Thread: Need skull help

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Let play ‘Name that part” game if you will. I bought this Graveyard skull (so they say) from someone on this forum. What I didn’t know or did think to ask at the time was, “is everything there?” I am new to the talking skulls thing so this is why I didn’t think to ask. I assumed and yes……I made an AS# out of myself. Any way, what I have found since thou is that I am missing something. Below is a picture inside the skulls lid. Can you name the missing part and what are my best options? I am thinking I might need a Board of chucky or similar to that. Please help. All the info you have would be gratefully appreciated.

I would contact Graveyard skulls directly for what you have & what you will need, yes looks like you need the / a controller board & VSA or similiar programing system........

I think that is a Doc Morbius K Mart Skull. I recognize his eye setup.

Here is a link.

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread...ighlight=kmart

So yes you need a control board. ssc32 and VSA would be the easy route. You can mount the board in the skull, but because it controls up to 32 servos I would keep it external and bring you powr and signals via CAT5 and speaker wire. Another thread running will help you to understand this. Here is the link for that.

Wiring for Control Box

If you are handy with a soldering station, you can build the boards yourself. Or I can build for you for parts plus shipping. Snap has a good solution, but his boards only handle 4 servos, so you would need two for the skull. My handbuilt skull board will handle 8 servos, and it has power connector.

Basically you need to invest about another $150 t0 $175 and you can get something like this. This is my greeter and it is my own design. But I am using VSA and the ssc32 board.

YouTube - ‪3 axis skull with 2 axis eyes. All original design. Name is Jeepers Creepers‬‏

I haven't used anything but Brookshire Software's VSA to run servos but I've used 4 different controller boards.

The first one we had was a Parallax board. It worked really well and was pretty cheap. The USB connection for this board is an important thing to consider since so many newer computers don't come with an RS-232 port.
http://www.parallax.com/Store/Microc...5/Default.aspx

The second board we got was a Lynxmotion "SSC-32" board. I like this board a lot because it's not very expensive and it can run as many as 32 servos. This board requires an RS-232 connection. Most computers these days don't seem to come with an RS-232 port so you will need to consider that before you purchase. You can, as I have done, purchase and install an RS-232 expansion port or some others have purchased adaptors of various kinds. Some I've read have had difficulty with some of the adaptors.

http://www.lynxmotion.com/p-395-ssc-...ontroller.aspx

We graduated from the Parallax board when we needed to run more than 16 servos and used the Lynxmotion SSC-32 board for 3 years. This year we needed to go beyond 32 servos and made the move to two different DMX controlled boards. DMX boards are more expensive and require a separate interface (a little box) to connect to a computer. Probably the most popular one here in the forums is this one, the Enttec Open http://www.enttec.com/index.php?main...ow=description.

The DMX route gives us tremendous control and has plenty of expansion headroom for all sorts of control devices.

We have introduced two different DMX servo controller boards into our plans for this year. One is the Board of Chuckee. This is the board that comes inside of the Skulltronix skulls and has the ability to control 16 servos and 2 connectors for RGB LED's.

Our other DMX board is the Medusa. I like this board a lot. It has the ability to control 8 servos as well as 8 LED connections and 8 switch connections. It's the same price as the Board of Chuckee but gives you the ability to do some things that BOC won't. I'll say as well, that BOC requires the use of a "configurator" program for basic setup and the Medusa does not.

http://www.skulltronix.com/boc.html

http://www.ohmmygadgets.com/medusadmx.html

Not so long ago, I never imagined Buckaneerbabe would grow things beyond 32 servos but this year looks like we'll be running 42 and who knows, maybe more? I like all of these boards and if I were starting out on a budget and installing a board inside of a prop that was within acceptable USB cable distance, I'd probably start with the Parallax. We used our Parallax board near the computer and ran the servo wires over distance. The SSC-32 has more headroom than the Lynxmotion and some have used it to do things other than run servos. I think because of the RS-232 connector the SSC-32 is better suited for a control box and ours is mounted inside of a control box similar to the one that Jimmyzdc is building. Our BOC board is inside of the Skulltronix skull and the Medusa board is inside of the raven that Buckaneerbabe is building. So this year, we will be running the SSC-32, the Board of Chuckee and a Medusa DMX. If we expand from here, I'll probably just add more Medusa boards.

Thanks everyone for your help. I think I will rethink what I want to do here. I need to find someone around me thatknow this stuff - lol. Thanks again and I will let you know Spinman about the board

Wow, those skulls sure do get around. It's been a while since I built those, so I no longer offer support for them, but tap the knowledge from the forums and you should be OK.