I wasn't sure where to post this, so here goes. I decided this year that I would design and make my 5 year old son a Halloween costume... and he chose Optimus Prime (not a bad choice). I'm going for the classic version (not the Michael Bay OP) and I've just completed the construction of the suit... next up is the painting and detailing. But before I got too far and before I run out of time, I thought it could be cool to incorporate some electronics into the suit. The problem is I'm not quite sure what to do (electronics-wise). I have a decent background in Arduino and sensors/actuators... it's just I'm not exactly sure how I might want to incorporate... and I'm looking for suggestions.
An obvious choice would be working headlights on the front of the suit... and I've already planned for a low-tech solution there. I bought some simple battery powered puck lights at a local hardware store and these currently backlight the headlights in the suit... but there is no interaction. They're just always on. Are there other things people could suggest that might be cool to build in?
And just to show the current progress of the build, here's a photo of the cardboard suit (pre painting). Thanks again for the help!
That's so cool! I remember elaborate projects my dad made for me when I was little - and I loved them! The electronics will probably be more for you then for the little guy, but he'll dig them for sure. I used to watch the cartoon, but I'm not so much up on transformer technology. xl97's ideas sound great.
I would recommend however, that you limit the power used - and use alkaline batteries at most - don't be tempted to use lithiums, or any other power source that has a potential for mishap. You know kids always seem to be able to get anything soaking wet at any time.
Just thought I would post an update. I ended up going for the voice changer circuit using the adafriut wave shield. Pretty easy to setup and overall I think it worked out great.
