My wife had a Teddy Ruxpin as a kid until it took a nose dive off of the top bunk of a bed. Shortly after, I ran across a hackaday reference to Tinkernut’s Teddy Ruxpin. She almost immediately order a pair of ‘not functioning’ Teddy Ruxpins off of ebay. One was a World of Wonder (Version 1 metal tape deck), and another was a later YES! Entertainment version. An audio cassette was included.
I followed the Tinkernut video for how to replace the servos. I used some Tower Pro SG90 servos. Ensure you save all the gears, as some of them need to be re-used. It might be nice to 3d-print replacement servo enclosures, but the hot glue is still doing it’s job.
Instead of using an Arduino to generate the PWM signals to the servos, I used ServoBlaster on a Raspberry Pi. I know there are PiHats that generate better hardware PWM signals, but doing it in software on a Pi 3 is sufficient here. Be sure to pay attention to the ServoBlaster’s output. Ensure you get the pin numbers and the GPIO numbers straight.
I hooked up a USB to Playstation 1-2 controller adapter, and an old Playstation controller. I wrote a perl script to read the joystick inputs, and map them to joystick outputs. Since the joystick has two analog X/Y sticks, I mapped one to the eyes, and the other to the mouth. The mouth is made up of two servos, so I just send the same value to both.
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: CircuitPython 2025 Wraps, Focus on Using Python, Open Source and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!