Rock Bottom Cemetery

Many people have asked me to write a book where they could Follow along in making their Numbskulls*  talk. I have chosen to post the tutorial here.!!! Through the Help Of several people Included In this Project: They  are Gym Ghost, Halloween Bob's and Captain Jack Sparrow, Evil Bob and my self.You will find many tips and tricks here to make your skull talk. We Hope you have Fun Making your Numbskull*.

 

 

First you will need a Numbskull*  Kit . You may purchase them On My main website:

By Clicking my link, the kit  includes every thing you will need to make your Numbskull*

 Order Your Numbskull* Kit Here

 

After you have gotten your kit you will have to put it together it come in several pieces, but don't worry instructions are included with the skull , so do you want teeth in your skull? or just and few? you will need to buy some Model glue at your hobby store.

To Stain your Numbskull* we use mimiwax stain. Bought at Lowe's or Home Depot.

 ( Captain Jack's Photo's above)

 The skull itself has a skull cap and bottom of the skull and a jaw bone and teeth ( glue is needed  here) are all separate and snap in to place . 

So now we are ready to being our tutorial: 

 Let review the parts in your kit:

1- Numbskull* Lindberg skull  

1- skull plate     

4- Hi-Tech Servos

1- walwart  

1-SSC32-controller board

Pack of Hardware   :  " L " Bracket, Nuts , Washers, Screws, Spacers, Large Swivel Rod Connector, Link connectors, thread rod for links,ball link connectors.

 

Preparing your skull:

Some skulls may vary a tad in design. Pre-fit your skull plate to your inside of your skull DON'T FORCE THE PLATE. You may have to sand or remove some of the edge of the plate to make it fit. With your Dremel tool sander barrel.Once you have seated your plate in the skull mark it with a pencil on the side of the skull. Where to drill the set screws that will hold the plate,( through the skull into the plate to hold your skull plate in place. ) Don't screw plate in yet. Depending what side you want you jaw wire to be on, will depend on how the plate is flipped in the skull.There is No HOLE made for the jaw servo. More On that later..

 

 ( Picture By Halloween Bob) Mounting The Skull Plate:

The Back of the skull plate is toward the top of the skull and the front of the plate is Installed at a slight angle , so the front of the plate  is lower then the back. This is done so when the servos start to work it is centered.

Drill your holes in your skull first where the screws will not show to much. Or may be covered with a wig ,hat or other piece of prop clothing. 

Then place your skull plate in the skull and mark through the holes of the skull with a sharpie pen  or pencil.

Remove the skull plate after you have all 4 holes marked and drill into the side of plate to make your screw holes. DO BE Careful Not To Crack The Plate.

Don't screw Plate into skull Just yet !!

 

 

 

  To will hold this swivel headed connector In Place.   

the Threaded Rod will run through the "L" bracket this will make the head action. Make sure the "L" bracket is at least 1" x 1"&1/2" long. If you bought the  complete Numbskull* Kit the bracket is in the kit.

                                             

  This Is Captain Jack's version:

Buy a "L" bracket  from Home Depot or Lowe's that holds 1x1&1/2"s and screw that to the skull plate and make a hole for the Swivel rod.   SEE HIS Video click his name above.

You will need  clearance  about an inch or so.. not much.. the top of the rod really needs to be about 1/2" to 3/4" below the bottom of the plate to be inline with the servo arms..

Make the whole in the base of the skull  bigger, by using your dremel tool cutter or by Jack's  method of drill bit press.Running the skull up and down the bit. So The "L" bracket has clearance to move.                                                 

 

In the kit you have 4- larger servos and servo screws these are to make your Numbskull*  move. They are Hi-Tech servo and they all look the same.They get screwed down CAREFULLY ( be careful not to crack the skull plate ) to the skull plate that is included in the kit in the square holes provided.DON'T PREDRILL SERVO SCREW.  HOLES.. The Face of th servos will be on the bottom side of the plates.

 

 

Once you have all 4 servos screwed down it is time to make the links that move them.. 

How to make you links: In your Kit you have a bag of parts. In this parts you will find a 

Small Threaded Rod and  SERVO ENDS.   Cut the Thread rod making 4 tiny rods. To the length you will need to make your links for servos.Twist on the connectors to each end of the rods . you will need to make 4 connector rods. 1 for the each servo, Next hook this to the servo horn. Trim One side of the servo horn off so it will not bump the linkage as it moves later. 

