Post #803605 by Joshua Bell on Thu, May 19, 2022 10:12 PM

The original toucans toys are these things. Inside the bird is a motor and gearing, with wiring coming out of the feet, just a positive and negative wire. The base of the original toy has batteries (3x1.5V), a microphone, a speaker, and a chip that handles the "talk back". If you drive 4.5V into the positive wire, the motor spins and the gearing makes it animate. Its beak, head and wings twitch in a cycle - all you need to do is provide the power.

I just discarded everything but the bird and its wires. The microcontroller (a Teensy 4.0) in the perch just runs a program that sends power to the motor, modulating the amount to control the speed. It runs a routine where the bird sleeps for a few minutes, then wakes up and either just rustles a bit before going back to sleep or gets active and makes a fuss before settling back down.

[ Edited by Joshua Bell on 2022-05-19 22:13:07 ]

[ Edited by Joshua Bell on 2022-05-19 22:13:39 ]