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A flamethrowing jack-o'-lantern keeps the trick-or-treaters a safe distance from your house and is a fine addition to any anti-Halloween arsenal. At t...
For carving the jack-o'-lantern, you will need: - A large pumpkin (mine was probably about 18" in diameter) - An assortment of cutting knives. Serra...
Cut around the stem of the pumpkin at an angle (with the knife slanted in towards the stem of the pumpkin) After you are done cutting all the way ar...
Remove the guts from the pumpkin. To start it should be easy simple to pull them out by hand, but this is going to quickly become too difficult. Usi...
Draw a face on a piece of paper and then cut it out and tape it to the pumpkin. One thing to keep in mind is that the mouth needs to be large and ab...
With a marker, trace the outline of the face onto the pumpkin and remove the paper.
Cut out the pumpkin's face. For the larger and more complicated shapes like the mouth, it help to cut it out in smaller pieces instead of trying to r...
Make a mark about 6" from one of the edges of the aluminum extrusion. Line up this mark with the edge of the workbench and clamp it between the work...
Download the following files for the motor mount and candle holder. Use these files as cutting guides to cut the pieces out of 1/8" acrylic. At tim...
Use the two mounts that you just cut out as drilling guides on the aluminum extrusion. The motor mount should line up with the long edge of the extr...
Stack the two motor mounts and align the motor atop it. Zip tie it all to the aluminum bracket. Below it zip tie the small WD-40 can. The actuator f...
Insert the two bolts upwards through the bottom of the aluminum bracket. Fasten them in place with bolts. Thread on another bolts onto each. Twist t...
Solder the 9V battery snap to the M-type plug such that the red wire is connected to the tip and the black wire is connected to the barrel. Don't fo...
Open the SquidBee transmitter node and remove the Arduino from the XBee shield. Change the power jumper on the Arduino to select USB power (if neces...
The transmitter is a little bit trickier if you are using a SquidBee setup because it is lacking an ATMEGA chip. First unplug the XBee shield. If n...
Drill a 3/8" hole (or whatever is appropriate for your switch) in the side of your project enclosure. Install the pushbutton switch.
Install the antenna into the side of the enclosure opposite the switch. Be careful not to break the wire connecting the antenna to the XBee.
Solder a wire to one leg of a 10K resistor. Solder the opposite end of this wire to one of the switch terminals. Plug in the side of the resistor wi...
Plug in a 9V battery to power up the transmitter.
Fasten shut the transmitter's case.
Affix the relay to a small piece of perfboard. Connect one of the relay's coils to ground on the Arduino board and the other to pin 3. Attach 9V to...
I lost the case for my SquidBee transmitter node (the pumpkin receiver) a long time ago. I find that a piece of black gaffers tape typically gets the...
Wire the motor to the relay wires such that when the relay closes, the motor's actuator pushes down. In this case, red went to blue and black to gree...
Place the whole contraption inside of the pumpkin. Make sure that the battery is plugged in. Also, make sure that the lid fits. If the lid does not...
Once it is certain that everything is working as it should, it is time to add fire. First off, find the transmitter. Make sure no one or nothing is ...
Take a number of steps way back from the pumpkin and press the trigger on the transmitter. If all is well with the world, the jack-o'-lantern will bl...
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