Hacking a Jack-in-the-Box
Why - A normal jack in the box - we all know what it does. You turn the knob and then the clown pops up. So I thought, why not change things up a little bit?
What - I wanted to do two main things - visual and sound surprises to the Jack in the box. The clown was removed and replaced with a funnel to hold confetti.
How - Visual: confetti! I built a custom compressed air chamber that is pumped up with a bicycle pump to 100psi. At the correct time, a solenoid valve releases this air to blast the confetti out of the funnel when the door opens.
Audio: air horn! An air horn was hidden inside and actuated with a hobby servo.
Controls and power: arduino nano, limit switch on door, (3) 18650 batteries, DC buck/boost boards.
What's next:
There is always room for improvement. I am planning to eventually build a second version of this, and it will be much simpler, louder and the goal will be to remove the 3d printed base at the bottom.
What - I wanted to do two main things - visual and sound surprises to the Jack in the box. The clown was removed and replaced with a funnel to hold confetti.
How - Visual: confetti! I built a custom compressed air chamber that is pumped up with a bicycle pump to 100psi. At the correct time, a solenoid valve releases this air to blast the confetti out of the funnel when the door opens.
Audio: air horn! An air horn was hidden inside and actuated with a hobby servo.
Controls and power: arduino nano, limit switch on door, (3) 18650 batteries, DC buck/boost boards.
What's next:
There is always room for improvement. I am planning to eventually build a second version of this, and it will be much simpler, louder and the goal will be to remove the 3d printed base at the bottom.
