FAQ & Troubleshooting

No — the Ocular Vox is an electronics kit, not a finished prop. You provide the skull (any foam Halloween skull works great). The kit includes the controller board, two LCD eyes with optically fused lenses, a micro-servo, mounting brackets, M2 linkage hardware, FPC cables, and a Quick Start Guide. No soldering required — all connections use included pre-wired connectors.

Beyond the kit you'll need: a Halloween skull or mask to install it in, a power supply (USB-C 5V for setup, or a 12–24V barrel jack adapter for permanent installs), a MicroSD card (FAT32 formatted, up to 32GB), and your audio files in .WAV format. A small speaker with your own amplifier or a powered speaker rounds out the build.

No soldering required. If you can plug in a cable and hot-glue a bracket in place, you can build this. Most builds take 1–2 hours. Watch the official build video to see the complete process from unboxing to first boot.

Lensed eyes have a precision-cut optical lens fused directly to the LCD display — creating a seamless, glass-like “wet eye” look that really pops. The tradeoff is a narrower viewing angle; the effect looks best when viewed head-on. Non-lensed displays are visible at a much wider angle, making them better for props viewed from the side. Both look great — it comes down to your display setup. Lenses are available as an option when purchasing.

Yes! The official Ocular Vox Build Video covers the full process from unboxing to first boot — mounting the eyes, installing the jaw servo, wiring everything up, and loading your first audio track. It's also embedded on the homepage.

The kit is designed for standard 12-inch plastic Halloween skulls — the type sold at Spirit Halloween, Home Depot, and similar retailers. Foam skulls work too and are easier to cut, but plastic skulls provide a more secure mount for the brackets. Skulls smaller than 10 inches may not have enough interior space for the board and servo mechanism.

No — a speaker is not included. The board has a 2-pin screw terminal speaker output. Almost any small 4–8Ω speaker works. For best results, use a 2W–5W speaker with a small amplifier, or a self-powered speaker connected to the 3.5mm audio output jack. Volume levels will depend on your speaker and amplifier choice.

Yes. The Ocular Vox has an opto-isolated trigger input that accepts a dry contact closure (relay, button, PIR) or an active-low signal. Most prop controllers including PicoBoo can trigger it via a relay output. Connect the prop controller's relay output to the Trigger input (J3 Pin 1 = GND, Pin 3 = IN). See the user manual for wiring details.

No special skills required. Here's what you'll want on hand:

★ Essential Build Tools — as seen in the official build video

• 1.5” hole saw — cuts the eye openings in the skull. A bi-metal or carbide-tipped bit works best through foam and thin plastic.
• 2mm drill bit — for pilot holes when positioning the jaw servo bracket.

Also Useful

• Phillips #1 screwdriver — for the mounting bracket hardware included in the kit.
• Needle-nose pliers — helps thread and tighten the M2 linkage rod and ball links for the jaw mechanism.
• Hot glue gun — secures the eye bezels and brackets inside the skull. Low-temp glue preferred to avoid warping foam.

Note: tools required may vary depending on your specific skull and build.

The jaw servo only responds to triggered voice tracks and line-in audio. Ambient background audio (from the /ambient/ folder) does not drive the jaw. This is by design — background audio is meant to be atmospheric, not speech.

Line-in audio passthrough only works when Background Audio (BG Audio) is set to OFF in the menu. When BG Audio is ON, the board plays WAV files from the /ambient/ folder instead. Turn off BG Audio to hear your line-in source.

The audio input is line-level only. Passive electret microphones (most cheap 3.5mm mics) produce no sound because the board doesn't provide bias voltage. You need either a self-powered USB microphone, a dynamic microphone, or an inline battery-powered preamp like this one. With a preamp, you can use any standard mic for live puppeteering.

Cheap USB hubs and computer USB ports can inject audible noise into the audio output. Use a quality phone charger or dedicated 5V supply for clean audio. The 12-24V barrel jack input is preferred for final installations — it provides the cleanest power.

The knob adjusts different volumes depending on what's playing. During trigger playback it adjusts Voice Vol (triggered WAV tracks). At all other times it adjusts BG Vol (ambient audio + line-in passthrough). A popup overlay on the OLED screen shows which volume is being changed.

WAV files must be 16-bit PCM format. Other formats (24-bit, compressed, MP3) are not supported. We recommend 44100 Hz, stereo for best results.

The MicroSD card must be formatted as FAT32. exFAT and NTFS are not supported. Cards over 32GB may need to be manually formatted as FAT32 using a tool like SD Card Formatter.

File organization matters:

/audio/ — Triggered voice WAV files
/ambient/ — Background ambient loop WAV files
/eyes/ — Custom eye packages (.eye files)

The board scans these folders at boot and sorts files alphabetically.

Custom eye files (.eye) go in the /eyes/ folder on your MicroSD card. They are scanned on boot and appear in the eye style menu alongside the built-in eyes. Switching is instant. Create custom eyes with the free Eye Creator Tool.

Trigger input is intentionally ignored while you're in the menu or the audio browser. Exit the menu (long-press the knob, or select Save & Exit) to return to normal operation.

After a triggered audio track finishes playing, the cooldown timer prevents re-triggering. The default is 30 seconds. You can reduce this in the menu under Delay — it goes as low as 5 seconds. The cooldown starts when the audio finishes, not when the trigger fires.

This depends on how the displays are mounted in your skull. Go to Menu > Eyes and use Flip L, Flip R, or Swap to correct the orientation without rewiring. Changes preview live as you toggle them.

On first boot, the jaw servo is intentionally disabled to prevent unexpected movement. You need to enter Menu > Jaw, set the open and close positions, then save. Once you've set and saved jaw limits, the servo will respond to audio.

First, check that both FPC ribbon cables are fully seated — they're easy to miss. The connector has a small locking tab that needs to flip down to clamp the cable. If the cable looks seated but the eye is still dark, swap the cable with the other eye to determine if it's the cable or the display. Also confirm the display is oriented with the cable on the correct side of the connector.

Two ways to save:

Long-press the knob from anywhere in the menu to instantly save and exit.
Scroll to [Save & Exit] at the bottom of the main menu and press.

The menu also auto-saves after 60 seconds of inactivity. If you want to discard changes, power cycle the board before saving.

Check that your MicroSD card is FAT32 formatted and contains at least one .WAV file in the /audio/ folder. The OLED will show the file count on boot — if it shows 0 tracks, the board isn't finding your files. Confirm the folder name is lowercase and exact: /audio/, not /Audio/ or /AUDIO/.

The best place for hands-on help is the Ocular Vox Official Support Group on Facebook. It's an active community of builders who can help troubleshoot, share build tips, and show off their finished props. You can also check the Resources page for the full user manual and firmware downloads.

Warranty and return policies are handled by the store you purchased from. Contact Your Pixel Store or DIYLightGuy directly depending on where you bought it.

Post it in the Facebook support group — the developer monitors it actively. Firmware updates are released periodically and available on the Resources page.