Hacking cheap talking skulls? Would DCSSR work?

[carlk]

I think I would try and drive it with a DCSSR. By using low end values from vixen and varying the voltage to the SSR,
you may find a range that will move the motor against the spring and give you partial opening of the jaw.
I have a Boris skull that I have been thinking about trying this on.
Just a thought,
Carl

[Zeph]

I think I would try and drive it with a DCSSR. By using low end values from vixen and varying the voltage to the SSR,
you may find a range that will move the motor against the spring and give you partial opening of the jaw.

Yes! That's exactly what I was wondering about - PWM modulating the motor power and finding where a given power level balances against the spring tension. I guess that a more controlled closing could be part of the picture as well, and help with the spooling of the string. Tho the speed of these is impressive and due in part to that "let 'er rip" jaw closing.

That's a better skull than I found online looking at this time of year - it also has moving/lit eyes, tho the jaw mechanism sounds very similar to what I did find (I didn't catch this bug until a couple of months ago so I wasn't looking retail at the right time of year). I'd like to be already prepared when the halloween stock hits the shelves.

[ErnieHorning]

It’s called proportional control and it’s widely used for controlling air/hydraulic valves everywhere and should work equally well for solenoids. The PWM frequency needs to initially be higher than what is needed to actually move the plunger. The range can be anywhere from 45 - 1000 Hz, a bit higher if it’s audible.

Depending on the solenoid, you may need to add an additional force initially to the plunger movement to overcome sticktion.

[Zeph]

Just to be clear, there are two levels of modification under discussion here. The simplest is varying the power to the existing motor with their windup strings. No mechanical modification would be needed to this beyond feeding controlled power to the motor.

The second level would involve replacing the motor with a solenoid and controlling that. That could potentially be very cool, if afforidable. Do you have any suggestions for an appropriate solenoid? (links?)