 

            ( Photo By Wicc_ed  & Halloween Bob from the Halloween Forum )
 

 Set to one side for safe keeping: 

Now to hook the servo links to the servos: 

  Most of the linkages end cap touching each other with no rod showing in between. It just worked out to be the right distance. If you need one to be longer, just don't screw them together all the way. You shouldn't need any to be shorter, but if you did, you could snip a little off each of the linkages with wire cutters. They are made of plastic.

Anyway, next, we want to attach the linkages to the servos. I opened up the bag of servo armatures that came in the package from HiTec. I started with the armature shown in this picture and trimmed one side off.

 

 

 

 Now for the spine of the works:

In the kit you will find a reducer connector that will fit on the spine rod of your Bucky.Screw this on to your Bucky Spine and the other end will have a section of  Thread Rod to hold your SERVO ROD ENDS.Next  you will find in your hardware bag  a 1/4" Threaded Rod That has the Nuts and Servo Arms and Swivel on it. In the right order that you need all you have to do Is hook it up to the Servo Connector rods that you made. using the small Servo Screws.

 

     

                                       ( Photo by Wicc_ed for Halloween Forum ) 

                                      

 

** Now you May Screw The Skull Plate in to the skull.** Once this is done DON'T REMOVE it. or you will have Lose Holes. ***

Installing The Skull Plate:

  Now that  you have all the servos screwed down and in place you may screw the skull plate into the skull.

 

 

 Next In your kit you will find a power supply ( walwart )

Some power supplies have a thing on the cord that looks like a covered battery DON"T CUT THIS OFF..All you have to do is cut the plug off if yours has one. and split the power wire down the middle and strip the ends. The side of the wire that has ridges is the positive side of the wire.. you will hook this up to the positive side of the controller board..Making sure it the positive side. In the VS1 port.

 

Getting to know your board: SSC-32 LynxMotion Servo Board

***If you are making 1-4 skull use the red Dots.

***If you are making 5-8 skulls use all the dots marked.

At the back of the board Red Dot is where you will hook your power supply into the board. After you have striped the wire bare.This is called the VS1 port slide the wires in and tighten the set screws.The servos get hook up to the tiny pin heads sticking up that I marked on the SERVO BANK in RED.

If you are making more then 4 skull you need another power supply and strip the wires on that and hook them to the Blue BANK VS2 . Make sure the positive side of the wire is in the positive side of the VS2 port. 

 

DO NOT HOOK THIS UP BACKWARD IT WILL BURN OUT THE BOARD. or HARM YOUR SERVOS..

Important set the Baud Rate of the board at :  115k

 

 On your servo there is a positive and a negative side on the power cord.Make sure you hook the yellow side of wire to the command wire, red is the positive wire pin on the board. The black is ground.

 Once you have completed this steps your skull will be ready to move.

Now for the Jaw Servo  there is No pre-cut hole for the jaw servo because it lays on it side on top of the skull plate and needs a bracket to hold it in place. With the fly wheel hanging over the edge.So you will have to find the best location on your plate to screw this down.This gets mounted in the cut indent that is on the plate.The other servos should be mounted by this time. but I left them out of this picture. Make sure the fly wheel does not bump the plate side. Now some people use wire to make the Jaw Hook up. But in your pack you will find a ball and socket that looks like a tiny trailer hitch.

 Drill a tiny hole in the jaw bone toward the back of the jaw. Screw in the hitch part of this set. On the inside of the jaw bone. (pic will be here)

       

Next take the plastic cap part and make your rod connector, I used some of the same threaded rod that you used to make the other connectors. Put a 256 connector on one end and a ball cap on the other.

Once you have the servo screwed down to the skull plate and its hooked up just snap the cap onto the ball hitch. Plug your servo into the board and the Numbskull* then should be able to talk or at least move his jaw at this point.

 

 Setting The Jumpers: On Page 2 and 3 of the manual you will see how to set the Jumpers on the board for the baud rate your are using.Here is a pic of where the Jumpers are located on the board Marked by a red dot in pic: The jumpers come with the board;READ THE MANUEL . Set the Jumper pins at 1-1 .

 The picture show the jumpers set for 115K baud rate, but  what is important,IS TO SET  THE SAME RATE IN VSA SOFTWARE.

 

 

   How to hook all this to your computer:

 

All computer in the back of the system have ports ( little hole things where stuff gets plugged in ) You will need to plug the card in to one of this ports with a cable. It is called a I/O port .The cable is called a USB cable you may already have one if you use a scanner or have to upload pictures from your digital camera.Plug this in to the back of your computer.

 

***Captain Jack's Tutorial on Port Set Up*** 

"If your computer has a 9pin..." above..       
 Most computers up to the last couple years or so have a DB9(9pin) serial port.. it's what old mice used to plug into..  Get a DB9 to DB9 cable(up to 50' will work) to go between the Lynx board and your computer.

