Thread: Some questions from Germany

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Hello from Germany,

just found this cool site trough youtube (HalloweenBob's video's).

So first a little about me. I'm 32 and a big kid. Since i'm a little child i'm fascinated from darkrides and Disney. I allwys was trying to build them with Lego and had ideas in my head to build a ghost train, hypercoaster or water ride in our garden (that droves my parents grazy *lol).

Don't know why since a view days i have animatronics in my head, but i just realized it's something you can do. Everything you see in a darkride is made by somebody. Well if your in school and on your way to a job and to learn something things like that don't came to your mind. It's more stuff like baker, butcher, electrican or car mechanic.

Can you learn or study audio animatronic (imagineer) in America? I can't find something in Germany like that.

The next thing is that i remember i read somewhere there is a DVD with the Leota sequence on it. Does somebody know which DVD it is?

I'm happy that i found 2 online shops in Germany that have the Lindberg skull. So the question is - does somebody has a template of the skull plate? Oh and does somebody has the new version from graveyardskulls with the gear wheels - is that better?

Next question is the Medusa DMX. What is the benefit of using DMX? What i saw is that people use the SSC-32. Does the Medusa replace the SSC-32?

The other thing is that there are alot of CDs like "A Musical History of Disneyland" or "Story & Song From the Haunted Mansion" but it's all english. So looks like i need to find a way to seperate the sound from the speaking and speak it myself in german with a sound distortion. Somebody has a software tip?

Ok, i thing it's enough for now. I thing i have mor questions later :-)

And sorry for writting errors.

LOL !!!

Your English is fine. The only way I could reply in German is to use Google translator.

You have some good questions.

1. As far as the servo plate? You can order a kit from here.

http://triaxialskulllabs.com/webstor...php?cPath=1_25

The gear design is complete unit only from GYS.

2. Re the music. I would try to find music version only and then dub in the words in German. It requires very sophisticated software to pull just the vocals out of an audio track.

3. I use the ssc32 board for my 3 axis along with VSA. Here is a video. My 3 axis is unique. It is my own design.



4. Do not know about the Madam Leota DVD

5. DMX seems to be for the folks that are into the real involved stuff. It is very good and can control up to 4096 channels. It is what is used for stuff like this Christmas display. Advance to the 6 minute mark on the video.



6. As far as actually taking a course on Animatronics? Not that I have seen. Most of us just learn by seeing what other people do and trial and error. That seems to be a common theme for us Yanks. LOL !!! But there are some good DVD's available that offer Animatonic concepts and design. Here.

http://www.halloween2go.com/order.htm

That is about all I have for now.

Willkommen in der Halloween-Forum

The Madame Leota video I'm going to be using is from Mr. Chicken. Here's a good thread on his - http://hauntforum.com/showthread.php...t=madame+leota

I think my english is ok. I used do work at the amarican barracks here in our city.

14$ for a skull . I pay 31$ here in Germany

Yes i know the halloween2go films and also the willetfx DVD.

Hm, the SSC-32 has 32 channels but the Medusa just 24 - right? I wonder because HalloweenJared was writing "Thanks to the Medusa DMX board, Mr. Bones and the Gourditos will be singing Thriller".

I have a 320 x 240 Leota here. But the main reason for asking for the DVD is Disney history.

Sound i have "Disney's Haunted Mansion 1999" with little Leota. I love that, the voice is so sexy *lol

Whats unique about your 3 axis?


Do you guys allways have a computer conected? My idea is a MP3 player and a button for each song. But don't know how to start the sound and animation in sync. Hm, maybee some kind of VSA that runs on a old PDA (HTC phone) with touchscreen. The thing is that MP3 Player have previews/next on the remote but not a button for every song (if you know what i mean).

My 3 axis is not like the servo plate designs. It is more like a pan/tilt design. I get much more range of motion on the nod and tilt. I can get a full 90 degree's on both. And 180 degrees on rotation. My design is better utilized in masks and has simple counter weighting to allow for zero load on the servo's at head level position. I ran 6 servos and 8 bright leds through cat 5. That is the reason the eyes blink in the video. I was pulling current through just one narrow trace for + and - . The 2 axis design for the eyes is also my own design.

