Introduction: Sci-fi B-movie Goggles
Step 1: Materials
2 servos
welding goggles
duct tape
wire
a microcontroller
a proximity sensor
a photoresistor
a resistor
Step 2: Create Light Sensor With Photoresistor and Resistor
Solder the photoresistor to the resistor to create a voltage divider (you should pick a resistor on the same order of magnitude as your photoresistor). Attach a wire to either end, and one to the middle. One end is going to connect to the 5 V power supply, so I colored that one red. One end is ground (I colored it black) and the middle is the signal output (I used yellow for that).
Step 3: Extend the Length of Your Wires If Need Be
I found that it was helpful to extend the length of the wires on my two servos and proximity sensor, so I just soldered on some extra long wires. I actually used some nice header pins so I could disconnect the components easily if need be, but feel free to use whatever wires you can find.
Step 4: Group Your Four 5V and Ground Wires
You'll end up having four ground wires and four 5V wires. Each sensor and servo takes a Vin and a ground. You'll want to group these all together to one wire. I just soldered 4 wires onto the end of one to group them easily.
Step 5:
Remove the dark lenses from your welding goggles.
Step 6: Tape Lenses on to Servos
Out comes the duct tape!
Step 7: Tape Prox Sensor to Front of Goggles
More tape!
Step 8: Tape Ambient Light Sensor to Goggles
You should also get a general idea of where you are going to route all your wires. I put my 5V wires to the right, my ground wires to the left, and the input and output wires to the side they were closest to.
Step 9: Tape Servos on the Side!
Tape on the servo so the lenses overlap the eyeholes when the servo is at one of its maximum values.
Step 10: Tape Down Wires Where You See Fit
I preferred to loop long coils of wire to enhance the "sci-fi b-movie" effect, but if you want to cut yours short and practical, you can do that too.
Step 11: Connect Wires to Arduino
I ended up with 6 wires. Inputs to the two servos, outputs from the two sensors, a 5V wire, and a ground wire. The 5V and ground go to their respective pins on the arduino. I plugged in the servo inputs on pin 9 and 11 (digital PWM pins) and I connected the sensor outputs to A0 and A1 (analog in).
Step 12: Program Arduino
I used the servo library to program my arduino (full code below).
#include <Servo.h>
Servo servo1; // create servo object to control a servo
Servo servo2;
int pos = 0; // variable to store the servo position
int light = 0; // value read from the pot
int prox = 0;
int servo1Pos = 0; // value output to the PWM (analog out)
int servo2Pos = 0; // value output to the PWM (analog out)
void setup() {
// initialize serial communications at 9600 bps:
Serial.begin(9600);
servo1.attach(9); // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object
servo2.attach(11);
}
void loop() {
// read the analog in value:
light = analogRead(A0);
prox = analogRead(A1);
// map it to the servo output:
if (light > 400){servo1Pos = 0;}
if (light <= 400){servo1Pos = 180;}
if (prox > 400){servo2Pos = 180;}
if (prox <= 400){servo2Pos = 0;}
// change the servo output
servo1.write(servo1Pos);
servo2.write(servo2Pos);
// tell servo to go to position
// print the results to the serial monitor:
Serial.print("light = " );
Serial.print(light);
Serial.print(" servo1 = ");
Serial.println(servo1Pos);
Serial.print("prox = " );
Serial.print(prox);
Serial.print(" servo2 = ");
Serial.println(servo2Pos);
// wait 10 milliseconds before the next loop
// for the analog-to-digital converter to settle
// after the last reading:
delay(10);
Step 13: More to Do?
You could wire the arduino to a battery to make the goggles mobile. You could try using a magnifying lens or gears and an aperture or something entirely different on one of the eyes of the goggles. Go wild! See what you can do.
