That time of year.....to start planning for Halloween.
Each year Wayne's World of Paintball puts on a Haunted Trail for six nights
to raise money for Toys for Tots. My part of the trail is the junk yard that I am
planning on expanding to 9 creature/events this year.
Comments
This next video focuses on using relays to control motors and how I am progressing on automating the polecat.
Thinking maybe a small swing arm motor. Yep, I am truely a one trick pony.
I thought it would perform better with this small jaw. The servo was originally for the doggies jaw but I had to move up to a bigger servo.
I have a spring in the jaw to help close it when I was doing it by hand. Might
try it without the spring before moving to another motor.
-- Gordon
For sound effects I am using a MP3 trigger board. Each monster has their own sound and this year
I am going to build a speaker control system that I didn't get around to last year that routes each sound
to the monster's speaker.
Last year I ended up using a home theater sound system and piping the sound out to all speakers.
Now she chomps pretty good. Can't make the waitcnt any shorter as it never gets to it's full open and close position before turning around.
He has a lot of other motion going on also which I kinda like. Seems less amatron long as he doesn't shake himself loose.
It also gives me a chance to do what I was putting off........a pin count.
Hard to tell without a load, but it might be more efficient then the swing arm
at popping out my Halloween props.
[video=youtube_share;DChPB0ZeDPQ]
I'm just a few hours south of you! I'm working on a Halloween prop for this year too, using the Prop as well!
I've made some cheap linear slides using drawer slides from Lowes or Home Depot before - just an idea I thought I'd throw out for ya
Jamie
Currently, though I am thinking about making a shuttle on two bars similiar to Ben Heck's heat element shuttle on his 3d printer.
[video=youtube_share;xJndXebTG9I]
It would give me a sturdy platform to mount a push rod on one side and the channel for the "orbital bit" on the other.
I do have a working speaker control system but still no sound. By old mp3 board gave out and I can't get a new one
to work. I am thinking about just going with Agyeman' wav player object and an sd card.
Found out something simple to most folks but myself. By adding weight to counterbalance the weight of my
monster hanging from a pivot point, my motor has to work a lot less to move it as it floats at the mid-point so pole cat
moves faster.
[video=youtube_share;G7XJnjVWlKc]
I just finished hacking a cheapo $3 Chinese MP3 player so I could control it with the Propeller
I had considered using IR to communicate with my zune mp3 player, but couldn't figure out an easy way
to play specific files.
What kind of monster or monsters are you building?
[video=youtube_share;kW47GGMjYmE]
When comes to sound for your Halloween prop, you may consider the AP-16 by EFX-TEK and sold by Parallax. They can be serially controlled, or by pushbutton, or even external voltage (12vdc or 24vdc) which your audio from the SD card that is inserted in the AP-16.
on the hood of a junk car like he went through the windshield and got cut
in half. Then suddenly he will rise up on his arms when the trail goers come by.
[video=youtube_share;KAPYzahhjUQ]
maybe if you made something like the offset wheel with a drop off so the motor would turn to the highest point - put the zombie back down (that could be slow, right?) and then turn a little bit more to the drop off that pops the zombie up (because of the spring) -
I have some 6rpm gear motors that would probably work pretty well for something like that
with that said I have a bunch of electronic parts that I'm willing to share and I created a site (www.makertrader.com) for just such a thing - it's meant to be for Makerspaces and Hackerspaces members to share parts and tools, but it kinda applies here - although you're a little far to swing on by and pick things up that you might need - I wouldn't be opposed to throwing some things in a small priority mail box
Jamie
going up and down struggling to get up on his arms.
But now, with this rig I think I can pop him up really fast and have him glaring at them as if he
is about to jump off and race after them on his arms. More of a modern zombie then the old school.
give my monsters their voices.
I am getting a bit of hum in the audio. I tried the circuit included in the object. Then I tried a more
involved one I was planning on using between MP3 player and stereo system. And I tried a op-amp
low pass filter I found somewhere. I know even less about audio then the little I know of electronics.
Maybe I am thinking it is a low end noise when it really is high pitched? Tone death I am.
did you actually use an LM358 like the schematic or did you substitute some other opamp?
I googled it and one guy said the LM358 wasn't so great for audio - are there maybe better opamps for audio?
I have seen some mention on this forum about noise caused by not using de-coupling caps on the power
lines to the propeller. I don't think I used them on the prototyping board. Next thing to check.
what about hacking an old boom box or something just for it's amplifier circuit?
There are op-amps that are optimised for audio, such as the TL072.