setup. No longer would you be required to dig into the
actual programming to adjust the settings. The board
would walk you through the process with audio
instructions. Adjustments could be made by using a
potentiometer and recorded with a button push (see
Figure 8).
The design process has continued to evolve with Steve
now offering the newest version (Figure 9). The Banshee
board has taken it up a notch or two! It will not only have
the ability to control a three-axis skull but it will allow you
to have two skulls talk to each other! It is like having two
Frankenstein boards in one! Steve’s code is open source and
is shared under a Common License. He plans to write
additional programs to give Banshee even greater power.
User modification of the code is also encouraged with the
caveat that it be shared with the community.
To keep the cost down, the Banshee board has been
designed to use an inexpensive enclosure. With a little
modification to the box, you have a well protected PCB and
still have complete access to the connectors and
programming buttons (Figure 10).
The Propeller Activity board has become a valuable
device in our shows (see Resources). It allows us to
puppeteer our characters and save the sequences for
playback later. We are able to control eight servos per
board, and additional boards can be linked together to
50 SERVO 08.2016
DIY Animatronics
Figure 11. Propeller Activity board is our puppeteering controller.
Figure 12.
Primary
DMX
controller
and a
satellite
unit.
Figure 9. Banshee is here!
Figure 10. Safeguard your precious controllers in an
enclosure.
