instructables

COVID-friendly Trick-or-treating Jack-o'-Lantern Using Arduino

by alexoort

As Halloween is right around the corner but coronavirus cases are rising throughout the world, I thought that it
would be useful to make a Jack-o'-lantern that drops candy whenever you get close to it, to avoid the usual human
contact during trick or treating.

To do this, I used an Arduino Nano, an ultrasonic sensor, a servo motor, and a 3D printed pumpkin!

Supplies:

Electronics:

Arduino Nano
Ultrasonic sensor
Servo motor
Jumper wires
3D printer & lament

Tools & other:

Soldering iron
Spray paint
Hot glue gun
String/shoelace (optional)
Sandpaper
Drill with a wire brush (optional)
Cotton swab/toothpick

COVID-friendly Trick-or-treating Jack-o'-Lantern Using Arduino: Page 1

 https://youtu.be/bqFVJQitPzI

Step 1: The Pumpkin: Design

Instead of using an actual pumpkin, I decided to 3D
print one, as this would allow for the moving
mechanism necessary for dropping the candy.
I designed the Jack-o'-lantern using Tinkercad, and I
have attached the STL les below. The Jack-o'-lantern
consists of eyes, a nose, a mouth, as well as a lid at the
top (to put in the candy) and a hinge at the bottom
that should open whenever someone approaches.
There's also small rings at the top which will allow us
to hang it.
If you would like to modify the design, please go
ahead; however, keep in mind that the eyes have to be
1cm apart and have a diameter of 1.6, or else the
ultrasonic sensor will not t. Also, make sure that the
hinge mechanism will work in real life.

COVID-friendly Trick-or-treating Jack-o'-Lantern Using Arduino: Page 2

 View in 3D Download

https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FW5/TCOE/KGXP40EV/FW5TCOEKGXP40EV.stl

View in 3D Download

https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FOM/VSVL/KGXP40LZ/FOMVSVLKGXP40LZ.stl

View in 3D Download

https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/F73/Q19D/KGXP48FU/F73Q19DKGXP48FU.stl

Step 2: Pumpkin: 3D Printing

For the 3D printing, I used the Ultimaker 2 from my
school, but you can use whichever printer you have
available. However, make sure to adjust the slicer
settings and enable support (this allows the printing
of overhangs), or else the print will fall apart while
printing. I would also recommend printing the sides
of the pumpkin as shown in the picture above, or else
the lament will not properly stick to the print bed.
I decided to print the pumpkin in two parts, as this
would require less support material, and also make it
easier to attach the electronics inside.
also important to check whether you have enough
lament on your spool, as each part of the pumpkin
requires roughly 100 grams.
Once the printing has nished, you will have to
remove the support material. To do this, I used some
pliers, a knife and a screwdriver. Some support
material could not be removed using this method, so I
used some sandpaper and a drill wire brush to
remove most of what was left. However, it's ne if your
pumpkin is not completely smooth since real
pumpkins aren't perfect either.

For my lament, I simply used grey PLA that I had Also, if you accidentally break the hinge on the
bought from Amazon. If you'd like though, you could pumpkin, do not worry at all; simply add some hot
also use orange lament so that you don't have to glue and stick it on again.
paint the parts later on. Before starting the print it is

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Step 3: Painting

COVID-friendly Trick-or-treating Jack-o'-Lantern Using Arduino: Page 4

Once you have nished removing the support
material from your pumpkin, it's time to paint!
An easy option is just using orange spray paint;
however, if you want to decorate your pumpkin even
further and make it a zombie pumpkin, you could use
acrylics.
If you are using spray paint, make sure that you are
outside when you paint the parts. I would also
COVID-friendly Trick-or-treating Jack-o'-Lantern Using Arduino: Page 5
recommend placing the pumpkin and the other parts
on a piece of old cardboard or wood so that you don't
paint your garden orange.
I decided to paint the pumpkin as well as the servo
motor so that it is camou aged and not very visible.
After you have applied a coat of paint, leave the parts
outside for a few hours to let them properly dry.
Step 4: Circuit

