Creepy Baby Head with Remote Contol

Dolls are creepy in general, and disembodied heads with fluttering long-lashed eyes give me nightmares. So what could be better to create a Halloween prop? Add some cheap remote control units and wait for the trick-or-treaters to arrive.

I was looking for hackable electronic toys at the local thrift store. The dolls were nearby. I couldn't avoid them. There were hundreds of them, strange limbless torsos and disheveled Barbies lying in twisted entangled piles.

One bald head --- just the head --- sat alone on the top shelf.

As I walked past it the doll's eyes fluttered, then suddenly snapped open in an unfocused stare. I freaked out... until I realized the vibrations from the nearby pillaging children were causing the eyes to operate. I was relieved and decided I had to have it. For 50 cents, how could I resist?

It turns out that the eyelids are on a pivot. A metal weight holds them shut or opens them depending on the head's orientation. However, the weights are so delicately balanced that any small vibration (or magnetic field) can cause them to flutter, or even snap open unexpectedly.

I needed to learn to control this frightening phenomenon. If I can control it, I take away its power over me. (And can frighten other people instead). A cheap RF remote-control, some motors and LEDs gave me some ideas.

Schematic circuit diagram for making a creepy Halloween doll head prop with cheap RF remote controls. The LEDs cause the skull to glow. The small vibrator causes the eyes to flutter. The big motor was intended to make the head spin on a spiked pedestal, but I might replace it with an electromagnet to pull on the metal weights and make the eyes snap open suddenly.

I have posted about how easy these cheap RC units are to work with, but didn't include any real examples. So I worked up a quick breadboard example in Fritzing last night. I haven't hooked it up yet, so there are probably errors in the circuits (I just did the diagram to help me think about how to do the project). But it gives you a good idea of the kinds of things you can do with a $10 radio remote control.

The items used in the schematic are available from Amazon.

The doll-head's pale, unnaturally pink skin is partially translucent, so an LED causes the skill to glow eerily from within. I'm using red and green LEDs for a nicely diffused sick glow. I pull the power directly off the RC receiver's pins with a current-limiting resistor placed inline.

The small vibrator also pulls power from a receiver pin. I used an NPN transistor and protective diode to form a basic motor driver circuit. It causes the eyes to flutter (but not open) and is startling because, well, doll heads don't typically buzz and vibrate. (Or maybe they do, how would I know)

The big motor needed a driver board and extra batteries. I was originally going to put the head on a pedestal and have it spin. (Fun, fun, fun) But after working on a gearing system and stand, I started to think of other options.

Right now, I'm thinking about using an electromagnet to pull on the metal weights of the eyes. They should snap open quickly to great emotional effect. And the small ones only need about 5v, so the extra batteries and driver-board might not be needed.

I'll work on this and put an example out for some of my friends to experience. I'll let you know what happens.

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Simple RF Remote Control for Motor and Lights

Control a motor or lights just by clicking a button --- no microcontroller needed, no Arduino or programming required.

Sometimes you just want to keep things simple. Not everyone wants to learn how to code and configure an Arduino. With these handy little boards you simply press a button on the remote and the receiver module turns on an output to power your light or motor.

I have already found them useful for several types of DIY projects and am dreaming up more:

COSTUMES: Placing and wiring switches into your costume can be a real pain. With these you can turn on lights, trigger the smoke effects and start the radar dish turning with the click of a button.

GAG PROPS: Make a chair vibrate, cause the creepy doll head to rotate and eyes light up, or make the fake rat run around the table.

SUPER SOLAR YARD LIGHTS: Make a simple security or decorative lighting system that only operates when you want them to. No more coming home to solar lights that have run out of power when you really need them.

I even did a Creepy Remote Control Doll Head for Halloween... it glows and vibrates and its eyes snap open... all at the click of a button.

Adafruit's four-button RF transmitter (key-fob) and one of their four-output-line receivers. For about $10 for the pair you can control up to four different outputs with the press of a button. The receiver puts out about 5v on each of the outputs. With a few more components, you can easily control LEDs or even motors. Add an Arduino and you have an easy RF remote control for all kinds of projects.

If you know how to install a button and an LED or motor, you can get started for under $5. For a few dollars more you can get a four-output versions with a preassembled remote transmitter. For a few more you can get one to control 12-24 volt circuits or even 110/220 AC.

You can get 10x pairs of single-output receivers for $12. These are just the raw boards. You will need to put a trigger (like a button) on the transmitter and wire a light or motor to the output of the receiver. But for about a buck each, that's a cheap way to start.

For a little more money, you can get four-output versions with premade key-fob style transmitters. That way you can control multiple lights and motors from a single remote.

While these tiny RF modules are cheap and easy to use, they do have significant limitations.

Most of the cheaper versions are "non discriminating" transmitter/receiver pairs. You cannot assign a specific transmitter to a specific receiver. So you can simultaneously operate 10 receivers with a single remote. But if two people have a transmitter, both people can operate all the receivers.

