Spooky Sadako Hack

My youngest son and I go to the local CoderDojo and the next meeting has a Halloween theme so I decided to do something based on Scratch for Arduino. Usually I take my time on projects, but I've been impressed by the 'get it done' attitude of some guys on here and makers in general. So with a dremel in one hand and a hot glue gun in the other we set about hacking a cheap scary toy from the local cheap shop (B&M Bargains in the UK).

The basic idea is a spooky ghost controlled by Arduino that the guys at the CoderDojo can code easily with Scratch. Two cheap Futaba 3003 servos move wire arms that wave in the style of being a ghost by just sticking a sheet over your head and waving your arms.

The position of the servos is settable in Scratch. It's designed to sit behind a bowl of sweets and activate when a person stands infront of it. There are two Sharp distance sensors, one at the height of the sweet bowl and one higher up.

I've put a 10K potentiometer at the front that provides a 0-5v to one of the analog pins so that they can use that value in code to get different behaviours. Each of the eyes, the flashing coloured led in the head and scary giggling sound are separately programmable on different digital pins in Scratch. Hopefully the CoderDojo guys will have fun working out different programs for it and working out the best code to guard the sweets!