Thread: 11-Foot Grim Reaper Experiment

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For Halloween 2009, I made a 11-foot StalkAround. The result was beyond my expectations. The reactions of children and adults were very satisfactory.

But this year I decided to redo my Grim Reaper to add some modifications. In fact, apart from the dress, I'm going to make a complete reconstruction.

I'll post the work in progress.

Planned
Control of the jaw by servo motor and LED eyes.
Finger control by buttons on the handle
Pan movement of the head with a potentiometer.

For now, here are some pictures of the monster this year.

To continue with the experiment, I was able to finish my new structure this week, so, here the pictures of the old and new structure for the StalkAround.

I switch to copper because the PVC is too flexible for the size of the Grim Reaper. I used copper grade "L" and the weight is almost the same compared to PVC.

I used a army frame backpack. As you can see, I hooked the pipes diagonally from the backpack because it makes an angle when it is worn. This fixes the problem that StalkAround be leaning forward when we place the pipes in the same angle as the backpack.

The head is now in place.

A receive and connect my speaking kit to the skull. I can now talk in a headset and the Reaper is now talking with me. Here picture of the piece :




I use a ST-200 BOARD from Cowlacious design, the board cost only $39.95 with the battery pack and the LED, only have to add a motor. I pass a bicycle break cable into the head to attach it to the jaw and install all component in the torso. The only remaining thing to do it's to plug all the power together to a RC 6v Battery.




Video coming shortly...

Looks great! Cant wait for video

Here a video of my talking head.....

YouTube - Speaking 11-Foot Grim Reaper StalkAround

....and please be patient with my English, my native language is French.

With the pair of big amplified speaker on later, we should not hear the servo motor.

I just waiting for my servo tester and new servo motor to add the pan to the head.

Forgot, the voice it's done by the little black box, a cheap (10$ to 15$) voice changer who I connect an output and input 1/8 speaker connector, like this one :


And by the way, do anyone try to connect a 6v power supply to this kind of voice changer, I would like to connect it to my RC 6v battery and remove the weight of 3 mores aa baterries but I don't know if I will send too much voltage to it?

looking good. the way it talks works well.

Amazing!! There are definitely some very talented people on this forum.

Nice job, that works really well I wish I knew more about servos and electronics.

Last year (2009), I try to connect an helmet to the beast with all the thing, pan & tilt. But the day preceding Halloween, when I tested the monster, I realized it was much too big to control the head with an helmet. The backpack is moving on my back and the skull is too far for the helmet to stay on my head without pulling of pushing on me. I needed a suspension system for this to work.

So, I forgot the project for 2009 and start looking for something else and "talala", the idea come at the same time I bought the voice controller and the servo: "Why not put another servo to control the pan of the head?".

The servo was not a problem but the controller, yes. Don't know if you have seen my presenting thread, but I try to keep the price of my haunting as low as possible (Have 3 kids to keep in life, lol) and the price of those controller are horribly high. Ex : 115$ for the controller and a potentiometer. And one day I found that :

Turnigy Servo Tester (pen for size comparaison) :


This thing is a servo testing unit, but that only cost 8$ and that got exactly what I want : A central position and a manual control of the servo (for only 8$)

So here the thing installed :


YouTube- Pan Head - 11-Foot Grim Reaper StalkAround

Will install a little control bar on it and attach it on my grip.

P.S. For those who read my previous post, no, you can't connect a 6v Rc battery on the voice changer without "BOOM", need another one now.

What a great setup for a stalkaround! I really like the idea of using the tester for the control knob. You'll have to post us pics of the finished product.