[Richard] combined creative carving with vacuum tube electronics for a unique pumpkin offering. He used the stencil-and-cut method of carving, making use of an inexpensive carving kit for great results. He salvaged an LED module from a flashlight to provide the internal illumination, but it’s the center feature that we like the best. [Richard’s] used a glow-transfer counting tube, or dekatron, which provides something like a circular cylon eye to the project. There’s a video of this after the break.
You might not have access to a wicked-looking dekatron but we’re guessing you’ve got a microcontroller and some LEDs lying around that can serve as a stand-in for one night. We’d love to do a reader jack-o-lantern roundup, so if you build something, send us a picture!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2pWf4ftmik]
k3wl! =)
I see…you…
Hmmm, it looks kindof dumb. The carving looks cool, but the tube in the center doesn’t really add much to it. It would have been cooler to have led’s embedded throughout the carving and have them glow in a sequence going out from the center or something…
Open the top and you have a shocking prop also. Those tubes are real cool, that is a great use for one. It needs a servo to make it blinking eyelid though.
Another Halloween prop?!?!
-to occupy my time.
This one goes out to the one I love.
(bitch hack)
Alternatively, if someone says it isn’t cool enought, you could light it on fire.
And then throw it at the geek who said it.
@lexi,
Sorry you don’t enjoy this stuff as much as the rest of us, but this is really some of the best stuff I’ve seen on hack-a-day yet! There are a few I’m definitely going to build one day.
Not this one though, I kinda think this one sucks. :-/ That effect could be used alot of better ways than the Eye of Sauron.
I thought it was the morph ball at first. I’ve looked at too many gaming pumpkins I guess.
Needs a speaker connected to a doorbell.
Oh, and the pumpkin on a rotating platform.
Once doorbell is pressed, pumpkin is rotated around and “I SEEE YOUUUU” is played.
the video is odd