Thread: Armitures and Animation ideas

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I am looking for ideas on how everyone makes armitures for their props, and what animation they add.

What I would like to do is come up with some type of standardized armiture that is fairly easy to construct and not too expensive. Add a couple of standard movements like head pan, waist pan, up and down arm movement.

The intent is to use this as a basis for a number of props, using different heads, arm positions for each.

Here are a couple of props that got me thinking about this

Waist movement: [ame]http://s153.photobucket.com/albums/s202/buckaneerbabe/?action=view&current=S7300043.flv[/ame]

Arm Movement: http://www.wildrice.com/Halloween/Co...lderGears2.jpg

Looks good, you could add a couple servos to a bucky skull/styro head on top of this pvc spine for a full movement effect. Most people use wiper motors from early model cars... 1980 or earlier as those aren't likely to use delay circuitry.

my question is how would one link this to programming? A speed controller, or just have it set to the correct speed and switch it on and off with a relay? I have used speed controllers for R/C components, but Ive never tried one for a motor the size of those formentioned.

Scareisburg, that is my gravedigger with the waist motion. Sometimes I hook my motors up and just stare at it for a while until I can get my head around the motion I need. Heck, I've been known to just start adding armatures and turn it on and see what happens. If you look at some close ups of motors and the armatures they all seem to be fairly the same with very little differences, like in the length of your aluminum bars or rods. What made this one work so smoothly was the lazy susan. I started out looking at everyones motors and armatures and then was able to come up with my own design that worked for what I needed.

try www.servocity.com for your idea i bought some servos from them on a Monday and they came Wednesday their really fast a delivering but check this out for you servos http://www.servocity.com/html/servo_controllers.html ...........this is a servo controller and works very good

A speed controller(or more aptly, voltage controller) will limit the voltage to the wiper motor and make it run slower.. No directional control to it.

You cant run a wiper motor directly with a servo controller such as the Lynxmotion SSC32 board, as it's a digital signal output. The motor is just DC. You may be able to run a solid state relay(SSR) with the Lynx, or a couple other controller boards, and the SSR would just turn the motor on or off, not be able to direct it in any way. Same with lighting. SSR's can turn on spotlights, foggers, etc..

As to the skull(pan/tilt) or jaw(talk) servo control, the SSC32 will do that using RC model servos. Everyone here uses HiTech 425BB's. A couple here use the HiTech 6xx series as they are higher torque. Do a search for "3-axis" skulls. It's pretty long running and very very informative. There's prob 15-20 haunters here running these in their skulls... well, not their skulls, but their props' skulls A couple have tried the pan/tilt brackets but the bucky skulls are too heavy to work well. A few are using the foam skulls available from BigLots, WalMart, etc. They are the lightest to use, but a lil smaller than normal, but at a distance of 15'-20' you prob wouldnt notice..

Thanks some good input. Lets keep it comming

My initial thought was to just make it simple and use some gear motors, experiementing with various RPM's to get the right movement then just turn the whole prop on and off. Ok I know its kind of chucky cheesey but simple and reliable.

The next step would be to use some servos as suggested, I've been looking at this controller, a bit expensive but it looks easy to use and is flexible, stand alone, and does not require additional wires , computer or code writing.

http://www.servocity.com/html/servo_...ck_contro.html

Finally, any good ideas on the frame, looks like the pvc works the best in terms of price and ease of fabrication. anyone have some details on pipe size and dimensions you've used.

ServoCity is ok, but everyone who does these in any great quantity or quality uses Lynxmotion, Kit74, or Parallax boards.

Lynx SSC32, a 32channel serial port board, $38,
http://www.lynxmotion.com/Product.as...&CategoryID=52

Kit74 controller, a 16channel parallel port relay board, $35 kit!
http://www.electronickits.com/kit/co...lec/ck1601.htm

Parallax, also a 16channel controller page, $38 kit.
http://www.parallax.com/ProductInfo/...1/Default.aspx
Parallax controller.pdf:
http://www.parallax.com/dl/docs/prod...Controller.pdf

There are some jaw-moving-only controllers out there too, single channel serial port..
http://www.cowlacious.com/ScaryTerry.htm

The servo-recorder/player? ..hmm, $110 to run just 4 servos... You could buy one of these other controllers -and- the servos for that..

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servos are what add up, I got 6 -425BB's for $70 shipped off eBay.. abt $10 ea and $10 to ship. You have to use VSA(VisualShowAnimation, $55 http://brookshiresoftware.com/) for the best results with the SSC32 board, tho you can try Vixen, http://vixenlights.com/ a free program primarily for lighting(Christmas). You can use it for SSR's but may be able to set it for servos as it's serial(digital) output..

Really, read thru the Animatronics threads and posts, read thru the VSA threads, there's a wealth of info there..

Originally Posted by CaptnJackSparrow

A speed controller(or more aptly, voltage controller) will limit the voltage to the wiper motor and make it run slower.. No directional control to it.

If you use varied voltages to vary the speed of the motor keep in mind that lowering the voltage also lowers the motors torque. If you want to reduce the speed and maintain the high torque of the wiper motor you can use a motor controller which uses pulse width modulation (PWM).

If you want to get reasonably precise control of the wiper motor shaft you can use a cheap encoder with a basic stamp/prop1/prop2. Here's a project I did...

http://spooksterville.com/site/index...d=16&Itemid=25

Originally Posted by The Spookster

If you use varied voltages to vary the speed of the motor keep in mind that lowering the voltage also lowers the motors torque. If you want to reduce the speed and maintain the high torque of the wiper motor you can use a motor controller which uses pulse width modulation (PWM).

If you want to get reasonably precise control of the wiper motor shaft you can use a cheap encoder with a basic stamp/prop1/prop2. Here's a project I did...

http://spooksterville.com/site/index...d=16&Itemid=25

I still think that's one of the neatest hacks I've ever seen..Very Godlike.