How to Make the Eye of Agamotto From Doctor Strange

A couple of weeks ago, I heard rumors of a new Doctor Strange movie: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This got me thinking about what working prop I could build from the original movie. As you may have guessed there are not a lot of feasible options. After brainstorming potential ideas, I remembered the iconic Eye of Agamotto.

For those unfamiliar, the Eye of Agamotto is a fictional, ancient relic popularized by the release of Marvel's Doctor Strange in 2016. Although, it has a long history throughout the comics, appearing as early as 1963. The purpose of the Eye of Agamotto is to hold the time stone, one of the six infinity stones.

In this Instructable, I will show you how to construct your very own time stone-wielding medallion that is capable of blinking and lighting up on its own!

Supplies

Components

Tools

Sharpie $1.10
Hot Glue Gun $12.17
Soldering Iron $19.99
Lead Free Solder $10.49
Wire Stripper $11.98
Sand Paper $5.99
Multimeter $9.99
Super Glue $3.97
Gold Spray Paint $17.94
3D Printer
3D Filament

Step 1: Theory

The motion of the eyelids is created by a servomotor and some bevel gears. When the shaft of the servo is rotated counter-clockwise the base gear rotates clockwise which pulls the eyelids downward. This reveals the RGB LED tucked away safely inside.

The servo is controlled by an Arduino Nano Every which takes input from a push button located on the side of the case.

The eye, or time stone as some might say, is a dual-color LED that sits inside the enclosure of the bevel gear. By cutting out a small circle of the light diffuser and placing it on top of the RGB LED we will get that very satisfying infinity stone glow.

note: Part of this design was created by Luke Stanislas on Thingiverse. I recommend checking out his page he has some pretty cool designs.Eye of Agamotto - Doctor Strange (with Opening Eye) by Black_Ram_Industries is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Step 2: 3D Printing the Case

Now that we are familiar with how the system works, it is time to start printing the case.

Depending on how fast you want this to print versus the quality of the print, your profile may be different than mine. My print quality was pretty good and it was done in a reasonable time using these settings in the Cura slicer.

I used an infill of 20% with an infill line multiplier of 2 for some extra rigidity. The speed was set to 50mm/s which came out well, but you could probably get away with 55mm/s if you are looking to go a bit faster while maintaining a nice finish. All of this is printed at 205°c and 70°c for the nozzle and bed. I also used 30° supports where it was required. Everything else is default for the standard quality profile.

Step 3: Spray Painting the Outer-Shell

Once you have finished printing all the pieces, you are ready to customize them.

Spray paint the entire surface area of both the top face and top case. Flip the bottom case upside-down so that only the outside of the case gets painted, but not the inside. This helps to reduce the friction created by the opening and closing motion of the eye. Lastly, paint the top sides of the eyelids. Again make sure to leave the underside blank.

Step 4: Adding the Small Details

Once the paint dries, take your sharpie and draw inside all the crevices and text on the outside of the case. This will contrast with the gold finish to make the end product stand out.

Now is also a good time to superglue the necklace. Take a portion of the leather string and cut it to a length that best suits you. For reference, mine was approximately 16in(40cm) in length. Once you are happy with its width, superglue the ends of the string into the prongs of the bottom case.

Step 5: Weather the Eye

Finally, we will rough up the case. This is optional, but if you are like me and prefer it to look a bit more used this will help with that. Take a piece of sandpaper and lightly rough up the flat surfaces and edges along the outside of the eye. Try not too rub to hard or an excess amount of paint could come off. We still want to maintain the golden, metallic exterior.

Step 6: Add the Board to the Arduino IDE

Now that the case is finished it is time to move on to the code, but before we upload the code to the Arduino, we need to select the proper board to upload to in the boards manager. Navigate to tools>Boards Manager and search for, Arduino megaAVR Boards. Install the first option that appears as shown above.

To validate that it works, plug the Arduino into your PC and go to tools>board>Arduino megaAVR Boards>Arduino Nano Every. Now select the port it is connected to in the tools menu. You should now see your Arduino listed as one of the options in the dropdown menu.

If you can not find the port that the Arduino is connected to you likely need to install new drivers. Follow this article for further instructions on how to install new drivers.

Step 7: Upload Code to the Arduino

Now that the proper board is selected, we can move on to uploading the code. Just open the file below, which will create a new instance of the Arduino IDE, then click upload.

If you plan on soldering the button, led, and servo to a different digital pin, remember to change that corresponding line of code to the new value. The values for the button, LED, and servo are declared on lines 7, 8, and 17, respectfully.

EyeOfAgamotto.ino
Download

Step 8: Circuit Assembly

Use the schematic and animation above as a reference on how to assemble the circuit.

I made the mistake of soldering the wires to the Arduino before putting it into the case. Due to this, I had to orient my Arduino the wrong way so all the wires were obstructing the path of the gears creating it too hard for them to open or close. To avoid this, keep all the jumper cables either glued to the walls or floor and place the Arduino (micro-USB port facing left) onto the stand-offs before soldering.

Run the wires for the RGB LED through the small opening at the bottom of the main gear shaft, before soldering to the Arduino. After all the wires are connected to the Arduino place the servo at the bottom of the case as shown above.

Step 9: Assembling the Power Supply

Now that the circuit is completed we need a way to power it. We will attach the Li-Po battery with the TP4056 charging module and MT3608 boost converter to the back of the case.

Use the schematic above as a reference on how to solder the different components of the power supply together. However, do not solder the output of the boost converter to the Arduino yet. We first need to regulate the output to be 5v. Connect the probes of your multimeter to the outputs of the boost converter and twist the knob of the onboard potentiometer until it outputs exactly 5.0v. Now you can finish soldering the circuit to the Arduino.

To attach the power supply, hot glue each component to the back of the shell. Cover the Li-Po in electrical tape before applying the hot glue to keep it safe. Keep the components separated from one another to avoid overheating problems.

Step 10: Adding the Front Case

At this point, you should have all the electronics installed and have them connected to the power supply. That means all that is left to do is add the front cover.

Insert hot glue around the rim of the rear case as shown above then place the top case on top. Make sure it is not sealed so tight as to obstruct the movement of the eye. Lastly, hot glue the remaining piece to the top case. Angle the top face so that the corner where all the lines intersect is in the bottom left corner.

Step 11: Finished

Congratulations, you have just built a working Eye of Agamotto! To see it come alive, slide the toggle switch on and press the button. You should now see the eyelids open and the LED illuminating bright green.

If you experienced any trouble building this project, leave a comment below and I will help you resolve the issue.

If you enjoyed this project follow me on Instagram where I show a behind the scenes look at all my current and future projects. Also check out some of my other Instructables.