Servo Spirit Body

The body of the Servo Spirit is made from the two Parallax Standard Servos in the Animation Kit. The hollow, transluscent plastic eyeball serves as a head, backlit by the Neopixel ring.

  • Plug in your hot glue gun so it warms up while you prepare the servos.
  • Remove the horns from both servos, and save the screws.
  • Cut off opposite arms on each servo horn so you have two straight horns - one will be the shoulders and the other the hips.

  • Put a horn back on each servo’s spline, but don’t screw it in yet.
  • Gently twist a from one end of its range to the other, then move the horn until it is in the middle of its range.
  • Carefully pull off the horn, and then put it back on its spline so it sticks out to both sides of the servo case, then attach with the screw.
  • Glue the bottoms of the servos together so the cords are facing the same way.
  • Glue the neck on top of the servos, as far from the servo horn shoulders as you can.
  • Glue the eyeball/head onto the neck. You can have it turned toward the servo horn for arms like the spooky Servo Youkai below, or away from the servo horn for wings.

  • Carefully solder a male-male jumper wire into each of the four thru-holes on the neopixel ring.

  • Gently hold the ring against the back of the eyeball, and gather the wires together and press them against the servo case.
  • Adjust the wire lengths so the tension pushes the ring against the eyeball, and secure the wires together and to the case with electrical tape.
  • Run the servo and neopixel ring wires through the mounting holes to keep them tidy, and secure with electrical tape.

  • Make wire arms that loop firmly through a couple of holes in the shoulders servo horn so they stick out to the sides - these will be the arms.
  • Make wire legs that loop through the outermost holes in the hips servo horn,  letting them dangle freely.

  • Attach streamers, ribbons, or fabric to the top wires. Here I used gauze for wings.