Z's snowman and wanted to pull something like that off, but didn't get anywhere past the "want" stage. Very nice work here Greg! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 One other question:So you're using a DIO board for this, and not a ServoDog? I'm pretty stupid when it comes to electromechanical stuff -- can you discuss the differences and why you went with that option?Thanks,-Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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