# my 3-axis skull with moving eyes



## danandmeg (Jun 8, 2008)

Very nice to see the fruits of your labor. I'm working on one as well, different approach, but EXTREMELY helpful to see yours. Thanks!


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## Dminor (Jul 21, 2006)

Seeing stuff like this makes me wish I was a bit more electronically inclined. great job.


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## serialc0d3 (Sep 8, 2008)

Great job! Thanks for posting it up!


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## Chinook203 (Sep 9, 2008)

That is absolutely awesome! I wish I had that kind of know how!


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## indianaholmes (Feb 13, 2005)

I am curious about the circuit that you created to change the brightness of the LED's in the eyes. You said you used the SS32 to do this. How? I know the servo controller puts out pulses, so how does that change the voltages to the LED's?


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## indianaholmes (Feb 13, 2005)

Oh, by the way, very nice job! I've been watching for someone with a little more creativity to come up with a way to do this in such a confined space. Very ingenious.


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## azdude (Aug 6, 2008)

Thanks Randy! The solution for the eyes is far from perfect and I already have another design in mind but that will have to wait for next year. As far as the LED dimming goes - I created a little circuit board with a microcontroller that takes in the pulse coming from the SSC-32 and based on that pulse width it dims the LED using a pulsed signal on another pin. Since you are a fellow Arizonian I will send you one of my circuit boards if you are interested.


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## Isabella_Price (Sep 6, 2008)

Awesome. I wish I knew how to do something like that.


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## hedg12 (Jun 22, 2008)

That is very cool! I'm gonna have to try this.

Any chance you'd post a schematic and code for your eye dimming circuit? I could use that this year with my hacked Gemmy candy dish skull.

Again, that's awesome. I love the innovation and creativity here.


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## CaptnJackSparrow (Jul 5, 2007)

Amazin' mate! 'Eyes be planned fer me pirates fer next year, 'tis difficult enough jus' ta get me scallywags ta flap their jaws when I want'em to... Congrats!

Capt. Jack


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## danandmeg (Jun 8, 2008)

Any updated photos of the build? I was able to hack away a bit on mine this past weekend so I'll take some pictures of it tonight and post them here tomorrow morning. Still having a heck of a time cramming everything in, any chance you have a downward photo of the Lexan with the servos installed?


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## robZombie (Oct 6, 2008)

azdude said:


> Thanks Randy! The solution for the eyes is far from perfect and I already have another design in mind but that will have to wait for next year. As far as the LED dimming goes - I created a little circuit board with a microcontroller that takes in the pulse coming from the SSC-32 and based on that pulse width it dims the LED using a pulsed signal on another pin. Since you are a fellow Arizonian I will send you one of my circuit boards if you are interested.


Another AZ (transplant) here, do I qualify?  Great setup, with the recessed eyes, you should be able to get a lot of emotion out of them by angling the head downward to give the appearance of eyebrows and such like Skulltronics.

I'm also working on a solution for 2-axis eyes, but on a Gemmy Animated Scary Skull which already has single-axis eyes built in. My servo arrangement is basically identical to yours, so it's great to see someone else using a similar setup! Only difference is, instead of the deodorant socket, I am making a gimbal by adding an outer ring around the eye with two pins to add the up/down movement. I'll post pics hopefully before Halloween when all is working.

Definitely interested in any details on the dimmer board, as I'll be hooking up the LEDs in the Gemmy eyes as well. I was planning to just have them pop on when the servos fire up at the beginning of the routine, but dimming would be ideal. Also would love to see video of the inner mechanism in action if you get a chance to shoot the skull with the cap off.

Thanks for posting this! A big help for us multi-axis skull builders!


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## azdude (Aug 6, 2008)

Sorry about the lack of updates - I have been working furiously on getting this thing done and it is taking me so freaking long! Anyway, here are some more pics of the servo placement from the top. Other than the top servo for the eyes (the little blue one) there is nothing unique about placement of the other servos. You will notice in the one picture that at the front of the skull, the plexiglass plate does stick up above the edge of the skull about 1/4 inch. That is because of the eye mechanism. The plate is literally sitting on the blue servo so if I re-do this I need to mount the eye servo just a tad lower.

View attachment 2454


View attachment 2455


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## Skullwerks (Jun 26, 2008)

*Here is another way! this works great*

I've glued bearings into the center/top of the plastic eye and on the piviot bracket drilled a hole and ran a #2 bolt through the bering and bracket and a nut holding it in place then drilled pivot pins through the sides of the skull for the pivot up/down making sure the pivot point is centered to the side of the eye!


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## dionicia (Nov 5, 2006)

Hi. I like the brackets you used for the mouth servo. I would have never thought of setting up a bracket that way. That makes it so much easier.

Skullwerks, what type of controller is that inside the skull if you don't mind me asking?


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

One day I hope to be able to make these. Nice job AZdude. I like that you guy isn't terrifying. Spooky looking enough (eyes are great) but approachable for kids of all ages. Enjoyed the video. Thanks.


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