The use of Animation Objects

[megmedic]

I have a general question about the use of Animation objects..  I have been using LOR since 2019 and been slowing increasing the show every year.  This year I will be adding a third controller and looking like about 2 more animation objects.  I do shows for Halloween and Christmas, using lights and animation objects for Halloween and just lights (Non RGB) for Christmas.  Currently I have 3 animation objects that I use for Halloween and to activate them I use strobe lights connected to a controller to active them.  My question here would be is there a better way or a way that I can connect these animation objects directly to the controller and if so how??    I have attached one of my files that I have produced so you can see what I'm talking about...  If you want to see more you can go to my YOUTUBE page 9423 Dancing Lights...  Thanks for your input....

 

 

[k6ccc]

I want to make sure I know what you mean by "animation objects" as it relates to (I assume) AC controllers.  By that do you mean props that have different parts of the prop light up to simulate motion (singing faces for example)?  I watched your video up to about a minute and so no indication of that type of prop.  If that is what you're talking about, simply connect each string that makes up some portion of the prop to a channel on a controller.

If that is not what you are talking about, please explain better, or tell what and where and when in the video to look for it.

 

[megmedic]

Jim,

Sorry I wasn't very specific about this and as I was rereading this post I realized that I didn't clarify what I was getting at LOL..  So in the video above you can see to the right there is a 3 headed dog that lights up and moves then it also sprays fog..  Below I have attached another animatronic that I call a soul sucker.  and I have yet another one that I don't have a video of just yet but these are what I'm referring to...  By using a strobe light connected to the the system it works but at times its a hit and miss...  I was just wondering if there was a better way to connect these to the show..

 

 

[megmedic]

I was just browsing the LightoRama site and found this:  "Servo Dog"  Can I use this to control my animatronics?  If so, do I need to have one for each animatronic or can one control multiple animatronics?

[k6ccc]

Assuming that you are using servos to create the motions, that is exactly what the ServoDog was designed for.  The ServoDog has eight outputs, so it can control eight servos.  Note that the ServoDog can not be used on an Enhanced LOR network, not on a 500K or 1000K speed network.

 

[Orville]

That 3 headed dog, Cerberus, and many of the "Spirit Halloween Store" animatronics work on photocells, so when a persons shadow falls on it (photocell goes dark), it trips the animatronic into action.  You need to remove the photocell and use an AC powered relay and a good motion sensor for turning on the animatronic via a standard AC controller, motion sensor would be connected through one set of the controllers external input pins and a specific sequence created to make it work.

I'm not sure I am explaining this very well, hopefully someone that has set up external motion sensors or done something like this will be able to explain this better than I can.  But you should be able to control those animatronic characters with a basic CTB16PC controller, but the animatronic will require some modification in doing so.

Edited June 20, 2023 by Orville