Thread: My Animatronic Raven 1.0

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As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted an Animatronic Raven.
I was inspired to finally build one last year after seeing another haunter on the web who created his own raven, www.socalhalloween.com, but knew I'd need to come up with a simpler solution.
I started with a "GreenHead Gear Flocked Crow Decoy" from Cabela's.
It is hollow and looks fairly realistic. I cut the head, beak, and body apart with
a dremel tool.
For the "Brains" to drive the animation I'm using the
Servo Recorder/Playback Controller from Servo City.
This allows it to be puppeteered and the action recorded and played back.
Another important part is the universal joint for the neck.
For the structure to hold everything together I'm using parts from an erector-set-like toy car from the hobby shop.
The raven has four motions, body tilt up/down, head left/right, head up/down,and beak open/close.
The cables for the servos all run through one of the legs, and the raven is securely
attached to the wooden board for stability.
To take it further, I plan to do some more work on the fur and feathers, and
get it synced up to some raven caw sound effects. Ultimately I would like to be able to hook the raven to my computer, animate it to the sound effects, and then dump the servo animation and sound to a stand alone device that can drive the servos and output the sound. Anyone know of board/device/something like that?
Heres some pictures of the build, I'll try to get some video soon

looks great! cant wait to see a video clip. crows and ravens are a big favorite of mine!

Very nice, great idea with the u-joint.

Check out Blue Point Engineering, they have a lot of different controller boards. http://www.bpesolutions.com/product.html

oh he's cool do a video

Question. Where did you get you HM Gargoyles from?

The raven looks fantastic but......

...I have recently been wondering about gargoyles, and yours are exactly the look I am after.

Did you make them or buy them somewhere?

nice use of a universal joint, and cool sculpting on the legs!
Can't wait to see the video!

I like him great work. I am getting a crow from Canela's, but I think mine will just have lit eyes. The animatronic one would be great though.

I would so love to build one of those. Good job on him,

That looks so cool! Video pretty please!