The Idea
I wanted to create a cool, yet scary technology-related Halloween project. This led me to convert our ("lame") ghost into a scary ghost.
How It Works
An ultrasonic sensor on the ghost would detect people walking by (by constantly checking the distance). When the distance went below a certian number, the Arduino sent a signal to the MP3 player, which shuffeled throuh some scary tracks on an SD card. The MP3 player sent this audio to an amp, which amplified the audio, before finally sending it to two mini speakers.
I coded this up at home, and tested it, before finally hooking it up onto the ghost. I added the ultrasonic sensor to the collar of the ghost, and wired it to the back of the head, where the Arduino and all the other electronic components would be. I connected it to the Arduino, then stuck all of the other components to the head. Then I wired the MP3 and AMP, before finally connecting the speakers to the amp, and a powerbank to the Arduino.
I did some final tests, while it was hanging, and made some tweaks, before I declared it finished.
I had to go through a couple ultrasonic sensors, to find one that reliably worked.
What I Learned
I mainly learned about how to code the different modules, and link them together with one Arduino.
On Halloween this was a sucess. It functioned properly, scaring some people.
Next Steps
Next Halloween, I hope to add more features to this, such as glowing eyes. I also look forward to building more Halloween projects in the future.