The weather is turning cold, the nights are drawing in and Netflix's recently added page is inundated with horror movies. This can mean only one thing... *cue atmospheric thunder and lightning*
Indeed, the spooky season is upon us and it's a huge deal here at pi-top. We love dressing up every year and, with a team full of engineers, the costumes can get pretty inventive. We've seen a pi-top powered pumpkin costume, LED suits and 3D printed masks. Yup, around Halloween our Zoom calls can get a little creepy. Exhibit A...
But beyond the zombie masks and pirate hats (and zoom calls with skeletons), what our love of Halloween comes down to is the epitome of everything makers love most: getting creative with some pretty cool tech.
So in the spirit (get it... spirit? Ghosts? I'm sorry) of Halloween, we thought we would inspire you to try out some spooky projects this year. We've scoured the internet to bring you 10 of the finest Halloween projects you can try at home this spooky season!
1. DIY Interactive Animated Pumpkins
This project scores an 11/10 on the creativity scale and will undoubtedly make your house the envy of the neighborhood this Halloween. DIY Machines uses a Raspberry Pi, a 3D printer, a SONY speaker and a projector to bring his choir of pumpkins to life and the result is nothing short of magical!
2. Raspberry Pi Halloween Automation
NetworkChuck's automated Halloween decorations are truly the stuff of nightmares. Using a Raspberry Pi 3 and some store-bought decor, he cleverly creates a terrifying automated haunted house. And, because NetworkChuck goes to such a huge amount of effort to carefully walkthrough every step of this awesome project, if you wanted to try it out at home (even with absolutely no electronics experience) you totally can! Now to get the horrifying image of that creepy werewolf out of my head...
3. Build the Squid Game Doll with a Raspberry Pi
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks, or you have more productive things to do in your spare time than watching Netflix (I can't relate), then you've probably seen an episode or two of Squid Game. The Korean thriller landed just in time for Halloween and *spoilers* - expect to see those pink and green tracksuits at every Halloween party you go to this year.
But ITIGIC have worked some maker magic to create the scariest Halloween decor of the season: a working Squid Game doll. Using a Raspberry Pi, a mannequin head, a motor and a Raspberry Pi camera module, you can create a doll that follows your every move and creeps out any passers-by this Halloween.
Check out their full article here.
4. Raspberry Pi Powered Jack-o-lantern
This 3D printed jack-o-lantern looks cool enough that it could be a statement interior design piece sat on Kim K's coffee table and I wouldn't look twice. But with the addition of a 7 inch screen, a speaker, an infrared sensor and a Raspberry Pi, Wermy programs the jack-o-lantern to follow trick-or-treaters with it's dragonesque eyes and hiss as they pass by. Creepy, right?
5. Building an EPIC Arduino Candy Contraption
Trick-or-treating in Covid times has posed some real challenges that have led avid Halloween fans to get super creative with their candy-giving mechanisms. And nonemoreso than Wannibe Manisha, who with an Arduino, some sensors and motors, some programming in Python and a few bits and bobs from her garage, created the ultimate hands-free candy dispenser.
6. Monitor Your GitHub Build with a Raspberry Pi Pumpkin
Creepy and convenient? Sign me up! GitHub’s Martin Woodward has created a pumpkin using a Raspberry Pi that illumates to tell you the status of your programming build, avoiding the crime of "accidentally commiting bad code".
He notes that “using the same hardware you could monitor lots of different things, such as when someone posts on Twitter, what the weather will be tomorrow, or maybe just code your own unique multi-coloured display that you can leave flickering in your window.” Such an awesome project!
Check out the full article here.
7. Making a Giant Game Boy Color Costume That Works
(Warning - Video contains bad language)
Cosplay walked so that trick-or-treaters could run. One maker-turned-cosplayer combined both his loves into one: using a Raspberry Pi, Jaryd Giesen created a working Game Boy Color cosplay, that you can actually play. And I'm kind of obsessed with it. Spooky? No. Excellent and guaranteed to secure extra candy for effort this Halloween? Absolutely.
8. DIY Halloween Pumpkin Light Effect
Raspberry Pi have put together a great tutorial for a DIY light-up pumpkin project, using only a Raspberry Pi, A Pimoroni Blinkt!, a power supply and a pumpkin. The overall effect gives a much more realistic glow to the pumpkin than an ordinary LED one would have. A great DIY to try out with the kids this Halloween!
The full tutorial can be found here.
9. Haunted Smart Mirror
Ben Eagan made a Smart Mirror for his wife and it's awesome. But for Halloween, he created a haunted house experience using the smart mirror, Alexa, a custom Alexa skill, and some Philips Hue API (plus bulbs). If you don't have a smart mirror to hand, he talks though how you can still try this project out using a TV monitor connected to a computer.
10. Halloween Animated Eyes Horror Mask
This mask is sure to creep out anyone coming to your house this Halloween. What's really great about Teaching Tech's tutorial is that you can use the same core components of his mask (the Adafruit Animated Eyes and a Raspberry Pi) to customise your own spooky creation.
He goes through all the steps to program the eyes to look how he wanted them to and shows how you can do the same. Teaching Tech 3D prints his mask and the holders for the eyes, but you could buy a cheap mask yourself and then customise it, taping down the screens instead. The outcome is truly gruesome - perfect for some Halloween spooks!
The End
That's all for this post folks but if you like these kind of blogs, please let us know in the comments down below and we can make more of them for you. If you try one of these projects out or create one of your own, tag us in your pics on socials and drop us a follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram while you're there! We love seeing what you guys come up with.
