Pumpktris - The Tetris Pumpkin

Who wants grinning faces and candles when you can have an interactive pumpkin this Halloween? Play your favorite block-stacking game on an 8x16 grid carved into the face of the gourd, lit by LEDs and using the stem as a controller.

This is a moderately advanced project and requires experience soldering and programming in the Arduino environment. You'll be working with organic matter and all its inherent quirks, so measurements may need to be adapted to fit the pumpkin you're using.

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Step 1: Required Materials

To build your own Pumpktris you'll need the following:

Components

128 5mm amber LEDs (I used these from Mouser)
Buy some extra to cover any mistakes or tests. I got 140. Amber most closely resembles the flame that would be inside a traditional jack-o-lantern, but you're free to use any color you like.
Arduino microcontroller
1/16" Heat shrink tubing (11 feet, or 256 1/2" long pieces)
Arcade joystick with a removable handle (this one from SparkFun worked well for me)
4 #6 nylon drywall anchors
This isn't the kind with the toggles, but the kind that look like screws with deep threads
4 half-inch long screws of the same size and type that came with the drywall anchors.
The ones that come with the anchors will be too long.
6mm x 50mm bolt (or whatever size matches the mount for your joystick handle)
6mm coupling nut (or whatever size is needed to match the above bolt)
A coupling nut looks like a regular nut, but is about an inch long and is used to join two bolts or pieces of threaded rod.

And last but not least, you'll need 1 pumpkin. You only need one, but I recommend two so that you've got one you can use to practice drilling and cutting. Your LED matrix is going to cover an area approximately 4" wide by 8" tall, so you want a pumpkin with an area that size as smooth and flat as possible so your matrix doesn't wrap too far around. You could use a foam pumpkin, but where's the magic in that? I can't speak to the carving techniques needed on a foam pumpkin.

Tools and Consumables

Soldering iron
Solder
Wire cutters
Wire strippers
Power drill
Hacksaw
X-Acto knife
13/64" drill bit
1-1/8" drill bit (I used a Forstner bit, but a spade bit might work too)
1/4" foam core board

J-Five says: Nov 21, 2012. 4:33 PM

I Want One!!!!!

flaming_pele! says: Nov 21, 2012. 11:46 AM

Congrats! Really fun project and nicely documented

ecsaul23 says: Nov 21, 2012. 9:51 AM

HEY! congrats on placing second!

ecsaul23 says: Nov 14, 2012. 6:59 PM

Congrats! I cant wait to see the winners

poofrabbit says: Nov 13, 2012. 7:16 PM

Congratulations on being a finalist in the Halloween contest!!! Can’t wait to see if you win! Good luck!

hankenstien says: Nov 10, 2012. 8:26 PM

WOW So cool , I bet that you could some how preserve the pumpkin by covering it in a resin or polyurethane or something, then again, I guess, with all the wiring and everything else youd only have to re drill all the holse and carve the squares out again next year or maby freze it ? its such such a cool prodject, and to be put in to a fruit, (because it has seeds) or if you want call it a vegetable, guess you can always find other uses for it, its very cool man!

ecsaul23 says: Nov 7, 2012. 4:11 PM

Very Cool! I gotta know though, how did you come up with this idea? Not many people go to carve a pumpkin and think tetris!

HaHaBird (author) in reply to ecsaul23Nov 10, 2012. 4:24 PM

Thank you! I originally wanted to grow pumpkins into Tetris shapes (no idea where that idea came from, though). By the time I remembered, it was too late in the season so the idea morphed into making Tetris on a pumpkin.

ecsaul23 in reply to HaHaBirdNov 10, 2012. 7:07 PM

hahaha. The things that random things that come to mind.... awesome

AlternateLives says: Nov 10, 2012. 3:48 PM

Awesome Idea, and nice video! Nicely done on the joystick setup.

By the way: in the video, did you recreate the Tetris theme, or did you find it online? I found it quite fitting for a halloween project!