Halloween

Every body loves halloween. Whether it's snowing or raining or sunny outside you meet up with friends, go around the neighbour hood and collect as much candy. There is so much to enjoy about it... candy, friends, candy, games, candy, scaring people and candy. Did I mention that you get candy? But there is one thing that can make halloween really special... it's DIY costumes. If the people like your costume you get extra candy, take selfies with random people and gather attention without even trying. So earlier this year I made my own custom R2D2 costume from trash cans and candy bowls. Now I am going to show you how too can make it.

Materials you will be needing:

• One garbage bin size a bit bigger than your body.
• One candy bowl
• Blue spray paint
• Silver spray paint
• White spray paint
• An Arduino
• A few cables
• A Adafruit neopixel LED. All droids have lights.
• Tape
• Bicycle helmet. Yes safety first. Just kidding.
• Styrofoam sheets
• An iPod or a phone along with a portable speaker

Step 1: Cut the bottom of the garbage bin. Then spray paint the garbage bin all blue and then place tape to mark out the patterns. Finally spray paint it all white. Be sure to do this where there is plenty of fresh air. Your neighbours might still hate you!
The reason that we spray paint the body all blue at first is because the designs on R2D2 are all blue then you place tape in whatever pattern you want on your droid. Then you spray paint it all white. When you remove the tape only those designs would be blue.

Spray paint the cut bin

Step 2: Tape helmet to the candy bowl with double sided tape or velcro. Then spray pant candy bowl all blue, place tape to make patterns like circles and squares and finally spray paint it all silver.
This is very similar to the earlier step only this time it is a candy bowl you are spray painting and instead of white you're using silver. You will see the results in pics below.

Cut bin with stencils spray painted

Step 3: Make arms out of styrofoam and silver tape. Then connect it to garbage bin using tape. You cut the styrofoam at around the size of you garbage bin but when you mount it make sure to place it slightly lower than than the top of the garbage bin. You can use silver tape to create more patterns on the droid body. I used images from the web to guide me.

Candy bowl painted as R2D2s head

Step 4: Don't forget that you have to carry this around on your shoulders for the whole day. So make shoulder straps. I used duct tape to make these. This way the garbage bin can rest on your shoulders. By cutting the bin open you're allowing your head to go through the bottom and with the shoulder straps it makes it easier to have the costume with you because you don't have to hold it up. Remember the bin is upside down.

R2D2 carried on my shoulder with straps

Step 5: (optional) Add adafruit neopixel inside the helmet. Very basic coding involved connect it to Arduino. So basically what you are doing right now is adding a eye to your R2D2 costume. First you will be working with the circuits. Connect the arduino to the neopixel as shown here. Then use the code shown in the same page to create different colours that go around in circles. I powered the whole thing using my brother phone charger pack. Shout out to my brother, Maaran!

Step 6: (optional but super cool) Download the sound of R2D2 from the web and play it in a loop using an iPod or a phone. Connect the phone to a small portable speaker and carry the iPod and speaker in your pocket. This way the sound really comes from inside the robot.


Conclusion:
Apart from being the ultimate candy attracting device, this is a fun and basic experience to introduce yourself to arduino and basic wearables. Also you get more candy. Did I mention I love candy! Mmmm!
Here is a video of the finished creation. ENJOY!
https://youtu.be/zn4ycgPEccc