This file is one of the Wolfstone archives of the Halloween mailing lists. You can find out more, and reach the entire collection here: http://www.pobox.com/~wolfstone/_r/HalloweenArchive.html This particular archive deals with "animation" topics. This includes: o hacking up toys and other decorations o Douglas Fir It does NOT include related topics: o motors, fans, and pumps o automation - - - - - Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 02:03:22 -0500 From: Leon Stankowski Subject: Re: HALL: Computer Controlled Haunt INfo Hi Rus, Thanks for sharing. I don't know how big or type of gargoyles your creating but the following may be interesting to you. I am planning on animating some smaller stuffed latex gargoyles. It's easy to cut open the bottom and pull out the stuffing leaving a fairly flexible latex figure. I was originally planning on using a pair of servos to turn and adjust the inclanation of the head but on further consideration I decided that I don't need that fine a control over their positioning so instead I will be using some really cheap (free in my case - surplus from another project) hobby motors and use the limited flexibility of the latex and timing measurements to control psuedo positioning. Should keep the technology cost way, way down. BTW - My cheap source for new servos is from: ΚΚΚΚΚΚ http://www.emsjomar.com - - - - - Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 17:18:50 -0600 From: "Edwin Wise" Subject: Re: HALL: Holding down the fort On 3/11/99, at 4:32 PM, Ekker at aol.com wrote: > >I have been searching for more information on servo control, but I have not >found any thing new. I did stumble on some site about toys that I had as a >kid (Vertibird, Major Matt Mason ) but that would be off-topic. Okay, here are some web links to illuminate the subject... A good rundown of R/C servos, the signal used to control them, and how to modify them for continuous rotation (which you probably don't need) can be found here: http://www.rdrop.com/~marvin/explore/servhack.htm One note, he uses a servo signal with a 1.25 to 1.75 mS width; different servos use different signal ranges. I've used 1.00 to 2.00 with a 1.50 mS neutral to good effect (all this is adjusted by fiddling with resistor values in the circuit below...) Ron Woodward has a simple 555 Timer circuit to control an R/C Servo: http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/RonOuul/electronicnotebook.html The point where the pulse width is determined is in the variable 100K resistor in series with the 56K resistor... which feeds the diode, the 3.3Meg resistor, and pin 7... this is where the variable voltage would come into play for automatic control (I believe). What is needed is a filter circuit (and possible a pre-amplifier) to smooth the audio signal and give you the control voltage you need. This in turn could be trimmed and/or biased with a potentiometer.... the thing to do is to find some basic electronics texts and/or websites (I have lots of books, so I don't mark the basic web pages) and read about resistor- capacitor circuits... I don't know if this is truly relevant, but here is a circuit that will output an audio level... http://www.4qd.co.uk/ccts/avu.html I hope these links help some... I'm still a bit too swamped to work out custom circuits here... argh... - - - - - From: "Ron Tye" Subject: Re: HALL: Re: Skel How-To Page - Bucky's not too heavy Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 09:41:32 PDT Hi Karl, Here's the address for hobbyshack's servo page etc. cs-600 jumbo fet $45 http://www.hobbyshack.com/gallery/444281.htm http://www.hobbyshack.com/prodinfo/cirrus/cirrus.htm http://www.hobbyshack.com/products/servoa.htm - - - - - From: C40179 at aol.com Date: Mon, 31 May 1999 03:20:23 EDT Subject: Re: HALL: Hall: NEED HELP ON ELECTRONICS/Mechanics I've seen this question pop-up alot in the Animatronics-L that i'm in and in emails and never really Could find a decent book that really covers animatronics beginning to end etc. The best i've ever been able to do is point out various sites on the net and tell people to click on All of'em and eventually you get the equvilent amount of information that you'd get in a full sized book. If you go to my links-page (again) at . . . http://members.aol.com/c40179 you can scroll down a little ways in the first group of links to "a little motor info" and "servo info" etc. and there are a few Good sites that give you details on dealing with (and modifying) servos and motors etc. If you scroll down tooo . . . "animatronics (general info - sites of interest)"Κ there's a few sites including the T.O.P pages which cover seomthing about dealing with cables etc. but I forget what else. There's also the Bucknell "Eye of the beast" and Jack Buffington sites about 10 links down which have nice detailed how-to sections. hmph . . .y'know ... I guess I'll throw in a list of links I got in netscape waiting to go to the links-page the next time i get the time to do an update. (I havn't seen any of these recently so I hope they're useful) http://www.effectstudio.com/howto/howto.html http://www.advancedanimations.com/Main/Menu/Create/Create2.htm http://www.dahlonega.pair.com/fxboard/index.cgi http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/8877/yoda_project.html http://www.henson.com/creatures/creatures_howdone_body.htm http://holly.colostate.edu/~tholt/proto.html