Author Topic: RC Servo to Linear Motion hack for Animatronic Skelly in a Haunted Rock Band  (Read 3316 times)

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Offline Bart_at_Haunted_HighTopic starter

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Hi Guys,
New to the forum.  I worked on an animatronics singing skeleton group that performed at our non profit Haunted Attraction.

Anyone on FB can find out at https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Haunted-High-Stage-Fright/246523175363245

or track down 'Haunted High Stage Fright" on a search of FB and you'll find it. There is a healthy group of us on-line in some of the Haunted Forums building these 3'axis skulls using RC servos and controller boards and software.

This past season, I had 12 singing figures, and it was wildly popular.  BUT each year you have to change it up.

SO for the next season we want to have a band complete with guitar players and a drummer.

For starters, I'm struggling with how to make the action on the guitar neck so it looks like  the player is moving his hand u and down the frets of the neck.

Linear actuators are too slow. I thought about trying to hack a belt  drive printer/plotter carrier, but I'm stumped and quite honestly a bit out of my league.

I joined the forum in search of advice and guidance.,

Many Thanks in advance,

"Black Heart" Bart Gaffney
Haunted High -Oconomowoc, WI
Dare to Scare

Offline Soeren

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Hi,

For starters, I'm struggling with how to make the action on the guitar neck so it looks like  the player is moving his hand u and down the frets of the neck.
We need some info/metrics on guitar as well as hand to help.
Like...
Is it a real guitar that should remain functional?
If not, what is it made from and what are the dimensions of the fret board?
The hand is made of what?
And weighs (approximately) how much?
Of what material?


Linear actuators are too slow.
They do come in a large range of speeds, but will not be the cheapest solution.

What speed do you need?


I thought about trying to hack a belt  drive printer/plotter carrier, but I'm stumped and quite honestly a bit out of my league.
If you have enough room for it, just go with a relatively large gear head motor. For this, you could just use nylon coated steel wire (rather than a timing belt) - the kind used in sports fishing (I think it's called a "snell" in English) in between the line proper and the lure, to avoid the fish biting the line.

But serve up some numbers, then it's much easier to see what's possible
Regards,
Søren

A rather fast and fairly heavy robot with quite large wheels needs what? A lot of power?
Please remember...
Engineering is based on numbers - not adjectives

Offline Bart_at_Haunted_HighTopic starter

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OK..on to part 2 of my guitar issues.
The strumming arm and picking hand.

Picking hand will be easy with the use of an RC servo motor, however its the motion of the arm that has me looking for help.
I thought about driving a 12VDC automotive windshield wiper motor, but there isn't any control there. Ideally it would be nice to control the speed and range of that action. it would have to be strong enough to pivot a 12" arm with a RC servo motor at the end.

any suggestions?
"Black Heart" Bart Gaffney
Haunted High -Oconomowoc, WI
Dare to Scare

 


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