# Toy motor circut



## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

OK, so I found this owl at my local Lowes. Judging by the construction of the owl, the motor that winds a string to open the beak, and the telltale "black blob" on the control circuit, I'd say it's made by Gemmy. The head turns left and right, the eyes light up, and he makes owl noises and sings (a crummy rendition of) "who can it be now?" I built a "toy motor circuit" to control the eyes and beak. I used an amplifier out of an old computer speaker connected to the original Gemmy speaker in the owl. (He's going to be part of a display at work, so he needs to be fairly stand - alone.) The setup works OK, but I'd like to have the beak open more. I have the speaker connected to the right channel, and the toy motor circuit connected to the left, so I can send different info to each. My plan right now is to send the audio to the speaker, and use Audacity to generate low frequency tones to the left channel.






The beak does move 1/8 - 1/4 inch, but you can't see it very well in the video. Has anyone had any experience with this type of setup? Any pointers? Thanks.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

I use a "beep" track for driving servos in talking skulls, but I'm also using Scary Terry boards. The volume (amplitude) of the beeps plays a big role in how well the board operates the servo. You could try adjusting the volume of the beep track to see if that gives you more beak travel, but you may be limited by the design of the beak mechanism itself. See if there's a way to increase the physical travel of the beak such as adjusting where the beak hits a hard stop.


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## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

There is quite a bit of physical resistance to movement of the beak caused by the rubber "skin" of the owl. I'll see if there's anything I can do to free it up. Have you noticed any difference in movement related to the frequency of the beep you're using? Not sure how it would translate to the Scary Terry board, but I've noticed that the beak movement is more pronounced when I use a lower frequency voice - a low male voice as opposed to female. I'll play around with it when I get a chance.
I'm actually pretty happy with the response of the movement in relation to the voice tracks I've tried. The amount of movement is no big deal, but more would be nice. Thanks for the reply.


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

I have used that same toy motor circuit with some success, provided the amplified sound is from a good amp. I notice it likes the lower male frequencies best. I would use a low frequency tone, it will really help.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

I use a 500 MHz beep track. It's the default in GoldWave and works well with the S-T boards. I haven't tried any other frequencies.


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