# Chomping skull idea



## SpookySam (Mar 27, 2007)

So, my attempts at turning a Talking Skull Candy Dish into a Talking skull that I could control seem to have failed. But I don't want to use the skull in the candy dish and the pre-loaded audio on the skull is useless elsewhere for the most part...

I have an idea of what I'd like to do instead, and I'd like your feedback. 

Instead of a talking skull, what about a skull that sits with its mouth open until someone gets close...and then chomps down. I could have a piece of candy or some money in the skulls open mouth...when someone reaches for it...CHOMP.

I figure it might be pretty easy to do with a motion detector and a reverse relay. What are your thoughts?


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

Hmmmm..Send me the skull. 

Seriously, I dunno, as long as it doesn't chomp down hard and hurt little fingers, it'd be OK.


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## SpookySam (Mar 27, 2007)

Dr Morbius said:


> Hmmmm..Send me the skull.
> 
> Seriously, I dunno, as long as it doesn't chomp down hard and hurt little fingers, it'd be OK.


Nah, the teeth are soft rubber. It turns out I don't know as much about relays as I thought I did, so this idea may be shelved for another year.


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## The Mortician (Sep 8, 2006)

If you could somehow have the jaw rest open (rubber band maybe?), this prop could be done for much of nothing.

Unless I am mistaken, a SPDT relay triggered by a PIR sensor is all that you would need. The jaw would close when the sensor was triggered and "automatically" return to rest (jaw open) after the senor reset.


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## turtle2778 (Jul 9, 2006)

I think SI did something with a rubberbanded jaw. Hey sickie didnt ya?


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Yep, but that was a manual one and needed an actor to puppet it. I think he wants an automatic one.


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## SpookySam (Mar 27, 2007)

I was actually thinking it would operate like this:

Skull is powered by walwart. It is plugged in so that the skull's jaw is opened because it has continuous power. A cheap motion detector set for 'test' is setup with the skull. Anytime the motion detector triggers, it powers a normally closed relay that would then interrupt the power going to the skull. When the power from the walwart is interrupted, the skull's jaw closes (as it is spring loaded to close at rest). 5 seconds or so later, the motion detector resets from 'test', and the relay goes back to closed. The skull's jaw will then open again. 

I just need help figuring out what relay to use. It would have to sense when there is 115V current coming from the light socket on the motion detector.


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