Thread: Dr Shivers

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Fellow Haunters, Im trying to rewire my Dr Shivers from the neck up. Does anyone have a schematic or a Dr Shivers that would be willing to tell me how to connect the head servos? Any help would be appreciated...Cadaver Day

These are "toy" motors, not servos.

The Gemmy units are all pretty much the same electronically.
See my thread on the butler repair:

Edwardian Butler Repair

I have been having trouble finding the Chinese transistors, I ordered some off of Ebay but they were not the same as the original ones and still did not work.

The circuit that drives the motors has been around for about many years:
http://www.zen22142.zen.co.uk/Circui...g/dcmotor.html
in that link S1 and S2 are driven by the Gemmy personality module in the actual circuit.

it is also possible to drive these motors with a pair of DPDT relays (one to turn the power to the motor on and off and one that reverses the motor). However this method just bangs the motor one way and then the next. The transistor circuit is a much more elegant way to drive the motors.

Brad,
Thanks for this diagrams. Im going to give it a try. Ill let you know how it goes. I appreciate the help as Ive been unable to obtain from any other source. Thanks again...kdl

Hacking a Dr shivers ehh? Well I have never been brave enough to hack my Gemmy store bought animatronics but I too would like to see the hack in action as well! Keep us updated please! Maybe I too one day may try something new!

I drew a sketch of how to wire up two relays to control a motor:

http://www.halloweenforum.com/member...ontroller.html

If you are going to use a prop controller this may be the easiest circuit to build and write a program for. However is does tend to slam the motor from one stop to the next, but that is pretty much how the Gemmy's were programmed out of the box.

I got this project underway but one thing is very apparent, Gemmy props are not well built! They allow zero extra wire that is very fragile and to top it off they do not use uniformed colored wired from power to source. Its crazy. With some help from Brad at Bradbaum, I was able to get the eyes to light and move and to get the head to move. I was also able to reactivate the speaker.
Still working on the mouth motion but Im happy to at least breath a little life back into this prop...kdl