A friend asked me to fix an animated 5' tall gemmy santa like the one pictured (which they want to make into a pirate).... and he's quite dead. I suspect someone plugged in the wrong power supply and fried his brain.

Some reading online showed a common fault is a broken drive belt. No such luck here.

As I contemplate the autopsy I'm about to perform, I'm thinking a brain transplant with an ESP32 make be in order (just call me Dr. Frankenstein), and I'm wondering if anybody is familiar with the mechanism. I think there's only one motor, so perhaps it does different actions depending on the rotation direction?

I appreciate any info you may have!

 

What does it do besides inflate? What is there to control?

 

This kind is rigid, not inflatable. It stands about 5 feet tall and I believe has two motions, "dancing" and moving its mouth2 separate actions). I have only seen mention of one motor and a gear box, hence my belief that rotation direction changes the motions.

It also has audio, for "singing" (built in) and a microphone input.

Autopsy to commence shortly.... but the thing is huge! Anybody got a spare gurney I can borrow?

 

Hello,

The following user is familiar with animatronics:
https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/members/djsfantasi.81714/

Bertus

 

My autopsy has revealed the the main board is shorted. I suspect somebody plugged in the wrong power supply and blew it up. That board controls the motion, plays some audio and has a mic input to speak through him.

There's an 8 conductor cable up the body to run:

● body motor to dance
● neck motor to swivel head
● head motor to move lips
● amp output to speaker

I took off Santa's head, and there's a coaxial power connector.

I need to power up the motors and see how the motion works. I suspect the motors may be 3 volts – what I thought would be switching transistors or mosfets are actually an LM7808 and LM7805 voltage regulators.

The brain board looks like 60s Japanese transistor radio technology with parts crowded together and wires coming out of the board at random locations.

ESP32 to the rescue!

 

My autopsy has revealed the the main board is shorted. I suspect somebody plugged in the wrong power supply and blew it up. That board controls the motion, plays some audio and has a mic input to speak through him.

There's an 8 conductor cable up the body to run:

● body motor to dance
● neck motor to swivel head
● head motor to move lips
● amp output to speaker

I took off Santa's head, and there's a coaxial power connector.

I need to power up the motors and see how the motion works. I suspect the motors may be 3 volts – what I thought would be switching transistors or mosfets are actually an LM7808 and LM7805 voltage regulators.

The brain board looks like 60s Japanese transistor radio technology with parts crowded together and wires coming out of the board at random locations.

ESP32 to the rescue!

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You ought to be ashamed of yourself, having a hand in turning Santa into a pirate!

 

You ought to be ashamed of yourself, having a hand in turning Santa into a pirate!

I'll get him for giving me that lump of coal!

 

It may have been worth further investigation into the short on the main board. I would be surprised if an overvoltage or reverse polarity damaged every component on it.

 

The card would be a nightmare to troubleshoot and doesn't support Santa's new role of being a pirate very well anyway.



What I need most for his new role are some customizable motions and sound detection to somewhat synchronize his mouth action. An ESP32 and a couple L293N clone driver boards are a good start on the task.

The challenge will be determining the timings of the movements – there are no limit switches or sensors on the movements.