What happens when you play an Answer Box tape with Grubby connected?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ต.ค. 2024
- So apparently Grubby and the Answer Box use similar signals. This is very interesting from a technical standpoint.
The way Teddy and Grubby communicate to each other has always been very interesting to me. Most of the work seems to be done by Teddy: he reads the tapes, and sends Grubby's animation signals to him. Grubby then interprets those signals, and the motors move accordingly. I believe that the same animation signals also tell Grubby when to cut his speaker on and off. BUT, the fact that Grubby reacts to the Answer Box signals makes me think that Grubby is sending signals back to Teddy in some capacity as well.
Something that I forgot to mention in my review of the Answer Box- if you have the Answer Box connected and don't press any buttons at all when prompted, Teddy's speaker is muted for BOTH of Grubby's answers. So apparently it has more of a capacity to control Teddy than Grubby does. Still though, I think this is a pretty interesting find. If there was a way to mimic the button press input with Grubby, there would be more of a way to test this, but unfortunately, that's just not possible.
That face Grubby made when you turned Teddy off at the end is on par with the surprised Pikachu pic meme. XD
Ha! Yes, it was! Grubby just makes me smile every time I see him. Have a nice day!
These little experiments are always fun to watch :)
At first Grubby looked like he was silently crying for help lol. The Answer Box Song is so cute, I love to boop Teddy's nose everytime he says "push the button" ♡
Cute!!! Teddy's nose is indeed incredibly boopable!!
Y'all are ridiculous! 😅😉
Grubby’s like “I’m not supposed to be here, so I’ll be nothing”
I like how the position sensors work for grubby in his eyes! It's pretty neat!
That's why the WOW Teddy and Grubby were so expressive: 3 channels each of analog facial control with position feedback. It makes a big difference both in animation quality and in cost, which is probably why they didn't do it again. It still amazes me how they were able to encode all of that in low-fi audio on a cassette in 1985, sell it as a toy, and still make a profit (for a little while).
@@toasTr0n I was talking about how the programming worked in grubby for the answer box
@@quickdudes1352 I know, but position feedback is a magical thing. It's something that people don't notice in the overall presentation when it's working right, but the answer box signals inadvertently give a nice tech demo.
Grubby is adorable!
I’m so glad that you’re back! I’d love to see more of Jill if you’ve still got her lying around!
The 1 dislike is the answer box
The awnser box is being replaced!
I've always wanted to see what happens if you play Answer Box with Grubby! Grubby DOES send a signal back to Teddy, but only telling him when to mute during Grubby's dialogue (an extra signal on the tape tells it when to switch). That's why if Grubby is not present, the audio plays through Teddy. In the same way, the Answer Box can mute Teddy during one or both of Grubby's responses.
I've never used an Answer Box, but I expect that it uses the same signaling format as Grubby, so this behavior makes sense. The reason I assume this is because there are only 2 tracks on each side of the cassette, one being audio for (all) speakers and the other being the animation track. Since there is only a single animation track, any connected devices have to share it with Teddy. So changing the signaling format (at least in any significant way) would also make it incomprehensible to Teddy.
There used to be a description of the signaling format in the Wikipedia article for Teddy. It was unfortunately removed because sources were never cited, but here is the old copy: en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Teddy_Ruxpin&oldid=577398734#Function Note how it implies that Teddy and Grubby each interpret their part of the signal independently (i.e. Grubby's facial servos are assigned different channels than Teddy's). Also note how one channel is used as a switch for routing audio to Teddy or Grubby, suggesting how a channel can be used to convey digital data even though the PPM signal on the animation track is analog. The Answer Box could be coded to recognize "eyes open", "eyes half open", and "eyes closed" as three independent states, within preset thresholds of a range. The thresholds would have to be set conservatively, which practically limits the number of digital states that can be encoded in a single channel, since i.e. low batteries in Teddy might cause the tape to move more slowly, which would lengthen the channel pulse length, which could be interpreted as a different state. I believe that the speaker-switch channel in the PPM signal works the same way.
Note also that a series of 9 pulses gives you 8 channels (or separate signals) once decoded, and only 7 are used by Teddy and Grubby. The Picture Show would only need one signal, a short pulse to tell it when to advance the slide reel. It seems likely that they would have just used the 8th, formerly unused, channel for that. That's probably why playing a Picture Show tape with Grubby connected doesn't do anything special. I don't know exactly how the Answer Box works, but it probably needs more data and hence uses more channels to determine when to mute Teddy, and it seems like they reused some of Grubby's.
Blue, in case it wasn't obvious from my comment, I really enjoyed this video and am very happy you made it!
Wow this was super informative! Thank you!!
@@blueoctopede I tend to ramble when I'm excited about a topic. But if my ramblings helped you, Blue, I'm honored! :D
Oh my... I can't believe Grubby is becoming a vocally answer box c:
Hi! I was a dedicated fan of WoW from 2014-2016. I left right when I found out that you stopped making videos. That was a sad time in my life. I’m so happy that you’re back! I might rejoin the WoW community!
For the 2nd Gen answer box & tapes, they should’ve installed a grubby port in the box so grubby can join in. But can turn his animations & speaker off when got the answer wrong or right.
I like Grubby! I think he's cute!
I want teddy and grubby so bad!
Now I want to know what happens if you plug the Answer box into Mother Goose or Mickey or even Snoopy
That was fascinating! Also, do you know if the same cord to connect teddy to the answer box can be used to plug teddy into grubby? Or are those not interchangeable.
They're not interchangeable, unfortunately. The side of the cord opposite what plugs into Teddy is permanently attached inside the Answer Box itself.
So basically grubby’s choosing the answers
i wonder if they are the same signals, just used differently somehow? have you ever tried doing the same thing with the picture slideshow?
