[J-Man]

I recently had someone looking to hack a Gemmy talking/singing Billy Bass. I have one on the way from ebay and will be doing surgery on him soon. Just checking to see how much interest there is in a board for doing this hack. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Tomslick66]

Are you looking to zombie-fy him or do you have another direction?

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[J-Man]

Are you looking to zombie-fy him or do you have another direction?

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No, replacing the board to have him say whatever you want along with some tail and body movements.

 

[htmagic]

J-Man,

So you're talking about something like this?

That is hilarious!

 

[J-Man]

Exactly, but a board that syncs the mouth movements to any audio and does random body and tail movements. Absolutely no user programming and the board will install internally. Not sure if the setup in that video is plug and play or if there's programming involved.

 

[RottenJack]

Very interested. I have two of them and have been meaning to open them up.

 

[J-Man]

Very interested. I have two of them and have been meaning to open them up.

Thanks RJ, I'll post the results as soon as I get him working. Should have my Billy Bass in a couple days.

 

[Bosco P. Soultrane]

I would be interested in what you make with it as I have collected 5-6 of them thru the years. I've seen someone do it as a kareoke machine, which was fun. It would be nice to do it similar to a talking skull.

 

[J-Man]

I would be interested in what you make with it as I have collected 5-6 of them thru the years. I've seen someone do it as a kareoke machine, which was fun. It would be nice to do it similar to a talking skull.

That's my goal along with tail movement and random body movement. I'm thinking my Squawker Talker controller may work well for the Billy Bass but won't know for sure until I do some testing.

 

[ooojen]

I'll be watching! It sounds very promising. I can handle simple electronics, but I have no programming skills.

 

[J-Man]

I'll be watching! It sounds very promising. I can handle simple electronics, but I have no programming skills.

This will be right up your alley if all goes well!

 

[J-Man]

Well preliminary testing with the Squawker Talker board on Billy Bass is looking good! I'll post a video soon.

 

[J-Man]

OK guys, here's a quick video of Billy in action.
The Squawker Talker board works really well, the tail moves with the mouth and the body movement is random while he's talking. I wasn't able to mount the board inside the plaque due to the inability to access the pots and volume control. The board is mounted to the back of the battery door so he has to be set up on a desk or table using the built-in stand. This also makes it easy to connect the power supply and your audio without seeing any wires. Just so everyone knows, he won't be able to hang on the wall.

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

Looks great with the Squawker board. I bought 2 boards from you and one definitely is getting used with my Squawkers parrot. Was going to do 2 talking parrots as I have an extra one but now thinking maybe one parrot, one fish. For those of us that bought the boards already, have you put together a how-to for use with the fish yet?

Also does anyone know if all of the Gemmy singing fish/lobsters have the same electronic inside so would be easy to switch a Squawkers board between which ever one you want to use that year?

 

[J-Man]

Looks great with the Squawker board. I bought 2 boards from you and one definitely is getting used with my Squawkers parrot. Was going to do 2 talking parrots as I have an extra one but now thinking maybe one parrot, one fish. For those of us that bought the boards already, have you put together a how-to for use with the fish yet?

Also does anyone know if all of the Gemmy singing fish/lobsters have the same electronic inside so would be easy to switch a Squawkers board between which ever one you want to use that year?

I haven't compiled any documentation for the Billy Bass yet but I will tell you that there is some soldering involved. It's not a lot, but it has to be done.
There's 3 motors in the Bass and the speaker so a total of 8 wires need to be spliced and 2 flyback diodes have to be soldered into the motor leads. Also, the motor leads are VERY polarity specific and have to be connected correctly or they will not run in the proper direction. Once the diodes are soldered in, if reverse polarity is accidentally connected, the diodes will be ruined. So in a nutshell, this hack may be best suited for those with some basic soldering skills. I haven't seen any of the other Gemmy fish but I would assume they are built similar to the Bass.

 

[David_AVD]

Nice hack. I've been thinking of buying one of those fish to play with.

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

Too bad it's not as easy to connect as the Squawkers was, but glad to say we can solder here and am appreciative that you've figured out all the ins and outs of the circuit so we don't end up with a really dead fish...as for Billy Bones, well he looks about almost there but hoping he will still have some last words for passerbys.

 

[J-Man]

For anyone that already has a Squawker Talker, I have additional info when using it for the Bass. Just email me if you need it.
GOS, already sent it to you.

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

Got the info J-Man. Big Thanks. You're great. I like how the fish can still move the mouth, head and tail. If I decide not to sacrifice one of my boards for a Big Mouth fish instead of a Squawkers McCaw parrot, I'll be back for another board. Without a doubt your boards and instructions are going to make us look great this year!!! Not sure what theme I'm going with yet but somewhere there's going to be a chatty parrot .

 

[J-Man]

Thanks GOS! Look forward to seeing what you come up with!