Intro: DIY Projects for Halloween to Make a Spooky Town
Step 1: Things You'll Need
Step 2: Making of the Pumpkin
Step 3: Adding the Scary Touch
Step 4: Hero of the Project
Step 5: Final Touch-Up
Step 6: Conclusion

Published October 26, 2018 © CC BY

DIY Projects for Halloween to Make a Spooky Town

Make your own DIY Halloween Town for Halloween using some previous projects and a DIY PIR sensor activated jack-o’- lantern.

IntermediateFull instructions provided3 hours672

DIY Projects for Halloween to Make a Spooky Town

Things used in this project

Hardware components

STEMpedia evive

STEMpedia evive IoT Kit

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE

Story

Intro: DIY Projects for Halloween to Make a Spooky Town

Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen, voices whisper in the trees ‘Tonight is Halloween!’

Finally, ‘tis the spookiest time of the year! And this time, we’re all set to redefine ‘spooky’ with the DIY Spooky Town where robots celebrate Halloween! For making this town we’re going to use what we made in some of the previous projects such as the DIY Turntable, Robotic Arm, Rat Trapper, Smartphone Controlled Robot, DIY Lightsaber, and 3D printed objects like the ones below!

And since October 26 is Pumpkin Day, we’re going to make a spooky DIY PIR sensor activated jack-o’-lantern to make the town eerier! Get ready for the most spooktacular project of the year this Halloween!

Ready. Set. Boo!

Step 1: Things You'll Need

evive
Bulb
Bulb Holder
Relay
PIR Motion Sensor
Thick Cardboard
Butter Paper
Colored Chart Paper
Jumper Cables
Electric Wires

Most of the above electrical components are present in the evive IOT Kit. There are number of projects on Hackster made with it.

Step 2: Making of the Pumpkin

We are going to make the pumpkin out of cardboard or you can use even a real pumpkin.

Take the cardboard and cut it in the shape of the pumpkin.

Stick the butter paper on the cardboard.
Now, stick the colored paper on top of it. Or the plain paper of its shape and then color it the way you want.

Step 3: Adding the Scary Touch

This pumpkin won't scare the people. We need something more.

Something like a glowing pumpkin when you go near it. Thus, to make it glow we need to add lights. We are going to use the bulb for this. Make a box out of cardboard if you do not a ready-made box. This box will be the house of the bulb and relay(switch).

Insert the bulb holder through the bottom side and insert bulb in the bulb holder.

Alongside the bulb place relay too. Glue this box on the backside of the cardboard.

Step 4: Hero of the Project

It's time to introduce the hero of the project that is the PIR Sensor. This is the one that will detect the presence of anyone near your pumpkin.

Attach the Sensor on the front side of the pumpkin and pass its wires through the hole. As we are going to make all the connection on the backside.

NOTE: If you are using a real pumpkin, you need to make sure that the Sensor is not covered.

Step 5: Final Touch-Up

Make the connection as follows.

And upload the Arduino code from the code section below.

You can download evive library by clicking the link:https://thestempedia.com/wp-content/uploa...

To know more about Arduino visit here: https://thestempedia.com/wp-content/uploa...

Thus when PIR detects the presence of the human, the relay connected to the bulb gets triggered switching on the bulb. To make it more dramatic we are turning the bulb ON and OFF a number of times. Also, to add more effect, we have programmed the inbuilt buzzer in evive so that it will generate the spooky sound we want that syncs with the lights.

You can find the detailed instruction here: https://thestempedia.com/project/diy-projects-for-halloween-how-to-make-a-terrifying-halloween-town/

Step 6: Conclusion

With this, your DIY Spooky Town is ready to scare the living daylights of everyone! ;)

Have fun scaring others. Wishing you a Happy Pumpkin Day and Happy Halloween!

To explore more projects, visit: http://thestempedia.com/projects

Code

#include<evive.h>

#define relay_pin  3    //relay is connected to pin number 3 of evive
#define pir_pin    2   // relay is connected to pin number 2 of evive
#define buzzer_pin 46  // buzzer is internally connected to pin number 46 of evive

unsigned int val =0;       // variable for storing pir sensor value
unsigned int reading =0;

void setup() 
    {
        // put your setup code here, to run once:

         pinMode(pir_pin, INPUT);     // declare sensor as input
         pinMode(relay_pin,OUTPUT);   // declare buzzer as output
         pinMode(led_pin,OUTPUT);
     }

void loop()
    {
    
        // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
        
        val = digitalRead(pir_pin);  // read input value
        if (val == HIGH) // check if the input is HIGH
             {    
              while(digitalRead(pir_pin) )
              {
                if(digitalRead(40)==HIGH)
                {
                  sound(); 
                }
                      
              }
                
             }
         else 
             {
                 digitalWrite(relay_pin, HIGH); // turn relay OFF
                 noTone(buzzer_pin);
                 delay(100);
             }

      }

 void sound()
    {
         int pitch = 260 + reading / 4;
         tone(buzzer_pin, pitch);

         digitalWrite(relay_pin, LOW);
         delay(100);
         digitalWrite(relay_pin, HIGH);
         delay(100);
         digitalWrite(relay_pin, LOW);
         delay(100);
         digitalWrite(relay_pin, HIGH);
         delay(100);
         digitalWrite(relay_pin, LOW);
         delay(100);
         digitalWrite(relay_pin, HIGH);
         delay(100);
         digitalWrite(relay_pin, LOW);
         delay(100);
         digitalWrite(relay_pin, HIGH);
         delay(100);     
   }

Credits

STEMpedia

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DIY Projects for Halloween to Make a Spooky Town