# can a motion sensor be added to a skeleton wolf?



## epoweredrc (Aug 6, 2012)

ok so i was at the local Walmart yesterday and seen this skeleton Wolf just sitting on the floor by himself at Walmart, no others around at all i had looked at these at home depot and wanted one but wasn't going to pay $79+ for one anyhow i ended up bringing this one home. I thought it was motion activated but its not, its sound activated if you clap your hands or touch it it comes on and makes sounds and eyes light up but it has the lil Test button on it. I watched a guy on you tube hook a foot pad you step on to a prop that had one of those try me buttons, but i want to know would i be able to hook a motion sensor to it and make it go off when it sees something/someone..

I got a regular spot light motion sensor but it has 3 wires so don't think that would work.. any ideas would be great thanks

this is the link to him
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Skeleton-Wolf/444404182


----------



## David_AVD (Nov 9, 2012)

I make a prop board that allows a PIR or step pad to trigger any prop that has a try-me button so it's definitely possible. I'm in Australia though.



You can hook up a step pad to the try-me wires, but a second tap on the pad will stop the prop again, just like the button does.


----------



## epoweredrc (Aug 6, 2012)

David_AVD said:


> I make a prop board that allows a PIR or step pad to trigger any prop that has a try-me button so it's definitely possible. I'm in Australia though.
> 
> You can hook up a step pad to the try-me wires, but a second tap on the pad will stop the prop again, just like the button does.


Oh neat, but that stinks well i did more digging and found this, i think i would need a 12V power supply to give it the power but looks easy enough to hook up

https://www.frightprops.com/prop-controller-motion-trigger-black.html


----------



## poplarhouse (Aug 2, 2015)

You can use the motion detector to trigger a low voltage relay (through a wall wart) to replace the switch. You can also get programmable timer relays from Amazon (about $4.50 and up) if it turns out keeping the contacts of a regular relay closed don't have the desired effect. Sometimes the Try Me cycle is shorter or otherwise different than the triggered cycle, too.


----------



## diamonddave_k (Nov 9, 2016)

epoweredrc said:


> ok so i was at the local Walmart yesterday and seen this skeleton Wolf just sitting on the floor by himself at Walmart, no others around at all i had looked at these at home depot and wanted one but wasn't going to pay $79+ for one anyhow i ended up bringing this one home. I thought it was motion activated but its not, its sound activated if you clap your hands or touch it it comes on and makes sounds and eyes light up but it has the lil Test button on it. I watched a guy on you tube hook a foot pad you step on to a prop that had one of those try me buttons, but i want to know would i be able to hook a motion sensor to it and make it go off when it sees something/someone..
> 
> I got a regular spot light motion sensor but it has 3 wires so don't think that would work.. any ideas would be great thanks
> 
> ...


 Pretty sure that if you want to use any motion sensor that it need to go through some kind of board(like David is talking about) or any other compatible boards. The step pad works without a board because it is just a bigger version of the "try me" button which just closes the circuit between the two open wires. If you can't get David's board, try the fourbanger board from buttonbanger.com You can do a whole bunch of fun stuff with that although may be a little more intricate than you need.


----------



## epoweredrc (Aug 6, 2012)

poplarhouse said:


> You can use the motion detector to trigger a low voltage relay (through a wall wart) to replace the switch. You can also get programmable timer relays from Amazon (about $4.50 and up) if it turns out keeping the contacts of a regular relay closed don't have the desired effect. Sometimes the Try Me cycle is shorter or otherwise different than the triggered cycle, too.


 Thanks, i think the try me button is plenty long enough. I kinda want him to be hidden and to be triggered and no one to be paying attention and to scare them. my mom was looking right at it and i clapped my hands and he came on and scared her so in the dark when someone walks by the motion sensor i think him just coming alive would do the trick.

wish i could find a sensor a lil cheaper.


----------



## DarkOne (Oct 16, 2012)

I just posted how to use a PIR as a button on this thread: (Post #4)

https://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=45144

It may be possible if the try me button is also just opening a path to ground to trigger the prop. Since it runs on 3 AA batteries, I would forget about powering it through the H pin with 3.3V and just try powering the PIR directly from the batteries.

