[mikymike]

Hi,

My spirit ball is the big 14" one, and don't have any microphone.

I opened the spirit ball and found something interesting. On the circuit board, there's 3 holes aligned in a triangle shape. One hole have the letters "JS", and is connected (jumped with a short wire) to the unnamed hole next to it. The third hole next to the two previous holes have the letters "MIC" and is not connected to anything.

I'm not enough good about electronic to understand the circuit, but I suspect that Gemmy use the same circuit board for the "with microphone" and "without microphone" version. They probably don't connect a connector to the "MIC" hole or something, when they sell the "without microphone" version.

Did any of you have found these 3 holes on their spirit ball circuit board, and have you found a way to hack it so it can use a microphone or line in attached to it?

Or have you found a way to connect an audio input to the internal circuit, so the internal circuit is use to animate the head (instead of using a color organ directly connected to the motors)?

Thank-you for any informations.

 

[Hauntiholik]

I'm not aware of any of the spirit balls having a microphone but since they reuse components on different props I bet it can be hacked.

[edit] I guess Costco sold a spirit ball with a microphone.

 

[mikymike]

I'm not aware of any of the spirit balls having a microphone but since they reuse components on different props I bet it can be hacked.

If you search here, there is a thread named:

Hacking a "Spirit Ball" to be on all the time

The guy say he have a remote and microphone with it.

My spirit ball a the fortune teller one. it have the exact same latex mask as the zultan one, but have a black headcalf instead of the zultan hat. It look like an old lady with the headcalf, but as soon as you remove the headcalf, oh my god! it's zultan disguised! heheheheh

Maybe if someone have one with a microphone, he can look into the head to see how it is connected.

 

[Mr_Chicken]

I noticed the MIC label on my spirit ball, too. Very interested if someone can figure out what to do with it.

As a matter of fact, I even have a picture of it, in case it helps somebody:Spirit Ball circuit board

 

[Mr_Chicken]

Whoops. Sorry, I can't edit posts yet. Meant to give this link.

 

[laura]

Can you help with wire placement from your picture??

Mr. C,

Thank you for posting the only picture that can be found on the net of a spirit ball board!

I have a ball that was/is dead. Did nothing. I thought it might be a wire off the switch, or power supply. Those look fine. I opened it up completely and got to the board. The same board you have in the picture here. The only odd thing I see is these 2 yellow wires going to nowhere. The 2 in the lower right of you picture. They both looked cut. Just point up, connected to nothing.

I touch them together and away the ball goes. Light, sound and motion. But they only make the ball work when they touch and break. If I put them together...it goes once and that is it. Take them apart and just touch them together and it goes again.

Do you have different view or do you know where those 2 wire end up??

It will be working again I think if I can solve this one thing.

Thanks In Advance!
Laura

 

[Otaku]

Hey Laura, welcome to the forum!
Sounds to me like you found the "Try Me" button wires. You can use them to trigger the ball with an external sensor or switch.

BTW, this is a very old thread. Don't know if there's been any progress on Spirit Ball hacks here.

 

[laura]

That makes sense....

Thanks for the reply! I am already working on a way to use those if I can't find anything else wrong or a way to get it going. It works fine when I put them together. It acts just like it should if it had heard sound. But nothing else will set it off. I thought maybe the sound sensor might be bad. I jumped those wires and still nothing. Have you seen those yellow wires? Do they just sit there and go nowhere? I though that most try me's went to a jack of some sort on the bottom.... I have a few try me buttons lying around. If there is a jack I can try that. I also thought about tying those to a motion sensor and putting it at the front of the ball. A small one like in those cheap automatic soap dispensers.

 

[Otaku]

True, I've seen most Try Me's go to a jack of some type, but I have a couple of skulls that just have flying leads. If your sound sensor isn't working, check the wires going there, too, could be a disconnect. Had your Spirit Ball been modded in any way before you got it?

 

[laura]

I don't think so...

