How-To: Romance Pants

Arduino
How-To: Romance Pants

romance pants instructables

For the past couple of years, Red Bull has been hosting the Red Bull Creation contest, a 72-hour themed innovation competition pitting teams of makers against each other in a live-build format. Last year, a number of the competing teams showed their projects at Maker Faire New York. One entry in particular never fails to give me a chuckle. Brought to you by Team Instructables is the hilariously clever Romance Pants project.

Competing teams were sent the custom Bullduino, Red Bull-branded Arduino microcontroller. Team Instructables used the Bullduino as the belt buckle, hooked up to a modded wireless shield, then fashioned a zipper potentiometer and a waist button switch, as shown in their diagram below. Combine that with some hacked electric ignition candles (that use a combination of nichrome wire and shaved match head dust to rapidly ignite when hooked up to power), a stereo remote hack, a custom six-outlet main controller, and some sexy programming, and magic happens. The zipper being pulled down triggers the room lights dimming and the stereo volume going up. When the waist button is undone, the candles automatically light. Pretty much, showtime.

The video will have you rolling:

This year’s Red Bull Creation contest will launch on April 8th. Check back here, as we’ll have full details on that day.

24 thoughts on “How-To: Romance Pants

  1. John Backowski says:

    I hope there is an over-ride switch when you have to take a leak after coming home alone.

  2. Jack says:

    Thats perfect – all a geek needs to have the perfect romantic evening … but im not sure if geeks would need it so oftend i guess the battery in the pants die first before its going to be used the first time :D

  3. The Butcher says:

    Interesting idea, why the horrible, unsexy, moronic, annoying music choice? Kills an otherwise instructive video.

  4. terre says:

    Funny but kind of gross, too. A more clever idea would be more imaginative by having an ‘escape’ plan- trigger the doorbell or a baby crying or your mom, maybe a toaster that burns something setting off the sprinklers or alarm. all that oral sex innuendo was a turn-OFF!!

    1. houndwg says:

      Wow…I’d say some therapy wouldn’t go to waste on you. You really need to relax and enjoy the real world of humans a little. This was very creative and some great humor…despite what our very puritanical friends might think.

      1. terre says:

        …hardly. Or ?perhaps not… Just because I don’t think it’s appropriate to have a panting slobbering female depicted in such a public and disrespectful way, it doesn’t qualify me as puritanical OR needing therapy. Then again, we could all probably use someone to talk to now and then, right?

  5. Sesli Chat says:

    Thats perfect..
    all a geek needs to have the perfect

  6. Mark wheeler says:

    Humorous? Yes. Clever? Yes. I just wish we could show a little more restraint, decency and family friendly content in public arenas. I figured Make Magazine was a kind of family friendly zone.

    1. Glenn Quagmire. says:

      It could certainly lead to having a family, so wouldn’t that be “family-friendly”?

  7. Glenn Quagmire. says:

    Giggity! Aaaalll riight.

  8. Adam says:

    This has to be one of the best projects I have seen made with an Arduino. The fact that someone decided that turning down the lights and turning up the music was a bit of a hassle when you’ve pulled is amazing. A little bit of a different idea than most….

  9. Terre Tulsiak says:

    I think it was supposed to be a JOKE but you go ahead- maybe combine it with the bartender-bot to make sure she doesn’t change her mind (which actually was an amakingly well thought out and described project)

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I'm a word nerd who loves to geek out on how emerging technology affects the lexicon. I was an editor on the first 40 volumes of MAKE, and I love shining light on the incredible makers in our community. In particular, covering art is my passion — after all, art is the first thing most of us ever made. When not fawning over perfect word choices, I can be found on the nearest mountain, looking for untouched powder fields and ideal alpine lakes.

Contact me at snowgoli@gmail.com or via @snowgoli.

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