If your computer does not have a DB9 serial port, you will have to get a "USB to RS232 adapter", available ONLY on eBay.  Well, you CAN find them at Frys Electronics or some similar stores but you will pay $30 or more for something that costs $5.  Usually prices on eBay are $5-$7, $10 TOPS!!


TJ Hvasta:
Once you have your Lynx board, cables, and power supply, you have to plug it all together.  Run the power line to the Lynx board (DONT PLUG IT IN YET), connect the serial cable between the Lynx and your computers serial port (or USB to RS232 adapter).  On your computer, go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, Hardware tab, Device Manager, click on the + for Ports and note which ports are available, (Com 1, Com2, etc)  Set the jumper for the available port on the Lynx.  Now plug in the wallwart.  Refresh the Ports screen, or look which port just popped up as working.  Double-click on the Com port #, select Settings, make sure the speed is set to 115K bits per second, click, OK, then close Dev. Mgr, Control Panel, now you're set to start with VSA.

I

                           

 

TJ Hvasta: set jumper to 115K baud rate..

 Down Load The VSA software from the Brookshire website on to your  computers hard drive. You have to buy the Brookshire software from them.

This is where you will create your program for your Numbskull* to talk and Move on its own.You can also down load Background noises or music for them to sing like Halloween Bob did.Evil Bob also runs Audacity Software for his Props. And The fun begins. 

Download the Demo version of VSA.  Brookshire software download  READ thru the help files how to use VSA, how to create movement events (supposedly you can not import a song or voice file into the Demo version) but you will see how it works.  the full version of VSa is only avail as a download right now, at $55 but we're waiting on Brookshire for a distibutorship to be set up.. Once it is, VSa will be available at a lower cost, -possibly- as a CD but most likely as a download only.

 

 HalloweenBob uses Audacity to cut/paste his audio files.  I use Nero WaveEditor to edit my song files, whatever people use to edit their music or vioce files is good.  just has to be saved in .mp3 format

 A good free program is Goldwave, available from  Goldwave.com
 I edit, cut, paste, change volume, echo, reverb, lots of neat stuff.. Goldwave is free and easy to use.
 

 

    

 

How to make you control Box for the servos: By Captain Jack Sparrow

 
The wiring I use is just a 5'-10' Cat5 router cable.. (you can use Cat5e, 6pair, 8pair or 10pair wire also), I cut the plug off one end of the Cat5 (leaving the other to plug into controller Cat5 sockets), split the wires and twist/solder them such:

Orange/Wht - B+(RED)
Orange - Nod command
Green/Wht - B+ (RED)
Blue - Tilt command
Blue/Wht - GND (BLK)
Green - Rotate command
Brown - Jaw command
Brown/Wht - GND (BLK)

I twisted the bright-striped wires(org/wht & grn/wht) together to carry the B+ (positive) current load, and twisted the dark-striped wires(blu/wht & brwn/wht) together to carry the Ground current load. Single wires by themselves wont carry the current for four servos, hence the twisted pairs. Each of the solid colors go to individual servo command wires(the yellows wire on servos).

Orange - Nod servo yellow wire
Green - Rotate servo yellow wire
Blue - Tilt servo yellow wire
Brown - Jaw servo yellow wire

If you want to include LED eyes, you can use the Cat5, just wire the LEDS to the Red and Black wires (DONT forget the limiting resistor!). Using intercom(6, 8, 10pair) wires gives you more options(LEDs, moving eye servos, etc), just remember to double up the positive and negative wires to be able to handle all the current.

If you already have a color code, great! This is just what I thot of.. No one's code is wrong.. jus' Keep ta th' Code, 'Mate!!

At the top of this page you will see Captain Jack Sparrow's Name if you click that link will take you  to his personal  page that has videos so you can follow along.

 

Setting up your Servo card to VSA  Software

for windows system= plug your card into the computer using your USB cable and then turn your system on.

go to control panel then system them hardware configuration,you'll see it under ports
VSA will work with the card but the computer will not see it.If, you have the right port the servos will work. Adjusting the jumpers and ports in the software some times you just have to play with it to make it work

You Change the ports through VSA by changing the card in the software

If you don't have the right port it will give you a run time error.

 

 This is the EEPROM Socket for add ons:

 

 

 

 

 

I want to Thank the following people for Helping make this Tutorial:
Halloween BOB
Captain Jack Sparrow
Evil Bob
Wicc-ed.
May Everyone Have a Happy Halloween,
Bless you All