Thread: Audio for Animatronic Props

Tweet

In my early days, I've tried things like "amplifying the speaker outs" and in my case, it just sounded distorted with lot's of static so no, the quality really sucked, it was just louder.....I get much better results with the pico series....The only downside to hacking a gemmy product is it de-values the product if you want to resell it but how much is the stuff really worth used anyway?.....ZR

Originally Posted by HalloweenHouseParty

Someone else suggested simply finding the two wires that go to the speaker, clipping those wires and then hooking them to an RCA jack. Then you could connect that RCA jack to the input of the audio mixer.

Do you think it would be that easy? or will the signal need to be amplified?


In terms of amplifying the sound, would either of these devices work?:

http://www.frightideas.com/controlle...o-fi-104s.html

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...ource=googleps

Yeah I measured the level coming out of the speaker wires and it was way to low for directly hooking it up to an RCA jack. And I did do that just for grins... it is audible only at the highest level on my receiver. So it definitely needs to be amplified.

I am thinking about finding one of those sound amplifiers for people that have difficulty hearing and use that as an amp.

There is just a lot of ways we could do it.

And there is always gutting it, adding a servo, and doing what was previously mentioned. VSA and some sort of servo controller. Then it's on you to come up with your own audio but the sky's the limit.

Lostskeleton-

If you need any hosting for sound file links and video for your mods let me know, couz!

This site is awesome and look forward to getting some good ideas to add to my Halloween setup this year!

You got the skill?

Originally Posted by Industen

Yes hacking these props is a must, the audio is terrible. I usually just hack cheap mp3 players to go off when my sensor is tripped. I usually solder braid the speaker connection off so I can solder it back on if I decide to sell them. This way the sounds don't conflict. You could use a picoboo104/105 but you may still find yourself wanting more...only 8 bit sound. You can program diffenent routines with them (8) so it won't be boring. Picoboo is good for a beginners. Then again you only want sound so the picoboos 2 inputs would go to waste unless you put lighting on them or something else.

"Pinhead" from Gemmy seems to have decent audio this year.
I just want to route the audio from Pinhead to a mixing board so it can be amplified really loud.
Do I really need to mess with a Picoboo box?

Ok, I got the audio to a level that works for stereos, I just had to use a transformer to step it up. I don't have a part number for this as I just grabbed a random transformer I had lying around and checked the output level then stepped it down with some resistors.

I will have to get a couple transformers and experiment but it is possible to make this happen by hooking up the speaker wires to a transformer and taking the transformer output and connecting it to the stereo.

I will let you know when I find a single transformer that works for this.

-CZ

Pinhead is cool, but I just bought Endora, the Witch with a Misting Cauldron, made by Gemmy.
http://www.gemmy.com/halloween/life-...wout-mic-29868

I'd like to hack her audio.

Has anyone else been able to add RCA outputs to this witch?
How'd you do it?