# Moving LED eyes.



## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Looks like the werewolf prop I had wanted to build may be in the cards after November, but not for October of this year. (I'm very disappointed.)

So as I was browsing old threads again, I noticed Dionica's talking pumpkins I totally forgot about.

Now I'm considering this as a (very frightened) step into controlling servos. I need to do it, so I'll make this small leap and see where it takes me.

I wanted to go a step further though, and have programmed moving LED eyes in the pumpkins.

I figure I can hide the electronics behind a scrim inside the opening of the eyes.

I know I could put leds on a moving eye contraption (and I may do that yet), but wanted to know if there is anything out there that can control where LEDs "look."

The way I see it, for each eye hole there could be maybe 5 or 6 LEDs side by side, and connected in pair with the other "eye" as well. Maybe the eyes could be programmed to "look" during a song or script by pressing a key on the keyboard for "moving" the lights in one direction and another key for the other direction. Anytime the keys are not pressed the lights are stationary. Or maybe a joystick? (Think a controllable scanning light on the front of the car "Knight Rider.")

Anybody?


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## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

How are you going to control this - a pc running VSA, or a stand alone prop controller? If you're using a pc, it could be as simple as using a kit 74 to turn each pair on and off in sequence to make the eyes "scan" one way or the other. If you're using a stand alone controller, you'd need to dedicate an output to each pair of LEDs, but the procedure would be the same - turn one pair on, the turn that pair off & turn the next pair on, etc.


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

okay, I'm dumb. What's a kit 74? I'll prob use an ssc32 with VSA.


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Okay, I think I found what a kit 74 is. http://www.web-tronics.com/pcprinporrel.html and http://knology.net/~msargent26/ghostyard/Kit74 How To.htm

Do I have to use that, or could I run them from a ssc32? The singing would be going on at the same time.

Is there an easy way to "move the eyes" as in the keyboard or joystick example, or would I have to do each LED pair by keying in each LED to turn on/off in a given time frame?

If I had to plot each LED, I may just give up on the idea.


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## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

The ssc32 is a servo controller board - it can't drive LEDs directly. There was a link to a sight on here a while back that sold LEDs connected to a small circuit that could be driven by the ssc32 for dimmable eyes. They were a bit pricey though, and you'd need 5 or 6 of them to do what you're wanting to (sorry, I can't find the link.) The kit74 would be considerably less expensive. One thing about the kit74 though - it requires a parallel port, so if your pc doesn't have one it wouldn't work.

As far as ease of programming goes, I don't know of a tool to program the scanning LEDs easily. The tools that are available to simplify VSA motion programming (trackskull, for example) are set up to move servos, and that really wouldn't translate to the scanning LEDs. Programming them to "move" by hand wouldn't be hard, though.


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## randyaz (May 26, 2006)

you could do it with a Prop1


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

*Just when he's about to give up on the idea, SI's own eyes light up*

Prop1?!?!!??!?!??!!!!! Talk to me!!!!


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## randyaz (May 26, 2006)

Here is a link to the EFX forum where they used a prop1 and LEDS for a Cylon eye effect runing the LEDs back and forth. If this is what your looking for you should ask Jon on the forum for some assistance for a routine to trigger and step through the eye locations.

http://www.efx-tek.com/php/smf/index.php?topic=730.0


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Thank you sir.


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## GOT (Apr 17, 2007)

Instead of multiple LEDs, what if you put the LED on a small servo (or on top of a shaft attached to a servo), then put that servo inside a ping-pong ball cut in half? With some experimentation, I bet you could get the light spot shining from the inside of the ball to look like a glowing pupil. Or, do what I am doing this year and encase an LED inside a translucent acrylic ball. I am centering it so that it always looks like it is looking at you, no matter where you stand, but you could use a bright LED and the rotating shaft idea and use servos to move the eyes (I hope that made sense).


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## DeathTouch (Sep 6, 2005)

I just bought a prop-1 and it works pretty well. Just a thought.


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

I was thinking a half pingpong/deodorant ball glue in place with a servo with LED mounted horizontally at the back of it for each eye. A servo splitter cable linked to a Prop1 or VLC with a simple little program that allows you to control position by turning a pot.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

You can also use the joystick to control the leds but the prop 1 may not have enough outputs to do what you need to do. You would need 2 input pins for the joystick and at least 6 outputs for the eyes (3 rows of 2 or 3 leds). If this is all you want then you may just get away with a prop1 otherwise you will need a prop2 or a picaxe 20M or 20X2. If you want to use vixen you can also use a DC16 (not sure if it works with VSA).

DC16:
http://www.efx-tek.com/topics/dc-16.html


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## slicerd (Nov 13, 2009)

hedg12 said:


> The ssc32 is a servo controller board - it can't drive LEDs directly. There was a link to a sight on here a while back that sold LEDs connected to a small circuit that could be driven by the ssc32 for dimmable eyes. They were a bit pricey though, and you'd need 5 or 6 of them to do what you're wanting to (sorry, I can't find the link.) The kit74 would be considerably less expensive. One thing about the kit74 though - it requires a parallel port, so if your pc doesn't have one it wouldn't work.
> 
> As far as ease of programming goes, I don't know of a tool to program the scanning LEDs easily. The tools that are available to simplify VSA motion programming (trackskull, for example) are set up to move servos, and that really wouldn't translate to the scanning LEDs. Programming them to "move" by hand wouldn't be hard, though.


The ssc 32 can directly control leds via VSA. Of course you will need resistors in there so you dont burn up the leds.


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## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

Cool - good to know.

Edited to add: Can it output a PWM'd voltage to dim the LEDs, or is it a hi/low out only?


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