1/6 scale miniature animatronics with Maestro

Here’s a work in progress, about 90% complete. It is a 1/6 scale animatronics featuring the Battle of Mogadishu, aka Black Hawk Down. I managed to stuff 6 micro servos inside a GI Joe plus 2 external servos to lift his body and slide his feet, all controlled by a Maestro 12. An MP3 board is triggered to provide the sound. It was very hard to synchronize the movements using the Maestro software.

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This is awesome! Thank you for sharing. I’m impressed you were able to fit so many servos into the build and hide them from sight so well. Also, those smoke and fire effects are really good!

As you noted, the Maestro does not have any special support for synchronizing with audio, but your results came out great. If you plan on making more dioramas in the future, you might consider checking out Brookshire’s Visual Show Automation (VSA) software, which supports the Maestro. I haven’t done anything as complex as your diorama with it, but from what I have tried it seemed like a much easier way to choreograph animatronics than a trial and error approach with a Maestro sequence/script. It does require a USB connection to the computer running the software, but they also make a Remote Advanced Playback Unit that can be used in place of a PC to run the show.

Brandon

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Thanks Brandon. Yes I did some investigations regarding the RAPU playback board. Unfortunately it costs $340- the price of a cheap PC, which defeats the purpose of decoupling the PC itself:) Are you guys considering upgrading the Maestro software to be more visual and timeline-based?

Patrick

We do not currently have any plans for expanding or overhauling the Maestro software in such a significant way.

Brandon