[caspersgirl]

Hello to everyone here. I am a new member but was a guest for about a year and I learned soooo much from many of you. I hope someone out there can help me with this because I am spent. I am broke and I can not afford to buy the wrong thing again.
I have three gemmy skeleton spirit balls that I got on sale from Target last year. I want to hack them to sing and talk from a sound track that I have been working on. I have read a lot of threads but I am still having trouble. I am not a tech person...I do better with step by step. I have managed to get to the guts of two of them and tried to twist wires and stuff but nothing is happening. I got the mouth to open with a walwart but thats it. I read that I needed a "color organ"...so I went out to an electronics store here in Houston and after two hours of being in the store I walked out with a "light organ" because that was all they had. I solder it toghter and nothing! I can afford about 20 to 40 dollars more towards the electronic side of this project, but I need to get the right thing with good steps. Please....can anyone help me with this?
Thanks

 

[Myra Mains]

What about trying this hack?

You could use this fx box

Sound Activated Christmas Tree Lights - On Sale - Things for Christmas - Things You Never Knew Existed


.

 

[caspersgirl]

Thanks for the reply Myra Mains!

 

[FrightScares]

Hello to everyone here. I am a new member but was a guest for about a year and I learned soooo much from many of you. I hope someone out there can help me with this because I am spent. I am broke and I can not afford to buy the wrong thing again.
I have three gemmy skeleton spirit balls that I got on sale from Target last year. I want to hack them to sing and talk from a sound track that I have been working on. I have read a lot of threads but I am still having trouble. I am not a tech person...I do better with step by step. I have managed to get to the guts of two of them and tried to twist wires and stuff but nothing is happening. I got the mouth to open with a walwart but thats it. I read that I needed a "color organ"...so I went out to an electronics store here in Houston and after two hours of being in the store I walked out with a "light organ" because that was all they had. I solder it toghter and nothing! I can afford about 20 to 40 dollars more towards the electronic side of this project, but I need to get the right thing with good steps. Please....can anyone help me with this?
Thanks

Would you be willing to sell one of these?

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

Well someone correct me if I'm wrong but I thought only the microphoned version of the spirit ball could be hacked to connect to your own audio track and have the prop move like it was talking to the new dialog. If so that could be a problem to begin with if the Skeleton Spirit ball doesn't have a microphone. I never actually saw this version of the spirit ball so don't know what it's capabilities are.

Caspersgirl if you do have a wireless mic version of a skeleton spirit ball, maybe this tutorial can help you. It's OpenTrackRacers hack of the microphoned White Haired Spirit Ball. My husband and I have done OTR's tutorial on our own white haired guy and he works fine so I can recommend it to you. The parts weren't that expensive either but you need to have the right prop to hack to begin with.

Gemmy Crystal Ball audio line-in hack by OpenTrackRacer


Regarding the Halloween or the Christmas Lighting FX boxes, so far based on numerous requests for them, they are either sold out or discontinued so far. I keep looking for the Xmas version since it's the same thing and much cheaper and nothing is coming up. Besides I don't see how that device will allow you to import audio so that the mouth and face move to the dialog. Am I wrong about that?

 

[caspersgirl]

Hello Frightscares. Sorry but no. I have three of these but two have already been converted to witches. I am saving the last one for a Scrooge display that I am doing. They sell these every year in my area but I have not seen any this year. I will keep my eye out. I try to buy them after the holiday because they are so cheap. If I come across any I will post!

 

[caspersgirl]

Hi GOS...thank you for your help and information. I am always looking for ways to improve on wiring my displays. As for the post, I got some help on this last year. It was really tough! What I thought was going to be a simple hook-up turned into a week of pure frustration but one of our members was so incredibly patient with me and walked me thru the whole thing. After many test runs, we finally got the thing to work. So again thank you for the link. I hope I can return the favor! I plan to post pics soon.

 

[caspersgirl]

Gemmy Skeleton Spirit Ball Witch

Here are some pics of my witch. I wanted to have a skull to work with even though I have done most of my sculptures with styro heads. I am no pro, just like to play with clay. I wanted to do this because I wanted my witches to say the spells as they stirred the cauldron. It was a great effect and the tots and parents loved it! Sculpting the face and creating the prop was the easy part. Wiring was difficult for me. But with a lot of help from one of the members, it worked out.

 

[caspersgirl]

Gemmy Skeleton Spirit Ball Witch

Here are some more.

 

[halloween71]

Nice witch's head!

 

[caspersgirl]

Thank you H-71! I have a few other pics in my profile. I am a little slow to post so please forgive.