Planet Arduino

This year for Halloween, Quint BUILDs wanted to make something special for his daughter’s costume. Quint’s idea was to design and fabricate a pair of mechatronic dragon wings that can mount to a user’s back and move in three different modes by utilizing a set of pneumatic air cylinders. 

The prototype began as a single air cylinder connected to a relay that was, in turn, controlled by a single Arduino Micro and button. This way, Quint could finely tune the timings and pressures required for the device. After 3D printing a simple controller, machining a few aluminum plates, and welding it all together into a second prototype, it was time to experiment with programming more complex movements. 

Three pneumatic cylinders were used to create a couple axes of motion. First, the larger base cylinder moves a central piston vertically, thus extending and retracting them outwards. Each wing can flap independently through the use of two smaller pistons and linkages. Finally, pressurized air is provided by a compressed CO2 canister. These actuators are each controlled by a dedicated relay module that’s connected to an Arduino Uno.

Whenever one of the three buttons on the controller are pressed, a subroutine for the specified movement is executed. This could include fluttering the wings a couple of times, extending them outwards, and even performing a more complicated flapping motion. 

To see how this project was built in more detail, you can check out Quint’s write-up here on Instructables.

The post Scale up your dragon costume with wings that extend, flap and retract appeared first on Arduino Blog.

The idea of a mechanized walking suit to carry you around seems like a great idea, but having a practical leg assembly for it is still a futuristic concept. As seen here however, if you’re still a kid, you might be able to get your dad to carry you around in a custom suit fashioned after a MechWarrior vehicle.

The suit is beautifully designed by creator Gridlock Cosplay, and features an Arduino-powered control system. This allows the little pilot to command the mech’s human “engine” via a joystick and system of lights. The suit also features exterior and interior lights, a pilot cooling fan, spinning “radar” assembly, retractable pilot cage, and of course a cell phone holder in the padded engine compartment.

Those familiar with the Dragon Ball Z franchise will recognize the head-mounted Scouter computer often seen adorning character faces. As part of his Goku costume, Marcin Poblocki made an impressive replica of this device, featuring a see-through lens that shows the “strength” of the person he’s looking at, based on a distance measurement taken using a VL53L0X sensor. 

An Arduino Nano provides processing power for the headset, and light from a small OLED display is reflected on the lens for AR-style viewing.

It’s not exactly perfect copy but it’s actually working device. Inspired by Google virtual glasses I made virtual distance sensor.

I used Arduino Nano, OLED screen and laser distance sensor. Laser sensor takes readings (not calibrated yet) and displays number on OLED screen. Perspex mirror reflects the image (45 degrees) to the the lens (used from cheap Google Cardboard virtual glasses) and then it’s projected on clear Perspex screen.

So you will still see everything but in the clear Perspex you will also see distance to the object you looking at. On OLED screen I typed ‘Power’ instead distance because that’s what this device suppose to measure in DBZ.

Print files as well as code and the circuit diagram needed to hook this head-mounted device up  are available on Thingiverse. For those that don’t have a DBZ costume in their immediate future, the concept could be expanded to a wide variety of other sci-fi and real world applications.

The Netflix series Stranger Things has become a fan-favorite for Makers, especially for those looking to recreate a light-up alphabet wall of their own. While we’ve seen some awesome attempts over the last couple of weeks, Imgur user “MrWalkway” has decided to create a more portable version in the form of his Halloween costume.

The show-inspired costume uses an Adafruit LED strand, an Arduino Nano, a Bluetooth receiver, a battery, and some other components to allow his shirt to accept different messages and light patterns. The instructions are sent from a Bluetooth terminal on his phone over a serial connection to the Arduino.

As you can see on the project’s Imgur page, the electronics are all housed within a 3D-printed control box that gets tucked away in his pocket while the 25 LEDs are stitched to the inside of the shirt.

Maker dad Royce Husain and his daughter Zoey have made it an annual Halloween tradition to build fun and exciting new costumes. Following in the footsteps of last year’s El Niño project and the incredibly popular Minnie Mouse stick figure from 2014, the duo is back with another elaborate getup: a Princess Cumulus thunderstorm that is admittedly “a bit impractical for actual trick-or-treating.” (But cool nevertheless!)

The costume itself consists of a cotton-covered inflatable suit along with LED strips connected to an Arduino programmed to produce a flashing lightning effect.

Be sure to check it out below!