[billman]

I have seen the digital recorder hack and mp3 hack. Those are good for 1 phrase.

How could a get a prop to say like 3 various phrases all on board like Gemmy Props?

 

[Otaku]

This looks like it will do that for you:

http://www.cowlacious.com/SupportDocs/CARP300 Rev A.pdf

It has a multiple message mode that plays the next msg in sequence when triggered, then starts over at the first one. Only one msg is played per trigger event.

 

[billman]

Thanks Otaku...I have seen that board nice but $42.95 per prop would add up too much for me.

I'm looking for something cheap. I have a ton of props, bottle openers, etc. that say several phrases and were super cheap. I can't seem to find any DIY's for multiple phrases. Do you know of any DIY projects?

 

[Meyers Madness]

Maybe this Digital Sound Device
Not sure? Cheap though.

 

[Meyers Madness]

Here is one possibly.Key Chain Digital Voice Recorder Keychain Flashlight - eBay (item 370232676718 end time Jul-27-09 12:55:41 PDT)

But I would agree with Otaku on this one.

 

[billman]

I just did a quick search while eating dinner and saw this...up to 24 separate messages but only 5 seconds and over in the UK:
Voice Recorder that allows you to record multiple voice messages

I'm pretty sure I saw something similar awhile back that did 3- 10 second messages. I'll keep searching.

 

[Pumpkin King]

I had one but magnetized it and now it's broken.

 

[Myra Mains]

What about this?

Talking Bust

 

[ruggerz]

Use one of those looping tapes?....

Record your message and put it inside the prop...


Ruggerz

 

[billman]

Most let's say gemmy props..have a PIR sensor and onboard sound (in the pic chip). So, when the sensor gets activated it will turn on the sound, play the sound bite, then cut off. Most have several phrases that will go through in sequence. This is what I am looking to do.

Since digital voice recorders are so cheap, how about get 3 and link them together. I would need some sort of controller to randomly turn 1 on. Any ideas on a controller?

 

[Otaku]

It's not a DIY, but the price is good:

DealExtreme: $4.30 Fun Voice Transforming 15-sec Digital Voice Recorder

You could use a 4017 IC to control the players, but it would need to know which output was last active, in order to start on the next pin. There should be a way to do that - I'll look into it.

 

[Diabolik]

It's not a DIY, but the price is good:

DealExtreme: $4.30 Fun Voice Transforming 15-sec Digital Voice Recorder

You could use a 4017 IC to control the players, but it would need to know which output was last active, in order to start on the next pin. There should be a way to do that - I'll look into it.

Otaku, have you found any cheap MP3 players that include a random or shuffle function ? Wondering if you had one with a shuffle or random switch that maybe it could work ? As long as you could have it start playing from the depression of the play button from the off mode... ???

I had an old discman last year for my Boris. I soldered a wire from a relay into the play button. It worked great. The only downfall using the CD player was the delay. I was using 1 track, but the player had a random switch, so rightfully, I could have recorded multiple tracks. The only thing then would have been to stop the player after the prop triggers before it moves onto the next track....

 

[Dr Morbius]

Why not just use a cheap MP3 player? You could put a pause in between routines using Audacity which is free. Or find a cheap CD player (do they still make them? lol!) one that plays pre programmed tracks.

 

[Otaku]

Why not just use a cheap MP3 player? You could put a pause in between routines using Audacity which is free. Or find a cheap CD player (do they still make them? lol!) one that plays pre programmed tracks.

I was gonna suggest that, too, Doc, but I think he wants the sound to be triggered rather than a repeating loop. The CD player idea is a good one - just need to figure out how to get it to play the next track in the sequence. Shouldn't be too difficult to do (famous last words...).

 

[Diabolik]

I hacked a Technics CD player for my Boris. When the unit was off, one press of the play button powered up the unit, and started playing track # 1, pressing it again paused the CD. Having only 1 track, the CD player would power down after the track finished and would reset for the next show.

 

[Dr Morbius]

Otaku, have you found any cheap MP3 players that include a random or shuffle function ? Wondering if you had one with a shuffle or random switch that maybe it could work ? As long as you could have it start playing from the depression of the play button from the off mode... ???

I had an old discman last year for my Boris. I soldered a wire from a relay into the play button. It worked great. The only downfall using the CD player was the delay. I was using 1 track, but the player had a random switch, so rightfully, I could have recorded multiple tracks. The only thing then would have been to stop the player after the prop triggers before it moves onto the next track....

Oops! I missed that post when I posted my last post..

I would think the delay is desirable in random shuffle. The play button would be easy to hack a trigger to. Getting it to stop would be the challenge. I didn't see in the original post that he wanted a trigger? Or was that implied? Using the PIR sensor hack should work on a CD/ MP3 player play button, as those have a timer that would shut it off.

 

[billman]

Yeah, the mp3 player would be a great idea. You can get those under $10 on ebay.

That way you could have a ton of tracks, have a way to permanently set it on random, trigger it with PIR sensor and boom limitless onboard tracks. I'm liking this!!

 

[billman]

I was thinking you would still need a timer to turn on/off the mp3 player. The tracks would have to be as long as the timer is set for though.

Unless, there is some way of powering itself off at the end of each track.

 

[billman]

Thinking out loud here...maybe, adding a tone at the end of each track (high frequency). Having a microphone circuit setup to hear that tone to close the circuit..turning it off?

 

[billman]

Ok how bout this...I remember with Dr. Morbius groundbreaker prop. He split the audio channel and blew into one channel to operate the toy motor.

Maybe for the mp3...split the right/left audio and have one channel to blow into and wired directly to the microphone to power off the MP3 Player after each track. I think this would work..

Anyone know how to reverse the circuit for sound activated to turn off instead of on?