Best book or website for absolute beginners - blinking costume eyes

Hey guys!

I make mascot costumes for a living, and I want to start leaning basic animatronics. I figured I'd start out by learning how to make blinking eyes (eyelids moving up and down).

I know how to make the eyelids themselves and have them move when pulled on by a string and I know how to solder/wire...but I absolutely can't wrap my head around coding and setting up an arduino. Unfortunately I think I'm going to need a lot of hand holding to learn the programming bit, so does anyone have any examples of this sort of code or setup? Even a good book about basic animatronics for absolute beginners would be wonderful! I'm hoping to have the eyes "blink" every few seconds, I don't need to control it myself for a first attempt.

I think my first mistake was buying an Arduino trinket because I haven't found many code or wiring examples for it, so I'm pretty confused. Thanks in advance! :slight_smile:

Hi,
A similar discussion is going on HERE:

Ask more questions back here too!

Animatronics is a great area; you'll learn a lot of stuff.

DISCLAIMER: Mentioned stuff from my own shop...!!

Being able to drive 2 to 4 small servos from one "Arduino Derivative" would be nice. I have been working with a guy in China on an update to our "YourDuino" boards, and the latest version has a switching power supply onboard that can put out 5V at up to 2 amps and run about 4 of the smaller servos with no separate supply (The board needs to be run from 12 volts (like a small 12V 1 A "wall-wart".

More info HERE:

And here's a photo:

Tell us more about the things you'd like to do...

Thank you!