# Alternatives to Scary Terry board



## tzankoff (Nov 16, 2008)

Hey gang. I need some assistance in finding a good alternative to the Scary Terry board.

I ordered an ST board from Cowlacious Designs a while back. For reasons unknown, everything on the board works...except the part that drives the servo. The power source is fine, audio goes in, and audio comes out. However, the servo does not move. As far as I can tell, there does not seem to be any power going to the servo because I can turn the servo horn by hand freely despite it being properly plugged into a powered board. I returned it and got my money back.

Eight days ago, I ordered another board. As of this writing, it is still sitting at their facility. I have made phone calls (unanswered), left voice mails (also unanswered), and sent e-mails (take a guess...yep, unanswered as well) trying to get them to get this order out the door to no avail.

I am far beyond fed up with Cowlacious Designs and they way they have been treating me in this matter and this is not the first time that something like this has happened. I have always had problems with their boards but I cannot find a suitable alternative. Preferably, a board that can be powered with 5 or 6 volts. I am hoping that somebody here knows something that I do not or can suggest something.

Thanks in advance for your help!


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## dstading (Aug 6, 2014)

I've had very good experience with the AutoTalk 2 board from Blue Point Engineering, but it does need 9VDC, 1A power. Never a problem, and their CS is outstanding. There are several members here that have developed their own designs for servo driver boards. I'm sure they'll chime in.


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## tzankoff (Nov 16, 2008)

I sure hope so. I'll take whatever help I can get at this point. I just hope that I don't have to assemble any kits because my vision is not that solder friendly anymore. I am sure a solution will present itself.


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## mkozik1 (Sep 6, 2010)

Steve's Frankenstein board is pretty awesome - It incorporates ST with many other features. Worth a look http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=36427&page=3


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## tzankoff (Nov 16, 2008)

Well, I just got a refund notice from Cowlacious Designs...despite never having asked for a refund. This is the part where I say "I don't want a refund. I want a board...or at the very least a simple explanation as to why this is taking so long". Instead, I am just going to cut my losses and move on.

Attached to the refund was this note: "Hi, Here is your refund. Sorry, I have been out of town with my regular job and haven't had time to take care of this. I am very busy right now as the company I work for was just bought out by a much larger company and I have been involved with the xover."


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## dstading (Aug 6, 2014)

I should add that I use two of the S-T boards, too. I haven't had any problems with them so I haven't had to test Cow's customer service yet. Hopefully I won't need to...


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## mikkojay (Sep 15, 2014)

I have one of these, it works well:
http://www.audioservocontroller.com/#


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## tzankoff (Nov 16, 2008)

Unfortunately, that board requires 8-12V. I'm trying not exceed 6V because I don't want multiple batteries powering multiple things.


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## tzankoff (Nov 16, 2008)

I think that I might have gotten to the bottom of the beyond frustrating ST mystery that I have been experiencing.

Because I really wanted the ST board for my project, I went ahead and ordered another one and noted in the special instructions area not to cancel the order or issue a refund. I made it very clear that I wanted the board. Two days later, one got shipped. It arrived today (3/12). I hooked things up...and the result was exactly the same.

I thought to myself there was no way I could have gotten two bad boards in a row. Just for the sake of being curious, I hooked up a 9V battery. Guess what? It seems to work just fine now. As of this writing, I have not fiddled with any of the pot settings on the board, but at least the servo is showing signs of life when I turn the system on which is more than I got previously.

So...the board actually requires 9V despite all references (online, printed manual, and the board itself) saying that it just needs a minimum of 6V. Hmmph! Upon further review, the printed manual has an incredibly poor proofreader with bad grammar skills. I don't know how anybody could possibly overlook something like this. 

Anyway, having discovered this, I guess that I will have to make some changes. I said previously that I wanted to avoid using multiple batteries if I can. Looks like it is time to come up with a Plan B.


