Hi Everyone, I've been lurking on this forum for a while without making a post. I'm a standup comedian based in London and I'm trying to hack a teddy ruxpin much like a few other posters have done here.
I've been doing research but I'm still fairly confused.
A wee bit about me I'm used to working with software but software with a GUI. I can write CSS & HTML but that's about as far as I am with code thus far. That's not to say I couldn't learn; and I was rather looking forward to learning some code in this project but the question is which code!
I'm not amazing with my hands but I'm not averse to soldering, cutting and glueing.
I'm quite good at working through problems.
About the Project.
What I want to achieve is the following:
1. Teddy Ruxpin needs to be able to:
- Move mouth
- Blink
- Move head side to side; ideally, 360.
- Move arms up and down
- Flap arms.
- Move head up and down
Essentially everything that Waldes on this forum managed to do:
2. I need to be able to have a 'script' for Teddy Ruxpin to say and do. I will be able to talk to Teddy Ruxpin and then trigger the sentences with my iPhone or a bluetooth clicker hooked up to my Mac.
3. Teddy Ruxpin needs to blink in every 20 words or 20 seconds (however often the human blinks).
4. I need to be able to program specific blinks and mouth openings too. For instance
i)I click the bluetooth remote Teddy says hello there
- I click the bluetooth remote Teddy blinks twice.
- I wait 20 seconds without doing anything, Teddy blinks twice anyway.
5. Ideally, it would also be great to be able to talk into a microphone and have Teddy Ruxpin speak it, together with some automated movements.
The Current Situation
I bought a Teddy Ruxpin that a guy had already pre-hacked for an art project. www.afrugallery.com/sean/ I hooked it up to an Arduino Uno and some software he provided and have been successful in getting the mouth to move, eyes to blink. That's as far as I got. I bought another Teddy Ruxpin knowing that i was going to have to take on the whole thing myself if I was going to be able to customise it to my liking.
Equipment I have as of December 2014
1 x Bearduino arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/07/bearduino-hacking-teddy-ruxpin-with-arduino/ 1 x Arduino Uno 1 x Regular Teddy Ruxpin (unhacked) A lot of enthusiasm.
So, where do I start guys?
I have a mac but I can run Windows in a virtual environment. I make presentations during my comedy and use keynote for that. It might well be that I would need to run the Teddy Ruxpin separately from a different computer anyway; ideally my iPad I think to be honest.
I know this is a LOT to take in but I would LOVE to get any advice from you guys about where to start. I mean I literally don't know where to begin. The main thing i"m worried about is the software; I mean I know nothing about programming an Arduino. But I'm a fast learner and raring to go.
All best wishes, James
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There weren't pushrods. It was a plastic roller that was padded that rolled over the eye to move it up and down. It blinked by simply moving the eye all the way down (the eyelid is painted onto the top of the eye)
I'm going to give it a go using that hole. But, ultimately, I think I want to have eyes move left and right as well as up and down. Which it think means buying more eyes; any idea where one can buy eyes?
Also, a question on bracing:
I need to, somehow, hold the servo that turns the neck in place. It needs to be a attached to the body and also form the next. I'm a bit concerned about the load I'm putting on the servo itself so I need to find some way to brace the servo and I also need this brace to be part of the body.
Do you guys have any suggestions for how to brace? I saw some guy used some pourable plastic which seems like a good idea but I'd have to model the brace,right ?
The picture you posted earlier shows that pan and tilt setup being just zip tied and hot glued to the body. However I think that's a poor way to attach the motor. After all it's supporting a lot of weight and resisting sudden torque.
I think you have a great idea; get some of PolyMold or InstaMorph and make your own bracket that attaches to the main body in several places. Spread the load. That will give the servo a good strong base to support it's self on.
Awesome. Looking them up now. One valuable lesson I learned yesterday is to calibrate the motors and set them up for the movements you want to make BEFORE connecting them to the Ruxpin.
CUE spinning head and some weird cheek movements.
lol, i'm a huge fan of hot glue
My hot glued robots from year ago are still together. Make sure you clean the surface with rubbing alcohol first - get off the grease. And use a "real" glue gun, a man's glue gun! One you find in the hardware store
It's funny - I did take pics of it but not sure where they are at the moment. The 1952 jukebox that my parents restored in the 1970's has parts hot-glued! It has these spinning tubes on chained gears that rotate around the florescent light fixture. In the 1970's, my parents hot glued the parts together when restoring it - probably because without the internet, finding parts was a challenge.
I was changing the light bulb and saw all the glue - laughed! Looks like hot glue has been in my family before I was even born
Guys, see above for latest.
I have some questions about placing of servos and some linkage that I bought today.
Does the linkage need to go on both ends?
Here are some images; if anyone can help it would be much appreciated.
Hi bongoBong. I do not know if you already figure out how to sync your teddy's mouth with sound coming from a mic, but I did that in one of my projects. It's very simple if you use this board here http://www.cowlacious.com/scary-terry-audio-servo-driver-board/
it contains inputs for both line And mic signal, and you just hook up the Jaw servo on it. that simple. Use the mic input to the mic you want, and the line to the source of other sounds, like the EZ-b, or computers out... it will drive the servo perfectly! best regards.