# Talking Skulls at Lowe's



## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

Saw these for the second time today when I was getting my pvc for the Vortex Tunnel and couldn't resist. They're $12.98 at my local Lowe's and you can see that they have a detachable "Try Me" plug. I wasn't happy with the overall shape of the skull, but . . . Let me know if I should just return this or if it has strong possibililties. BTW, it comes in the bone color or the clear.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

Interesting! Are these the types that have several "canned" phrases?


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## SpookySam (Mar 27, 2007)

Here's what I did with one last year:










Props :: MVI_7961.flv video by Spooky_Sam - [email protected]@[email protected]@http://vid193.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid193.photobucket.com/albums/z305/Spooky_Sam/Props/[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@z305/Spooky_Sam/Props/MVI_7961


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

Cool prop, SpookySam! Did you hack the skull to use an external sound source?


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## Devils Chariot (May 23, 2007)

That is very cool! I like it!!!


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

Otaku said:


> Interesting! Are these the types that have several "canned" phrases?


Yes, Otaku, he has the canned recordings.

I was about to tear one apart. Would a pic help in any way?


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## IMU (Apr 8, 2009)

That is very cool! If anybody can figure out how to hack one its Otaku!


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

He also comes with the 3 AA batteries and a motion sensor (the little hole between his eyes).


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

There's been a lot of discussion and tribulation when it comes to hacking talking props that use chip-on-board (COB) recorders. I'm thinking of trying something with one of these guys. I have an old BPE Auto-Talk board (servo driver) that was designed to be used with an ISD 2500 series digital recorder chip. I don't like the cheesy sound from the ISD chip, so I tried using a MP3 player. I found that the ATB barely works when using a MP3 player. The 2500 has a constant voltage output of ~2VDC. The cheapo MP3 player has a voltage output of a few millivolts, not enough to drive the ATB. I spoke to an engineer at BPE who told me that the solution was to use a pre-amp to raise the MP3 player signal to something that the ATB could use. I think this solution could be applied to hacking COB circuits.
All of the circuitry that drives the jaw motor is downstream of the COB. It should be possible to cut the wires or traces at the output of the COB and insert an external sound source, using a small pre-amp to boost the signal, and get the jaw motor to react to the new sound source.
An alternative is to bypass the factory board altogether and use a sound-to-relay circuit. In this case, you'd need to tap the battery pack (or use a wart) to supply power to drive the motor via the relay board. I already know this will work, but the relay clicking can be annoying.
I may have to snag one of these skulls and get a pre-amp kit to test this theory. Thanks for the pics, tot13 - looks a lot like the basic Boris jaw motor system.


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

Otaku, I think last year Here's Johnny toyed with these as well as I. I think the consensus was that the CoB didn't drive the motor but there was preprogrammed sequences on another chip that did it. I could be wrong though cause I'm such a hack with electronics.

I have about six or so of these guys I picked up on clearance from Lowes last year and I would LOVE to find a way to drive these other than using a custom built circuit (which amounted to nothing more than a 1 channel color organ) to drive the motor directly. I didn't have the best of luck building the boards last year and the design seemed to be a bit temperature sensitive. They just didn't work at all for me once outdoors.


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

You yanks really know how to annoy people. Trying to find stuff like this over here is nearly impossible and/or VERY expensive. You guys just show up and say 'Oh by the way I found these at Lowes...'


AGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

You don't know how lucky you are!


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

Terrormaster said:


> Otaku, I think last year Here's Johnny toyed with these as well as I. I think the consensus was that the CoB didn't drive the motor but there was preprogrammed sequences on another chip that did it. I could be wrong though cause I'm such a hack with electronics.


Yeah, I remember that thread - I think Dr. M was working with the Skull Lantern version of a CoB skull, as well. I'm sure the CoB doesn't drive the motor directly, but the signal may go to something like an opto-isolator to switch power to the motor, kind of like a color organ. That's the portion of the circuit that seems to have trouble with millivolt inputs, like from CD and MP3 players. If the sound chip has a similar output voltage as the ISD 2500's then the inline pre-amp should work.


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

Fritz 42,
If you see something you want, I can ship it to you. Then you pay me back. I'll talk to a friend of mine from Ireland to see how to send stuff cheap.


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

fritz42_male said:


> You yanks really know how to annoy people. Trying to find stuff like this over here is nearly impossible and/or VERY expensive. You guys just show up and say 'Oh by the way I found these at Lowes...'
> 
> AGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
> 
> You don't know how lucky you are!


Sorry about that, Fritz. No intended annoyance here. That's why I always say "local" because I'm not very well-travelled and have no idea what types of stores each of you has in your area. That's also the reason I included a pic of the packaging so those of you without a Lowe's would recognize the product.

Here's some info from the package that may help you find it on-line:

2009 Gemmy Industries Corp.
117 Wrangler Drive
Coppell, TX 75019

For questions: 972-961-7000

It also has a pre-printed (not from Lowe's) item number or SKU number: 0025156.

Hope this helps -


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

Otaku said:


> Yeah, I remember that thread - I think Dr. M was working with the Skull Lantern version of a CoB skull, as well. I'm sure the CoB doesn't drive the motor directly, but the signal may go to something like an opto-isolator to switch power to the motor, kind of like a color organ. That's the portion of the circuit that seems to have trouble with millivolt inputs, like from CD and MP3 players. If the sound chip has a similar output voltage as the ISD 2500's then the inline pre-amp should work.


If anyone here can figure this out it's you or Doc. You guys are bloody electronic geniuses with this stuff.


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

Thanks for the offer Aquayne. I'm in Oz so shipping is usually a bit pricey but I have a friend coming over from the UK at the end of the month so if the UK is cheaper then that would be brilliant.

tot13 - thanks for the info but Gemmy only want to deal with the big chains and don't seem to do anything in Australia.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Otaku said:


> Yeah, I remember that thread - I think Dr. M was working with the Skull Lantern version of a CoB skull, as well. I'm sure the CoB doesn't drive the motor directly, but the signal may go to something like an opto-isolator to switch power to the motor, kind of like a color organ. That's the portion of the circuit that seems to have trouble with millivolt inputs, like from CD and MP3 players. If the sound chip has a similar output voltage as the ISD 2500's then the inline pre-amp should work.


What about adding an LM386 audio amp IC (8 pin dip) I am using it on my sound to servo board and all you need is a gain of 20 anything more and it distorts the sound. you can also replace the motor with a servo and add a picaxe to control it or a scary terry board.


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## SpookySam (Mar 27, 2007)

Otaku said:


> Cool prop, SpookySam! Did you hack the skull to use an external sound source?


Sorry to disappoint, but those are the "canned" phrases triggered by an x10 relay. Works well enough for me, but custom phrases could be a lot more interesting.


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## CAH (Sep 8, 2009)

*talking skull from lowes question*

Hi Spooky Sam - Loved your skull on the tombstone and would like to make one. Could you please let me know how you mounted the skull - it is a little heavy and am not sure how to do it. Thanks!!


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## heresjohnny (Feb 15, 2006)

I had a working prototype that drove the Gemmy skulls, way better than the toy circuit IMHO. Only needs line level input, good sensitivity. I will dig it up and verify the circuit and get it posted. It was basically the Scarey Terry driver circuit that feed into a darlington pair that could drive the skull.


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## heresjohnny (Feb 15, 2006)

Heres the Scary Terry circuit: Scary Terry Circuit

I added a Darlington pair on the output to drive the jaw 









I have the parts and should finish breadboarding the circuit tomorrow.


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## heresjohnny (Feb 15, 2006)

Got the circuit bread-boarded, works great using headphone jack from an mp3 player. I will take some video and start a thread tomorrow, don't want to hijack this one.


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