http://holly.colostate.edu/~tholt/animatronic.html http://www.ccnet.com/~lcanders/Κ AWWwww . .that's moving (and the sites shifting wround . . oh well . .keep your eye on it) there I think those work good internettin :) Chris Hillman Animatronics guy (In Progress) http://members.aoo.com/robotweb c40179 at aol.com ps . . (I checked through the links a little and realized one useful word of advice to anyone making a site . .DON'T FrEaKiN MOVE ANything !!! . .if you DO have to move a page leave a little 1-byte page with a line that says "hi there . .this page is over "there" now" so if someone linked to it they can still find stuff :) - - - - - From: ScottM2251 at aol.com Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 08:16:28 EDT Subject: HALL: Pruning Douglas Firs In a message dated Mon, 19 Jul 1999 11:34:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Nightlyre writes: SNIP > > I recall seeing instructions for pruning the Firs on someone's > website... It was made into a gargoyle face. If anyone knows the URL of > that site, please post it... I'm pretty sure I know how to go about > de-leafing (de-needling?) one, but experienced advice never hurts! > > --Nightlyre At one time I had written up some instructions for pruning the singing Douglas Fir, but I seem to have lost them. So here is what I remember from my little project (which isn't finished yet): 1. The tree has 2 'trunks'. One is plastic and holds all the motors, eyes, and mouth. The other is wire and holds the branches. The 2 are attached by plastic ties. 2. I decided to remove the wire trunk. Pull back the branches. Snip the plastic ties with wire cutters. You can pull the wire trunk out of the base with a good tug. 3. The rest of the greenery will be glued and wrapped around the mouth and eyes. Untwist the unglued wire branches from around the mouth and eyes. 4. For removing the glued branches from the mouth and eyes, a pair of needle nose pliers helps. Find the end of one of the glued branches. Grasp it with the tip of the pliers. Then twist the pliers, rolling the wire branch around the pliers as you go. Imagine opening the lid of a sardine can and you'll get the right idea. If you simply tug on the glued branches, you'll break the plastic parts. 5. Clean up the remaining glue and plastic 'needles' with careful hands and a sharp utility knife. I have yet to do anything with my pruned tree. I'll let you all know when I have something to report. - - - - - Subject: Re: Hall: Haunted Forest Idea #2 From: Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2001 22:13:30 EDT I was listening to some Bernard Hermann scores last night... (the = perfect music for brainstorming haunts, let me clue you) When I put on the CD for "White Witch-Doctor", I found I had to put the track called "the = tarantula" on repeat.... I kept thinking of a huge spider, the size of garden tractor, sitting = at a bend in the path. Huge, fuzzy, highly realistic, but unmoving, it seems = to have been set in such a way as to be watching the groups approach. Because = it's so still, everyone assumes that it's just a decoration... I'm thinking of building it on an old lawn mower platform, so that the = operator (hidden behind camo netting or the like) can make it sudedenly = rear up. I've seen this behavior in spiders on Discovery Channel and Animal = Planet programs. The legs would be hinged in such a way that the sudden motion = would throw them back into a defensive posture. Suddenly, this spider would be taller than the people in the group are, it's legs clawing at the air.... Frankly, I think I'd crap my pants... - - - - - Subject: Re: Sith Droid From: "Thee ScareCrow" Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 14:41:51 -0700 (PDT) And for those of you who would like to see the Sith Droid now: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000IWG2/mifair I purchased one awhile back and my intentions are to slip a latex mask over the sphere/droid and allow it to do it's search and destroy. Although, it does make a weird droid-like noise, so I'll need to give it a vasectomy. --- comevisitus at nightmareonwestwood.com wrote: > I was in my local Toys-R-Us yesterday and found > these toys that were > originally $40 marked on clearance to $4.90. > Anyways, they are called "Star > Wars Sith Droid Attack Game". Basically it is a 3 > foot pole with a large > circular motorized device on top (must be a 'Sith > Droid' I would imaging), > it rotates on its own 360 degrees, and fires 12 foam > discs. > > It comes with a lightsaber and when the button is > pressed it sends out an > infra-red signal to the droid (it links the droid to > the signal of the > lightsaber). The droid spins randomly (not very > fast) and locks on to the > signal of the lightsaber. Then it fires a foam > disc. > > Anyways, originally I was thinking about putting a > styrofoam head w/ mask > atop the toy and use the lightsaber to make the > heads move. What do you all > think? Should I just disect it and take the motor > out or are there other > things I could do with this? I bought 4 of them (I > figured for $4.90 I > couldn't go wrong...) - - - - - Subject: Re: Happy motoring? Was "round peg in a square hole" From: "Dougeebear" Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2001 23:38:41 -0700 Had to search a bit for this link, but it's worth it since they've really