The A-Team Egg - an Easter Egg Playing the A-Team Title Melody If You Shake It!

The A-Team Egg ist an Easteregg that plays the title melody of the A-Team each time you shake it. I made it as an easter present for my brother who is a big fan of The A-Team. But if you dont like the A-Team, you can change the melody and decoration to make it a fan-egg of your sisters favorite rock band. It can easily be reprogrammed and customized.

Get over to Step 1 to start making it! Dont forget to comment and rate this project.

Step 1: Parts and Tools

To make the A-Team Egg you only need a few parts and tools:

Parts:
For the guts (electronics):
- Picaxe 08 protoboard and Picaxe 08M microcontroller (this is the eggs brain)
- 1 tiny tilt switch / tilt sensor
- 1 Resistor 10k
- 1 Piezo speaker
- 1 3 AA Battery holder
- a piece of wire

For the eggshell:
- 1 plastic or paper easter egg shell
- Spray paint
- a picture of Mr. T

Tools:
- Soldering iron and solder
- Wire stripper
- Wire cutter
- Hot glue gun
- Picaxe Download Cable

Step 2: Make the Guts

The guts of the A-Team Egg are made up of only a few electronic parts. The brain is a Picaxe M08 microcontroller wich can be easily programmed to play music. The ability to make sound is already implemented in the chip. It is programmed in an easy BASIC dialect. As you can see in step 3 the code is only 5 lines long.

To make it "sing" you have to add a piezo speaker (it is also possible to add a speaker, but for the bleepy effect i use a piezo). To make it sensible for movements (shaking the egg) I added a tilt switch.

First of all make the Picaxe-08 Proto Board by following the instructions from Revolution Education .

Then add the tilt switch between V (+5V) and Pin 4. You also have to solder the pull down resistor (10k) between Pin 4 and G (ground bus or 0V).

To connect the piezo speaker to Pin 2 I added a small wire between Pin 2 and the conducting path (see image). Then solder the piezo speaker between the path where the wire ends and G. Thats all for soldering. Easy, isnt it? Go to the next step to program the brain.

Step 3: Ready to Program the Brain

Once you have soldered the guts together the brain of the A-Team Egg is ready to get instructions.

If you dont already have the Picaxe IDE, download AXEpad for Windows, Mac or Linux from the Revolution Education Website . Install it following the instructions . You also need to download the A-Team Egg code here and unzip it.

Start AXEpad and open the code.

Connect the Picaxe 08 Proto Board to your computer using the Picaxe Download cable. Dont forget to power your Picaxe with 3 AA Batteries that provide 4,5 V what is quiet enough to run the chip.

Now you can push the upload button in the software. After a few seconds the chip is programmed. If you shake the board, it should play the title melody of The A Team.

Step 4: Prepare the Egg Shell

Color the egg with spray paint. In my case I had to spray twice to have a clear white egg. Print the picture of Mr T. You might use Google Image Seach to find a proper picture. Cut it out and glue it to the egg shell. I dont recomment to use hot glue. Try normal paper glue instead to get a nice result.

Step 5: Finishing the A-Team Egg

Attach the electronic circuit into the egg. If necessary glue it to the egg shell with hot glue. In my case it barely fits into the egg shell, so i dont have to glue it. Shake it, test it. If the piezo speaker is too quiet, drill some holes into the shell.

Congratulations! You made it - the fabulous A-Team Egg. Surprise your family and friends!

Step 6: Modifications

As every project you can modify your egg to fit to your needs or creativity. Here are some suggestions:

- Modifying the melody is quiet easy. You can even use monophon ringtones from the internet. Download a song from your sisters favorite rockband and make it a fan-egg
- There are 3 free pins on the picaxe ready to get work. Add some LEDs to your egg and make them blink, or attach a vibration motor to let it vibe.
- with the guts you can turn almost everything into a nerve-racking bleepy toy

Share your ideas and modifications in the comments.