Thread: Got me hooked on animatronics

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You good folks got me hooked on animatronics. I've read through all the threads here thrice over and feel 90% confident in my near future purchases. I just need that extra 10% thumbs up from you guys please. I need a beginners setup. I'm thinking a Parallax Propeller servo controller USB and Brookshire VSA v5.0 Hobbyist software. I'm a retired Pipe/Mech designer and can build anything with a screwdriver, duct tape and a stop sign but when it comes to these little electrons that I can't see what they're doing, I'm dumb as a rock. I'm an r/c flyer and familiar with servos but that's "plug and play" stuff. I'm hoping these 2 purchases will kinda be also. Once I get my paws banging on the keyboard, I think I'll figure it out from there. There's too many folks here to thank for your sharing of knowledge and inspirations, but Thanks, you know who you are.

What are you going to build?

I feel your pain on the electronics part. The good thing is there are so many people that are willing to help. When you ask a question someone always has the answer. Good luck and keep everyone informed of your progress.

anyboy can make anything if they set their mind to it. as for electronics you have to think of a prop you want to build then ask your self what you want it to do? then you need to think what can i make or construct for this animation to work properly. then just draw it out. once you think of somethign theres plenty of people who will help you with the parts and mechs you need to configure .

I haven't thought much of what to build yet Terra as I'm confident in my mechanical building abilities. I can appreciate your question though. I'm showing my unique abby-normalness (thanks Igor) I guess by trying to reverse engineer this project by starting in the middle. Lets say I'll build a witch stirring a cauldron in which the stirring hands and cauldron are a completely separate and stand alone system not controlled by this. I need a means to sequence and repeat the head movement by 5 or 6 servos I've programmed for head, eye and jaw movement. Prerecorded sequenced audio would be great, but for this year, I'll be happy to get my two little brain cells wrapped around movement. The buckaneerdude/babe post have been a great help and inspiration as have many others here.
I think I'm looking for a yes or no answer to.........Can I purchase, install and bang on the keys long enough to become functional with the Brookshire VSA current v.5.0 Hobbyist program without having a complete understanding and control of baud rates, I/Os, ports, pin #'s, CMOS, RRS, GPS and the theory of Atlantis? I'm hoping it's similar to learning the intricacies of Word, Excel, Gimp and such. If I get a general affirmative on that.......Can I use the USB port to connect to a Parallax Propeller servo USB controller without a college degree in that field of endeavor? From there, it's all downhill if my servos can plug into the Parallax board directly. I'm an old cajun but didn't just fall off a turnip truck either. I've been following this forum for years and joined this year because of my fascination with the animatronics. I've built a few props with the excellent tutelage from you happy haunters here. I'm so pleased with my FCG, lightning simulator and giant cauldron/fog chiller. I'm feel too humbled to post instruction, but the first to ask, I'm on it. Hobie14T and Ctarpey....thanks for the reply.

I don't know anything useful about how the Parallax works but do know how to use VSA. If I can learn it anyone can . I use the VSA along with DMX to control pneumatics and such. Never used servos so can't help you there either. Here's a tutorial I put together that will let you see if this is something you are interested in: Integrated Haunt Control using DMX/VSA

I hope others with Parallax experience will help you with your questions regarding that.

Thanks so much Terra. You not only answered my VSA question but provided a much needed, straightforward tutorial for us newbies. Many thanks for the time you put into making it. You are a Halloween Goddess.

Tera really did a nice job with her tutorial. I actually started to make one for VSA once using a screen capture program but it turned out to be much harder to do than I expected. When get your stuff, I'd be happy to "chat" you through the setup of the Parallax and help you get started using it to run servos. Servos are set up a bit differently than DMX devices. With servos you input a maximum servo position, a minimum servo position and a default servo position. It's important to understand how these settings affect how your servo behaves. We'd just need to work out the time and such in PM's. Once you get the basic terminology down and understand how to create an "event", you will be off and running.

I just ordered the board from Parallax. Thanks for the PM invite, it's about time I took my ranting offline. Thanks everyone for your comments. I'll be back before the big day with my results.

If you haven't already, download the demo VSA from Brookshire. You can play around, and learn the interface, so you'll be ready to run when your hardware arrives. Once you've set up VSA for your setup, it's pretty easy to animate with. The setup consists of 1) telling VSA where to find your servos (i.e.: your Parallax board), 2) telling VSA which servo is connected to which output on your board (i.e.: addresses), 3) telling VSA what each servo's motion should be limited to, in each direction (so a servo doesn't move farther than your mechanism will allow).

- Hook