Engineering Roundtable - Joel's Ardouija board

Check out Joel's spooky latest project!

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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!


Comments 10 comments

  • TECH GEEK / about 12 years ago / 2

    SparkFun! OOO! AHH! AHH! (finding nemo)

  • No warning? I mean you are talking to the dead...

  • chartle / about 12 years ago / 1

    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.

  • fkinnaman / about 12 years ago / 1

    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?

    • Joel_E_B / about 12 years ago / 1

      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!

      • fkinnaman / about 12 years ago * / 1

        this is actually pretty well commented. solid thanks.

  • Jon Mayer / about 12 years ago / 1

    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.

  • Jeff Haas / about 12 years ago / 1

    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.

  • Joel_E_B / about 12 years ago / 1

    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/.

  • Jdlee77 / about 12 years ago / 1

    Awesome project! This is definitely on my list to build. LEGO tank tracks work well for a small cable track.

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