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Here is another great hack from Otaku!
Hacking a Boris skull for an external
sound source: |
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Read this entire instruction before starting. Use care when stripping
the Boris cable wires the copper wires are very light gauge and can be
easily cut off.
Tools and parts needed:
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Phillips screwdriver |
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Soldering iron |
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Wire cutter/stripper |
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100uF capacitor (Radio Shack p/n 272-1028) |
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10 ohm resistor (1/2 or 1 watt, Radio Shack p/n
271-151) |
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10K ohm linear taper potentiometer (Radio Shack p/n
271-1715) |
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1/8" male mono plug (Radio Shack p/n 274-286) |
 | Two short pieces (~4") of 20 26 gauge insulated wire |
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Attach the 1/8" connector to the microbone cable:
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Cut the microbone wire, leaving a few inches on the
bone. Set the bone aside. On the cable attached to the skull, strip
off about an inch of the outer black insulation to expose the bare
copper wires (ground wires) and the inner red insulation. Twist the
bare wires together and strip off the red inner insulation. Twist
these wires together. Tin the twisted wires with solder.
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Remove the plastic cover from the connector and
slide it onto the cable. Solder the red insulated wires to the
center pin tab on the connector, and solder the ground wires to the
outer shell tab. Check to be sure that no wires are shorting across
the tabs, then twist the connector cover onto the connector plug.
Attach the resistor to the speaker wires:
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Remove the 4 screws that hold the back of the skull.
Carefully remove the back cover.
- You'll see two gray wires going to the speaker terminals.
De-solder the wires from the speaker terminals and solder the 10-ohm
resistor between the wires. This resistor replaces the Boris
speaker. Tape the soldered connections to prevent shorting.
Attach the capacitor and potentiometer:
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Find the hole where the microbone cable comes
into the skull. Carefully pull about 10" of the cable into the skull
to give yourself some slack to work with. Do not pull the cable off
of the circuit board. Cut the cable at about the midpoint, leaving
about 5" of cable inside the skull. Strip both ends of the cable
where you made the cut as described in Step 1 and tin the wires with
solder.
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| 6. The 100 uF capacitor
must be wired to the correct polarity. Look on the capacitor shell and
you'll see a stripe printed with "minus" or "negative" symbols. That
side of the cap is the negative side. The negative wire of the capacitor
must be soldered to the red-insulated wire that goes to the 1/8"
connector. Solder the positive wire of the capacitor to the
red-insulated wire that goes to the circuit board. See Figure 1.
7. Solder the two 4" pieces of wire to the ground
wires of the microbone cable as shown. |

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Install the 10K ohm potentiometer in the skull:
8. Pick a location in the right-hand side of the skull back cover to
install the pot. Drill a 5/16" hole through the skull. See Figure 2.
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The shaft on the pot is longer than needed. You can cut
it to the length you want with a hacksaw. Be careful not to damage the
pot.
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Install the pot and tighten the nut. Solder the two
short wires to the pot, one wire on the center tab and the other on
either of the two remaining tabs. Cover the bare wire areas with
tape or secure the wires to the inside of the cover so that they
won't rattle around and cause a short.
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Take a close look at the wiring to be sure it
matches the pictures. Replace the cover on the skull. That's it
you're done.
- Get a cable or adapter that splits a stereo signal into two mono
channels, left and right. You'll need one that has two 1/8" mono
jacks. Plug the cable into your stereo sound source, and plug Boris
into one of the mono jacks and a set of computer speakers into the
other jack. Turn on the sound, and adjust the Boris jaw action with
the potentiometer.
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- If you want to have two Boris skulls talking from the same
stereo soundtrack, use the setup pictured here:
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- This setup splits the stereo output from the source into two
identical stereo signals. One signal goes to the computer speakers.
The other gets split into two mono channels that go to the two
skulls. The cable is Radio Shack p/n 42-2570 and the adapter is p/n
274-375. You can probably find better prices at a computer supply
store. Note be sure to use amplified speakers. Your sound source
may not have enough gain to run a Boris and a passive speaker.
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