Animating A Halloween Door Knocker with Digispark

Arduino Fun & Games
Animating A Halloween Door Knocker with Digispark
This $5 plastic doorknocker wasn’t scary until Digispark made it scary
This $5 plastic doorknocker wasn’t scary until Digispark made it scary

Walmart isn’t known for their scary Halloween decorations, but that doesn’t mean they can’t ‘become’ scary. That’s the idea that software engineer Charles Wolfe had in mind when he designed his animated doorknocker using a 5-buck decoration and a Digispark development board. To get the knocker to look and function as something the Addams family would have, Charles cut the eyes out of the plastic face and inserted a pair of RGB LEDs to give it a more frightening look.

The Digispark, LEDs, battery pack and actuator fit quite nicely inside the plastic head
The Digispark, LEDs, battery pack and actuator fit quite nicely inside the plastic head

On the opposite side of the monster’s mouth is a small servo that actuates the doorknocker, which is all controlled by a Digispark development board. In fact, even an Arduino board can be used as long as it’s small enough to fit inside the plastic head. While this may be enough to scare some kids this Halloween, Charles plans on upgrading it to scare the kids next year (who may have caught on that it’s not exactly possessed) with a motion sensor and scary sound via a Bluetooth connection. See more about this project, and to build one yourself after this link.

Charles used a Dremel to cut away some material for easy access to an on/off switch
Charles used a Dremel to cut away some material for easy access to an on/off switch

 

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged

The one-man ace engineering wrecking crew - If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find me, maybe you can hire... the Cabe-team

View more articles by Cabe Atwell

ADVERTISEMENT

Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 - Mare Island, CA

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 15th iteration!

Buy Tickets today! SAVE 15% and lock-in your preferred date(s).

FEEDBACK