Doggie - 2011 Halloween project

Ragtop

Last year I created a Killzone for Wayne's World of Paintball's Haunted trail that they do to raise money for Toys for Tots.

This year I am going with "simpler" shock and awe. A man eating dog popper controlled by a propeller chip.

It will use a laser/photoresister tripline to start the routine which is:
1) LED eyes come on
2) 12v motor turns pushing head out
3) MP3 trigger board starts audio barking file
4) Canon Digital takes photo
5) Jaw and head tilt servos activate
6) 12v motor turns pulling head back in.
7) LED eyes go off as it waits for next victim.

Some of the work in process videos:

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http://cgi.ebay.com/500-Watt-2-Ch-Motorcycle-Stereo-Amplifier-Amp-New-/170504395733?pt=Car_Amplifiers&hash=item27b2da9bd5#ht_3490wt_1159

I purchased this 12V amp off ebay and I HIGHLY DON'T recommend it. I wasn't expecting a lot out of the amp, but was hoping it might be a way to run the whole system off the 12v battery without having to run off a generator. Location is a field.....

The amp didn't really do much and the usb port that I was hoping to run the mircocontroller off of quit working within days.

piguy101

Well your project looks interesting so far.

Ragtop

Thank you, I have been frustrated with it all day, as I trying to change the power supply for everything.

CircuitMage

This is just the sort of post I was looking for lately. Thanks for posting.

I am not sure how you can say you have no mechanical skills in the picture, with what you are putting together.

And, I cannot see the video from work, so how did you make the head? Is that paper-mache? And how did you make the teeth?

Lots of different skills shown off in this project, nice.

Ragtop

I modeled the head using paper-mache. I then tried to make a mold using silicon chalking but it didn't really work. Got the head out of the mold but had to destroy the mold in the process. I eventually bit the bullet and bought the real mold making material which I used for the lower jaw and teeth. The teeth were modeled using artist clay.

The head is a two-part plastic resin that I got off Ebay. Cures fast and really hard.

Ragtop

I am working on syncing the jaw movements to the audio file. I have an audio editor that lets me look at the wave form in 1,000s of a second. So I was hoping to use a repeat while loop with 1/1000 second waitcnt and a case statement that would change servo position according to the count.

I ended up having to use waitcnt(clkfreq/1500 + cnt) so routine length was same as audio file.

routine := 0
                   
           repeat while routine < 5568          'servo mouth and head action
             routine++
             waitcnt(clkfreq/1500 + cnt) 'divided sound file into hundreds of a second to sync
             case routine
                  2: outa[barking] := 0
                279: mouthposition:= open
                537: mouthposition:= closed
                     TakePicture
                558: mouthposition:= halfway
                788: mouthposition:= closed                      
               1006: headposition := 190         'tilt head
               1119: mouthposition:= open
               1358: mouthposition:= closed
               1430: mouthposition:= open
               1628: mouthposition:= closed 
               1657: mouthposition:= halfway
               1891: mouthposition:= closed
               2004: mouthposition:= halfway
               2336: mouthposition:= open
               2489: mouthposition:= closed
               2614: mouthposition:= open
               2921: mouthposition:= closed
                     headposition := 90          'tilt head
               3293:  mouthposition:= open
               3439: mouthposition:= closed
               3576: mouthposition:= halfway
               3782: mouthposition:= closed
               3972: mouthposition:= halfway
               4913: mouthposition:= open
               5103: mouthposition:= closed
               5212: mouthposition:= open
               5439: mouthposition:= closed
               
           mouthposition := halfway

octanetripledax

A way to move the mouth in time with the sounds that would be less painstaking to routine (and more accurate) would be to use an external ADC (or the RCTIME thing like the BS2 has, as the prop has no ADC) and measure the amplitude of the sound. That can adjust a variable which opens the mouth wider with a larger amplitude. I did something like this a few months ago for a project, it was a talking head (made of legos!) and it took voice input from the user. It worked pretty well. Plus, if you decide to change the sounds, there is really no extra work involved, as your circuit does it for you. Sorry I don't have documentation on it... it was in 8th grade and I didn't really think to do that though:(

Nice project, BTW. How much more work do you estimate needs to be done until completion?

Ragtop

Doh! Why didn't I think of that?

It is pretty close. I have a problem with a servo linkage arm that keeps popping off. It is suppose to tilt the head side to side. And I have to figure out why I am getting so much feedback from a dual amp set-up.

It is going to have a frame in front of it holding up a red paint stained plastic sheet that the head will pop out through.

CircuitMage

Still following this thread. Good stuff.

Please continue updates and comments.

Octane: You used a BS and ADC and you were in the 8th grade?.....reallly?....

bsnut

Not a bad job at all on getting sound in sync with the prop. But, I have one suggestion for you.

They have boards that take care of the sync issue and you don't need a microcontroller to handle the servo commands. These boards are call Audio Servo Controllers and you can get them form http://www.audioservocontroller.com . This website was started by a EFX-TEK forum member Jackman, where I post all the time under the same user name.

All the microcontroller needs to do is start the MP3 player. When, the sound starts to play the Audio Servo Controller starts to moving the servo in sync with the sound.

BTW, EFX-TEK.com and the support forums was started by "JonnyMac" aka Jon Williams

Ragtop

Some of the best reactions from trail goers to doggie's attack.

Ragtop

My only on location picture of the doggie in action. I had changed the routine from "popping out, barking, going back in" to going in and out while barking which seemed more aggressive.

Spiral_72

That's great man. I thought of you the other day and made it a point to check your thread for Halloween updates

The first picture is hilarious!! It looks like she nearly jumped out her skin.. HAHA!

Humanoido

Very cool project! When will the beast have the rest of the body? What will you do with it long after Halloween - convert it to a big Santa for Christmas?

Ragtop

The 12v motor was at it's limits with just the head. I actually had to change my plans because it was not reliably pushing the head out. It pulled back with lots of force, so instead of resting the head in the back position, I left it sticking out at rest. It was in a shadow so it couldn't be seen without the spotlight on it. Then I cycled it in and out while barking which actually looked better then my original idea of just popping out, barking, and then pulling back in.

To go with a body, I am going to have to switch to pneumatics.

As far as storage, I am still working on that. The head was originally removable. but I was afraid of it working loose so I went crazy with the gorilla glue.

Humanoido

Ragtop wrote: »

As far as storage, I am still working on that. The head was originally removable. but I was afraid of it working loose so I went crazy with the gorilla glue.

Keep it in the guest bed.