# Heads up Hilda won't talk.....



## MetalVamp (Sep 11, 2013)

Hey everyone I'm Jeff... aka MetalVamp... Been a guest here awhile enjoying all your wonderful projects... Thanxs for the great ideas. Well I need help with a prop I picked up. I got this cool heads up hilda from a guy for my witchs house. The problem is she would only lift her head and move her eyes and the neck leds would light up. So I took her some what apart at the chest and found a blown capacitor on the board... a 470uf 10v... I replaced it and now she don't do anything... thanxs for any help.... I'm stuck...


----------



## halstaff (Nov 18, 2009)

First, if you can provide pictures, it would help us help you.
A couple of things to check. Did you replace the cap the same way as it came out as on some like yours, it does matter. The negative has the short leg and is notated with ----- on the side of the capacitor and goes in the round pad on the circuit board. Another thing to check is if any wires were disconnected during your inspection and repair. The soldering on some of these props leaves a lot to be desired and can be very fragile.


----------



## goneferal (Sep 8, 2010)

Sounds like a problem I've had due to either a short, a miswired component, or any number of things. Good photos would definitely help.


----------



## MetalVamp (Sep 11, 2013)

I looked over the board and couldn't see anything.. I had to solder the cap on the back of the board cause of the small space to solder in to.. I got the cap on right.. Was wondering if I could send this to someone to have them check it out and put the cap on right... Thanxs...MV


----------



## MetalVamp (Sep 11, 2013)

Ok, I have just decided to run the led's and move her eyes and lift her head... anyone know what kind of volts for those Items... Can't really take her apart...LOL.. At least the head I mean..


----------



## Hippofeet (Nov 26, 2012)

Well, I'm pretty sure it would all be DC voltage. But 5,6,12? I guess I would start safe, and if things seemed wonky, go up. If there is a transformer on the card, can you read what it was putting out?


----------



## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

A big capacitor like that is generally a smoothing capacitor - used to smooth out ripples from the power supply. Generally, loosing that capacitor wouldn't make her stop talking specifically, but could let power spikes through which would then kill other sensitive components (IC's, transistors, etc)

You said she completely stopped when you replaced the cap - are you sure the solder job didn't bridge any other circuit traces, or the capacitor itself? If so, you might have shorted the circuit and possibly blown a fuse on the circuit board or on the power supply. (keep a close eye out for surface mount fuses which are becoming more popular...and very hard to replace!) You might try simply removing the cap and see if she does the zombie bit and comes back to life.

You also said the cap is rated for 10V - so assuming it wasn't mismatched due to fine Chinese engineering, the circuit likely runs on less than 10V. If it runs off a wall wart, then 5 or 6V might be a possibility. If it's running off batteries, then 4.5V would be 3 cells worth, or 6V would be 4 cells worth - though if running off batteries, no real need for a big smoothing cap! As Hippo says, if you can't deduce what it had, best to start small and work up!


----------



## MetalVamp (Sep 11, 2013)

OK I guess the board was just F'ed up so bad.. So I wired it all up and got her head lifting and her eyes working like they did originally.. i can put 5v to her mouth wires and her mouth opens... So is there any one who has a the little board to run audio through to beep signal her mouth open... I need it qiuck so making it DIY would take to long.. plug and go... cheap...Thanxs....


----------



## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

If you need the circuit board that controls a Gemmy motor which we discussed elsewhere on the forum, and I covered in my Instructable, then go to SimpleCircuitBoards.com and ask Jeff Wheat for the "Gemmy Motor Driver". You can get it just as a board, which you then need to solder & assemble, or he offers it completely assembled.

The instructable is:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-A-Talking-Skull-To-Say-Anything-You-Want/


----------