That is what i tought, that the rotation must be limited because of the bell cranks.

My idea is to use a cardan joint and conect the rotation servo direct to the rod in the midle of the head. But i don't know how to conect the servo to the rod above the cardan. Normal motors normaly are conected with a pipe and headless screw's. But servo's have this thing where you put the gear in.


Edit:
Was looking arround and saw there where some videos of your mechanic, but you removed it. So is your setup of head and eys a secret?

Edit again :-) :
Found something (http://www.servocity.com/html/servo_..._couplers.html) but cant find them in Germany. So my idea is now to make a plate on top of the rod and srew this plate and a servo wheel together. The wheel must be bigger then the servo so i can srew it.

I was contacted by GYS to produce my designs. They asked me to remove the video's. Lets just say things did not go as planned.

So now I am trying to work with a new individual to develop a kit.

You can not patent this stuff, so if I wish to gain any advantage on selling my units I must keep the design hidden. Actually the eye design has even better marketing promise.

Ah ok, just saw the thread "GYS going out of business". Some people....

MrGlasspoole,

I'm the designer of the Medusa DMX. There are a few differences between this and an SSC-32, in both function and execution.

The SSC-32 is a servo monster - it controls up to 32 servos. If you're looking to control lots of different axes, the SSC-32 is a very economical way to go.

The Medusa DMX is more geared to controlling a whole display. It controls servos, but only 8 compared with the 32 of the SSC-32. But it also lets you control high powered LED lighting (8 channels, up to 150mA/50V per channel), and has 8 high current on/off switches that will let you control relays or small solenoid valves.

You mentioned HalloweenJared's display. He was using (2) Medusa DMX boards, but could have pulled off the Thriller video with just one. If you wanted to run the show you saw in the YouTube video, you could do it like this...
(7) LED channels (one each 'Gourdito', 3 for RGB eyes in the skull)
(8) Servo channels (6 for skull, 1 for soloist Gourdito, 1 shared channel for other Gourditos)

If this were the setup, you'd still have one LED channel left, and all eight switch outputs (for pneumatic popups, smoke, strobes, etc).

The other difference is in the interface. The SSC-32 uses a standard serial port output. If your computer has a serial port output, this is a quick connection. DMX (aka: DMX-512) is a lighting control protocol used for stage/club lighting. There are USB-to-DMX converters (see Enttec). The advantage of going this route is you can make longer cable runs to your devices, and there are many dimmers, moving light fixtures, strobes, etc that support this protocol.

If you'd like more info on the Medusa DMX, please check out my new website www.OhmMyGadgets.com or feel free to PM me.

- Hook

Personally, I think the best start would be to learn basic electronics and also software development. These will be important skills for an animatronic developer. Mechanics, pneumatics, fabrication and art would also be highly applicable. Animatronics is such a niche, I don't think you'll find more than single courses concerning it. You might learn the skills you need by working for an animatronics company, if they're willing to teach you.

You can make your own skull plate by slowly trimming cardboard to fit the inside of a skull, and then using that as a template for the actual piece. I believe there was a template in the Halloween Forum discussion, somewhere, which may still be available.

DMX is a very useful interface for (long distance) lighting control, which is very important in creating animatronic shows. As you found, the Medusa DMX board can also provide DMX control for other things such as servos and relays. I would highly recommend building your own animatronic systems around DMX instead of the old RS-232 serial interface, which is disappearing slowly. The SSC-32 is a RS-232 serial I/O board, which could be replaced by the Medusa board if you use DMX. Of course, you can use both RS-232 and DMX at the same time, no problem.

As for removing the voice, download the freely available Sox sound utility, then try using the Out Of Phase Stereo (OOPS) effect. This will mix a stereo sound file to twin-mono, where each mono channel contains the difference between the left and right stereo channels. This is sometimes known as the karaoke effect as it often removes most or all of the vocals from a recording. The only other way to remove voice is to notch filter vocal frequencies, which Sox can also accomplish.

Good luck with your animatronic addiction!