# How do I make a billy bass fish just wiggle



## Just Whisper (Jan 19, 2009)

I have a couple Billy Bass type fish. One is a bass and the other is a shark. I want to make one of them just wiggle, and not make any noise. And I do not want it mounted to the plaque. It is suppose to be a fish lying on the ground flopping around. I have done several searches and all I can find are tutorials on hacking them to sing different songs. 

I know this picture is probably of no help at all, but hopefully someone has done this before. This fish has a motion sensor, which I want to keep. It also has a dc adapter port which I want to eliminate and hardwire to an adapter. It is wired to a battery compartment which I want to eliminate. And it is wired to a start button which I want to eliminate, as well as the speaker and any wiring associated with sound. So what I want in the end is a fish that will be activated by motion and run off dc current. 

I know some of the wires will probably have to be wired together for the sake of continuity, but I don't know which ones, other than the wires to the dc adapter. Any one do this before?


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## halstaff (Nov 18, 2009)

Here's the thread showing 2 different ways I did mine - http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=25364


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## Just Whisper (Jan 19, 2009)

If I understand this correctly you are telling me there is no way to modify the current wiring to make him wiggle but not sing. I don't want to have to get into adding controllers and other things I totally don't understand. BTW, your fish looks really cool, and I appreciate the link to your fish. I just don't think I could do that without someone sitting here showing me what to do. Or at least a step by step walk through tutorial designed for a five year old.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

I found a billy bass schematic that might help the tech gurus here figure out how to do what you're asking:

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg94/gigavolt/Pics/hacks/SS09/SS09.png

Here's the original link (again, in case this will help the techies help you). This hack was to make the fish sing something different, not make it silent. It sounds as if the mp3 player is wired along with something else needed for the fish to move, but I may be misreading it.

http://hackedgadgets.com/2010/01/19/hacked-big-mouth-billy-bass/


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## Just Whisper (Jan 19, 2009)

Thanks Roxy. I really appreciate that. I am not sure what that is a schematic of. Perhaps that is her fish after she was done adding all that gadgetry. Mine does not look anything like that. Mine looks like the photo above. She put a lot of work into that project for sure. Great hack job. Hilarious fish.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

Melissa, is the large motor in the center of the pic the one that makes Billy's body wiggle? And are you looking for a random wiggling action? If so, I think I have a fairly simple solution for you. It'll take a bit of soldering, but nothing heavy-duty and no electronics expertise is needed.

Hmmm...after thinking it through, you could probably just use clip leads for all of the connections, but soldering would be the better way to go.


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

A good start would be to cut and cap the wires to the speaker. That should give you the same flopping motion he has now, but no singing. Not sure if you're looking for more than that or not?


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

You'd want to disconnect the speakers in any case, but I think whats wanted here is just a flopping fish. If you use the canned program, the fish will still do its singing motions - body bending, mouth movement to the non-existent lyrics and so on.

You can get a pretty good random signal from a common flickering tea light. Use that signal to drive a 2N2222 transistor, and wire the fish motor in series with its power source and the 2N2222. You just have to be able to get to the legs of the LED to attach the needed wiring to it. This works for getting a random motion from the motor, but doesn't address the motion sensor triggering. The length of time that Billy stays on is controlled by the canned program, the sensor just starts things up. If you want Billy to stay on for _N_ seconds after he's triggered, you'll need another type of timing device, like a one-shot 555 timer.


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## heresjohnny (Feb 15, 2006)

You may need to connect the cut speaker wires to an 8 ohm resister. Some of the older talk through boris skulls would not work when you cut the speaker wires only.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

Heresjohnny speaks truth, I hacked a few Borii and always needed a resistor on the speaker wires.


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## Just Whisper (Jan 19, 2009)

Okay, while lying in bed this morning and thinking, I decided to just cut the speaker wires. Then I came here and you guys suggested the same thing. So I did it. But the fish will only wiggle through one set then stops and won't go again until I hit the on/off switch. So tomorrow I am trying your suggestion of wiring the speaker wires together using a resistor. Hope this works. Thanks for all your help so far. I am really trying to keep this simple. If this doesn't work it will just be a static fish, no biggie.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

well did it work?


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## Just Whisper (Jan 19, 2009)

Well, it turns out I had a bad motion sensor. Since I had 2 fish I just wired the other motion sensor to the first fish. I didn't need the resistor. It works great. Thanks for your great suggestions, as usual. I can always count on you guys to help me out. And you can always count on me to over-complicate a problem. LOL.


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## heresjohnny (Feb 15, 2006)

I am glad it worked! I would suggest leaving the resistor. Even though it is working, the circuit was designed to see 8 ohms where the speaker is. Having the resistor may (not will) make a difference in how long it keeps working.


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## Ulfilas (Nov 1, 2012)

I see you mentioned something about getting it to do different songs... I wonder if the same sort of hack would work with my talking head?


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## Just Whisper (Jan 19, 2009)

Someone else might have mentioned that Ulfilas. I wanted mine to shut up, but still wiggle. There are a lot of tutorials out there that show how to make them sing different songs.


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