Thread: Suggestions for a TriAxis skull

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Hi All.

At the end of last year, I bought a tri-axis skull (Lindburg) with SSC32 board and power supplies. I did not get any software, nor did I assemble anything.

Now that Halloween is on the horizon, I am ready to tackle this. I will be putting it on a skeleton body and want it to sit in front of my house on Halloween and tell short stories, jokes, etc to our visitors. But I want to find the easiest/best solution with an eye on the budget. I am not tied to the SSC32 board if something else works better for me. I have not done any sort of robotics, but I am a software developer, so if there are decent tutorials, then I am not concerned about programming the software.

So here are my questions.

- Is the SSC32 the best way to go, or with DMX, or some other controller?
- I see Vixen is a free software program, but most people use VSA ($80). Is VSA worth the money compared to Vixen? I poked around the Vixen forums, but did not see much help getting a servo controlled item running.
- Does anyone share their tri-axis skull skits? Or at least fun sound files to use.

Thanks - Jeff

I'm in the same boat. Not sure if VSA is worth the money. Same set up 3axis skull and servo controller. Very interested in any insight. Thanks!

Well, I got no responses. But I decided to write my own software to suit my needs. My vision is to make a simple way to animate my head, with the least amount of work involved. So I want the mouth to move to an audio track and for the 3-axis head to move to a pre-recorded routine. So far, I have the mouth moving to an audio file (like an MP3 or wav file) and I can control the 3-axis head with a joy stick. It is still rough and does not have the ability to record the 3-axis movement yet, or create a routine, but those are coming. If I get this solid, I may share it with everyone.

Oh, and it works only with a SSC32 board, since that is what I am using.

Rochinante, What you are describing is exactly what VSA will do . VSA will allow you to record a vocal file and convert to a Wave Motion Analyisis taht will run the jaw in sync to the audio. They have a free demo download that you can use and see if you like. You are correct about Vixen,there is a program to control servos,visit the Vixen web site and you should be able to find it .There is also some products produced by Monkey Basic that will allow you to record several servos at a time then export to VSA. Hope this helps

I went ahead and got VSA. It is a very good program. Seems like it was designed with us Halloween folk in mind. They have a free trial you can download, its the full program just won't let you save. The visual timeline is the best way to like up events. Like Bfjou said, the Wave Motion Analysis is fantastic. It also controls servo ramping so you can move servo's at many different speeds. I would give it a try, atleast the trial version.

Thanks for the reply Bfjou812. I played around with VSA, but didn't see that it can do that. What I did find was a that it played the song and I could hit a button when the mouth should open and close, and that seemed like a lot of work. Maybe if the program was more intuitive or had better tutorials, I would have stuck with it, but its also $80 for the cheapest version and that turns me away. I also tried Vixen, but it seemed even harder to figure out how to get to work with my skull. The program I am writing will be MUCH easier to work with, probably since it only has one function. And besides, I have been having fun writing it. But if there were good tutorials that explained how to set up and get a TriAxis skull working completely in VSA, I may have gone that route.

With VSA how do u set it up to be able to control jaw movement with one button? I have run the wave analysis but want to be able to do it myself to have better movement.

I've recently picked up a similar setup w/ 2 of the skulls, the ssc32 board, and a copy of Monkeybasic's trackskull software. It works pretty well for creating a skit. A joystick is my input device, and allows moving the skull (and jaw via trigger) as an actor in time with the voice track. Trackskull records the actions and can play back the session to see what it looks like. Besides sending the commands via serial port to the ssc32, it will also export the routine to VSA (which I haven't gotten yet). However a serious shortcoming (IMHO) is trackskull's inability to later reload a performance from a file. Making it more useful to me for live performance, and interacting with the crowd using a remoted speaker and voice changer. We did this last year with with a PC & Imagineering's Mirror-Mirror character on an LCD panel. With trackskull I have not yet found a way to control the jaw speed.
It would be great to share progress and tips here with others having similar setups.

Are you trying to interact with the crowd "live"? I think that you can use "Puppet Mode" to do that. If I'm reading your question correctly, you are not using a pre-recorded routine for each group? As far as the jaw speed goes try using the time adjustment? in the lower right coenner , and see if that works. I have always used the Wave Motion Analysis ,in VSA for the jaw movement . Your best bet is to contact Nelson @ Monkey Basic, He is a HUGE help. Hope this helps.

Here is my first release of my TriAxis Skull program, if anyone is interested. I wrote it to be as simple as possible to record and play back routines. It should not take hours to figure out how to make a simple routine like VSA did for me.

Currently, its limitations are:

Head movement - requires joystick with twist
Mouth movement - requires a sound file, and will open the mouth to the volume.
Controller - only supports the SSC32 board

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

now version 1.0.1
Download from: http://www.filesavr.com/IPASCQGP3QPS5L8