They send simple on/off signals to the transmitter to toggle the output lines. You can control one or all of those four outputs. You can wire the outputs up to an Arduino and have it take other actions based on the state of the output. However, you cannot send complex data like serial text commands with them. You will need a more expensive RF transmitter receiver to do that.

Some only work from a few feet away, others have a decent range (several yards) under ideal circumstances, all certainly good enough for costumes, props and gags. But you won't be turning on your porchlight from a mile away like with the expensive models. I found that fiddling with the coiled antenna can give me a little extra range (or limit it to a few inches).

The receivers may have different ways of responding to the transmitter signals. Some only turn on while the button is pressed, then turn off once the button is released. Others turn on with the first press, then remain on until the same button is pressed. Others cycle through, they turn on a channel when the button is pressed while also turning off all the other channels.

My recommendation?
Adafruit has a good selection of key-fob style transmitters (1,2 or 4 button) and receivers (momentary, latching and toggling).

While Adafruit's versions are more expensive than knockoffs, they might be worth it to you. You know exactly how the transmitters and receivers work together, all the transmitters work with all the receivers, and as usual with Adafruit, you get excellent tutorials on how to wire, install and operate the equipment.

Plus, you can order some LEDs, motors and driver boards all from the same place. They even have a sound effects board that can be controlled with these remotes.

Both the cheap versions and the Adafruit boards are also available from Amazon

If you know how to read digital inputs on an Arduino, then your options expand exponentially. You can control the speed and direction of motors, change the color of LEDs and even control NeoPixel animations. With some MOSFETs, a driver boards or some relays you can control valves, pumps, fans, solenoids and servos ---- basically anything you normally control with your Arduino.

But this post is about keeping it simple and using only basic hardware and the simplest of electrical circuits. So pick up one these RF units and start building your own props and costumes.

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Tiny DIY Snow Blower - It Kind of Works

I've wanted to make an RC snow-blower for a while now. I've made or played RC vehicles with tires and treads, plus some for the air and even a prop driven Klingon Patrol Boat. But I never got around to making the snow blower attachment.

When it snowed on the first day of Spring, I realized I had let another Winter go by without working on this project. So I grabbed a plastic auger and started to experiment.

It works well enough to prove the principle, but not well enough to actually use.

The auger did move some snow off to the side, but most of the snow was moved bay the blade from the plastic bottle I used as the scoop.

The auger is scavenged out of the refill kit for a laser printer. I've successfully used it to move ball bearings, bird seed and cat food (think airsoft and automatic pet feeders). It's sturdy and easy to attach to a motor or drill. But the blades are small, about an inch in diameter, and only run for about 6" along the shaft.

I anticipated that it might be too small to move much snow. But it is the perfect size to fit on some of my RC wrecks and even the LEGO Mindstorm robot base. So I had to at least try. I was halfway correct.







It did move the snow... sort of. But not nearly well enough to make any real difference. All I want is to have an RC toy to clear the snow on the front deck. I'm not expecting to clear the driveway with this thing.

But the blades on this auger are so small that they barely moved the snow. Most of the movement came from the blade-action of the scoop, not the auger itself.

You can see how the clumps of snow got bigger than the auger. I've got to scale this thing way up before I can actually ise it for any real deck-clearing fun.

The auger did move the snow, but as the snow got pushed down the length of the scoop (plastic bottle) it clumped into chunks bigger than the entire auger. At that point the auger lost effectiveness. It tried to move the chunks, but mostly it just chopped it up and re-compacted it.

It looks like I'm going to have to make an auger with wider blades - probably 3 inches deep (6" dia.) with 2-3" between the blades at minimum - something larger and deeper than the snow clumps. Whether it winds up 3d printed or made from scrap metal is still to be determined.

I would call it a successful experiment, but not a working prototype. I learned something and have a better idea of the scale I need. After I get the auger made, I will need to figure out how to "blow" the snow - probably a more difficult problem than the auger.

And from past experiments I know that I will need some good treads on the tires or wheels. Again, scale is important. So really exaggerated treads and an overpowered blower will probably be needed. It looks like I'll need to use my biggest RC toy car just to carry the blade, but it's made for speed not power at low speeds. So looks like some gearing needs to be changed too. Maybe this isn't going to be as simple as clamping an auger to the front of a toy car after all, LOL

BTW, I didn't come up with the idea of a scale RC snowblower. There's a whole community on youtube that do really detailed and realistic versions. Check them out if you want to skip the experiments and go straight to building.

I just wanted an excuse to have some fun outdoors during the winter. Maybe by next year I will have a better prototype and be able to toss some serious airborne snow.

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RC Airboat Built From Scrap

Last summer's project was a working remote controlled airboat made from a broken toy drone, some holiday ornaments and a squeegee. It worked better than I ever expected - a little slow, but for less than $5 in parts it was a blast to build and to play with.

Full, step-by-step building instructions are over on the Instructables website.

This year I want to learn how to hook up an Arduino to a real brushless motor and ESC (electronic speed controller) and build a much faster airboat. My brain tells me to build a land-based RC vehicle first, but the lure of the lake is strong.