Furby Hijack

I took control of a furby's body using a PIC16F877 microcomputer. Videos on last step.

The furby's in-built sensors and actuators:
light sensor,
IR sensor,
IR transmitter,
tongue touch sensor,
belly touch sensor,
microphone,
speaker.

The furby's main (and only) motor was dead, so I added other motors.

Step 1 Skin the bastard

Skin the furby (yank its skin up over the top of its head). You'll have to clip a ziptie at the base of the back of its skin first then you'll have to clip little stiches connecting the skin around the face area.

Once it's off you'll see connectors on the left and right of the furbies body, these are the wires connected to all the sensors. You should even see written next to some of the wire connections 'S1' 'S2' (sensor 1 and sensor 2, etc). Figure out which wires go where.

Above the furby's eyes:
-In the center is a light sensor (changes resistance in response to light)
-On one side of the light sensor is an IR emitter (like on your TV remote)
-On the other side is an IR receiver (like on your TV)

On the furby's sides:
Left:
-wires from the belly touch sensor
-wires from the speaker
Right:
-wires from the tongue touch sensor
-wires from the microphone


solder longer wires onto any sensor wires you want to connect to your PIC, label them.

Comments

[dlfynrdr]

I'm sorry, man, but this is just WRONG! You turned poor little Furby into a Borg!!

[knuffe]

Prepare to be assimilated! XD

[Derin]

It eventually happens to everyone,however it happens mostly to people named Jean-Luc and toys named Furby.

[IX Smith XI]

It not wrong, it just funny.

[Biggsy]

I would have LOVED to see that Voyager eppisode, where Seven of Nine meets Fourthosund and seventy two of one point four billion Furby

[hobbles]

Whoa ultra furby....

[sherlocksbumstead]

that's pretty awesome, but let's see if we can take it a bit further: CO2 Napalm Paintball Cannon Tazer Infrared ... be creative

[Fizzxwizz]

how about we add some of this on furby?

[struckbyanarrow]

just pick up 2 pneamatic pumps with 2 taser coils and long wires with a very high votage capisiter do the ir hack its on another instructable and figure out the napalm crap by your self "be creative"

[leevonk]

this thing is held together by twist ties, a paintball gun's recoil would probably make it fall apart. tazer would be cool but it would only really work on people with bear feat (I think shoes would be too thick to zap through).

[Dantron]

If someone had bear feet they'd be a hobbit or a bear.

Bare feet are another thing altogether though.

[diskincluded]

Yes, good spelling is the difference between removing your clothes and being chased by an angry furless bear.

[codongolev]

http://www.bustedtees.com/secondamendment

[Dantron]

That is ridiculously awesome.

[codongolev]

yes. yes it is.

[Sailor15797]

i once got a furbie from mcdonalds, and my brother smashed it with a hammer

[supersith22]

my brother could say the same thing lol furbies always freaked me out they're evil you know. nice job making the furby-stein btw

[GorillazMiko]

Holy crap dude, you work so messy!

[grahamslawson]

Mate, you should see my desk.

[GorillazMiko]

Oui mate, shall you take a picture?

[grahamslawson]

Happy new year, one year on and I find this comment lol
I am just getting back into electronics for gcse =/
Good luck if your still active =]

[evilgenius 398]

wicked how cruel ripping his flesh off over his head

[FirstAttempt]

Awsome idea, mount this on the Furby - http://www.instructables.com/id/Fireball-Shooter/
lol

[Shifrin]

Ha, this thing is so cool! I wish I was capable of making one of these! That would be awesome... ~Shifrin

[darth acexxacer]

can i make him say words like "death" and "i will kill you"?

[knexguy]

aargh!!!!!!!! its frankenfurby!!!

[newkiraj]

@mad cat Mine fell to the same fate.... this would've been MUCH cooler tho now all u need to add is a small butane tank, a stove sparker, a electronically controlled valve for the tank, and you have a gaurd for ur room! open the door, and risk 3rd degree burns lol

[Mad Cat]

Hehe...I put a firework in my Furbie.

[adamthiede]

good job.

[adamthiede]

this is the maddest thing ive ever seen. (besides the banana phone!) Furbys are creepy and should be burned in a bonfire, not given super-sharp sensors and better motors.

[o.....m......g.....lol!]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!1i was right furbies are trying to take over the world!!!! they mustve used computers to get onto hte simpsons!!nooooooooo

[instructa-fan]

It looks like frankin stein gone wrong! P.S. you're old enough to be on instructables.com and you own a furby?????lol! nothing personal!

