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[on:]

Hi, two of my co-workers are out of town for a few weeks to get married and we want to set up a prank for when they return.  I was thinking of something like using an arduino leonardo placed inside the target's PC with a microphone, and when it detects sound at certain frequencies it types a letter on the keyboard or moves the mouse. 

I would love some more ideas!  Please, if you have an idea for an office prank involving a fun Arduino project, post it!  We need your help!  Also the main target of our pranks absolutely hates Star Wars so anything having to do with Star Wars is an extra bonus.

Thanks everyone!

[Reply #1 on:]

does he have a floppy drive? im assuming not, if you youtube floppy drive star wars there are people who make the drive search for a disc in a way that makes a note,

make it play the imperial march, haha,

[Reply #2 on:]

Not too much fun as a project, but a cricket sound that plays every 5 minutes from a desk drawer could be fun.

[Reply #3 on:]

Something similar to this:



Maybe a spring instead of an airbag (for safety), but this would definitely be funny to see.

[Reply #4 on:]

I recommend this:
http://www.amazon.com/ThinkGeek-Annoy-a-tron-2-0/dp/B002YE3YDU

[Reply #5 on:]

Something similar to this:

[...]

Maybe a spring instead of an airbag (for safety), but this would definitely be funny to see.

He asked for prank ideas, not ways to maim or cripple your friends for a cheap laugh. There is a difference.

The moment I saw they were using an airbag system I went immediately to "prolapsed colon" and "emergency room" and I wasn't too far off from the look of things.

[Reply #6 on:]

go get a fog machine and hook it up to the Arduino and put it to a sensor for example microphone to detect noise or PIR motion sensor. once you get a reading wait 5 min and activate smoke machine. place behind computer. They think computer is blowing up.

[Reply #7 on:]

go get a fog machine and hook it up to the Arduino and put it to a sensor for example microphone to detect noise or PIR motion sensor. once you get a reading wait 5 min and activate smoke machine. place behind computer. They think computer is blowing up.

I think fog machines take 2 minutes or so to warm up. If it's a silent warm up, it's a funny one. Just make sure the fog isn't going directly into the computer via fans. You wouldn't want to ruin their computer on accident.

[Reply #8 on:]

I recommend this:
http://www.amazon.com/ThinkGeek-Annoy-a-tron-2-0/dp/B002YE3YDU

Yeah, somebody already pranked someone else in the office with one of those so I want to build my own.  I figured that doing it myself will give me a lot more flexibility in what it can do.  We bought a talking Leia cardboard stand-up so maybe I can make the sound motion activated so that when he walks into his office it talks to him.

I could use a relay to randomly shut off his mouse or keyboard connection, but it would have to be solid state otherwise he would notice the clicking I think.

[Reply #9 on:]

so maybe I can make the sound motion activated so that when he walks into his office it talks to him

"I recognised your foul stench when I was brought on board"   

[Reply #10 on:]

I had a freind that got gloriously drunk at a work christmas party. Someone had decided to hand out disposable cameras at the same party.

Cut a long story short i wrote a windows service that set a different picture of him getting plastered as his wallpaper everyday, I hid the pictures inside the executable and gave it a credible name. If that machine is still running, I sure the slide show is still going to this day.

Duane B

[Reply #11 on:]

I had a freind that got gloriously drunk at a work christmas party. Someone had decided to hand out disposable cameras at the same party.

Cut a long story short i wrote a windows service that set a different picture of him getting plastered as his wallpaper everyday, I hid the pictures inside the executable and gave it a credible name. If that machine is still running, I sure the slide show is still going to this day.

Duane B

This is an awesome idea!!  You don't still happen to have the code, do you? I don't have pictures of him drunk because he left the last office party early, but another co-worker is house sitting for him so maybe we could take pics of us doing fun things in his house and then randomly display those as his wallpaper. 

Another idea along those lines is an opposite ad-block extension for his browser. The idea is that it would replace pictures on webpages with fake ads that we would make.

I know the Arduino Leonardo can send keystrokes but can it recieve them?  I was thinking about putting an arduino leonardo between his keyboard and the computer so it could essentially do text replacements.  like if he typed "you're" the arduino would detect it, hit the delete key 3 times then type an r.  So every time he types "you're" it's replaced with "your" which would be very annoying.

[Reply #12 on:]

Hmm I just had another idea.  I have a tiny 3v vibrating motor from an old project, I wonder if I could fit it into his mouse and make his mouse shake periodically.  The vibrating motor would definitely fit but squeezing an arduino into a mouse is a bit tough.  But I could probably fit just an Atmega 328 or something.  Then I'd just need an oscillating crystal and I could use the mouse's 5v power.  Thoughts?

[Reply #13 on:]

Hi,
   The service ran on Window NT 3.1 but I am sure you can still write one for whatever his OS is.

   If its windows another prank I have done is use 'hooks' to intercept keystrokes and randomly replace some keys with a double strike and others with no strike the last sentence may have been something like -

 f its windowss ....

  But only do it for a minute or so and then resume normal behavior for an hour or so, this one can gone on for years  - 'I am sure its the ********* computer, this is the second keyboard I have used in six months' etc etc.

Duane B

[Reply #14 on:]

You could do something like the project Sparkfun did when they added 12V_DC automobile horns to their inventory.  As shown in the video below, they created an arduino controlled box that sounds the horns when you pick it up.