Make Spooky Halloween Bat With Flapping Wings

Hey, readers welcome back to my interesting instructable, In this project, I made an amazing Halloween Decor item you can call or in the other way, you can call it as a Spooky Thing.

What is a Halloween Bat?

In Common people's terms, the Halloween bat is just a boring sticker/craft kind of thing that is still and does not have any life in it and is simply hung on a wall or a door, But in our version of Halloween bat the wings move/flap.

The most interesting part is the wings flap not just randomly on their own but when someone approaches too close to them! What an interesting thing isn't it?

With this Spooky Halloween bat you can impress your friends at the parties of Halloween or match with the spooky bat costume you are wearing, The choice is yours.

How does it work?

The concept behind its working is very simple, it has an ultrasonic distance sensor that detects any obstacle in front of it, which triggers the micro servo to which wings are attached, and the entire thing is processed with the help of Arduino uno board.

If you are planning to build this project I have given a list of all the instructions required along with a circuit diagram and codes.

With the help of a detailed explanation and a video in the end you should be able to understand if you still need any help you can always drop your questions in the comments box.

Supplies

• Piece of cardboard
• Arduino Uno
• Micro servos x 2
• Ultrasonic distance sensor (HC-SR04)
• Color paper (I prefer Yellow)
• An Empty cardboard box for closure of electronics
• Battery with a switch
• Arduino IDE and Programming Cable
• Pencil and Scale
• Scissors
• Super glue and Hot glue
• Black marker or fabric paint

Step 1: Template

To make the Bat body I will use this template which I made after a few trials and error and later obtained a fully functional design.

If you want to make the same model you can use the image or also make your own design, if you are using mine you can just trace the design on the cardboard.

Note that I have given the measurements on the template so as to get the proper idea of scaling

After you trace the wings and face, with the help of scissors cut them

For the bat face, you might need a hobby cutter to work on the inside, at the end of this step you will have the wings and face of the bat. The reason for making them use cardboard is to have greater strength and keep the thing running for the long term.

Instead of cardboard, you can use thin pieces of wood but that would make the working slightly difficult without the need of additional tools, so cardboard would be a time saver.

Step 2: Making the Bat Wings and Body

After the frames are cut we need to work on making them prettier, yeah you heard it right!

I have already placed a layer of paper on the cardboard, hence the cut pieces are white in color, if you are using plane cardboard you can choose either of the 2 things.

Paint the cardboard with black directly with multiple coats or paste the white sheet of paper and later paint it with black, with this method the color blends to the cardboard making the project look neat.

I used the black marker pen to color the wings and face, it took me 2 to 3 layers of a drawing to finally obtain a decent-looking part.

After I colored them I let them dry and worked on building the circuit.

Step 3: Circuit Diagram

If you have already worked on an Arduino project this circuit is a piece of cake for you!

For all those newbies out here reading let me go through the connections in detail, we will be needing jumper wires to connect the components.

I will divide the circuit into 2 parts, One is the ultrasonic sensor circuit and the other is the micro servo.

The ultrasonic sensor module comes with 4 pins, Vcc, Trig, Echo and Gnd.

Vcc and Gnd pins of the sensor will be connected to the 3.3v pin and Gnd pin of Arduino Uno respectively

This completes the connection of the ultrasonic sensor.

Micro servo comes with 3 pins and we have 2 micro servos here.

Vcc, Signal and Gnd are the pins of the micro servo, we will connect the Vcc and Gnd pins of both the servos to 5v and Gnd pins of Arduino Uno.

The signal pins of servo 1 are connected to D9 and the signal of the other servo to D10 pin of Uno board, this completes the circuit now we can head over to Arduino code for this spooky Bat

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Step 4: Arduino Codes and Testing

If you just have a look at the codes you can clearly see the functions written.

You can explore the code by making some changes in the servo delay and angle but unless you are truly aware of what it does to the actual project keep it the same.

You can use my Arduino codes for this project, Just download the code and paste it on the IDE, select the proper port and board type, and upload the code.

After the code is successfully uploaded to the board you can just test the circuit.

From the third image of this step, you can see how the servo should respond when you bring your hands closer to the sensor.

If you are facing any issues make sure to check the wire connections again and if you still have any queries ask me in the comment i will address it soon.

Step 5: Casing the Circuit in a Box

After we have the circuit ready and it looks kind of messed with the wire we need some enclosure, Like i mentioned earlier I will use a cardboard box.

I inserted the Arduino Uno to check if it fits first and yes it fits!

Now to make the Face of the Bat I will use the ultrasonic sensor, it is a smart way to embed the components on a part and thus make them look pretty.

For the background, I used yellow color paper, and i made a hold so that the ultrasonic sensor would fit inside, this entire thing was later glued to the back side of the bat face.

To stick the face of the bat I used hot glue, end of this step we have a partial bat ready! now moving on to the further steps.

Step 6: Wing Attachment

Wing flapping mechanism is achieved with the help of 2 micro servos, we will place one servo with one wing on either side and let the servo take care of the flapping part.

To make this i will directly glue the wings to the servo, making sure that the direction of servo rotation is correct.

Check for the servo horn movement by powering the Arduino and keeping the hand in front of the sensor, note down the movement. Use a tiny amount of super glue to stick the wings to the horns of the servo.

After this add hot glue to the base of the servo and stick it to the backside of the face of the bat as shown in the visuals, repeat the same step for the other side of the wings.

Finally arrange the wires to one common line as in the last image of this step.

Step 7: Testing the Project

For the power source, I will be using a battery holder that holds 2 lithium-ion batteries and is controlled by a switch.

I was lucky that the cardboard box that I chose fits the battery holder perfectly.

Note that using this power source will make the project cordless and you can easily fit this device on a table without the risk of cable being visible to others and doubt that this is not just a normal decor bat!

This completes the project and you can test it out!

All you have to do is power on the switch, place your hand or any object in front of ultrasonic sensor and watch the wings flap!

This might look normal to you but for the eyes of Halloween guy it will definitely look Spooky!

Any questions reach to me via comments, Thanks and wishing you the spookiest Halloween :)

Step 8: Working Video

Step-by-step building instructions along with the working video that you should not miss are given on this video, if you like the video share it with your friends or family so as to give them an amazing idea for this halloween, Thanks and have a great day