# Understanding the prop 1



## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Hey tech gurus, can ya help me out?

I'm thinking of hacking a buck deer for this year's Halloween haunt, or next years- depending on how much money I can get at a time since I hope to move into a new house this year.

So, I may have to build my big prop by obtaining a piece or two at a time.

I think I understand that the prop 1 controls the motors (or servos) on a prop. I'm planning on motors to control, so the prop 1 should be fine methinks for $40.

If my understanding is correct, I need to hook my computer up to the prop 1 to program it, then it can be a stand alone- correct?

Do I need an AP-8 for $50 if I'm planning to lip sink the deer to a voice, or would I be better off with a Scary Terry Audio Servo Driver (St-200) for $40 even though the deer uses a motor and not a servo?

If I do use the AP-8, does that mean I need to program in each open/shut of the mouth?

Finally, I *LOVE* the idea of MonkeyBasic's Trackskull. Would this be a shortcut for the above hardware, or would I still need to program each movement separately?


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

or- would I use the scary terry in combo with the AP-8? but then- wouldn't I be limited to 60 sec?


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

BTW I'm thinking of using the break beam  to activate it when TOTs come to the car port.


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## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

The Prop-1 is programmed by a PC, then run stand alone. It doesn't have any provision for sound, so you'd have to use the AP-8 for audio. There's no way to sync the motion to the sound though, so there's a possibility that your sound could drift out of sync with your deer lips (do deer have lips?)

If you're planning to use the motor that's in the deer, the ST-300 should work just fine using the output from the onboard darlington (light - relay output). You could use it in conjunction with the AP-8, or any line level output from a CD or MP3 player, PC sound output, etc. Of course if you're hacking the deer to use a servo the ST board would work fine, too.

If you use the AP-8 with the Prop-1 you'll have to program each servo movement individually. MonkeyBasic's TrackSkull outputs a file that is imported into VSA, so you couldn't use it with the Prop-1. There was talk of a programming interface for the Prop-1 using Vixen, but I've never used it & am not sure if it was ever completed.


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## DarkLore (Jan 25, 2009)

There's quite a few questions in there. Let me first state that I don't own one of these. But it's similar in many respects to the EZ-8 I describe in the sticky on using controllers.

The prop-1 really doesn't "control" a motor. It's a BASIC stamp controller that allows you to drive things like relays, solenoids, and lamps. You program the prop-1 with your sequence (script) and then it can run stand alone. But only within the script - confined to the memory constaints of the card.

The switch (0-1-2) is used for Power Off (position 0), power to the BASIC stamp (position 1), and finally (position 2) to send voltage to the V+ terminal. That V+ terminal is the hot side....on a circuit to the various OUT# channels....giving independent controls of things like valves, relays, etc.

Say for example the power supply voltage was 12vdc. If the prop-1 is set to position 2 on the switch, and OUT1 is activate....that would give a circuit of 12vdc on the V+ and OUT1. (exemplified as valve #2 on page 4 of the efx-tek prop-1 documentation) Using that 12vdc connection you could power a 12vdc pneumatic valve. Or switch a 12vdc relay to turn on a motor or light bulb that runs on some other voltage.

As for the AP-8....that's an audio card. Like an electronic tape recorder that can record a specific amount of sound (60 secs) for play back. The 60 seconds is the upper limit....sliced across up to eight sound clips. To make something talk...like the Scary Terry card - the audio card just acts like an mp3 or CD player. It produces the sound. The Scary Terry card is set to recognize highs and lows in the sound to send power to a servo. That servo is normally connected to the jaw of a bucky skull.

The Scary Terry card can be set so it "hears" sounds out of the normal human range. So it reacts to a sound que that you can't hear. Normally folks record a servo signal track on left or right, with the sound on the other track.

If the deer uses a motor, rather than a servo....then I wouldn't think the Scary Terry card would be much use without additional trickery. It's not intended to send signals to a motor. It's meant for triggering a servo.


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## DarkLore (Jan 25, 2009)

hedg12 said:


> There was talk of a programming interface for the Prop-1 using Vixen, but I've never used it & am not sure if it was ever completed.


