Mario Bros. costumes with sound effects

This year the boys wanted to be Mario and Luigi. Kind of boring right? Well my wife didn't think they were ready for throwing real fireballs so we did sound effects instead. I wanted them to make the Mario jump sound when they jumped and be able to make the fireball sound too and maybe a few others. So I too a Wii Nunchuck, an arduino, a set of portable speakers and a birthday card to make this. 

The Wii Nunchuck has an accelerometer in it so I used that to tell when they jump and for them to control the rest of the sounds. The Nunchuck is connected to the arduino using an adapter that you can make or buy so you don't have to cut the cable.

For the sound recording and playback I found a birthday card that you can record 4 sounds on and playback the sounds by pressing each button. After tearing the card apart I found that it ran on a 3V battery so I used an arduino pro mini 3.3V for one and an arduino FIO which is also 3.3V for the other. This way the arduino could directly control the sound board and power it too.

Step 1 Materials and Tools

Materials
Programmable birthday card (I got it from Walgreens)
3.3V arduino (like the arduino pro mini or arduino FIO from Sparkfun)
Battery for FIO
Wii Nunchuck
Wii Nunchuck arduino adapter (or make your own like I did)
Portable speakers
Wire
Electrical tape
3.5mm female jack

Tools
Soldering iron
Wire cutters
Wire stripper

I used an arduino FIO for one and an arduino pro mini 3.3V for the other because that was what I had on hand. This instructable shows the FIO because it was a bit easier than using the pro mini.

Comments

[sinsinger]

Great idea, thanks for posting this instructable! I have a question, I'm doing this project for my boys halloween costumes this year, but I can't find greating cards where you can record more then one sound. All the ones I have found you can only record one 10 second track. Any ideas on where I can find a card that I can record more then one sound or do you have an alternative solution for recording multiple sounds and replaying them?

[RobHopeless]

A very good option would be to use the adafruit wave shield for arduino. Costs more than a birthday card but if you can't find a decent card then it would work fine. http://www.adafruit.com/products/94

[sally300]

i think they look nice can a girl wear them cause they look safe for a girl to wear them

[Roceifin]

MAMA!! MAMA LUIGI!!HAHAHA!!! lol nice job...need to make the sound activate when they actually move...soo like when they walk it makes that dot dot sound and when they jump it makes the jump sound....that would be way hellavonshnizlehepadoodle!!

[RobHopeless]

It does make the jump sound when they jump. It uses the Z axis on the Nunchuck to tell when they jump. You could probably do the run sound but that would take a bit more code work.

[Roceifin]

oh...duhh i alwase forget that the nun chuck can sense motion too...lol

[TheWanderer]

Man, it's after Halloween so every Wallgreen's and Hallmark store just got rid of these cards to make room for the Christmas cards. Does anyone know where or how to find these cards?