Introduction: Anna, the Fortune Teller

About: Full time computer developer, aspiring toy maker !

This is an inspiration from Zoltar, There are so many versions out there and I wanted to make my own cubicle version. We have a fortune teller in a booth who gazes her crystal ball and tells your future :)

The build is a mashup of paper craft, light box, Arduino and loads of glue !

PS - This was built with materials already available at home, you will be able to skip some steps if you have access to color printer , arduino shields

Supplies

Fortune Wheel/ Carousal

  • Card stock ( 120 GSM or higher / Blank business cards)
  • Tooth pick
  • Pencil / Stick

Fortune Booth

  • Colors (Crayons or anything you like)
  • PingPong ball
  • Masking tape
  • Scissors
  • Cardboard
  • Glue

Electronics

  • Arduino
  • DC Motor box with wheel
  • RGB LED
  • White LED Strips
  • ULN2803 or any motor driver
  • L293D or any motor driver
  • PING sensor (Ultrasonic distance measurement)
  • ISD 1820 with AMP or any other trigger enabled audio playback device

Step 1: Making the Fortune Teller's Booth

Steps below, please refer to photos for more details

  1. Cut 1 Inch cardboard strips
  2. Clean up a shoe box
  3. Blue the cardboard strips from step 1 as a frame within the shoe box
  4. Add a background of choice to the frame
  5. Add elements like curtains to the frame
  6. Draw or print the fortune teller from https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/186962-fortune...
  7. Cut along the outline and stick it on to the frame
  8. Draw/ print the hands from the earlier picture and add again to the frame. At this point it should look like a 3D image
  9. Add RGB LED and ping-pong ball to the frame

Feel free to add as many layers as your wish, more layers means more depth to the picture.

Step 2: Making the Fortune Wheel

Steps below, please refer to photos for more details. This is a poor man's version of https://github.com/scottbez1/splitflap . I just wanted to make a version with parts already available at home

  1. Cut two circles of diameter 3 Inch from a thick cardboard
  2. Mark points 15 Degree apart from each other and draw another circle of Diameter 2.5 Inch
  3. Punch holes at the mark, Stick a pencil as a spindle for the wheel
  4. On the other wheel, punch out holes and tie a wheel so that it can be connected to motor
  5. Glue the other circle as well to pencil
  6. Cut flaps out of index card
  7. Insert tooth pick and glue the cards to the tooth pick
  8. Add the motor to the contraption

Please note that this fell apart after about ~ 150 times, If you want this to last long, please add supporting structures on both sides. Also glue and moving parts don't go well together :)

Step 3: Setting Up Lights and Sound

The setup consists of one motor, ping sensor, RGB LED, two LED strips and one audio device ( ISD 1820 Module). The RGB LEDS act as a crystal ball, The LED strips light up the background of the booth, audio plays an introduction to the fortune teller and the motor drives the fortune cards.

ISD 1820 plays a single audio recorded based on a trigger pin. This is connected to an amplifier and played over speaker. I used UK-Rachel voice from https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/

  1. Connect the components as shown in the diagram. Note that the upper railings on the bread board has VIN and the lower railing has 5V connected to it
  2. Upload the code to your Arduino
  3. Place all components within the box
  4. Place the ping sensor on the outside of the box
  5. Power up and its ready !

Toys and Games Challenge

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