She did, but absolutely nothing happened.
Did I? I don't remember, it's been so long 😅
Blue Octopede I think you did in your picture show video. Grubby didn’t do absolutely anything in it.
Can you do Be carefull in the water song? It's from Teddy Ruxpin Grundo Beach party Story.
Hi 😁
Hi :)
@@teddyruxpinchannel4906 😁
Grubby’s just standing there... MENACINGLY!
ゴゴゴゴゴ
Can you try playing a regular story tape (one with Grubby signals) with the Answer Box attached? Probably won't be as exciting though...
Nice experiment
I never thought about what Grubby will do, since I've never owned Grubby but do have an Answer Box, I'd never been able to try it. I hear quite a persistent buzzing noise, is that coming from Grubby? Is the noise that loud when playing other cassettes?
The buzzing noise is the animation track bleeding through from the other track of the cassette. Some of it is due to crosstalk and some is due to tape head misalignment, which is common in early Teddys. The noise is usually present in Teddy's speaker also, but Grubby's speaker is louder than Teddy's and has a greater dynamic range. As such, it is more likely to actually reveal the noise. It is also possible for the animation cable to not be fully connected or to make poor contact at either Teddy's or Grubby's end, which can cause the channel separation to be incorrect and the animation track to be louder in either or both speakers than it normally would be.
@@toasTr0n That makes perfect sense, I've often heard the noise on my Teddy Ruxpin tapes and I do understand the theory of crosstalk and misaligned tape heads, at least, I somewhat understand the theories, I just wanted to know which toy was producing the most amount of noise. On some Teddy Ruxpin toys I've played with, you can hear the motors buzzing a bit even when they're in a steady state and not moving.
Can you make a Teddy Ruxpin Video?
@@teddyruxpinchannel4906 I'm not as into Teddy Ruxpin as I used to be and I've kind of lost interest in making TH-cam videos at the moment. There are also other reasons why I can't make Teddy Ruxpin videos right now, but I'd rather not go into that right now.
You just read my mind!
I don't know why but i like your old profile picture more.
I am guessing the eyes are for the yes/no section of the answer box and the mouth is for the buttons on the answer box. The answer box is coded so that if the answer is selected correctly, it will turn off Teddy’s speaker for no and it will turn on for yes, and vice versa. At least this is more interesting that what happened with the picture show.
Wow that is so interesting
Man. Surprised there's no mouth animated with the Grub
Do you have any Mickey Mouse tapes in mp3 form with the data track. I have a mickey but no tapes but I could record my own if I had the audio. Any help would be greatly appreciated
Unfortunately I have not converted any Mickey tapes, sorry!
Blue Octopede that’s ok thanks though :)
That was interesting also can you make more Jill videos?
Just a quick question Blue. Are you planning at some stage to post more of the original books in MP3 format as I do enjoy the songs from them? My favourite one has to be Grunge Music (I can't believe that he's 35 this year)
Yes! I plan to do as many as I can!
Interesting! I’ve been wondering this myself
Grubby when you wait for an answer: 😮
wth grubby
Do you have more grubbys that work?
Yes, I have two others besides this one that work. I've been featuring this one the most lately because he seems to be the most reliable out of all of them.
@@blueoctopede Please show the other grubbys please to.
A little bit of a strange question, but if you connected grubby to mother goose like you would hector what would happen?
My understanding is you can't do that as the plugs are slightly different, my understanding is the Teddy/Grubby cord has an extra ring on the plug, the cord used for Mother Goose/Hecter is a standard 3.5 mm tip ring sleeve connector, the same as you'd find of a pair or regular standard stereo headphones. The Teddy Ruxpin cable, if I'm correct, is what you might call a tip ring ring sleeve connector, I may have the terminology wrong.
Any updates on Teddy blue?
Grubby be Like ^^
O
You’d think his mouth is moving while he’s talking
The same thing happens when you use a picture show tape (even if Grubby has a speaking part on the cassette).
I have 2 answer box tapes and they are for the answer box and other teddy ruxpin tapes for teddy ruxpin and grubby
You should try to play a picture show tape with Grubby connected
Nice
I never realized (though I guess I should have) that there would be a Teddy Ruxpin reviewer out there.
I have a question.
Do you have any suggestions for getting Teddy Ruxpin on DVD that isn't so expensive?
Volumes 2 and 3 list for around $50 and the complete series lists for close to $200.
That's way too much for me.
Any help or feedback would be greatly appreciated
Oh wow, I had no idea they were so expensive now!! I would honestly just browse eBay and pick up each DVD box individually instead of trying to find the full box set. Seems like individually they sell for around $6-$8 so you'd be looking at a total of around $80 instead of $200. That's still crazy expensive though!!
@@blueoctopede thanks for the feedback. I appreciate your input.
Fun channel. Love your discussions and reviews. Keep up the great work.
Grubby looks sad :(
Let me guess picture show tape with grubby connected does the same thing in the video
No, he's unresponsive
Cheating! Grubby is answering for you!
I wonder what would’ve happened if technology was more advanced, and if they added an animated signal for Grubby. Like if a kid connected Grubby to Teddy, Grubby would animate when he talked.
I meant with the answer box tapes. I worded it wrong. 😑
It’s fine
What is an answer box?
It's a peripheral they made for Teddy. It's basically like a little game, where Teddy will ask you a question and you have to pick the correct answer! A few people, including myself, have made videos on the Answer Box. If you just search for Answer Box here on TH-cam, they should all come up for you to check out if you want!
I know that
Popeye😂😂
Hey can I buy. a teddy cord from u because I am getting a grubby and I can’t find a cord
Hiii
hi
Uhhh