[HH] Opening a skull (on topic, honest!)

[Drew Van Zandt]

Replace the springs with weaker ones.  Drive the jaw shut with the servo,
don't just let it drift back.
OR
Gear down the servo
OR
Get a bigger servo - someone at the Asylum would likely barter one to you
on short notice.

*
Drew Van Zandt
Artisan's Asylum Craft Lead, Electronics & Robotics
Cam # US2010035593 (M:Liam Hopkins R: Bastian Rotgeld)
Domain Coordinator, MA-003-D.  Masquerade aVST
*



On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 3:25 PM, Mark Komarinski <mkomarinski at wayga.org>wrote:

> Ok, so here's the background.
>
> After many years of software and Linux tinkering I finally got into
> Arduino for hardware tinkering.  As I usually do when learning a new
> software language, I pick a 'big' project and give myself plenty of time to
> work on it - the thinking is that starting big I can break the project down
> into small parts that I can figure out separately.
>
> My Arduino project is a Halloween skull.  Ideally, I'd like:
>
> - motion sensor to activate when someone is nearby and cause the jaws to
> open and shut quickly
> - LED eyes that glow brighter the darker it gets (I already have this
> working)
> - sounds (optional, probably add a sound shield)
>
> My problem is the first item.  The jaw is held in place using two springs
> (no other connection exists between the jaw and rest of the skull).  The
> tension that's required to open it is too much for the servo that I have.
>  I was thinking a linear actuator, but those appear to be way more
> expensive than I'd want to spend.  Different springs may work, but I want
> the jaw to snap shut thus requiring a good bit of tension.  I've already
> got a few PIR sensors I'll use to know when there's nearby motion to
> activate.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> -Mark
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