I also add, that I am not responsible if you fry something in your wolf. Without having one in front of me, this is only an idea because I have no idea what type of control board they have in there. I invite anyone to chime in if they think this not a good idea. Happy Halloweening!


----------



## DarkOne (Oct 16, 2012)

I just realized I have a talking skull prop with light up eyes that also runs on 3 AA batteries. I will test this hopefully by the end of the weekend and post my findings.


----------



## DarkOne (Oct 16, 2012)

I could not get it to work. Tried a few different things. one of the pins on the try me button had ground voltage on it while the other did not, so I tried using this to power the negative leg of the PIR and tied the VCC to the positive of the battery pack. The voltage showed 4.5V until I hooked up the PIR, which then read 1.8V or so.

So then I tried powering it solely from the battery pack and tying the transistor to the pins on the try me button and the PIR, but no go.

I guess you're going to need a PIR with a relay board like this one.
https://www.banggood.com/DC-12V-50uA-3-Wire-Human-Body-Induction-PIR-IR-Pyroelectric-Infrared-Sensor-Module-Relay-Control-Out-p-1212967.html?gmcCountry=US¤cy=USD&createTmp=1&cur_warehouse=CN&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=cpc_elc&utm_content=frank&utm_campaign=pla-mix-us-pc-0626&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5bny2Kju3QIVg7bACh3CUAMAEAQYAiABEgJ0NvD_BwE


----------



## trachcanman99 (Sep 4, 2015)

a try me switch does nothing but put a short in the line to complete a circuit. if your motion detector has a normally open and a normally closed connection you should be able to connect the black wire to the common or neutral connection on the sensor and I would think the red lead would go to the normally open contact. the motion detector can't add any voltage to the connection and you will have to power your motion detector. but beyond that . I would try this approach before investing in a lot of other unnecessary hardware. and I would keep the distance between the wolf and motion detector as short as possible because dc power doesn't travel will without a lose of power.


----------



## epoweredrc (Aug 6, 2012)

Thank you everyone for the info, I have spent more then first planed this yr on Halloween and guess i will mess with him later for this year i guess i will just put him where someone has to be really close cause seems he comes on even with a slight touch.


----------



## David_AVD (Nov 9, 2012)

Keep in mind that the output of the "motion detector" may not be a relay (clean contact). Open collector style outputs are common on bare PIR modules. Some of them are also a positive voltage when triggered.


Your standard 12V alarm PIR is usually a contact output, but normally closed (when not active) going open when someone is detected. You'd need to wire in an extra relay to get it back the the normally open signal that the try-me input is expecting.


Even then you'll still have to deal with the issue of a second detection cancelling the prop action. That's why I made a PCB that handles all of that.


----------



## epoweredrc (Aug 6, 2012)

David_AVD said:


> Keep in mind that the output of the "motion detector" may not be a relay (clean contact). Open collector style outputs are common on bare PIR modules. Some of them are also a positive voltage when triggered.
> 
> Your standard 12V alarm PIR is usually a contact output, but normally closed (when not active) going open when someone is detected. You'd need to wire in an extra relay to get it back the the normally open signal that the try-me input is expecting.
> 
> Even then you'll still have to deal with the issue of a second detection cancelling the prop action. That's why I made a PCB that handles all of that.


thank you for the info, i checked out your site. not bad price for what your getting i guess, do you ship to the US? i seen it says currently out of stock do you build them during the off months might be something for next year. Christmas is coming and got to start working on Christmas projects now.

thanks again


----------



## David_AVD (Nov 9, 2012)

At present I don't ship outside of Australia mainly due to the postage cost, but I will look into it again.


----------



## epoweredrc (Aug 6, 2012)

David_AVD said:


> At present I don't ship outside of Australia mainly due to the postage cost, but I will look into it again.


Oh alright understand, I shipped 2 items to a guy there and it cost me $15 to ship what normally would just cost $3.50 anywhere in the us so completely get it.


----------

