Animatronic Eyes With Servo Motors (Arduino)

Welcome to a new project!!!

First things first I really wanted to do some creepy eyes like they do for costumes and Halloween. I love special effects and wanted to learn and build my own animatronic eyes using an arduino, servos, and ping pong balls.

Step 1:

Gather Supplies...

2 servo motors (I went with the cheapest possible at a Hobby Town store)

arduino uno (adafruit)

linkage rods (Hobby Town)

2 half shafts (Hobby Town)

2 ping pong balls

connectors (Hobby Town)

Styrofoam Head (Michaels)

other misc items...

For step 2 I wanted to go ahead and paint the eyeballs which I did myself. Yes they are slightly off but from far away they look great! If you have any questions on what paint I used just comment below and ask :)

Making the eyes:

Materials needed:

4 small thin paint brushes

paint

paper towel

To make the eyes you start off with two ping pong balls and honestly just cut them in half with an exacto knife or a box cutter. Next paint them with a white base first to hide any imperfections. After that start layering what color of eye you are trying to accomplish. For mine I used green and blue. My color palette was green, blue, white, and black.

Step 3: Putting together the base

Materials needed:

acrylic sheets

random piece of metal

screws

half shafts

band saw (not required)

First I cut out the shape and size I wanted out of an acrylic sheet. I then cut out the metal brackets just from a scrap piece of metal. Once I got those to where I wanted them, I drilled the holes for the screws and connected the brackets to the base as shown above in the image. For one of my servos I had to cut out a small rectangle shape to make sure that it fit down in there. This was to make sure the linkages and everything was aligned properly.

Step 4: Placing servos and linkages

Materials needed:

2 servos

linkages

small cut acrylic squares

screws

connectors

For step 4 I placed where everything is going to go and laid it out. To make sure that everything is sitting evenly and taught I had to place small cut out pieces of acrylic underneath one of the servos. I had to put the same amount of pieces underneath the linkage connecting the eye to the servo. After these are all places and glue in (what ever your choice may be as long as it sticks) you can connect the eyes to the links and the servos. A close up of this is shown above in image 4. Just a side note when placing the servos and links the servo closest to the eyes has to be raised up as well as the link directly next to it. This is because one pulls on the x-axis and the other one pulls on the y-axis. This is the biggest step and some things might need to be tweaked even after you are done connecting everything. :)

Adding the code to the arduino!! Place above are images of the code used for these eyes. I added on a joystick from a PS1 controller to be the way the eyes are controlled.

This step is optional and takes time.

Step 5: Making the head

Materials needed

Styrofoam head

exacto knife

hot glue gun

Now for this step it is optional and took time. It probably took me 2 hours. Unfortunately my partner in crime accidentally dropped the project and broke the head after I was done. Anyway for this I just figured out how deep I needed to cut out from the bottom as well as the top. The most important part is the eyes they need plenty enough room to move around and go in a circle, as you can see in photo 5. The acrylic base that I choose to do did stick out the side as you can see in photo 6. This can be covered by like ear muffs or something funny like a wig up to you!

Then TADDAAAAA!!!!!! you are completely done with this project.

Hope you like this and comment below if you have any questions or anything just ask :)