[pAWNage]

lol dude what are you talking about furbies frickin rock, you can teach them to swear!!

[hg341]

yea but you have to say it like 1000mill times lol....

[instructa-fan]

no shit?! how!!!?

[Rokko8652]

Actually, not to be a party crapper, but they just have a database of words, they just reveal more words over time, but they may have some of those words in there though....

[Pealife]

PLS, WHO CAN GIVE ME THE PROGRAMME OF FURBY IN BASCOM. I NEED IT FOR MY LAST YEAR PROJECT. I HAVE TO PROGRAMME THE FURBY AND I'M IN THE CRUCIAL MOMENT NOW. HELP ME OUT PLEASE????

[MRX2099]

How easy would it be to save the furby skin, to replace back on later , install a motion detector when someone walks by or just moves in the room, and reprogram the chip for like to leave it at home and when someone enters the house it will seem like it is reporting the person to the cops via some wireless interface unless they tell their name, etc, as a fake gaurd for you home or something like that, just to scare a guest entering your home or place in the wife's bathroom when she enters early in the morning to freak her out like its posessed with new saying...

[leevonk]

somebody sent me a message asking about the details of the supplies needed for the furby hijack project. Here's my reply, hope it helps other people with the same question. This applies mostly to those with little experience in electronics or microcomputers:

The furby project isn't very easy if you haven't used microcomputers before. There are many different types of microcomputers, I used the PIC. PICs are hard to learn how to use in a short amount of time. The best microcomputer to start learning with is the basic stamp (that's the one I learned to use first). The problem with the basic stamp is that it's harder to do analog to digital conversions (necssary to read from the furby's light sensor), but other than that, the basic stamp would be fine for the furby project. HEre's where you could get the basic stamp from:
http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=BS1-IC
To program the basic stamp you can either build your own circuit to interface the basic stamp with your PC or you can buy a 'module' that makes programming the stamp easy: http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=27111

if you want to try using a PIC instead of a basic stamp here's where to get it from: go to www.digikey.com and search for PIC16F877-04/P-ND
To program the PIC you'll need a PIC programmer such as this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-PIC-Debugger-Programmer-Microchip-icd2-icd-2-mplab_W0QQitemZ300096357766QQcategoryZ4661QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

here's where to get the motor controller (H-bridge) from: go to www.digikey.com and search for 497-1389-5-ND

For the motors, you can either use lego motors if you have them (that's what I used) or look for good motors here:
www.allelectronics.com
(for instance: http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/DCM-261/400/6-20_VDC_MOTOR,_MABUCHI_FK-280_.html)
make sure that the voltages that the motors need can be supplied by whatever batteries you use.

to make the necessary circuits you'll need a
1) breadboard
http://www.action-electronics.com/breadbrd.htm?zoom_highlight=breadboard
OR
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/PB-1680/search/BREADBOARD,_1680_CONTACTS_.html
2) breadboard hookup wire
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/18RD-100/search/18_GA._RED_HOOK-UP_WIRE,_STR._100"#39;_.html
3) wire wrap sockets
http://www.action-electronics.com/icsockets.htm#Hrww
4) wire wrap wire
http://www.action-electronics.com/pdww.htm#Wire
5) and a wire wrap tool
http://www.action-electronics.com/pdww.htm#Wrap
6) wire wrap perf board
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/PC-4/search/SOLDERABLE_PERF_BOARD_.html
7) a multimeter
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/DVM-810/search/ECONOMY_DIGITAL_MULTIMETER_.html

for more advanced electronics you should have:
8) a soldering iron (may not need it for beginner circuits but it will be useful, especially if you want to make the bump sensor like I did)
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/IR-30/search/30_WATT_SOLDERING_IRON_.html
9) soldering iron stand
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/50B-205/search/SOLDERING_STAND_.html
10) solder
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/SOL-564/search/1_2_LB_ROLL,60_40_SOLDER,_.032"#34;_DIA_.html
11) perf board
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/ECS-1/search/SOLDERABLE_PERF_BOARD,_1_HOLE_PAD_.html
12) DIP sockets
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/ICS-24N/search/24_PIN,_NARROW_DIP_IC_SOCKET_.html
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/ICS-18/search/18_PIN_IC_SOCKET_.html

[thermitemaster]

Hmmm... Funny. I always though fubys were filled with pure evil.