Bohemian Rhapsody - Frank Skinnotra and the Gabbing Gourds - Singing Pumpkins and Skeleton 

Thank you

Aaron Coleman ”7

👍👍👍👍

SimplyMadelynn hi Rezza the letter

SimplyMadelynn Plppp

I thought the same thing!

Pggfffffffff

intocoasters well if you

haha. Well thanks for the compliment. More of what though? More videos or more Frank Skinnotras?

@@dmbandme the Legend of rock 🎸 ✌️👏👍

Amemo

Richard Waskiewicz

Richardcz a

Maybe. I've hesitated putting more online (they do 6 songs on Halloween night in my neighborhood). In all likeliness we won't be able to host people this year, so I might do something special virtually for Oct 31.

haha. Sometimes I daydream about this but it would be a lot more than software because the hardware is also very custom. I am loving 3D printing and actually working on a more robust version of the skeleton. The current one is a cheap $15 Spirit Halloween model with servo slots cut into it and very hard to replicate that way.

Howard Coleman que que

supernat here what are you trying to say

I have some videos of Andy and I walking through some of the key components of how this is done. I'll look for them. There was also a good blog primer on the hardware that @HalloweenJarod made but I can't find it now. Perhaps though since I probably can't set up Halloween (we attract 4,000 people and that's just a bad idea now) I might have some time to further detail and video record stuff to scratch the halloween itch. Thinking that it's a rebuilding year...

@@dmbandme awesome thanks, i know i started working on this years Halloween last September and now its gonna be a corona Halloween i m still debating on whether or not to even decorate this year. Halloween is a big event for our house, last year i made a skeleton dj with full dj lights and music and projectors. this year i wanted to animate him between songs. any help is appreciated. happy haunts stay safe and be well

@@DH-fc2os Same. We aren't putting anything out. But debating if we may do something new for the enjoyment in the virtual world...

They are foam pumpkins. They were selling them for maybe $20-25 at Michael's (an arts/crafts store) during the Halloween season a while back. I'd never heard of fun-kins but just took a look. Those look similar but they appear a little thicker than the ones I used. Not sure if that translates to more weight but generally less weight is better especially if you're trying not to burn out servos when headbanging!

Hi Maria! Thanks for the compliments. The setup involves a laptop running VSA software, which allows me to set a timeline with all the lights and servo motors positions. The lighting is mostly traditional studio lighting technology called DMX which is also controlled by VSA. It's most a lot of tweaking and tuning of the routine. The lights I type in the light colors and brightness, and the positioning of all the motors I "teach" the routine using a joystick, one axis at a time. Lots of R/C Car parts and inexpensive craft items as this is a somewhat conscious budget project!

Thank you! All the best!

believe it or not a single, tiny, maybe 3/4'' wide brass hinges from a hardware store. I took an x-acto and slotted them into the foam with a couple dots of super glued and I assumed they'd rip out and I'd have to find something bulkier. Have never failed! I think the trick is to make sure that the hinge can swing inward too which you'd never want to program but in the event of a servo issue / positioning, a bump, that it's forgiving and won't stress the hinge. Good luck!

Oh yes, there's a good tip I can share there. Andy figured out how to hack / use very cheap, plastic lens LED head lamps. They normally run on 3 AAA, so 4.5 volts. We cut them apart and wired those to the Medusa DMX board and put a 20-ohm resistor on them. Surprisingly good fades as well as focus. It was these from Amazon here: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ICG3FC4/ though it doesn't have them anymore I'm sure you can find them somewhere else. We found more at a local 99cent store. The nice thing is they're focus-able and they have a single bright LED inside them so they can be a nice tight spot. We hide about 10 of them around the garden and they all have their own programmed tracks.

looks like the same one here: www.ebay.com/itm/6000LM-Zoomable-Q5-LED-Headlamp-Head-Light-Lamp-Flashlight-Torch-3-Modes-AAA-R0/401697199365?hash=item5d8704d505:g:vsAAAOSwAdFcUAML

great question. I used Hitec and initially thought I could get away with HS-311s. Nope, definitely go with something that has metal or hardened gears. You'll thank yourself later. I've been mostly using HS-485HB

Budget animatronic! Lots of servos and R/C car parts.

It’s not a projection. These are mechanical

Nope, it's all in VSA. We control the DMX lights right there and also have a DMX dimmer that brings up and down some small light cans and the ground Malibu lights.

+Aaron Coleman do you know what light o Rama is? You're show is like the best! It's so cool! Good Choice of song!

+Chaseerocks yes, but it doesn't give us enough granularity and support to drive the servos that run all the movement. Thanks for the compliment! I have some videos of how we do VSA and programming movement with a joystick, will post those soon.

+Aaron Coleman cool I will watch them!😉

+Aaron Coleman- Hi, Aaron. Thanks for sharing this. It is fantastic! I can see you put in lots of time and effort. Do you have any "how-to" videos and/or can you share any resources for how to do all this?

That’s the original by Queen

I'd have to talk it over with my co-conspirator Andy but honestly I don't think they'd do you any good. We basically handmade the skeleton and glued / tie strapped stuff in in a way that's totally unreproducible. The angles that things are placed, the length of each pull rod, the offset on the servos, if any of that is wrong then the whole thing is gunna look wrong. I've tried making a backup skeleton and even I can't get it to look right. We also used some random servos, so you'd have to match all of those almost exactly (some are Futaba, some Hitech and so they reverse). I have dreams of one day doing a precise measurement and honing it in using 3D printing so it's reproducible, but who knows if I'll ever get the time for that.

And be hind Walmart

Yellow house

This is in 2020