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Basic Idea Behind "Short Stones"
| DESCRIPTION:
The ‘Robot Stones’ are 11 inch figures fashioned after
a famous rock band. All figures have articulated
mouths, necks, and torsos with a few appropriate
additions to each figure. A colored light show also
goes with the song’s tempo. |
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PERFORMANCE: Mick, the lead singer, stomps
his left foot to the music and sings lead on the song.
Charlie, the drummer, has 4 additional features;
snare/hand/stick, Hi Hat/hand/stick, Bass pedal/foot
and Hi Hat pedal/foot. Ron sings backup and
strums/picks his guitar. Keith picks his guitar and is
generally very animated, along with Mick. 10 colored
lights go with the beat. |
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MECHANICS: Each figure’s head was built
like a ventriloquist dummy, with the mouths hinged and
connected to a servo with music wire. In order to get
the speed on the mouths, the servo horn was lengthened
to 3” and each servo only travels a few degrees. The
drums were actually driven by servos connected to
Charlie's feet, so it looks like he is really playing.
All figures move their torsos, head (neck), and
mouths. The secret to getting all this up from the
bottom was telescopic brass tubing with servo horns
connected to each. The mouth wires run up the center
of the inside tubing. Lighting is done with parallel
hi-bright LEDs arranged into copper plumbing
connectors. Guitars and hands are double-pinned to get
both hand/strum and guitar action. |
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ELECTRONICS: SSC-32 running at 115 kbps.
Figures use full servo setting; lights use relay
setting. All servos (16 in all) are HITEC HS325HB.
Power supply is 5VDC@3A and12VDC@1A. Music is ported
thru a 3 watt amplifier with small computer speaker
remounted in a ‘road case’. VSA runs from COM1. |
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SPECIAL TECHNIQUES: Each head was sculpted
by hand from polymer clay, then hardened in the oven.
Of special note: I used hard clay for the heads, but the
‘rubberized’ clay for the hands. I broke several hands
when the figures wildly play their guitars! Mouths had
to be made separately of hard clay, then hinged/fit to
the faces. To be sure of durability, I used brass for
their ‘tongues’ and connected it to the music wire
with a loop. Guitars were also made of polymer clay
(and real guitar strings), then painted. |
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TIME: About 100 hours if videos and documentation
are included. |
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Schematics page 1
