Elvia the EZ Robot powered Android-Elvis "Hack" I have been away from robotics for a while, spending time with my brother, who recently lost his courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. He loved coming over to fly and record vids on the drone. I purchased the WooWee Elvis from EBay that already had all the electronics removed. After reviewing some of "Hacks" on the net, I decided I would try using existing parts that I already had on hand, to convert the bot to an EZ Robot. First I disassembled the unit. Then I removed the control boards from numerous EZ Robot servos and attempted to control as many of the existing original DC motors as possible. I was able to convert 4 DC motors using the original Elvis potentiometers with EZ Robot servo control boards. The neck motor operated well with a control board from an old 1/4 scale servo. I had to find the correct min. and max. number combinations to operate a motor forward, stop, and reverse. I cut out the boards from numerous new servos, because sometimes I had the magic smoke. New servos were installed for the eyes up/down, top lip, head tilt right/left, head rock forward/back, and jaw. Because the new jaw servo had a different shape, it required offsetting the face about 3/8" forward for clearance. The head tilt and rock servos were fitted with the original worm gears removed from the Elvis motors. Both of those servos had to be allowed to pivot, same as original motors. The new servos had slightly less travel, but worked well allowing her head to roll around similar to original movements. My wife helped pick out the half price wig, and instructed makeup work. Having an Amazon Dot, I wanted a female robot. I have not had much success with the sound servo for realistic mouth movement. The silicone skin and animatronic eyes are good quality, and make the robot more realistic. The wig and smearing makeup are a real hassle if changing out a servo, I may eventually slap a ball cap on it!
;)
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Very nice upgrades Steve. You've been busy.
You're robot has been featured on motherboard. Congrats for startling the world
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/robot-face-alexa
My favorite quote is
And the verge: http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/1/26/14398596/amazon-alexa-api-elvia-head
You're famous
I hope Steve is not discouraged by these articles saying it's soulless and terrifying. Some people are just creeped out by stuff like this. I think anyone that knows anything about the work and thought that goes into something like this really sees it as a very amazing achievement. There's nothing creepy or spooky about it other than looking at little like Elvis. Lol. Again, nice work Steve!
I agree with Dave, great work Steve!
Tony
The terrifying components that I beleive the authors are referring to is seeing how far robots have come. Both articles mention the robot uprising - Steve should be proud to be making an impact.
Stories like this will be important parts of history. People will remember. Steve should be proud! I am
Also, his video has 15,000 views and growing!
Yeah Steve, please don't read into any possible negativity! We love your work! We know how awesome you are and how talented you are! The positives are your work is receiving a lot of attention and you should be super proud of that!
I would say just let folks think what they want because there is a component to your work that is artful and art is always in the eye of the beholder, you know? Your role is to create the science/art, others that can't create it comment on it and yours is liked so much it is commented on a lot!
Plus, Black and Decker owes you a gift card or something at this point!
Steve the stealth marketing genius there....and we thought your talent was robotics! 
I'm going to copy cat Steve and start making sure my tools are in the background, DeWalt, Fluke, Craftsmen