Arduino-Powered Jack o’ lantern

This Halloween I decided to have a pumpkin-carving contest with my wife. I wanted to leverage my talents, so I took this as an opportunity to buy and play with an Arduino. I know, I’m about a decade late, but it was pretty fun.

I picked up the Kuman Project Starter kit as well as an infrared PIR Motion Sensor, SD Card Shield, and amplifier from Amazon. Along with some old speakers and 5v power bank I already had, these were all the components I needed to get my pumpkin to scream.

My daughter has a pet slug (just a little toy), so I decided to turn my pumpkin into a horrible monster slug. My goal, ultimately, was to have an eerie ‘flickering’ candle (LED), Green LED eyes on the end of stalks, and to have it respond to motion by playing one of several scary sounds. It ended up scaring her quite a bit, so I think that means it was a success!

Plugging it all together wasn’t difficult, though it was a bit cluttered. Perhaps a case is in order for next time, as long as it can house all the components I need.

Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of it assembled, besides the video below, however here is the code that put it all together: