# Spirit Halloween animatronic hack



## Bgio13

I keep searching but cannot find one. I have the jumping spider from Spirit Halloween and am looking to trigger it using some sort of remote instead of the "step here" pad. Can't seem to find one, so I am wondering if this is possible? Thanks,

Bill


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## corey872

Haven't seen this prop, but if like most, the 'step here' pad likely just closes the circuit on the two wires between it and the prop. I believe we've had some 'step here' pad discussion on here before.

Likely what you would need to do is set up your remote control so what ever function it operates on (IR detector, push-button, light beam break, etc) would then close a relay to complete the circuit on the pad leads and trigger the prop.


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## JeffHaas

Search ebay for "wireless remote 1ch" which means one channel. You want a momentary receiver. They're cheap, under $10.00 shipped from China. More if you buy from someone in the US.

There are a ton of these things, with a keychain transmitter and a receiver with a relay in it. The receiver will need a battery to run. You connect the relay to the "Try Me" input on the prop. Use the common connection and the "Normally Open" connection on the relay, so when the button on the transmitter is closed, the relay closes (same as pushing the Try Me button).

The only thing to figure out is how the Try Me button is connected - the older ones used little flat connectors, and newer ones use a mono headphone jack. You can cut the button off of an existing Try Me button that works with the prop, and then connect the wires to the relay.


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## BillyVanpire

most likely it's this one?
the trigger is a small 2pin plastic connector next to the power input
(kinda looks like a cdrom audio connector)






edit:



JeffHaas said:


> - the older ones used little flat connectors, and newer ones use a mono headphone jack.


correct, mine has the flat connector.
here's one showing the mono jack





i have one of these modules with a stripped gear/broken tooth (i think)
anyone ever repair one of these units?


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## JeffHaas

I haven't heard of anyone fixing a Spirit prop after the mechanism goes bad. That would probably be quite an adventure. Remember they are made cheap to sell at a specific price, which means most of them only last through a night or two.

Wow, look at the scary fingernails!


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## Bgio13

Thanks for all the help,

Bill


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## Bgio13

JeffHaas said:


> Search ebay for "wireless remote 1ch" which means one channel. You want a momentary receiver. They're cheap, under $10.00 shipped from China. More if you buy from someone in the US.
> 
> There are a ton of these things, with a keychain transmitter and a receiver with a relay in it. The receiver will need a battery to run. You connect the relay to the "Try Me" input on the prop. Use the common connection and the "Normally Open" connection on the relay, so when the button on the transmitter is closed, the relay closes (same as pushing the Try Me button).
> 
> The only thing to figure out is how the Try Me button is connected - the older ones used little flat connectors, and newer ones use a mono headphone jack. You can cut the button off of an existing Try Me button that works with the prop, and then connect the wires to the relay.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12v-10A-...3&pid=100005&rk=2&rkt=6&sd=171434900985&rt=nc

I assume this is what I am looking for?


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## JeffHaas

That's the kind. The fourth picture down on the left shows how the relay is set up - the C for common and the NO for normally open. You want to use those.

One thing in the description confused me, so I looked it up - all these come set up for "inching", which somehow means "momentary contact". In other words, the relay stays on as long as you hold down the button on the remote. You can change the way it's set up for two other modes, but you don't need to for triggering a Spirit prop. Just a quick press and the prop will start up.

You will need to have a 12V battery to run the receiver (get one of those battery holders for eight AA cells). And I can't tell if they ship with the battery in the remote or not - you may have to get one separately later. There are some restrictions for shipping batteries overseas.


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## Bgio13

Jeff, thanks for all the help. The kids are getting older and want a "scarier" haunted house, so I'm trying to step it up a little with what I have, that's why I joined this forum. I don't have any experience with anything electrical so I'm worried about frying a prop, or worse a Pico controller when I decide to go that route. Thanks again,

Bill


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## FistJr

Let me know if you're successful with this trigger. I have had mixed results with remotely triggering Spirit props. I have been able to trigger most Spirit animatronics remotely by wiring in a relay that I open/close to trigger the prop. The latest trigger pads (the RCA pads), however, use (I believe) a piezo-electric device instead of a simple open/close mechanism. Devices wired for those are more difficult to trigger with a relay. In particular, I have had very limited success in triggering the jumpers remotely.

I would very much appreciate any help in simulating the open/close for those types of pads.


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## CDW

FistJr said:


> Let me know if you're successful with this trigger. I have had mixed results with remotely triggering Spirit props. I have been able to trigger most Spirit animatronics remotely by wiring in a relay that I open/close to trigger the prop. The latest trigger pads (the RCA pads), however, use (I believe) a piezo-electric device instead of a simple open/close mechanism. Devices wired for those are more difficult to trigger with a relay. In particular, I have had very limited success in triggering the jumpers remotely.
> 
> I would very much appreciate any help in simulating the open/close for those types of pads.


Since the piezo-type trigger receiver in the jumping spider is just looking for a small, quick spike in the voltage, I've had fairly reliable luck just wiring in a 1.5 V battery (AA, AAA, coin cell, any kind should work) in series with the momentary switch. Given the typical output voltage of a piezo, it could probably take a higher voltage, but since the current is so low from a piezo, and 1.5 V seemed to work, I wouldn't risk it. I haven't tested extensively, though, so YMMV.


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## mikkojay

I have a Spirit jumping spider so I can do some experimentation with it if you'd like. I have triggered it with remote controlled relays successfully. If I remember correctly, I used the common & NC (normally closed) terminals on the relay so that the circuit was normally closed when waiting to be triggered. I also remember that one year it had a "hair trigger", i.e. it would go off when something substantial on the same 120v circuit was turned on or off, like a blender with BB's in it. This happened when I used a really long run of phone line to the footpad plug, so that may have been the culprit that caused the undesired sensitivity.

I can do some testing and report back in the next day or two. This is a good topic to get thoroughly documented since a lot of people use these props.
-Mike


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## JeffHaas

We have one of the jumping werewolves - the kind that jumps straight up. It uses the RCA plug and I set up a simple Picaxe, PIR sensor and relay to set it off. It worked great! I guess that specific one doesn't have the piezo trigger.

After Maker Faire Bay Area this weekend, I can take a couple of pictures and show what I did.


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## Bgio13

Thanks for all the ideas. I too think this is an important topic, and I will be checking back frequently to see what people have come up with. I guess what I am really confused at is why isn't there a remote that can be purchased from Spirit to operate these props. For a lot of you here, hacking a prop is half the battle, but for those that are technically challenged, being able to buy something that will work without frying some expensive equipment would be the way to go. A few years ago I bought one of these props: http://tekkytoys.com/pages/halloween2.php?productID=27 and it came with a remote to trigger the prop and it worked just fine. Thanks again,

Bill


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## mikkojay

Hey there- I finally got around to making a video of how I wired my wireless relay module.






I placed the video and a few of the supporting images on my project page HERE. Check it out- hope you find it helpful!

Thanks, Mike


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## Bgio13

Mike, thank you so much. Now that I have something to look at, I can understand things a lot better. When I get around to getting all the parts together I will let you know how putting things together goes. Thanks again

Bill


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## Bgio13

Just a little update as I have received some parts and finally have some time to work on this project. I have a four channel remote from Frightprops and wired a mono jack from a "try me" step pad from Spirit. The only way the prop triggers is when I plug in the jack into the footpad input on the prop, I can't seem to trigger the prop with the remote. I hope I have made sense here, and hopefully someone can help figure this out as I am really challenged when it comes to stuff like this. Thanks for all the help,

Bill


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## BillyVanpire

Bgio13 said:


> Just a little update as I have received some parts and finally have some time to work on this project. I have a four channel remote from Frightprops and wired a mono jack from a "try me" step pad from Spirit. The only way the prop triggers is when I plug in the jack into the footpad input on the prop, I can't seem to trigger the prop with the remote. I hope I have made sense here, and hopefully someone can help figure this out as I am really challenged when it comes to stuff like this. Thanks for all the help,
> 
> Bill


is this the frightprops controller you have?
http://www.frightprops.com/controll...e-control/wireless-trigger-4-relay-25468.html

be sure it's in momentary mode and follow mike's video guide.


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## Bgio13

BillyVanpire said:


> is this the frightprops controller you have?
> http://www.frightprops.com/controll...e-control/wireless-trigger-4-relay-25468.html
> 
> be sure it's in momentary mode and follow mike's video guide.


Yes that's the remote. I have two other Picoboo controllers hooked up to it so I wasn't sure if changing the mode on one channel would change all four. I assumed it was already in momentary mode already. Thanks for the reply,

Bill


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## tessture

*Query on another Spirit Halloween hack*

Hi! Not sure if this should be a new thread or not, but I'm trying to figure out how to disconnect the silly audio on these store bought animatronics. i have several and the din they make is ridiculous and unnecessary. I'd really appreciate any advice anyone can give me on this. I know I can just pull the speaker wires, but then we're looking at overtaxing the other elements. My electronic knowledge is very sketchy and my soldering is most politely termed "challenged."
Thanks!


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## mikeythemars

If you just want to kill the audio (not replace it with something other sound), do the following:

Find the speaker.

Clip both wires going to it. 

Put a 10 ohm, 1 watt metal film resistor in place of the speaker (solder the wires you just clipped, one to one lead of the resistor and the other wire to the other lead). As far as getting that type of resistor, if there are Radio Shacks still open in your area that are still carrying parts, they should have this (catalog #2711051). 

The resistor acts as a "dummy load" to the circuit in your animatronic, so everything should function normally after you do this, except the speaker will be dead.


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