Skip to main content

Background/Tutorial/FAQ

Background

The team decided to go with a horror themed animatronic project inspired by the 1979 film "Alien". Our team aims to recreate the famous "Chestburster" scene with our own creative spin.

Tutorial

FAQ

Q: How does the alien come up and down?
A: The Alien is attached to a taut spring and the mechanism that prevents it from popping up is a wooden slab that lays on top of the alien. To activate the motion, the slab will rotate and the spring will allow the alien to pop up. When the motion is over, there will be a ratchet winch system that will pull the alien down using a string connected to it. The wooden slab will rotate over the horizontal alien body and prevent it from popping up when the winch motor stops.

Q: Why did you choose Arduino instead of Raspberry pi?
A: At first, we thought we wanted to use Raspberry pi because it was python based and that's the only programming language we all knew. We found out that it was actually different from the python we learned and that it would be a better idea to learn a different language. It was better to get out of our comfort zones.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 10

Plans: Assemble audio, motor, and servos all to one bread board and arduino uno drill holes for audio to play through adjust latex sizing for alien add stopper to alien figure out winch system Results: Assembled all parts to one arduino uno, but had to scrap winch idea The alien will only pop up, but will not go back into the box again
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 3

Plans: Changed alien launch mechanism to spring activation rather than a motor activation Start 3D print design by creating CAD of alien head and jaw mechanism Head of alien Jaw of alien Latex molding research and then bought the latex https://youtu.be/iFHYwuR7GXs Sound board research https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1CdC5gzTxY Created and imported audio file using audacity
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 2

During the second week, we made more concrete decisions on the mechanisms of the animatronic and drew another sketch of the alien with more details. We also started to practice coding on the Arduino by learning how to turn a LED on and off. Sketch: Programming: Arduino Electrical board: Arduino Mechanisms: 90 degree turn, propping alien from horizontal position to vertical position Stepper motor: programmed to QUICKLY turn by 90 degrees Instead of using a piston which would be more complicated, we could set a stepper motor to a higher speed to get that quick jumpscare effect. Youtube video below is an example of a high speed stepper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rRS8VoC3UM Swaying motion (back and forth) Stepper motor: connect to wheel. Connect stiff rod to off-center position on wheel. Connect wheel to alien, similar to train wheel motion https://youtu.be/78Rl6BWoQp0?t=47 Spinning head 180 degrees both ways Stepper motor: loca...
Post a Comment
Read more