ok, so im new to the whole arduino thing. ive got whats called a charlie chimp, a.k.a. the cymbal monkey in saw, or the spawn of satan in toy form. so, i wanted to shove an ir sensor, a speaker, and some red leds inside of it. the idea is that when you get close, its eyes glow red, and the closer you get, the louder and more destorted demonic sounds it plays. unfortunatley, i have absolutely no idea of where to start. what kind of microcontroller should i use? what sensors/ servos should i use? power? general guidance? any awnsers are apricciated. thank you!
Your question suggest to me that you want to explore the basics of animation and controller usage. You can use an Arduion Starter Kit for getting familiar with sensors and actuators, cabling and coding. Later you can choose a small sized (wearable?) Arduino for incorporation into the monkey, and other components around it.
I may have one of those somewhere, and maybe a clown drummer too. If it is in decent condition, I wouldn't do too much with it until you check ebay for a value. The least intrusive thing to do is make a simple switch to remotely turn it on and off. With battery powered things, you can make a switch setup using small thin piece of cardboard/index card with a bare ended wire on each side, and slip this between the tip of the battery and the battery post. With the normal switch turned on, then the other ends of the wire can be connected to a relay or similar to turn the monkey on/off.
and the official arduino kit? im kinda on a budget for this, so i was wondering if there would be any downsides to the amazon one. it even comes with the same sensors i was going to use.
Distance sensors tend to have a very small field of vision. Especially in early stages you may be much better off with a PIR sensor detecting motion in front of the monkey, in a rather broad area.
Sound: DF Player is a great one indeed, but it can't change/generate sounds. It just an mp3 player, with basic amplifier built in. Probably good enough for your application.
Circular back/forth motion: servo.
Linear back/forth motion: servo with push/pull rod.
I dont need a verry big range for the sensors. At the most maybe 3 feet? Also, I have fl studio, so I can distort the audio then export as an mp3 file.
I also have plenty of servos from old rc cars.
So that motion sensor seems like a good bet, along with an mp3 module, an arduino nano, and maybe some red LEDs. Is there any other parts I may need to consider?
Power supply - an old mobile phone charger will probably do, but servos can draw a lot of current. Find a 2A output (or more of course) model and you're probably fine with a bunch of small RC servos, especially if they don't move all at the same time.
