Date:
Spring 2023
Skills Used:
C++ Programming, Circuit design, soldering
Build Description
I helped the wonderful volunteers at the Wheels O’ Time Museum in Peoria, IL implement an animatronic barbershop quartet of past US presidents for one of their exhibits. The volunteers had already set up the mannequins with servos in the mouth, but didn’t have anybody who could program a microcontroller, so I offered up my skills. The servo opens each mouth to an angle determined by the volume of the music, which does make them look like they’re singing. The final effect is about as wacky as one might expect.
The circuit board–an actual PCB that I designed in EasyEDA. The potentiometers let you adjust how far each singer opens their mouth.
Installing & commissioning the circuit board. There has been some fine tuning of parameters since then.
The presidential barbershop quartet, singing their merry tunes.