How to Make a Musical, Motorized Glow-in-the-dark-ghost Mobile

This instructable describes how to design and build a motorized glow-in-the-dark, 3D-printed-ghost mobile. It is not too difficult to make these cute decorations assuming you own or have access to a 3D printer and glow-in-the-dark printing material. When the lights go out the ghosts take on a whole new "life" at night with their eerie glow!

The original plan was based on just this simple design, but my over caffeinated imagination couldn't stop there. It decided to go high-tech on this one. Added to the design was a motor to turn the mobile, a light to charge the glowing material and some additional components to trigger some action. The cherry on the cake is to synchronize this behavior with a spooky sound track.

This instructable will walk you through all of the steps to replicate the entire project. However, you can alway stop at any step from just printing off a ghost, to just building the mobile or taking it all the way to the end.

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Step 1: Tools and Materials

For this project you will need the following tools and materials:

Tools:
3D Printer
3D CAD Program (I'm using AutoDesk Inventor)
Exacto Knife
Small Drill Bit and Drill
Wire Cutters
Needle Nose Pliers
Pen (for writing labels)
Digital Scale
Arduino SDK

Materials:
Glow-in-the-dark Printing Material (glowing ABS filament is available at amazon.com)
Sturdy Wire (you can use an old wire coat hanger, I'm using 1mm SS welding rod)
Small Hook (for hanging the mobile)
Masking Tape (for temporary labels)
Various Jumpers/Wires

Electronics:
Arduino Board
IR remote kit
IR LED
Stepper Motor and Controller
Remote Controlled CD Player with Spooky Sound Track CD