# Cheapest/best way to make a talking skull



## ShadyHallows

I am looking into making a skull that talks, I will have him tell the story of Shady Hallows. What is the cheapest and easiest way to acomplish this? I have seen the dougie and Scary Terrys so far. The ST one would cost me about $100 with a 120 sec. chip. What are your sugjestions?


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## Otaku

The ST skull kit is a pretty good deal if you don't want to build one yourself. Scary Terry has a full set of instructions for building the skull on his web site:
www.scary-terry.com.
Use the Cowlacious servo driver board but for better and longer sound, I recommend a CD player. Depends on how you plan to trigger it, too. The ISD chips are good for switch mat, PIR and relay and manual triggering, but if you're going to loop the story use a CD on repeat. I've used all flavors of the ISD's and the 120 sec chip sounds pretty muddy. You also have to invest in a recorder board to use it. Just my .02.


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## Brad Green

Otaku is right on the money here Shady, the Scary Terry unit is the best way to go for a plug-n-play (just got one myself). If you use the ISD chip, the price does go up about $30 or so. I got really good results with the little MP3's, and if you have a talent with circuit boards, Otaku has devised a brilliant way to activate the player from a trigger on another post in the props section.


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## Sickie Ickie

...or you could do low budget with an actor and spend less than 20.00...
http://corpsecounty.com/Yorick.htm

The advantage of this is that improv is able to take place between the skull and the audience.


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## ShadyHallows

I'm not sure I want to do the manually run talking skull because I feel it would be very easy to screw up. I am also having the skeleton a pnumatic (sp) so he pops up out of his coffin to speak to the guests. I have no idea how to run boards and what not so I will try the ST thing you are talking about. Could you give me a little help hear though on what I would need to order from cowlacious? Thanks much.


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## Troy

Another option would be to use this Product http://hauntmasterproducts.com/16.html

I've tried it and not only is it easy but it works very well...If you already have a existing item you could use this on, your cost wouldn't be much.

Troy


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## turtle2778

SO Troy would you use this after youve put ur ST head together? Cuz the way i read it you need to have a prop already built for talking to make this work to what you want? But then again, im new to the pneumatic stuff and could be totally wrong.


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## slimy

I second Troy's post about the hauntmaster motor mouth. I use three of these and have never had a problem with them. 

I put one on a talking skull candy dish. Those look pretty good and are readily available around the holiday season. You can find them on the net, but expect to pay a little more. The skull comes off with four screws and the hauntmaster web site talks you through installation. It is very easy.

Talking skull candy dish runs around $14 during halloween. Motor mouth is $35. 

This would be my recommendation.


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## slimy

Miss Turtle, the hauntmaster motor mouth will NOT work with a Scarry Terry skull. The ST skulls use servo motors ( motors with precise control over very small increments). The motor mouth controller controlls ONLY the cheaper dc motors that come in 'talking toys'. 

You are talking about a complete set up ( skull candy dish or whatever and controller) with the hauntmaster is around $50. The Scarry Terry version is going to run at least twice that. Is the Scarry Terry better? Absolutely. Will the tot'ers notice the difference? Absolutely not. 

One thing I have noticed with the motor mouth. Run it ONLY using a "line out" jack on your cd player. The "headphone out" jack does NOT work. The jaw just stays open.

and these are MY 2 cents.


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## slimy

One more post and I promise to be done:

The talking skull from the candy dish fits very nicely on a blucky body.


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## Troy

slimy said:


> One more post and I promise to be done:
> 
> The talking skull from the candy dish fits very nicely on a blucky body.


Indeed it does, thats how i use one of them.


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## randyaz

Heres a cheap circuit for a talker...
http://home.rica.net/jimk/projects/servo/index.htm


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## slimy

I got this circuit printed out the other day. Have yet to wire it up, but when I do, I will give a full report.


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## Sickie Ickie

When you do it Slimy, will you make a how to with plenty of pics for the electronically challenged folks like me?


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## NecroBones

I definitely like the scary-terry design. I haven't tried any others... but I went with a pair of cowlacious pre-built scary-terry skulls, and rigged up with an external audio source it's total simplicity and very effective.

Still buying them built for you certainly hikes up the price.

My videos of this past year's routine are here:


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## Brad Green

OK, Slimy, quick question: I've looked over Jim Kadel's Sound Servo Controller circuit layout, and, it looks simple enough, but where is the outside sound input jack? Am I missing something, or just too dumb to figure it out (not beyond the realm of possibility here!)


