# zott the space monkey



## drwilde (May 14, 2008)

Here is a tricky one, I acquired an old distortions animatronic and am trying to resurrect it. here are some shots of what i've got. The pneumatics work fine. The metal box with 4 outlets next to the controller box is a 4 track light chaser. It is not originally part of the animation and it was put in to make the prop move intermittently. I've since removed it. a $200 unit for free! in fact the whole prop was only $15 bucks. i figured its at least got some parts i could use but if i can get it running again that would be really cool.

the 2 mac valves are now wired into the terminals on the controller board on the left side where the loose wires were clipped. The little black box is called an M5 and after talking to the tech at Distortions he said those didnt last long and is prob dead. What it did was turn an audio signal into what would make the valves turn on and off in sync with the sound so the character would talk and turn his head. *Do you know how i can tell if for sure that the m5 is dead and if the controller board still works?

I'm thinking i can take the guts from a talking xmas tree and wire it to the terminals were the m5 was and it will serve the same purpose. the 2 black relay boxes on the board say 2.5 - 10v dc. the xmas tree boards have an audio input and power off a 7v wall wart. there are 2 sets of wires that come off the tree circuit board that power small servo motors 1 for the mouth and 1 for eye blinks. i think *i can use those wires to connect on the right side of the this main controller to power the relays that will in turn, turn on the mac valves and send air to the cylinders. Am i on the right track here? Im all for experimenting i just don't want to burn anything out or shock myself!

here are photos http://www.theboneyardfl.com/help_photos_2.html


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## GhoulishGadgets (May 13, 2010)

wow, I'm jealous, what a grab!!

I'm not familiar with this beastie but can offer some info:

The black boxes are solid state relays - these are basically electronic relays.
A standard relay takes significant current to energise and operate, a solid state relay is as simple as operating a LED
they do not need a resistor, you could simply test this by connecting a battery pack where the white and black wires are (black = -ve)

the little controller, the outputs look like servo connectors - 3 pin, power, gnd, signal

So - yes, wiring to a talking thingy should work

Si


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## drwilde (May 14, 2008)

the talking xmas tree guts worked like a charm!


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## GhoulishGadgets (May 13, 2010)

great news - well done

Si


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