Getting into the back of one of those is a real pain and if you aren't careful... it will be a mess when you're done. I believe I am the first one to open it up. Every looks intact and complete. I have had to repair eyes on 2 others and it has been wires torn off. The problem jumps right out. This one, a witch, was just dead. No lights no sound, nothing everything dead. So, I figure.. something way easy.. bad switch, or wire off at the power source or way bad and I will tear it apart and learn a few things and use it for parts. Everything looks right, but for those 2 yellow wires. It is clean inside, doesn't look like it has been wet or tampered with. I know it can work now. I just need to figure out the best way to get it back. I would like it to work by sound like it should.. motion would be fine also. I do have another ball, but I hate to tear into it just to see that board, I thought I might find someone to help me and save a 30 minute "surgery" on the other ball. If those wires do just sit in limbo like that.. tearing the other ball open might be a futile thing to do... I'll just see more wires to nowhere.

 

[Otaku]

Yep, bet you're right. Sounds like you know what you're doing with these guys - let us know what you decide to do. Setting up a PIR to trigger this ball would be pretty easy, you can't trust the CdS (light/dark) sensors, especially when the light is too low.

 

[laura]

I know enough to have fearlessy them apart, and not nearly as much as I would like once I get in there.
My dad worked for his whole life for General Electric and growing up, we NEVER had a broken toy. An hour or 2 in his garage and everything would come out better than when it was made in the first place.
After thinking about it overnight (I do my best thinking when I should be asleep) I think those wires were test wires used during manufacturing..that's why they look cut...they were when it was finished. They are my "out" though and I have already been looking at switches on ebay. Motion would be good. Sound is nice and how it is supposed to work, but even when I am working on them our dog can bark and set them off. Motion might be better. It would only go off when someone was nearby. Ordering a switch from ebay/china will take about a month to get. That'll give me more time to ponder the options. I ran wires down from the board this morning and have her back together.

Thanks for the replies...I'll let you know when I have her done. No real hurry since Halloween is a few months away.

 

[fontgeek]

Maybe using those two "Test" wires hooked to a pressure switch so that it fires off once when someone steps on a mat or platform, that would keep the dog from setting it off with every bark, and have it go off ONLY when a TOT steps up to the plate, figuratively speaking.

 

[laura]

That is another option...

I'll add that to my list of options. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[niblique71]

I'll be following this thread closely as I too have one of these magical Gemmy spirit witches. I believe this thread was slightly Hijacked as it was supposed to be about the Microphone spot on the board. But... Any discussion of the good old Gemmy products is welcome.

So What about that Microphone Slot on the board??? I would Love to hack my "working" Spirit ball to respond to a microphone. I wonder if opther componants are missing to make that work?

 

[Otaku]

Since it's known where the mic is supposed to be attached, I wonder if the Boris skull hack would work to allow an MP3 player to be used with the Spirit ball?

 

[laura]

I think the spirit balls that hav wireless mics, have 2 boards. I have one of those that I plan to open up later and add the ability to hook a small mp3 player up to. The wireless mic board is independant from what I gather. In the hack I saw, the guy removed it comepletely. "to use for some other prop later". If you could get ahold of one of those boards, it might be possible to add it to a ball that doesn't. There were only two models of spirit balls that had mics, the white haired "merv griffin" ball (he also came with a remote) and a few witches had mics. I will take a look at the board in the "merv" when I open it and compare it to the regular balls. I have seen enough of those lately. Zultan have mics. They are pretty much spirit balls in a box. They propably have the same boards. I have 2 but have never had to open them up.

 

[Fright Boy]

I have one

As it turns out, I have the Mexican one with the mic. I will take it apart tomorrow and take a pic of the circuit board for you. At work and haven't had a chance to read all the comments for this thread, so please forgive me if this has already been answered for you.

Here is a thread I made about mine, http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=40430
You can see that it did come with a mic. The switch on the bottom of mine has a selection for "mic" does your version not have this?