Pan-Tilt Laser Cat Toy

Chasing a red dot around the house has been popular cat, and sometimes dog, pursuit for roughly as long as laser pointers have been available. Whether the animals actually enjoy it is a bit of an open question, but if it’s lost some of its novelty from the human perspective, Adafruit may have a perfect solution in the form of their Nunchuk-controlled laser toy.

This project, outlined nicely in Melissa LeBlanc-Williams' guide, employs a Nintendo Wii Nunchuk-style controller as an input, and a micro servo pan-tilt assembly to actually move the laser. An Adafruit ESP32-S2 Feather is implemented as the control module, which interfaces with the servos and laser using an 8-channel PWM FeatherWing. This allows it to not only move the servos, but also to adjust the laser’s brightness.

The project is programmed in CircuitPython, and incorporates 3D-printed parts for assembly. While one might be able to throw something similar together with a less capable microcontroller, or perhaps without a 3D printer, the final product is a nicely refined design with notable expansion possibilities. Given the ESP32’s wireless capabilities, one could see this project modified for control via another dedicated WiFi or Bluetooth-connected module, or even using a phone. Or you could sub in a battery for rather the 5V power supply to make a go-anywhere cat toy!