done a lot with their site! The Flying Pig in London sells a lot of crank-driven toys. They've added a Mechanism section to their website = which includes wonderful animations on many different types of cranks and flywheels and other mechanical methods to transfer the circular motion of = a motor (or crank, in their case) in any direction you might want. http://www.flying-pig.co.uk/index.html - - - - - Subject: Re: Re: Happy motoring? Was "round peg in a square hole" From: "Mr. Gore" Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2001 07:48:28 -0500 I actually have an artist friend that builds little moving sculptures of metal and wood using antique pictures of people based on the same crank principles. They look very old and unique. For example he took a picture of a little boy and gave him beak that when you turn the crank his beak would open and close. GORE GALORE and so much more Kevin R. Alvey AKA Mr. Gore phone 812-424-5220 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dougeebear" To: "Halloween List" Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2001 1:38 AM Subject: Hall: Re: Happy motoring? Was "round peg in a square hole" > Had to search a bit for this link, but it's worth it since they've = really > done a lot with their site! The Flying Pig in London sells a lot of > crank-driven toys. They've added a Mechanism section to their website which > includes wonderful animations on many different types of cranks and > flywheels and other mechanical methods to transfer the circular motion = of a > motor (or crank, in their case) in any direction you might want. > > http://www.flying-pig.co.uk/index.html - - - - - Subject: RE: Animatronics, controllers, sound, and such From: Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2001 19:23:57 +0000 Hello all! NeAlien here... (aka Phantom13, aka Neal "The HALL Lurker" Furgurson!) I'm not really a big animatronics guy, but what I do have, I have paid almost nothing for! ;) If it ain't cheap, it ain't in my haunt! ha ha ha. I use a little of everything right now. Some motion activated, some using a home made electric switch box attached to extension cords, some with simple black string and pulleys (this one always gets them... HOW Did you make that skeleton move like that !?). I tried making a FCG last year but was too cheap to go buy the right motor and ended up with a pile of junk. This year I may try again with a BBQ grill motor. One of my favorites is a "ballon vampire" that is powered by an old vacuum motor housed in a coffee can so the air flow only goes up. The thing scares the heck out of the TOTs because it's LOUD. VRRMMMMM!! I put it near the walkway, and when the go by, I hit the switch from my "control area" around the side of the house. Anyhoo... just thought I'd come out of lurk mode for a bit. I am trying to get through all my HALL digests that have been piling up. Bye. ~ Phantom13/NeAlien --=3D=3D If it seems weird to you, think what it looks like to NORMAL people! =3D=3D-- - - - - - Subject: SNAKE From: "Carl Chetta" Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2001 07:58:10 +0000 Hi Dawn, The light goes on first, tail shake, hissing strike then all resets back = to await for the next victim. The Tail rattles when you approach the cage, then the head shoots out = from behind the plant hitting the cage then bursts of moist air shoots out and = it blasts you with air while it makes this nasty hissing sound! All in about = 3 seconds. I used screen door cylinders to make this one. also a coat hanger wire goes through the floor into the tail and a moter is attached with a counter weight to make the tail shake, it sounds so real too because there are beads in the tail. This prop will be at my 2001 Haunt. List members Larry Lund and Bill M. have seen it in action. Replying To: Carl, Nice photos. The one that looks like a snake in a cage? What does this = one do? It looks like you may be "shooting" air out from the plant, is the correct? Does the snake move? thanks Dawn Carl Chetta www.easternanimatronics.com (photos) www.easternanimatronics.com/Carl - - - - - Subject: Re: Hall: BIG MOUTH BILLY BONES- Go here From: "Sue McDonald" Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2001 11:58:55 -0700 Go here http://www.ai.mit.edu/~vona/bass/bass.html patty a nuth wrote: > > Anyone disassemble this to make it into something more interesting? It > is a motion activated fish[bones only ] which move its tail, head and > mouth on a plastic mount that reads RIP.[ I hate fish].It sings BAD TO > THE BONE.I got it for 1 dollar at toys are us post halloween last year. > HELP! I NEED SOME INSPIRATION TO MAKE IT INTO SOMETHING REALLY NEAT! I > was thinking of using model magic to cover the mouth parts- leaving the > original workings of the mouth alone.I could surely use some ideas from > all you talented creators out there!!! Thanks - - - - - Subject: Re: Howl - another ebay prop From: "Jack of Shadows" Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2001 09:02:13 -0700 The bad, wicked, naughty Toadling taunted us with: >If you're looking for a seance or haunted house prop - check out ebay = item >1176177901 (hope the auction hasn't ended) - it's an 'automated' ouija >board. Which turned out to be a sports trading card. :-) Then Keeba, Diva of Darkness, rescued us with: >try this one: >http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3D1176177905 Love Keeba, worship Keeba, buy Toadling a new keyboard. Just so that future generations lurking the archives will know what's going on, I'll include the interesting bits form that auction. Animatronic Ouija Board Item # 1176177905 Collectibles:Cultures & Religions:Religions, Spirituality:Metaphysical Currently $59.95 - Buy It Now for $75.00 Seller (Rating) skullmaker (84) - Anaheim, CA Description: This is an Animatronic Ouija Board with a hardwood base. The board face sits on a hardwood base. You put the Oracle on the board face and it begins to move seemingly by itself in a circular motion. 