Talking Animatronic Robot Head

Step 4 Setting up the Robot Head

Setting up the robot head is reasonably simple.  The first thing I do is remover the robot head and all its accessories from the trunk and attach it to the top with two locking bolts (photo 1 & 2).  These endure the mounted head will not fall off in case someone gets careless around it.

Next, I attach a power strip to the back of the trunk.  All incoming power will come through this strip.

I then attach the RAPU unit to the back.  A bracket on the wood case simply slides into a bracket I have mounted on the back of the trunk.  Then I plug in the RAPU power supply, and plug in the serial connection and the audio cable into the back of the case that holds the other power supplies.  Since the serial communications used by the RAPU only use two wires, I made my own serial cable from an old telephone cord.  That way I was able to use a phone jack instead of a 9 pin serial plug & socket.  The audio wire is then plugged in (I used a stereo phone jack and cord.

Next, I plug in the power cable that powers all the power supplies in the power supply case (it is the cord with the yellow plug).  The last thing I do is attach the spotlight and the spotlight servo switch, plug the power strip into an outlet and I'm ready to go!

Near the upper right of the 3rd photo you will see a white plug dangling down.  This is an additional serial connection to power a 2nd animatronic device (like the small one in the video).  I only use this when I'm using a 2nd device -- otherwise it just dangles in the back.

I also have two security plates mounted -- one on the power supply box and one on the trunk.  If I have to leave the robot head unattended in a public place, I use a laptop lock to secure the unit.