I believe there is a vixen interface for the prop-1. (see forum thread)


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## DarkLore (Jan 25, 2009)

Sickie - is the "motor" you are referring to....a big motor like a FCG motor or a christmas "deer" motor, or is it a small motor like in a plastic model?


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

The buck singing deer already has motors to turn ears, run mouth, move the neck left and right. Those are what I am planning on tapping into.


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

If I read correctly then, the Terry board is useless with the motors and only works with servos. 

That means that unless I plan on coding every syllable, I'd be better off using a servo and the Terry board for more accurate mouth movement and easier changing of sayings from year to year. 

The AP-8 should be able to run to the Terry board. I wonder if a CD player (or MP3 player) is an option if it can be turned on and off at the appropriate time?

I *should* be able to connect the Trackskull (joystick) through VSA with Vixen as a translator to the prop 1 programming, and have it stand alone?


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## bradbaum (Jul 26, 2008)

yes - the scary terry board is for a servo, not a toy motor as is in the deer head.

Jon at EFX-TEK has done this exact thing - go on the EFX-TEK forums and ask him, he will be able to help you out and give you the code that he used on his hack.


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Thanks for the tip.


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## bradbaum (Jul 26, 2008)

I have been wanting to do this hack for several years, and make the Anubis as seen here:

http://www.my-mania.com/halloween/anubis.html

I just haven't happened across a deer head at a garage sale yet.


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

I've seen that and admire that one.

I was thinking more of the werewolf one for myself.

Wanted to do this since 2006.


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## bradbaum (Jul 26, 2008)

I haven't seen the werewolf, do you have a link?


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

http://www.dreadnight.com/buckthewolf.html

I just saw it yesterday and I want to go a bit further than they did. Love the idea though.


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## randyaz (May 26, 2006)

Zombie F documented his prop1/deer head project...

http://hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=2343&highlight=deer


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

yepper. using that as a general understanding of the project, however I'm doing some things differently. Plus, as he is working on his site, it is down right now.


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## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

Sickie Ickie said:


> If I read correctly then, the Terry board is useless with the motors and only works with servos.
> 
> That means that unless I plan on coding every syllable, I'd be better off using a servo and the Terry board for more accurate mouth movement and easier changing of sayings from year to year.
> 
> ...


The Scary Terry board (now the ST-300 - just released today, I think) does have the ability to control the motor in sync with audio. To quote from the cowlacious site:

"NOT JUST FOR DRIVING SERVO's ANYMORE!!! We have included a ULN2003 chip that allows you to drive devices such as relays, lamps, solenoids for pneumatics, etc. in sync with the sound you are playing."

The output this refers to should be able to drive the jaw motor, if not directly then through a transistor (depends on how much current your motor draws.)

I'm not aware of any way to import a VSA routine into Vixen, so I don't think TrackSkull is going to work for you. (I could be wrong - I haven't used Vixen for a while). I believe there is a joystick plugin for Vixen that would probably make programming easier.

I agree that you should ask John at EFX-Tek about this. He's been helpful on the forums, & from everything I've seen the support EFX-Tek gives is second to none.


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

You can also take the poor man's route if you can find one of those $10 Christmas light FX boxes (basically a lightning FX box thats skinned white with a tree instead of black with a a lightning bolt). You would need to find what voltage drives the motor and wire an appropriate wall-wart direct to the motor (maybe add a capacitor to help keep the voltage clean). Then plug the wall-wart into the control out side of the lightning fx box. Feed some sound to the audio in on the fx box and viola! 

I've heard of people using this technique to drive Gemmy Skulls but haven't had the chance to do so myself. Not sure off the top of my head what the downside would be short of maybe accuracy or burning out the motor by using improper voltages.

-TM


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Thank you TM. I have one of those boxes. I don't know if I'll use it with this, but it is VERY nice to know I have the option!


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## uncle (Sep 26, 2007)

Just a note that the AP-8 is no longer available from EFX-Tek. They are coming out with a new sound board, but I don't believe they have updated their site yet.


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Thank you, Uncle.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

I use the the EFX-Tek DC16 board with Vixen and I am using it to control my singing pumpkins. I am using 10 of the outputs to solid state relays to control the pumpkins. I am thinking of adding my joking skeletons to the show as MC's between songs and general wise cracks with each other. The DC16 works very well as a show controller with vixen.


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