Twilight Zone Fortune Telling Machine -- Episode 365

While its a good job of the Mystic Seer from the Twilight Zone. I don't know what was his problem with the coin acceptor. All he would have needed was the slot and a coin drop then a microswitch fins I think he overthought it. Ezy Pezy.

BTW at the end, he said it was the scariest thing on TV at the time. Nah, try "The Outer Limits"  on for size.  One of the first shows was "The Sixth  Finger" with David Macullum (Man From UNCLE) it ended with these prophetic lines: An experiment too soon, too swift. And yet may we not still hope to discover a method by which within one generation, the whole human race could be rendered intelligent, beyond hatred, or revenge, or the desire for power? Is that not, after all, the ultimate goal of evolution?

no worries man! I made a thread here with my progress/ greater detail as to what I'm using.

Raspberry Pi, creepy Zoltar Like Fortune Teller help

Looks delightfully demented! Drop me a line anytime, but be warned: I'm not always the fastest to respond (especially around deadline time)

Check out Episode 356: Bank to the Future with Arduino & TI for some info on using a coin acceptor as well!

Thanks good sir! Glad you like the idea! I love the size and devil head aspect of the seer, while also the complexity and artistry of the Zoltar machine in Big  so I figure I'd combine the two into one demented chuck e cheese like arcade amusement. I ordered some LEDs with built in resistors, and I pretty much have all the parts I need. I DO have the space for a coin acceptor which I got a while back. I assume I can use that in place of the button to make it more authentic. I am not a programmer by any stretch, so I can use a lot of help on the coding end of things.

Heres the 3d printed head I created in Sculptris. My plan is to cut out the eyes and replace them with clear red spheres with the LEDS fed into them. I can't seem to find any red spheres only clear ones unfortunately.

I have a lot of questions, would it be alright if I messaged you? Thanks for the kind words and support by the way, I've been wanting to build one of thee creepy ass things for a few years now.

Thanks, buddy--that's why we're here! Meanwhile, that sounds like an awesome idea on your end--I'll be stoked to see it (so be sure to ping me) when it's done!

As for the middle part, that's not too terribly difficult to do from the GPIO pins on the Pi. You can write a little script in Python (which, even if you're "not a programmer", should be pretty easy to handle) that can blink the lights. To play the music, you'll need to get one of those USB sound cards and add the command to play the music to the aforementioned script. It wouldn't be too hard to add a couple of lines to my bash script that runs your Python code between the button press and the print.

Check out these other videos to see more of what I'm talking about:

LEDs from GPIO:

Project TIROS

Project Mooninite

Hacking a USB sound card:

Project TurtlePi

Good luck, and if you need more help, check out the Raspberry Pi and Code Exchange spaces or just ask! Welcome to the Community!

As someone who's been wanting to build my own original fortune telling machine, this is beyond helpful. I'm currently designing an original 3d printed figure head. In my build, I plan to use the arcade button press and thermal printer, however I want there to be animated leds and music that plays a little show before the printer prints the fortune. I have NO IDEA how i'm going to do the middle part though. I'm composing a twisted circus waltz and designing the artwork in the meantime. I had the idea of making it like a mix between the Seer and Zoltar from Big. If anyone has any input or ideas or would like to help me out, let me know! Awesome vid though I learned a lot!

Thanks, John! It's our groovy little happy hacker home.

I should do a tour video soon. Keep an eye out!

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for posting this great build. I was fascinated with the scope of the shop you have. Next time the guys get to posting pictures of their work spaces I hope you join in and give us a tour.

John

Maybe we are, though...

I mean, we've got a rocket....

A PIR detector would give it some limited capability - after all you aren't taking this gadget to another planet for real

Rod