Thread: Audio for Animatronic Props

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I have some comments and questions about the Audio for the Animatronic props manufactured by Gemmy.
Wouldn’t be great if you could hook up the audio from their animatronic props (Pinhead, Freddy, Michael, etc) to a stereo system (or audio mixing board) so they can be amplified really loud. I know they aren't designed this way, but they should. Think about the average environment these props are placed. There are all sorts of other ambient Halloween sounds that potentially drown out the sound of the prop, so it can’t be heard. If we pay almost $300 for Pinhead, we want it to be HEARD over all of the other Halloween music and sound effects that we are also playing in our homes, etc. Make sense?
I’ve emailed this request to Gemmy and they sent a canned response “company policy does not allow us to accept outside product suggestions of any kind”. Obviously customer support at Gemmy is useless, so that brings me here to this forum. So…

1. Has anyone else wanted this functionality built into the props?
2. Has anyone been able to successfully fiddle with the audio and add RCA outputs or mini jacks to the prop?
3. Who are other manufacturers (like Gemmy) who create "consumer" oriented animatronic props?

If you feel the same way about this audio issue, please reply with your thoughts. If you're feeling particularly strong about this, email Gemmy, www.gemmy.com (the manufacturer of most of these props) with this request. Maybe if enough people email them, they add the functionality to future props.

I think would be even better if Gemmy and Tekky allowed recording of your own audio instead of using the cheezy built in audio. An output jack for external speakers would be nice too !

I have added RCA outputs from several different things, there are two problems. First making sure the levels coming off the board are correct and the second and the biggest issue..... the audio quality. Honestly a lot of those guys have some really bad audio, if you amplify a signal that is crap you get a loud crappy signal. I can grab one of my gemmy skulls and modify it for RCA outs and post it up here if anyone is really interested in it.

Originally Posted by lostskeleton

I have added RCA outputs from several different things, there are two problems. First making sure the levels coming off the board are correct

Can't you use an audio mixing board to adjust the volume?

Originally Posted by lostskeleton

and the second and the biggest issue..... the audio quality. Honestly a lot of those guys have some really bad audio, if you amplify a signal that is crap you get a loud crappy signal.

I agree. I'm looking at buying "Pinhead" from Spirit and want to tinker with the audio. The quality sounds much better than animatronic props from previous seasons.

Originally Posted by lostskeleton

I can grab one of my gemmy skulls and modify it for RCA outs and post it up here if anyone is really interested in it.

I WOULD LOVE THAT!!!!

Hey I started modifying my Gemmy last night and actually got audio out to my stereo but it is very low. I measured the audio levels of the audio coming out of the skull and it is actually below what is called "line level", the level our audio electronics put out...So it makes sense that it is low.

At this point I have two options, to design a small audio amplifier and put the circuit up here or... well I am going to see if I can find some sort of already available amplifier anyone can use without an engineering degree. This might make things a bit easier for everyone. I will probably build the amplifier just for fun and post it anyways though.

Also, when I was dissecting my Gemmy, I found my skull to be triggered by an audio sensor and I tested this to see if I can convert it to switch, and this worked.

I will keep you posted!

-CZ

My work around is completely bypassing the electronics in the gemmy altogether....Hacking into them and using Fright Ideas controllers or VSA to control them....That way you control the sound/lighting/movement the way you want and specialize it to your haunt.....ZR

Originally Posted by ZombieRaider

My work around is completely bypassing the electronics in the gemmy altogether....Hacking into them and using Fright Ideas controllers or VSA to control them....That way you control the sound/lighting/movement the way you want and specialize it to your haunt.....ZR

Awesome, but can you be a bit more specific?
Or can you point to a thread with step by step instructions?
Thx!

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?

Originally Posted by lostskeleton

Hey I started modifying my Gemmy last night and actually got audio out to my stereo but it is very low. I measured the audio levels of the audio coming out of the skull and it is actually below what is called "line level", the level our audio electronics put out...So it makes sense that it is low.

At this point I have two options, to design a small audio amplifier and put the circuit up here or... well I am going to see if I can find some sort of already available amplifier anyone can use without an engineering degree. This might make things a bit easier for everyone. I will probably build the amplifier just for fun and post it anyways though.
-CZ

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

It really depends on what it is your trying to do....Generally though most gemmy props have DC motors in them....I have my family/friends save all the DC wall warts from stuff when they throw it away so I've acquired probably 2 big boxes of assorted voltages of DC plugs....If I want to animate say a mouth moving (that's usually under 5 volts) I'll take let's say a 3.5 volt, cut the connector off and splice the 2 wires to the 2 wires on the motor that opens the mouth....Then I'll plug it in very quickly and unplug it just as quick....If the mouth doesn't open at all then I switch the wires around (reverse polarity) and try again....If it still doesn't move or moves just a little bit, that means I need a little more voltage so I'll go back to my box til I find one that opens the mouth nicely when plugging it in and unplugging it....Now you have a working mouth when power is applied.....I just plug that into a picoboo 105,add the sound I want to use.....Program the mouth to the audio and your done....Now you have a prop that is customizable to what you want it to say and you can change it from year to year if you want.....ZR

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.