The Creepy Doll using Arduino

Materials:

• a doll
• an Arduino (Diecimila, Uno, Leonardo or Yún are ok)
• AtTiny85
• 8 Pin DIP Socket
• two 3mm red LEDs
• a stripboard
• a tilt sensor
• CR2032 battery holder
• CR2032 battery

Tools:

• A sharp cutter
• Hot glue gun
• A soldering iron and solder
• Needle and thread, to sew it back
• optional – a Dremel to drill the eyes

Using the AtTiny 85 is a great choice for those who are familiar with Arduino, because you have the possibility to use the Arduino IDE to program it. This means that you can prototype the circuit with Arduino before deploying it to the AtTiny.

So I wrote this code, and I built a simple testing circuit with Arduino.

<p>#import <Arduino.h><br></p><p>int led = 0; // LEDs pin
int button = 2; // Tilt sensor pin
int brightness = 0;    // how bright the LED is
int fadeAmount = 5;    // how many points to fade the LED by
int storedVal = 0;     // used to save the tilt sensor state</p><p>void setup() {
  pinMode(button, INPUT_PULLUP); // initialize the button pin a pullup input, so I don't have to use an external pullup resistor.
  pinMode(led, OUTPUT); // initialize the digital pin as an output.
}</p><p>void loop() {</p><p>  int sensorVal = digitalRead(2); // Read the sensor state</p><p>  if (sensorVal != storedVal) { //if the sensor value has changed, blink the eyes
    storedVal = sensorVal; // store the sensor state
    fadeEyes(); // call the eyes led fade function
  } else {
    digitalWrite(led, LOW); // otherwise, turn the led off
  }</p><p>  delay(10); // a small delay for debouncing the sensor
}</p><p>void fadeEyes() {</p><p>  for (int i = 0; i < 768; i++) { //cycle 3 times

    analogWrite(led, brightness); // set the brightness of led pin:
    if (brightness == 255) { // at maximum brightness, wait 5 seconds
      delay(5000); 
    }
    // change the brightness for next time through the loop:
    brightness = brightness + fadeAmount;</p><p>    // reverse the direction of the fading at the ends of the fade:
    if (brightness == 0 || brightness == 255) {
      fadeAmount = -fadeAmount;
    }</p><p>    // wait for 30 milliseconds to see the dimming effect
    delay(100);</p><p>  }</p><p>  digitalWrite(led, LOW);
}</p>

The code is pretty simple: it waits for a changement in the tilt sensor state, and when it happens, it starts a little loop fading the leds brightness

When the code works on Arduino, you are ready to deploy it on your AtTiny85

Programming an AtTiny with an Arduno can be tricky, but fear not! I made a very simple tutorial on how to do that with the latest Arduino IDE and Arduino Uno/diecimila or Arduino Leonardo/Yun. Just follow these steps, and you can easily use this sketch on the AtTiny85