Introduction: Halloween Project With Skull, Arduino, Blinking LEDs and Scrolling Eyes | Maker, MakerED, MakerSpaces
Halloween Project with Skull, Arduino, Blinking LEDs and Scrolling Eyes
Soon is Halloween, so let us create a scary project while coding and DIY (tinkering a bit…). The tutorial is made for people who don’t have a 3D-Printer, we will use a 21 cm plastic Skull for 13€ bought on Amazon, 3 ARDUINO NANO’s and two 8 mm WHITE LEDs to realize this project. First let us have a look how the project will look to give you the right motivation to start it, check the video below, please:
Step 1: Please Check the Video
Step 2: 3 Different Effects
As you might have realized while watching the video, there are 3 different effects in it:
- The rolling eyes, we were talking about it already in following tutorial:
- The blinking WHITE LEDs in the nose, please check the following tutorial below:
- The blinking LEDs around the teethes, we are using WS2812B Addressable RGB LED Strip (6 LEDs), check tutorial below, please:
In the above mentioned tutorials, you will find the wiring as well as the codes (Sketches):
First start with one of the 3 projects, make the wiring and upload the code to the ARDUINO Nano and test it. IF it is working start the second one and so on… Once finished the above mentioned we will need to integrate the hardware into the Skull…
Check below, please, the different steps…
Step 3: The Different Steps As Well As Where to Buy the Stuff
In picture 1+2 you will see the 21 cm plastic Skull which I bought on AMAZON.DE: https://amzn.to/2MWDzrP
The plastic Skull needs to get cut in two pieces to place all the devices inside, see pic 10.
In picture 3+4 you see the scrolling eyes which are displayed on a EMO 24x8 LED Matrix Display, which I bought on AMAZON.COM: https://amzn.to/2zoLyup
In picture 5+6 you see the fixation of the EMO 24x8 LED Matrix Display, I used hot glue.
In picture 7+8 you see the soldering and fixation with heat-shrinking tube of the WS2812B LEDs. Those RGB LEDS on a strip get sold on a length of 1 Meter, on AMAZON.DE:
You can easily shorten them by the number of LEDs which you require, I used 6 which is enough to fix around the teethes of the plastic Skull, see picture 9, please.
Please find a tutorial here which explains very well step by step:
Step 4: Cabling of the Arduino NANO's
SO, we have seen now ALL the necessary steps to make this project working, up to YOU now to bring in the electronics into the Skull and seal the Skull later with hot glue. You can use the above showing cable solution or to try to put everything on a Strip-Board and solder it; YOUR choice!
Idea: You could try to include as well a proximity sensor which enables the playing of the devil laughter in the video. How? Check below please:
Some devil laughter sounds:
In picture 2 you see the cabling: I used 2 mini breadboards and one medium sized one as well as a Power Supply board. Please find below where to buy them:
- Different breadboards
- MB102 3,3 V/Breadboard Power Supply
- 8 mm LEDs white:
- 5 Arduino NANO's:
For the LEDs: you can drill holes into the nose of the plastic Skull, or as I did burning the holes in with the soldering iron. Best fixing for the LEDs is to solder them on a small part of a strip-board and to glue them with hot glue inside the plastic Skull, please see picture 3.
