Animatronics

[jerrymac]

Although not LOR lots of folks do animate skeleton heads and other idea's (Elfvis etc.).

I ran into this on a halloween board. Here is a great setup from a guy in Onterio. On you tube are some video's of the hardware and setup.

youtube link

[rstately]

They came from here, I would like to have one to control with a servodog...

http://www.graveyardskulls.com/

[Guest guest]

Hmmm, I wonder if anyone has ever "modified" one of those CHEAP ($59-$89 Wal-Mart) 5' Animated Dancing & Singing Skeletons to be controlled by a LOR product?



I've got two of them, one no longer works and would make for a good project for conversion if I had a clue as to where to start!

[evan.a]

Orville wrote:

Hmmm, I wonder if anyone has ever "modified" one of those CHEAP ($59-$89 Wal-Mart) 5' Animated Dancing & Singing Skeletons to be controlled by a LOR product?



I've got two of them, one no longer works and would make for a good project for conversion if I had a clue as to where to start!

Jell did... awhile ago


http://forums.lightorama.com/view_topic.php?id=17673&forum_id=83&highlight=skulls

[Guest guest]

evan.a wrote:

Orville wrote:

Hmmm, I wonder if anyone has ever "modified" one of those CHEAP ($59-$89 Wal-Mart) 5' Animated Dancing & Singing Skeletons to be controlled by a LOR product?



I've got two of them, one no longer works and would make for a good project for conversion if I had a clue as to where to start!

Jell did... awhile ago


http://forums.lightorama.com/view_topic.php?id=17673&forum_id=83&highlight=skulls

Those ARE NOT the same. Those were skulls that were mounted in a Candy Dish, what I have is a full bodied animotronic figurine, the skulls mouths open/close, head moves back and forth and the eyes are RED L.E.D.'s.



Not even sure if these would even be wired the same as the talking skulls in the candy dish used incandescent bulbs to light the eyes and didn'ty move left-right-left, they were stationary except for the mouth and eye movements.

[FireMedic4Christ]

Is it sound activated or does it have a routine that it runs through? If it is sound activated, you could hack it and control via LOR without too much trouble. I would think the other could be done as well, just would take more effort to figure out how it works.

Google "slim santa hack" or "dougie tree hack" to find examples and instructions. Sorry no link, tried but could not get it to post correctly.

Brian

Orville wrote:

Hmmm, I wonder if anyone has ever "modified" one of those CHEAP ($59-$89 Wal-Mart) 5' Animated Dancing & Singing Skeletons to be controlled by a LOR product?

I've got two of them, one no longer works and would make for a good project for conversion if I had a clue as to where to start!

Jell did... awhile ago

http://forums.lightorama.com/view_topic.php?id=17673&forum_id=83&highlight=skulls


Those ARE NOT the same. Those were skulls that were mounted in a Candy Dish, what I have is a full bodied animotronic figurine, the skulls mouths open/close, head moves back and forth and the eyes are RED L.E.D.'s.

Not even sure if these would even be wired the same as the talking skulls in the candy dish used incandescent bulbs to light the eyes and didn'ty move left-right-left, they were stationary except for the mouth and eye movements.

[Guest guest]

They are motion activated by a CdS censor in the base or they can be connected via a 1/8" to 1/8" sound cable to a sound system. When connected to a sound system (like a computer playing MP3 files) the dancing mechanism is disabled, but the head still turns, eyes (L.E.D.'s) flash and mouth opens and closes, but the mouth movement seems to be triggered by the BASS in the music from what I can figure out. The RED L.E.D. eyes are in some way connected to the jaw(mouth) movment, as when the nouth opens/closes is when they flash. Just by moving the mouth and no power connected (pullig it open/closed) the L.E.D. eyes will flash.

When the CdS sensor is used, they do run a specific routine, and sing a "randomly" selected song and also dance (more like sway back and forth harshly).

They also have a built in speaker in their chest which I would want to use as their sound output when either singing, talking or doing a voice-over.

I've actually removed the control board(went defective) from one of them and know which wires (connectors with only 2 wires attached) control the head movements, jaw movements, dancing movements and connect the speaker. So I guess I just need to add several relays to the movement points in the same way the fog machines are done with LOR, but not sure if, or how that would work for trying to get the mouth movement to work with a song in the LOR Sequencer.

Although I'd like to figure a way to slow the head turning movements down instead of the break-neck speed it operates at or operated at when its control board was still functional.



FireMedic4Christ wrote:

Is it sound activated or does it have a routine that it runs through? If it is sound activated, you could hack it and control via LOR without too much trouble. I would think the other could be done as well, just would take more effort to figure out how it works.

Google "slim santa hack" or "dougie tree hack" to find examples and instructions. Sorry no link, tried but could not get it to post correctly.

Brian

Orville wrote:

Hmmm, I wonder if anyone has ever "modified" one of those CHEAP ($59-$89 Wal-Mart) 5' Animated Dancing & Singing Skeletons to be controlled by a LOR product?

I've got two of them, one no longer works and would make for a good project for conversion if I had a clue as to where to start!

[bisquit476]

http://www.monkeybasic.com/

[FireMedic4Christ]

If you could figure out how much power is required for each movement, you could use an appropriate wall wart and plug directly into LOR. I have a box full for instances like this. Someone else will have to reply reguarding relays as I do not have any experience with them. In my world it often comes down to money and I have access to lots of free wall warts. I may have to break down on the skull because I really want one.

Be sure to post your results.

Brian



Orville wrote:

I've actually removed the control board(went defective) from one of them and know which wires (connectors with only 2 wires attached) control the head movements, jaw movements, dancing movements and connect the speaker. So I guess I just need to add several relays to the movement points in the same way the fog machines are done with LOR, but not sure if, or how that would work for trying to get the mouth movement to work with a song in the LOR Sequencer.

Although I'd like to figure a way to slow the head turning movements down instead of the break-neck speed it operates at or operated at when its control board was still functional.