They think treat, we think trick! This DIY talking skull project can be controlled from afar so that you can prank your trick-or-treaters. They’ll think it’s a store-bought Halloween display, but then when it starts to say things that could never have been pre-recorded, they’ll think it’s possessed and run away!!!!! Talking skull projects can […]
In Netflix’s revival of the Addams Family for Netflix, they may focus mainly on Wednesday but the rest of the crew doesn’t get completely ignored. One specific family member, a severed hand called “Thing” gets their fair share of screen time. For the show, the character is typically just someone’s hand and some movie magic. […]
What was the secret sauce in StarBots animatronic kits?
I just stumbled across the Star★Bot animatronic platform kit out of the community of makers in Florida. It’s designed for kids to “create animatronic robots and learn microcontrollers, mechanics and papercraft.” Its Kickstarter campaign ends in a few hours! Pat Starace developed the kits at FamiLAB “Central Florida’s provider of space, tools, and community for creative technical learning and projects.” (All the organizers for the Orlando Mini Maker Faire met at FamiLAB.)
The Maker Faire Bay Area brings in Makers from around the world, like 15 year-old Gabriel Diaz Yanten, who is coming all the way from Chile along with his animatronic dinosaur puppet, Anacleto. Anacelto is a 12.8 feet tall and 8.2 feet long T-Rex that Gabriel designed and built with the help of his uncle, a mechanic.
The good kind. You know, with little marshmallow candies shaped like chicks baby birds. Built by Kyle Ringgenberg:
In the spirit of Easter, I’ve designed and constructed an audio-animatronic “Peep” Show. This is inspired by a long-running pun amongst of group of friends of mine. Total part count: 10 Servos, 29 LEDs, 1 Arduino, 1 Audio Decoder IC, 1 Push Button, 1 0.5 W Speaker, ~650 Lines of Code, 3 Sheets of Foamboard, 5? of Balsa Wood, 3? of Dowels, 25? of Wire, & 11 Peeps.
[Thanks, Rachel!]
Here’s a Design News Gadget Freak column on using an ARM-powered processor (the MBED ARM Cortex-M3 MCU Dev Board) to make a Billy Bass animatronic fish speak and move as you wish. [Caution: mild cursing in the video.] Gadget Freak Case #150: Hotrod Your Billy Bass
