Happy Monday and welcome to another installment of Engineering Roundtable. Today's project comes from Joel just in time for Halloween: It's an Arduino-controlled ouija board! Joel was inspired to create the project after seeing a ouija board in action in a horror movie. Ideally, someday soon the board will be able to spell out anything Joel can send to it in a text message! You can download the code for this project here.
Vimeo link here
Awesome job on a fun project! Now, how to hack it to activate it remotely and make the board say, "all work and no play makes Joel a dull boy"... See you guys again on Monday, October 22nd for the next Engineering Roundtable!
SparkFun! OOO! AHH! AHH! (finding nemo)
No warning? I mean you are talking to the dead...
I like the idea of adding a z or really a small rotation to the planchette it would make it more like its being "guided". All you really need is for the platform under the board to rotate just a little bit. I would just use a servo with a linkage to give it that rotation and have the pivot be near the bottom of it.
Then as it moves to the right rotate it a little that way and then as it stops have the bottom kind of catch up.
Also I wouldn't worry if it doesn't move smoothly. The planchette really doesn't move smoothly.
I'd be down to see the arduino code for how to move this sort of thing around via joystick... or I am probably missing some existing good tutorials on this?
I added a link to the code in the description. It's nothing fancy. I didn't get a lot of time to refine it once I got the hardware up and running, but it gets the job done. There are also libraries out there on how to use both a WiiChuck and a Wii Classic controller on your Arduino. I think they make excellent inputs for any project. Given that it still uses the nunchuck, I wanted to call it the ArdWiija. Ha!
this is actually pretty well commented. solid thanks.
I would suggest using an electromagnet and putting some steel in the planchette. That way, you can kill the magnet if you have any doubters.
Here's another approach to making the planchette move: http://www.halloweenforum.com/tutorials-step-step/107554-animated-ouija-board-vent-motor-part-1-a.html
There might be a way to add a microcontroller to it to vary the movement.
Thanks, I didn't even think about LEGO parts. Still, you can't beat free cardboard. There is another awesome tutorial on automated Ouija boards at Instructables http://www.instructables.com/id/Animated-Haunted-Ouija-Board/.
Awesome project! This is definitely on my list to build. LEGO tank tracks work well for a small cable track.