[Orb Vroomer]

OK.  We all know I have an extra joker in my deck.Better than one card short,though.

I have the 20 minute show on video,but not edited & uploaded,yet.  ( Because I'm a lame video software operator.) I guess I'll post it NOT in time for Christmas.But 2 live shows are complete,& all went well.

Here is the pic.

[Orb Vroomer]

Here is an audio snippet of the toy band > trigger > midi.  Five players,two notes each. It's a toy I bought for $25 & all these songs played on little tuned bells.For a cheap mechanical toy,it's not too bad.I just attached 10 piezos to the bells & the players hit them with mallets.

Here's the link :

http://www.box.net/shared/l0bcv7yyia

Do you guys get the enlarged view when you click on that thumbnail pic ?

[suavekeith]

Very good Orb. Must have been a fun Christmas project, can't wait to see them in action.

[Orb Vroomer]

Thanks,suavekeith. I've had this toy for several years & always wanted to rig it with triggers.Not too impressive until the drummers move,so I'll post it sometime.Whoever designed this cheap toy did a good job.The control 'brain' sends out a pulse to trigger a servo, ( on each player), that spins left & right.Don't know circuits...but maybe a positive wave turns one direction & a negative wave the other ?  daveb ?  you could probably figure it out.  Then the timing sequence for the trigger pulses to play the tones in the proper order ( & timing). I was going to peek inside the 'brain' unit ,but I might mess up some decorative trim,so for now the guts are a mystery.The decorative brain looks like a bass drum & it's 6" in diameter & about 3" deep. The little drummers are 5" tall. The mallets are a tiny 1" spring with a 1/4" round plastic tip.

[gmbydmit]

just curious, Rob....you got gnomes in your yard?

[Orb Vroomer]

Had one in the backyard until it disappeared. Dr. Evil may be involved. Nothing left but a crop circle. I've got to guard my mojo. I need a wangchunginator for purely defensive purposes.

[Orb Vroomer]

New years resolution :  Be less dorky & more geeky.

Step one : shoot & upload a video.

My first attempt at this.I used iMovie (1st time). The quality is real bad.It said 12 frames per second.I thought Quicktime did 20 fps.(?) So this looks all blurry.Perhaps I chose the wrong format ( I chose 'web' , whatever that means ). The file seemed small.Uploaded & downloaded real quick,so I suspected something was amiss.If anyone has any help or hints,that would be greatly appreciated.

For now,here is the low resolution version.I'll redo the whole 20 minute version later.This is the first 5 minutes.

http://www.box.net/shared/4kbrfbqlir

[gmbydmit]

OMG DUDE!
that's friggin awesome!

MERRY HAPPY CHRISTMAS NEW YEAR!

YEs
oK
Bye Bye

[Orb Vroomer]

Thanks,Tim. Snappy Blue Beer to U 2.......  I too drink much.

YEs ?  Guess Who ? Who ?  YES.

Any technical questions ? Other questions ?  "How did you attach the piezos ? "... "What are the trigger settings ? ".... "What does your therapist think about all this ? "