# 13 foot tall Animatronic servo help



## Shock (Apr 14, 2012)

This year we decided to go BIG with our semi-pro haunted trail, Shockwalk!
We wanted the giant animatronic type creature without the giant price lol  
This is what we came up with:
I am working on building a 13 foot tall demon animatronic. The skeletal structure is made entirely out of 3/4 in. pvc pipe and 2 rolls of chicken wire bought at Lowes for $8.00 per roll. Telephone wire is strung from the foot to the neck through the pvc pipe to control the right arm, left arm, head movement and mouth movement servos. The servos are to be controlled using an Arduino board or something similiar. The head is a giant skull that I bought on E-bay a few years ago.We used a Rotozip and cut the jaw out to allow it to move when an audio signal is present at the servo input. My question is what to use, type of servo or motor,etc. to animate the massive head and jaw. I don't think my standard small servo that I used to make talking Bucky skulls would have enough torque to move the massive 1.5 to 3 lb. jaw. Basically I am building a fully animated giant demon that is to sit on a giant throne on a hill and watch over people as they enter our giant hell scene. The demon will look left and right and taunt people as it points at them. The mouth will periodically emit fog. 2 Buckys will attack them as they pass through. Anyway.....any help with this giant prop is greatly appreciated.

The 13 foot tall body and the giant skull with the cut out jaw next to it awaiting the large servos.


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## Spooky1 (Aug 25, 2008)

I like the idea. I hope that 3/4 PVC will be strong enough for something that size.


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## Shock (Apr 14, 2012)

*3/4 in. pvc?*

I think as long as I stick with servos and not Pneumatics I should be fine.


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## VexFX (Sep 27, 2011)

You may want to add some 45 degree supports on some of that PVC just to be safe. 

I look forward to seeing more photos as your build progresses!


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## samseide (Jun 1, 2010)

servocity.com sells oversized servos for moving large items. You'll probably have to go with something like that in order for it to not wear out the servo quickly or strip it.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

I would definitely use larger PVC pipe - at least 1" or 1 1/2" and I second the servocity suggestion that have servos that can move just about anything. Find out what the weight of the jaw is and double it at least and use that power of the servo that you will need


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## Shock (Apr 14, 2012)

Thanks for all of the help, greatly appreciated! I am sure that I can use 3/4 in. pvc because our 13 foot giant will be sitting in a massive throne and his head will be supported by 1 1/2 in. pvc pipe. I mounted a medium servo that I had laying around to be used to make another talking Bucky so I mounted it as close to the jaw as possible to help take some stress off of the servo arm. I used a Scary Terry Audio Servo controller board that I had on hand. I also added 3 small super bright orange LED's to the eye sockets and connected them to the LED driver portion of the circuit board so they too blink to the mouth movement. I tested it and it works fine. I will post more photos and updates as the prop progresses.

I also posted a thread about Electronic fire crackers and a schematic for the circuit and theory, so check that out also. I plan to make my own E-fire cracker and place it inside of a control box next to our homemade animated electric chair ( Also being built).


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## castart (Sep 3, 2014)

Never forget you can nest pvc inside pvc. THis makes it much less flexible and stronger when put under violent motion.


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