Introduction: Hallowen Skull

What is more terrifying than a skull?

Our skull with mechatronic elements!

This project is about creating a Halloween project with some Arduino's elements we learn at class. By combining our design and technical skills we created a skull that moves when the sensor notices movement. At the same time it moves, the LEDs brights and a screen shows a terrorific message...

You just have to pass in front of the skull and see what happens!

Step 1: A Section With a List of Electronic Parts, Materials and Tools Used in This Project

External Part:

  • Wood
  • Plastic skull
  • Halloween wig
  • Screw

Inside part:

  • 1 Breadboard
  • 1 Servomotor SG90
  • 1 Arduino UNO
  • 1 Distance sensor
  • 21 DuPont Cables
  • 2 Resistors
  • 2 Kingbright red
  • 1 Screen LCD display

Tools:

  • Hot glue
  • Wood file
  • Mechanical Saw
  • Mechanical Drill
  • Circular Drill
  • Polisher
  • Screwdriver
  • Scotch tape
  • Painter's tape

Step 2: A Schematic of the Electrical Connections, Made With Fritzing, KiCad, Tinkercad, Etc

Thanks to TinkerCad program we did a schematic view of all the connections.

Step 3: A Page With the Flow Diagram of Your Code Followed by the Actual Code (zipped)

Step 4: A Guide About How to Build the Project

The skull we bought has a completely empty brain cavity, even though we need to cut the posterior cavity to put the LEDs and some DuPont cables inside. To fill the two LED’s inside the eye socket we used a 4.75mm drill.

We are going to use Pere’s lamp to make the body of our project. We think that giving a second life to this project could be nice and by adding some Halloween items we could make it terrorific.

One of the most complicated parts of this project was how to join the skull with the servo. We used painter’s tape and a base we created made of wood to hold the servo with a solid base. To create the base we used a piece of wood and we made a hold with the same dimensions of the base of the servo just to fit it inside. Once we had this step done, we started moving some elements to match the rest of the components with Pere’s lamp.

Due to not having a lot of DuPont cables we had some difficulties in connecting the mechanism. Even though we successfully overcome.

The distance sensor detects a person or a body to a maximum of one meter, if it surpass this length the sensor won't detect anything and due to it, the skull won't move. We have determine this length because we want to surprise the person when it's close of the skull.

Step 5: A Short Conclusion

Just having some Arduino's skills and also a great imagination you can create a project just like this.

As we have explained before, we just need a distance sensor to detect when someone pass in front of the skull and the servo and the LEDs will start doing their task. Although the difficulties we experienced because of the small details we achieve out final goal, have a functional element that makes something terrifying.

We also had some difficulties in making the structure because we wanted a solid base to hold the skull. The skull has a base with a certain angle which makes it difficult to position with the servomotor, but even though we get a good result.

Now all you have to do is enjoy this project and have a great Halloween, well, a great 2021 Halloween!!!