Anyone using a DIO32 board for servo control (talking skulls, etc)

[TJ Hvasta]

I currently use the Lynxmotion SSC32 servo controller, along with Visual Animation Studio (VSA) from BrookshireSoftware.com to run my talking skulls.. I know its reeeeeeally late to switch horses in midstream for my Halloween show, so I'm going to keep what I got for now (14 talking skulls) for Halloween 2011, but I really want to look into the DIO32 for next year's Halloween show.. Corpse Bride.. using the 14 skulls.. Victor, Victoria, Emily and the BoneTones bar band.. :cool:



A quick VSA tutorial - VSA works by using audio amplitude to determine the amount a servo moves based on words, music, etc.. Import the sound file, run the Analyzer, it sets the amount of servo movement in the grid based on volume.. works pretty well. Most difficult thing is remembering to set the servo limits -before- you run the Analyzer so the servo doesn't bottom out.

Other way to work VSA is you click on each and every block in the grid (looks just like S2/S3 grid) and set the servos beginning position at the start of the clicked block, then set the ending position at the end of that block (say 2 sec long, it moves from position 100 to position 360, the next block it moves from position 360 to position 180 and so on.. to make the servo (jaw) move to say the word "car").



As the Lynxmotion SSC32 servo controller is serial port driven (Com3) and the audio file plays the song/music/spoken file, I cant run it and LOR together, on the same machine. Right now I have two computers running in the front guest room, overlooking the yard display. A laptop runs VSA and the skulls.. the desktop computer runs LOR lighting..

Ok, here are my questions..

1) I looked briefly at the DIO Hardware Utility.. saw the servo movement range and understand how the servos will work using it, but no idea how they work with the sequencer, so..

2) How do I tell the servo how much to move? Is there something that will translate a sound (word in an .mp3) into servo movement?

I'm looking in S3 now.. I created a new musical sequence, set a channel to use a Digital IO Card (controller pull down menu) but it looks like the standard light grid, fade up/down, etc.. I cant see anything that resembles setting servo movement limits (or range). Is it something that the DIO board would encode, and display, showing servo movement range? :?

I guess I'm wondering if anyone has a DIO servo board they can loan out so I can see how this works? I wouldn't want to borrow (or rent) it until after New Years at least..

And I'm not real sure about which board I'd need to buy once I decide to go this route.. DIO32? DIO8? Daughterboard? DI-DI-OH!!

teege

[Big Mur]

I'm going in blind as well. I just ordered 2 x DIO32. We have an Arduino programmed for much of our pneumatic heavy lifting stuff, but this year we are going Pirate (Ahhrrrrrrr). 3 Main skeleton pirates and a crew of Buccaneers. I am going LOR all the way as I need total control from one platform and LOR does such a great job with our video and light/music that I am sticking with it.

Here's my thoughts:

I am going to set the jaw movements through a musical sequence.
The musical sequence will be a triggered event (as the kids in our neighbourhood LOVE hitting the big red buttons to set sequences in motion).
The musical track will be an AHHRRR - Pirate tracks for sure and I suspect I will "borrow" some pretty famous tracks. The key, I think, is that I will voice dub the speaking parts as stand alone with my own voice so that I have a perfectly (or near perfect) timed voice track to animate to.
I will use the VU and set various peak threshold time settings (similar to the tutorial in the Forums for mimicking a VU meter effect with several channels. I will do it on dummy channels, but it should give me a pretty good visual reference for the variable intensities. I will then relate those to various servo channel intensities and hopefully get a pretty good jaw movement with a reasonable effort. I am assuming from what I have read that this is how the servo controller will program in S3.

Programming the 3-Axis head movements are still a guess in progress. Maybe we can collaborate on things over the next few months? My ace in the hole is that my younger brother is my employee and he is a superb electronics technician who loves this stuff! I should see the controllers by February and we have begun the skull/skeleton builds.

[TJ Hvasta]

Good luck! I'll have to see how it will work.. as my skulls are 4ch each (3-axis + jaw) and I've got 14 skellys to run, I'll have to do as you are and go with two boards.. If it wont work for this I know I'll be able to resell them here or eBay..

[bfrd22]

I am also going this direction but with the Servodog, but concept is the same, I would be great of LOR would interface with MonkeyBasic! Virtural Haunt would make this so much easier.

[TJ Hvasta]

ok, I have a lot of pirate clips I'm using, including Disney's PotC ride soundtrack plus a bunch I've found online.. lemme know if you need anything specific (or in general)

[TJ Hvasta]

ok, I have a lot of pirate clips I'm using, including Disney's PotC ride soundtrack plus a bunch I've found online.. lemme know if you need anything specific (or in general)