Introduction: Twitter Activated Zelda Heart Container

By Jeremy Cook on YouTube
About: Engineer, Clemson grad, writer, maker of random contraptions for fun and profit.

Do you like Zelda? Would you like your own heart container that strangers can control via Twitter? Follow along to see HOW I made one. As to the WHY, you'll have to check out the video's ending. I also explain the ridiculous shirt I'm wearing.

Step 1: Mechanical Design

The heart container was designed as (2) 1/2 inch layers of MDF, along with a 1/2 inch piece of acrylic.

The acrylic was pressed into the top piece of MDF, and the two layers of MDF attach together via neodymium magnets, allowing for easy removal.

The design can be found here, but please treat it as a draft as some work had to be done to get it into a usable form.

Attachments

Step 2: Electronics

Parts Needed:

  • (1) Wemos D1 mini
  • (2) 2N222 Transistors
  • (2) Resistors
  • Red LED strip
  • DC-DC converter
  • 12VDC power supply
  • Hookup wires, lever nut

Wire as shown in diagram. 12VDC feeds LED strips, while DC-DC converter feeds Wemos D1 mini with proper voltage (3.3VDC).

Step 3: Programming and IoT-izing

Arduino IDE code for the build is found here, you'll just need to add your own passwords etc.

Along with this, you'll need to setup IFTTT to respond to an Internet action (I used Twitter, but it could be many other things), then pipe info to an Adafruit.io feed.

While I could attempt to explain this, Becky Stern does an excellent job of this in her IoT Class, which I used as the basis for much of this project code-wise.

Step 4: Plug in and Enjoy!

With this properly set up, you'll be able to see what people are saying based on certain search terms. As set up now, you can interact with it via the following phrases on Twitter:

  • "on zelda @jeremyscook" = both sides of the heart on - full health!
  • "half zelda @jeremyscook" = one side of the heart on - hit once.
  • "off zelda @jeremyscook" = both sides of the heart turn off - start over at the beginning :-(

More text can be in a tweet for it to work, but you have to include the terms in quotes verbatim. For example, the tweet "on zelda @jeremyscook this is a fun build" will turn both lights on on the heart.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy. Don't be too cruel with your tweets ;-)

If you enjoyed this build, please consider voting for it in the Game Life contest found here.

You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel to see what comes next!

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