COVID-friendly Trick-or-treating Jack-o'-Lantern Using Arduino: Page 6

As you can see above, the circuit for this project is
quite simple. You simply need to connect the
ultrasonic sensor and the servo motor to the Arduino.
For this project, it's better to use an Arduino Nano due
to its smaller size. If you want to use an Arduino UNO,
then you may have to edit the 3D model somewhat.
Since the servo motor pulls too much power from the
Arduino, an external power supply is needed, which
can simply be a USB cable. To be able to connect the
USB to the Servo, you will want to cut the USB cable
so that you can see 4 smaller wires. Red is +5V and
black is ground. The ground of some cables will
sometimes be wrapped around the other wires like a
case. You can ignore the green and white wires, or just
cut them o .
If you want to make the project more permanent, I
Step 5: The Code
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would recommend soldering the parts together, as
this will prevent a jumper wire disconnecting.
However, please don't solder the Servo motor yet, or
you will have to desolder it later on.
Before we move on to the code, however, it's
important to understand how an ultrasonic sensor
works. Essentially, it sends out ultrasonic signals and
measures the time it takes for the signals to return.
Ultrasound is a type of sound that has such a high
pitch that humans can't hear it. However, like sound,
it bounces o objects. Therefore, if there is an object
nearby, the signals will bounce o and quickly return
to the sensor. The farther away from the body, the
more time it will take for the ultrasonic signals to
arrive back at the ultrasonic sensor.
Just like the circuit diagram, the code for the project
is relatively straightforward.
In the setup, the servo motor is initialized and the trig
and echo pins are declared as output and input
respectively.
By using the speed of sound, this duration is turned
into a distance, in cm. If the distance is smaller than
15 cm, then the Arduino moves the Servo motor, and
opens the 'door' at the bottom of the pumpkin,
dropping candy. The Arduino then waits for 1 second
before restarting the loop.

In the loop, the trig (ping) pin is set to LOW, and
quickly after it is set to HIGH. The Arduino then
measures the time it takes for the echo pin to receive
the ultrasonic wave, and stores this value in the
duration variable.
Now you will want to upload the code to your
Arduino. If you are using a Nano and you are having
problems uploading, go to Tools > Processor and
select 328P (Old bootloader) on the Arduino IDE.

Download

https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FIA/LNGI/KGXP3YLR/FIALNGIKGXP3YLR.ino

Step 6: Assembly

We're almost there! Now it's time to put everything Now that all of the necessary components are inside,
together. you can close o the pumpkin. Add hot glue to the
edge of one side of the pumpkin and then bring the
First, upload the code to the Arduino. Then, using hot two sides together until the glue has solidi ed. You
glue, stick the Arduino to the left side of the pumpkin will now want to place the small 'door' between the
(the one that has two teeth), and make sure that you three hinges on the pumpkin. Then, cut o the ends
don't cover the hole for the Servo motor cables. Pass of a cotton swab and insert it through the holes on
the USB cable for the Arduino through the square the hinges. Cut o the parts that stick out and then
hole (on the other side of the pumpkin) and connect it glue the ends of the swab to the hinge on the
to the Arduino. pumpkin, so that the door can still move freely.

Next, insert the ultrasonic sensor through one of the
eyes on the pumpkin, so that they stick out on the
outside, as shown in the picture above. Now connect
the ultrasonic sensor to the Arduino.
Next, connect the repurposed USB cable to the Servo
motor's + and - pins. Now connect the ground (-) of
the servo motor to the Arduino's ground. Finally,
connect the signal pin on the Servo motor to digital
pin 9 (Make sure that you pass these cables through
the small hole at the back of the pumpkin).
Glue the servo motor to the bottom of the pumpkin,
so that the Servo horn (the 'pointer' on the Servo
motor) is aligned with the 'door' (as shown in the
pictures above). To improve the opening-and-closing
mechanism, I added a resistor (you could use
something else if you like) to the end of the horn and
then glued the resistor to the 'door', as shown.
If you power up the servo motor and the Arduino, it
should work!

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COVID-friendly Trick-or-treating Jack-o'-Lantern Using Arduino: Page 9
COVID-friendly Trick-or-treating Jack-o'-Lantern Using Arduino: Page 10
Step 7: Set It Up
Woohoo! The Jack-O-Lantern itself is nished. Now
you just have to set it up.
I decided to hang it from the beams on my porch, but
feel free to get creative. I powered both the Servo and
the Arduino with power banks, but you can also
power them from the wall, or your laptop.
https://youtu.be/bqFVJQitPzI
COVID-friendly Trick-or-treating Jack-o'-Lantern Using Arduino: Page 11
In terms of candy, I used wrapped chewing gum, but
you could of course use other kinds of treats as well.
Before you buy a lot of candy though, make sure that
it will t through the opening at the bottom of the
pumpkin.
Alright, that should be it! Good luck!
That's a fun idea :)

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