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One thing that you might not f found out is that Boris's teeth glow the stereotypical GITD (Glow In The
Dark) green. While this may be something you may like, under blacklight, it's nearly a nuclear glow. (Mr. Pumpkin head appears
courtesy of Carolina Enterprises Corp.)
To open the skull to reveal the battery compartment...
give it a sharp rap to the forehead with a
standard 16 oz. claw hammer.
JK! }'{D}
You can open the skull simply by placing both thumbs on the forehead, just above the joint line and
press firmly. The skull "cap" should slip with a "snap", and unlock the cap. It can be removed to reveal the covered battery
compartment.
The battery compartment is actually TWO battery compartments in one. While the stereotypical configuration
is that ALL the current is used in ALL of the circuitry... this is not the case with Boris.
Yes, this is definatly "brain surgury". The batteries are divided up, 2/4. That is 2 batteries provide
3 volts for part of the circuitry, while 4 batteries provide 6 volts for the remaining circuitry. I'll get back to this later
in this hack tutorial. But if you care to skip ahead, scroll down to the orange text below.
Since the battery compartment is molded to a "plate" of plastic, I'll be calling it "the plate" because
typing out "battery compartment" is causing me claw trama. Anyway, there is always a screw that doesn't seem to want
to cooperate from time to time. You try to twist it out of the achor point, and it's stubborn refusal to be removed is enough
to go get electrolisis.
Having a pair of needle-nose pliers is handy to take care of the screwheaded scoundrel. I just grip
the sides of the screwhead and rotate the screw in the same manner that is used if using a screwdriver. But gently pulling
on the screw to remove it from the anchor point.
Lift the plate off. My my my, this skull has less inside it than MINE does.
Check out the back of this plate. It'll give you a clue to the complexity of the battery configuration.
(Ugh! I get confused just looking at it.)
But what we're interested in is the green wires INSIDE the skull, which are attatched to a miniscule
speaker.
Sorry the images are getting blurry. Close-up pics aren't my cell phone's speciality, apparantly.
Inside is a bundle of wires. It has a single small zip tie that holds the wires together. I guess this
is supposed to allow ALL the wires to be dragged into the mechanics of the innards, instead of just one or two.
I clipped the zip tie so that I can reposition the plate and remove the PCB (printed circuit board,)
AKA: Circuit Board. If you decide to clip the zip, be ultra careful that you don't inadvertantly, clip one of the wires as
well.
The white and blue wires go to the LED eyes.
Orange & Black wires go to the jaw movement mechanisim.
What appears to be a gray rod, is actually a fine spring. It's best to avoid messing around with the spring.
It's tension is such that it still allows the jaw to open, yet it pulls the jaw closed again. Altering it by streaching it,
may not allow the jaw to close completely. On the other claw, tightening the coils so that it's got a stronger pull, might
not allow the jaws to open in the first place.
We're interested in the green wires inside here. I don't remember soldering a new set of wires here,
so I imagine that the green wires are "original equipment". Since I had already removed the speaker a few years ago, I can't
show you the speaker itself.
But the speaker is located lower in the skull, just above the jaw, in what would be the roof of the
mouth.
In this image, I had snipped the wires right at the speaker. The speaker wire leads were long enough
to relocate them through a slot that was already available.
The green leads are attatched/soldered to the PCB in the same row as the white leads that run to the
LED eyes.
The switches are not right up close to the skull's interior surface, so this leaves quite a gap between
the skull "wall" and the switch. I had slipped the wires through here.
I stripped the wires back about 1/2"and connected a speaker & wire to these leads. The speaker wasn't
actually much larger than the one inside Boris. But it did have a larger enclosure that made the voice seem a bit more "bassy".
In the bottom of the skull, you can see the circular support structure for the speaker. I even left
the clamps & screws that held the speaker in place. Inside the circular structure, you'll see the sound holes for the
audio to be emitted from the speaker to the outside world.
Now it's time to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
I should point out that there is a large hole in the PCB that fits over the screw anchor. When you install
the screws that mount the printed circuit board, do not put a screw in this anchor.
This is the screw anchor point that allows the battery compartment plate, (ow!) to be mounted. Running
a screw into that anchor point will not allow the plate to lie flush to the edge of the skull. It'll "warp" out of it's "flatness",
and make it really, really tough to replace the skull cap cover.
So, don't run a screw into that anchor point.
It was sort of a "Vincent Price/mad scientist" experience tinkering inside this cranium. I must of said
"It's ALIVE! HA HA HA ha ha ha!" a half-doven times while creating this photoshoot for the website.
But wait! We're not quite done yet. I have to show you the battery contact groupings
in the battery compartment. (ow! my claw tramma!)
In this view, the battery groupings are as follows...
The top four battery positions are one power source of 6 volts DC, (Direct Current),
while the lower two are 3 volts DC.
As far as battery compartments go, The negative batter terminal almost always has
a spring on it. So, in these images I also attacthed a few colored clips to the terminals to help point out which terminal
is which.
The red clip is pointing out the POSITIVE (+) terminals, while the yellow clip is designating
the NEGATIVE (-) terminals.
I relocated the speaker leads to protrude through the red test button hole.
I'm going to be moving the skull to a location that it will be viewable from almost all directions, so the external speaker
leads will have to be hidden. I plan to lead them into a hole in the sign that will be over the front door.
This means I'll have to hang the skull from the back. But now that you have seen a glimpse inside Boris,
you may have a better idea of where to "steer clear" if you happen to want to hang the skull in some other manner, rather
than keeping it on the stand that comes with the skull.
For instance, you know that the Printed Circuit Board is mounted just behind the switches on the back of
the skull. You also know that the mic cord is a bit lower than the PCB. That nearly anywhere on top of the skull is a good
place to drill a hole to include a cuphook to hang the skull from the skull cap.
Also a tidbit of a clue about where to hang it from the back is a small oblong & curved bump on the
back of the skull. If you run a screw anywhere BELOW this bump, you stand a good chance of MISSING any wires and circuitry.
Since I plan to hang the skull from behind, I also want it to be tilted downwards. Just because I want
it to look as if the skull is looking down onto the people coming to my party. This will also allow a clear view of the LEDs
in the eye sockets.
So drilling a screw hole below this weird bump, is a safe bet.
Alas, poor BORIS, I know ye well...
And now, my digestive tract is
knowing thee better than
which thee may prefer.
(BURRRRRRP!)
}'-{1}
Here's a link to a Yahoo Search on The Talking Boris. You'll find a few more advanced hacks here. Like how to connect two
Boris Skulls together to operate in syncronization, a few on EBay and MORE!
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Please be sure to visit "How to Halloween" A new up and coming site on building your own Halloween decorations for next to
nil!
The Halloween-L is a great website & forum. You should go there NOW! Ok, after you view my website. But right after that,
go there! (If you know what's "Boo" for you!)
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