Milford Instruments, 120 High Street, South Milford, LEEDS, LS25 5AQ, United Kingdom
tel. +44 1977 683665
http://www.milinst.com
Alex by David L Buckley - September 1998
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Operating Alex


80    

The controls for Alex are shown in photo-80, starting from the left-hand side of the board these are:-

Operation

Using the Animate-card it is possible to record eight separate control tracks, four of which control the servo position using the Position control, and four tracks of digital commands, two of which control the eyes and two of which are spare.
For a new performance the old moves should be erased by applying power with the record key held down.
(see above)
The sound should be recorded first to avoid the noise from the servos.
The mouth movements on channel-1 should be recorded next, recording on channel-1 or the Sound channel sets the recording time to maximum. The length of a performance may be shortened by making shorter recordings on the other channels. The only way to lengthen a recording is to go back and re-record on channel-1 or the Sound channel.
If channel S is selected then pressing the Record key will initiate the recording of sound using the on-card microphone. Recording on channels-1 or S sets the recording time its maximum. If channels 1 - 4 are selected then after pressing the Record key, moves controlled by the Position control will be recorded on the current channel. When recording on channel-1, the recording will end when the Record key is released or the end of memory is reached whichever is soonest. The maximum length of a recording on channels 2 -4 is set by the length of the recording on channel 1. If the Record key is released early then it will mark the new end of recording. Each of the channels 2 to 4 may shorten the recording. The only way to lengthen a recording is to go back and re-record on channels 1 or S.

Examples

For detailed instructions see the leaflet for the Animate-Card.

Remember there is an Eye-jumper at the back of the board which controls the operation of the eye LEDs.


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