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## dstading (Aug 6, 2014)

Interesting. I have two ST boards (ST-200 and ST-300) and I ran them from 4AA battery packs for years before switching over to wall warts. I got tired of changing the battery packs halfway through the Big Night. Note that I was only running the servo, no LEDs or anything else. I assume you're using the ST-400, so it may have higher power requirements, especially if using LEDs or other features of the board.


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## tzankoff (Nov 16, 2008)

Yes, I have an ST-400.

I did have an ST-200 (before the headphone jack broke off) and an ST-300 (before the regulator fell off) and both of them did fine with a 6V input.

Now, I have an ST-400 and it does seem to require a 9V input despite all references indicating that 6V is fine, which it is not. All I am using it for is to push the servo along with line in and audio out. No LEDs or anything else. With 6V, the power LED turns on and audio will go through, but no servo. Upgrade to 9V...and the servo works.


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## dstading (Aug 6, 2014)

Sounds like the usual "copy and paste" errors in the ST-400 manual.


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## tzankoff (Nov 16, 2008)

That is exactly what I was thinking. There is even a one sentence reference in the ST-400 manual to the board being a 5 volt device which is what the ST-200 (the first board that I ever bought from them back in 2010) and ST-300 were along with numerous grammatical mistakes and diagram labeling errors.

Anyway, things are okay with my skeleton now. I do have to rework a couple of things to accommodate for the 9V NiMH battery that I want to use...but I'm getting there. Thankfully, I get to procrastinate for seven whole months before I have to worry about doing anything. 

Just kidding. I'm almost done right now. :-D


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## ScaryLane (Jun 3, 2013)

tzankoff said:


> Hey gang. I need some assistance in finding a good alternative to the Scary Terry board.
> Thanks in advance for your help!


I've working on a project that uses two MSGEQ7, a seven band audio spectrum analyzer IC. This chip takes standard audio (two chips for stereo) and converts it to zero to Vcc. (3.3 or 5 volts depending on the power supply.) In other words, with this chip, 3 caps and 2 resistors you can convert audio into a something that micro-controller (like a Picaxe) can use to drive a servo for the jaw movement. Best of all, this audio converter circuit can cost less than $2 per audio channel.

The code for the Micro-controller just select the right Frequency band (63Hz, 160Hz, 400Hz, 1kHz, 2.5kHz, 6.25kHz, 16kHz) for the voice and reads the level via an Analog to Digital input pen. With a little conversion from this 0-255 input in to the range of the Jaw servo, the controller will easily position the Jaw servo motor.

I've had a few issues with the Scary Terry design that the MSGEQ7 - Picaxe fixes. First is temperature drift. When the Scary Terry circuit changes temperature on a cold night or out in the sun, the jaw position shifts from not opening to fully open. Since this new design uses digital code to position the servo, there is no drift!

Another issue is that the jaw only has two positions, open or closed. True, the movement between those to positions does help with effect. But I wanted the jaw to open just a bit when the vocal track was at lower levels. This new design will let the jaw do a range of movement from a whisper to loud yell.

This new design also is cheaper and easier to build since it uses less parts. True, it does need a micro-controller to take the data from the MSGEQ7 and convert it into position info for the servo. This should not be an issue since the controller is most likely already in the design. (Like driving the 3-axes servos for moving the head around.)

You can get the MSGEQ7 chip on eBay for $1 to $2 (plus shipping). There is a complete circuit there too for about $13 that I've used for prototyping. Over at SparkFun, they also have the chip and dual circuit board (Stereo) for quick prototyping, but at higher prices.


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## mikeythemars (May 10, 2008)

dstading said:


> I've had very good experience with the AutoTalk 2 board from Blue Point Engineering, but it does need 9VDC, 1A power. Never a problem, and their CS is outstanding. There are several members here that have developed their own designs for servo driver boards. I'm sure they'll chime in.


Another thumbs up for the BPE autotalk. Compared to every other servo driver board I've tried, it is the most ajustable, precise and reliable.

Which may explain why they are used by both Disney and Universal.

BTW, 9V 1000ma wall warts are plentiful and cheap.


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