Robot kids costume (CircuitPlayground / Crickit)

thingiverse

These are prints I used to create a carnival robot costume for my kid. The parts are based on a cardboard box helmet (painted in silver). The "brains" of the robot consist of an Adafruit Crickit connected to an Adafruit Circuit Playground Express (Cortex ARM version). The Crickit is placed in a case that can take holders for 4xAA batteries (use 1.2V ones), or, if that's too heavy, you can fit a lithium cell with a 5V boost converter instead (saving about 80g). The lid of the case comes in two versions: one I used for the robot helmet has four lids and screws together so it doesn't fall out of the cardboard box. The other version could be handy for other projects. A kind of helmet can be printed that attaches to the hexagonal case, helping the kid keep the cardboard box on their head (the first version didn't have this and the helmet fell over and crashed into the ground). The Crickit drives two servos taped onto the cardboard box via a servo holder, moving "antennas" back and forth. These antennas are actually drinking straws attached via a servo adapter and an LED holder adapter on the top end, where two big 8mm LEDs are placed. The Crickit also drives two gearbox motors attached to the side of the helmet as kind of radar ears. A strip of neopixels does some blinkenlights / Knight Rider / Cylon effects on the front of the helmet. More blinkenlights are available via the built-in 10 neopixels on the Circuit Playground itself. There's an 8-ohm speaker attached to the front via the Crickit, although the buzzer on the Circuit Playground works too. An artsy object protects the speaker from being touched. Two touch pads allow the kid to control the motors and/or toggle sound effects. Firmware can be obtained here: https://github.com/chrisly42/RobotSuit About the used firmware: The ears react to sounds and tilting the head, the antenna LEDs blink in various patterns, the antennas move back and forth on a complex sine pattern, the front Neopixel stripe reacts to tilting the head, and the speaker outputs random robot sounds (10-bit 22.5 KHz). My son wore it once to a theme birthday party but wants to go as a pirate on carnival instead. Sigh.