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## slimy

I guess I don't understand what you are asking. 

You just run the wires directly to the leads coming off of the speaker. You can use any type of jack you want to attach the leads to the box. RCA or eighth inch would probably be the most common. But really whatever you have would work. 

I hope that is what you are asking. 

I still have not gotten around to doing the whole wire it up thing, but it looks simple enough. I plan on patching it with Otaku's mp3 hack and making this thing fly. 

Frankly, I won't get to this soon, as I have family business that takes precedence as of now. But when that is settled, I'll be a wiring mofo.


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## ShadyHallows

That MM thing looks as if it would be the best way to go. I am thinking about getting one but what item would be the best to hook it up to?


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## slimy

I've got one hooked up to a billy bass fish. I hooked one to a 3' talking skeleton groom. And I hooked up the two channel to to skull candy dishes ( dish removed, skulls screwed to blucky bodies) So they could talk to each other.

Of all of them the skull candy dishes are my favorite.


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## Sickie Ickie

SLimy, can yu create a how-to with the skull dishes and mm?


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## mrklaw

I've also been working on this circuit (the one that slimy is trying) and I had a question to anyone that has used it. Do the red and white wires connect to the speaker output of a stereo? I tried connecting to the output jack of my ipod and I could hear the sound from my motor but the voltage didn't seem great enough to move the jaw of my candy dish skull.

I believe that speaker level output voltage is much higher than line out or earphone out voltage.


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## slimy

Slimy dropped the ball on this one. My life is still in the way. Stupid life......

Any way, I'm guessing the 'headphone out' jack on the ipod just doesn't have enough 'oomph' to work the motor. I would run the ipod to a pair of powered computer speakers, then patch back to the circuit. 

It's still going to be a while for me. Sorry I'm soo slow.


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## mrklaw

I know how it is, I still have a pop-up that I started in November that I haven't done anything more on. My basement is full of UFO's (UnFinished Objects).


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## Richie

Slimy,

I was faced with the exact same problem with a project a few years ago. I recorded a bunch of audio phrases on my IPOD and connected it to an audio sync unit to flash a neon to the phrases. Naturally it didn't work, but what I did do was purchase one of those 7 watt mono audio amps from CANA (Cana kit) that you assemble. By connecting the IPOD headphone jack to the amp and then out to the speaker, it couldn't have worked better. Although, your idea will have similar good results using amplified speakers.


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## NJWilk

Has anyone used the motor mouth with one of the cheap mp3 players Otaku mentioned in another thread? I have a 3' talking skeleton I want to use the motor mouth with - his limited conversation is getting boring. I'm pretty sure I can hook up the motor mouth and skeleton. I have no electronics experience at all, though, to figure out how to use mp3 player with no "line out" only "headphones".


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## 1031fan

someone correct me if im wrong, but i think if you put your line out in the headphone jack it will work - i use my MP3 hooked up to computer speakers and i just plug the speakers into the headphone jack - riley


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## TwistedDementia

The cheap mp3 players that Otaku posted and Scary Terry Setup are I think the easiest setup. Otaku also mentioned to tweek the sound (I believe it was tone) on one channel of audio (L or R) to the cowlacious board and the other to the speakers and you'll get better jaw movement.


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## NJWilk

I just looked at yr picture of the set up with the mp3 player and the scary terry setup - where does one hook up the speakers?

(I just got my cowlacious skull in the mail today and can't quite get it working)


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## Otaku

Here's a link to the ASD board manual.
http://www.cowlacious.com/SupportDocs/Scary Terry ASD Manual for 2006 - regular-.pdf
I use this with a Scary-Terry skull (built per Terry's instructions, not the Cowlacious skull). I use a cheapo MP3 player, but I don't use the output jack on the board for the speaker input. I send the right channel to the speakers directly, and modify the left channel signal to smooth out the servo action. This is the channel that goes to the board. Works really well for dialing in the jaw movement.


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## TwistedDementia

Otaku said:


> I send the right channel to the speakers directly, and modify the left channel signal to smooth out the servo action. This is the channel that goes to the board. Works really well for dialing in the jaw movement.


What this says, Thanks for clairifying that Otaku!


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## NJWilk

Got it working! Thanks guys. And I used a 6V power supply instead of the battery pack - much better.
Now, how do you muffle the noise from the servo? Or am I just noticing it because it's the only sound in the room at midnight other than the piratey voice coming from my speakers?


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