Scare the bejesus out of trick-or-treaters by making this Arduino based Jack-‘O-Brightdot and putting it on your front porch!

This Jack-‘O will start to flash violently and make evil laughs when someone passes by. Everything is Arduino based and the movement is captured by a PIR motion sensor and will trigger both the sound and light effects.

Ingredients

Tools

  • 3D printer to print the case for all the electronics (or get crafty with cardboard)
  • solder station
  • electrical wire
  • solder
  • pliers
  • screws
  • screwdriver
  • SD card

Start making!

Save an evil laugh sound (.wav file) (tip: make one of your own laughs!) onto an SD card and use the logging shield to connect it to your Arduino.
The evil laugh is produced by our little ding dong speaker kit, which you can assemble pretty easily. We added a potentiometer to adjust the volume, seeing as this isn’t included in the original ding dong kit. Watch out, it can get loud!

The light effect is created by our small BrightDot circle. We programmed it to flash white light, but you can choose any color and effect you like. The scarier, the better!

Program your Arduino by using our exemplary code on Github! https://github.com/Velleman/Tutorials/tree/master/Jack-O-BrightDot

Once you’ve connected and programmed everything, it is best to store your electronics in a case. This way, they are less likely to get moisty or wet by the pumpkin. We designed a compact case that you can 3D print, or you can get crafty with cardboard or plastic.
Find all .stl files on our Thingiverse page!

We also found a nifty case for the PIR sensor on Thingiverse; https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:291270

Now all you need to do is carve a badass pumpkin! Have a Happy Halloween!