Because this Halloween we have to practice social distancing, I wanted to make something visible and heard from far away, not just pumpkins on the porch.
I decided to make a window board with skull and bones. The skull lights up randomly and Halloween music is played while it is lit. Initially I wanted to have motion sensor to turn it on, but I assume because of social distancing no one will get close to trigger it.
Skull and bones made from EL wire. On/Off switch is controlled by Arduino using relay (because Arduino does not provide enough current to handle EL wire). Board and all the electronics are set inside of the window. Initially I wanted to tape EL wire to the wall of the house, but we just had a snowstorm, it seemed impossible to get to the wall and tape anything to the wet surface.
Halloween music is played by piezo disk, duct-taped to cereal bowl. It is the closest thing to megaphone shape I had at home. Bowl with piezo is taped to outside of the window, so people from the street can hear it. (I hope it will not drive my neighbors crazy) Music is generated by Arduino as well.
This is the final image of the device.
This is the schematics. Unfortunately TinkerCad did not have components for the relay and EL wire I was using, so I had to improvise.
This is a demo photo:
This is a demo video:
My kids liked it!
Code is attached.
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