What I've found works best is a fairly rigid, wide elastic strap that goes from the back of the head down to the wearers belt. As a bonus you can use the force keeping the head from rotating down to hold the tail belt up like a suspender.
Thanks!!!
I was Initially concerned about how well the eyes would synchronize being controlled by separate servos (versus the old bowden tube system that used one servo for each axis across both eye modules). Pleasantly surprised, they sync up nicely and I was able to make small adjustments in software.
Still waiting on a few parts to hook up the linkages on the second eye, painting and gloss are done though. This is only a update to the current build. I'm going to remove the existing skull mech and reuse most of the fur, although I'm going to swap the mofu on the muzzle for nft for better realism.
Painted, and ready for lacquer. I always paint the whole thing, even though it'll be mostly covered in fur. I've made the teeth a bit more yellow this time, which I'm hoping will look more realistic. I need to figure out how to cast resin teeth, those look better than printed & painted teeth.
After an eternity of printing, the flexible TPU components are complete.
I don't think so, I think it's just a matter of the servo trying to precisely dial into the commanded position, it's making small corrections and overshooting each time so there's an oscillation. It likely will drain the battery a little faster, could generate some excess heat. Not a major concern.
You might try detaching the servo (i.e. myservo.detach()) where myservo is whatever you named the servo, do when you're not commanding it to a different position, then reattach to move it again. I think if it's detached it will not try to hold it's position and that should stop the chattering.
Thanks! It is a gnoll, one of my D&D characters. This will be the third version, the original and second versions looked like this:
I was originally just going to update the design of the jaw part and install, then the jaw and the eye mechs, then the jaw, the eye mechs and the headbase, at this point I have updated and am re-printing (or have re-printed) every part. Isn't that just how projects always go?
Very cool design! You might try modeling sets of tabs and a filleted channel in the printed parts, and then put 2mm holes through the tabs. Get a box of picture hanging nails from the hardware store, clip them to length with pliers (the metal is soft), put the wires behind the pin. That what I do.
Controls work on the eye assembly, significantly more responsive than the Bowden cable version. I haven't finished refining the code, and in spite of that the movement is pretty natural. Parts for the other eye are printed, waiting on more servos to assemble it.
Eye mechanism moving under its own power. Code still needs work, but the mechanical side of things is working nicely.
Eyelid servo test, seems to work pretty well.
Eyelid test, making progress. Still needs work.
That was one of the main advantages of the bowden cable drive version, it used adjustable bezels on the control assembly, and capstan pulleys on a single servo. Which has the advantage of not needing to sync two servos, but brought with it a lot of complexity and bulk.
Range of motion test, seems to work just as well as the bowden cable drive version. A slight drag force applied to the eye reveals that there really isn't any slack in the linkages and joints, I'm optimistic I can get two of these to synchronize with the right code.
Thanks! What is the name and brand of the faux fur? I figure I might order a few yards of it just to have on hand.
The Viking Werewolf pre-made head I ordered from @growlngear.bsky.social arrived yesterday, just in time for National Werewolf Day!
whatnationaldayisit.com/day/werewolf/
Trying to decide if I want to build a full body suit, or build a 3/4 partial with armor.
DM'ing for a little over a decade. Best advice is to keep homebrew to a minimum until you've got a feel for the power balance of the table. With that said, a fun homebrew resource is the The Net Libram d10,000 table of Random Magical Effects.
I'm leaning towards either Ulfric, Bleddyn, or Haskell. Once he arrives I'll make the final decision.
Finally got around to printing a head for the 3d-scanned, 3d-printed patterning mannequin I made of myself (for patterning the body suit). Now Haakon can loom menacingly in the corner to his hearts content.
My animatronic headbase from the 3.0v build, before I put the fur on it.
The earliest proof of concept to the latest WIP. The beauty of design isn't in the finished product, it's in the process.
Another old function test video from early in the development of the eye animatronics.
Hooking up the eye itself to the the servos will require some small parts that haven't come in yet, but I'm very pleased with how this has turned out so far. It seems likely I can take the eye mechanism from Bowden cables to direct drive.
As an Alaskan who'd never experienced the temperatures / humidities of Pittsburg in July before, wearing the body suit the whole time was not an option. I'm glad I poodled around a bit first because once I started full suiting the electronics for the eye animatronics shorted from condensation.
When you forget one of your printers still uses a bowden extruder (for reduced weight and faster travel speeds), and set the slicer to 0.5mm of retraction, instead of 4mm of retraction. Didn't ruin the print though.
Old video of testing the movement of the eye animatronic in module in the 3.0 version of Haakon.
