Anyone hacked the Gemmy Singing Pumpkin, "Jive'n Jack"?

[Shan-Man]

Saw this on Target's website:

Was wondering if anybody had taken a peek inside it, and how hard it might be to make LOR-controllable. There is a video of it in action on the site, singing to a cheesy cover of Thriller. It looks like there are potentially 6 channels used: top lip, small mouth, large mouth, oh mouth, eye, eyelid and nose. It might be workable with as few as 3 channels (two smiles and an oh) if you leave the eyes and nose always on. Anyway, I'd love to hear if anyone has looked into it, before I plunk down my $30! I'll certainly be on the watch for them in clearance!

[dknahoolewa]

Nice find.

Who's going to be the first to hack it?

Can't be that hard and even at $30 is not a bad price. I'll wait for the sale then try.

[TJ Hvasta]

It actually looks pretty well syned.. a few mismatched lip to words, but mostly correct. I tried to ID individual bulbs during the song.. looks just like a micro incand version of what we do with ropelight. $30/ea.. I guess, if you buy 4 or 5, it can get pricey but otherwise would look good singing on a porch railing. Buy one, cut out the back, look how the lights are powered..

Store Finder, says there are like 12 stores within 18 mi that have these in stock. If they were larger, I'd prob get a couple..

Edited September 14, 2012 by TJ Hvasta

[rwertz]

That's cool.

[Shan-Man]

It appears KMart has the same item branded "totally ghoul" for just $22. Think I'll pick one up this weekend!

http://www.kmart.com/totally-ghoul-singing-pumpkin/p-009W004315282001P?prdNo=8&blockNo=8&blockType=G8#desc&mv=facebook

[Shan-Man]

I went to Target today and saw this guy in person. Not too impressed. First, the pumpkin is pretty flat, like the face and back have been squashed, its probably only half as deep as it is wide. Also, the LEDs are very diffused by the face. It appears (from the outside only) that the LEDs are probably mounted to a board inside the pumpkin. I assume that if they are on a board, it might be harder to hack. Also realized that it runs on 4 AA batteries, so power should be easy. I'll know more tomorrow evening after I get out to KMart and cut one open. I'm hoping that I can position the board closer to the face to get the LEDs a bit crisper. I'm betting a LOT of these will hang around until clearance since it is not obvious that there is anything special about these $30 flat pumpkins, until you hit the "try me" button.