Being a new Arduino addict, I'm hooked on hooking the silly thing up to almost anything. Also, over the years, I've become the house in the neighborhood that does a cool halloween setup (I'll post pics when it's done) every year.. and kind of outdoing the previous year each time. I have two fog machines, a couple of shoplights rigged with 2 40w blacklights each, a really awesome inflatable demon pumpkin, etc.. not to mention a set of PA speakers I got from a church, under the bushes, which I feed with an old stereo and Radio Shack mixer I got at a yard sale.
However, Arduino has opened up some new ideas. Right now I'm prototyping a "lightning" strobe (flickered with PWM) around a Luxeon LED. When finished, it will also include the thunder sound, as an audio line-out. I'll be posting the project... it's pretty simple anyway.
I'm considering making a couple of "scarecrows" and sticking a motor with an off-balance weight inside to make it flop around... though not directly arduino, if I wanted to control it digitally, I suppose the arduino could control via a relay.
What I'm looking for here (and hoping to spur an interesting discussion) is some creative thoughts on halloween-specific Arduino projects.... motion-sensing, servo-mounted pumpkin that always "looks" at people as they pass by.. etc...
I could use that scarecrow for my garden.
-You could have a light routine in several different pumpkins, blinking alternately.
-something pops up when the motion sensor is triggered
I made one of the scarecrows before, just stuff some old clothes with leaves or whatever. If you suspend (for halloween, by the neck prolly) the "dummy" from a tree branch and use pretty much any halfway decent-sized AC motor with an off-centered weight on the shaft -I just used a peice of wood with a couple of zip ties- thing will thrash around quite impressively.
My largest concern with some of the stuff is safety- if I make one for halloween, then this time I'll have to have some sort of better weight arrangement, as I'd hate to have something fly off and hurt a kid or something. Spoils the whole mood.
Hmm, now you could use an arduino to run some LED's for eyes with PWM fading.. some basic audio (bitshifted audio sample of a groan or whatever?).. now the scarecrow is starting to be a little better suited for Arduino.. hehe
How bout putting in a few caps inside a pumpkin and reverse wire the polarities and trigger it using some motion sensor? i remember reading one of our members here used to do similar things...
If you have fog machines, you gotta do lasers. Maybe servo-mounted, if you don't have parts like galvos to do scanning with mirrors.
Home Depot had a nice LED flashlight+laser pointer combo for $3 when I was there a couple of weeks ago. I haven't dismantled it yet, because I heard someone say it was a short-term promotional item, and I want to make sure I can get more first. But it looks promising as a source of cheap lasers and ultrabright LEDs without the wait for shipment from China
As the trees outside start to turn color and put on their fall mask, you should be thinking about your mask too—your Halloween mask that is! Halloween is a great time to throw a fun, creative party, and like any party, you have to start at the beginning. A Halloween inspired invitation is an essential starting point, and we've got the picks from TinyPrints.com. From hot theme trends to kid inspired to sophisticated cocktail parties these invites will have people banging down your door on October 31st!
these invites will have people banging down your door on October 31st!
What a great dea: anybody know some "misguided youths" in Singapore who'd like to don some scary masks and bang down a spammer's door on Halloween? We could pass the e-hat and Paypal them a little "treat" :
DemonDuino is underway.. when the project is done, I'll be posting a full writeup. Here's the key components:
Arduino (of course)
"Crystal Skull" vodka bottle (Dan Akroyd's private label. Not great.)
1 watt Luxeon white LED (heavily abused)
1 watt 5 LED strobe (liberated Target toy)
2 red 3000mcd LED (Radio Shack, ouch)
1 purple 2000mcd LED (Where it came from, I don't know)
120v AC vacuum cleaner motor (knee deep in cat hair now)
PIR sensor (Radio shack, or, your neighbor's ADT unit)
Audio amp/Speaker (steal from neighbor after disabling PIR, above)
a handful of transistors and resistors (there's a few in an Ipad, crack 'er open)
two hobby servos (Neighbor kid's RC car, or servo actuator from Gramma's respirator)
And a dream...
At a minimum, a cool light-up, flashing, motion-sensing skull. If all goes completely as planned, it MAY even include a thrashing "body", and be mobile, suspended ten feet off the ground. Stay tuned...
i remember reading one of our members here used to do similar things...