110vac cord included. Perfect for seances, haunted houses, parties,etc... Full sized Ouija Board and Oracle mounted on a 2" finished hardwood base. PayPal, MO or Check accepted (personal checks wait 10days). Buyer pays shipping. A photo is included, showing a stock-looking Ouija board. - - - - - Subject: Re: Hall: BIG MOUTH BILLY BONES- Go here From: "patty a nuth" Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 07:44:41 -0400 They get into very complicated[for me] changes. I'm just a simple gal- a biology major you know- I don't want to change the workings- it can still sing BAD TO THE BONE- just not be a fish!! He needs to be something??? else. I can probably mold crayola cmpd over him, but I wondered if anyone had actually done something with one of these contraptions. He actually has very useful parts, a motion detector, speaker and 3 moving pivots?arms- a mouth and where the 2 parts of the body moved. These are on 1 motor and the mouth is on another.Oh well, let me know if you've reassembled 1 of these. thanks On Sun, 12 Aug 2001 11:58:55 -0700 Sue McDonald writes: > Go here http://www.ai.mit.edu/~vona/bass/bass.html > > patty a nuth wrote: > > > > Anyone disassemble this to make it into something more > interesting? It > > is a motion activated fish[bones only ] which move its tail, head > and > > mouth on a plastic mount that reads RIP.[ I hate fish].It sings > BAD TO > > THE BONE.I got it for 1 dollar at toys are us post halloween last > year. > > HELP! I NEED SOME INSPIRATION TO MAKE IT INTO SOMETHING REALLY > NEAT! I > > was thinking of using model magic to cover the mouth parts- > leaving the > > original workings of the mouth alone.I could surely use some ideas > from > > all you talented creators out there!!! Thanks - - - - - Subject: Re: Hall: BIG MOUTH BILLY BONES- Go here From: "Gene E Butterfield" Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 07:56:54 -0500 A quick and easy trick that I had done for someones retirement using the billy bass workings was to construct a physco squirrel (the guy hated squirrels) using a squirrel hand puppet from some nature store for a covering. The moving mouth mechanism fitted easily into the puppet skin = so the mouth still sang to the music. Take the fish apart as shown on the bass hack website and you can disassemble the motor assemblies that = control the motion (2 or 3 motors depending on the style) and modify the mounting framework fairly easy to get whatever action you desire. I had it = standing on the plaque in such a way that it would turn to look at someone and twitch it's tail during the song. If nothing else you can scrap the fish and the other designs out for the motors and parts when they hit the clearance aisles for a real cheap = price. - - - - - Subject: Re: Hall: talking Boris ideas From: "Scott Renfield" Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 08:57:13 -0600 A prop that I came up with last year at the last minute (noon on the 31st) = used one of those five-foot blown plastic skeletons and a talking Boris skull. I pulled the base off of the Boris, wrapped about 3" of a 2-foot piece of 1/2" rebar with masking tape, and jammed it into the square hole that the base fitted into. I removed the skull from the skeleton, cut off = the knob that the skull attaches to, made a slit in the back of the = skeleton and poked the skull's rebar down through the neck hole and out the back. = I then placed a mic stand (no clip) behind it and slid the rebar into the hollow tube of stand. Since I didn't want to try painting the chrome = stand, I just wrapped it in black electrical tape. I put a black plastic box (about 12" x 8" x 5" deep) upside down under his = feet as a platform, and after drilling several holes in the outer side, stuck a speaker under it. I then ran the "bone mic" down under the box as = well to pick up the sound I planned to feed to it. Using a mic stand allowed me to adjust him to just the right height. I also taped his feet down with electrical tape, and then covered the part over his feet with masking tape, so that it would blend in. I ran the speaker line back to my amplifier and tape deck, and fed it the track I had recorded earlier - a loop of myself intoning confidence-inspiring statements like "Prepare to meet your doom!", "Who dares to disturb me?" and the ever popular "Bwaaahaahaahaa!" I lowered = the speed slightly to drop the pitch down a little and also added a ton of reverb. The "bone mic" picked up the signal nicely and synched the jaw movement to = the audio. I had to drive it fairly hot to trigger Boris, but that = covered up the crappy audio from the Boris speaker. I finished him off with a black cape/red lining, and he was good to go. = Not bad for a last minute idea, eh? - - - - -