‘Alien Abduction’ - A Slideshow
Fall 2021
Introduction
This was the first original Arduino project I ever made.
I call it: Alien Abduction!
For the hardware, to optimize for cost-effectiveness (with the added benefit of form-factor), I used the classic Arduino Nano to run everything. For the circuit itself, I used a 16x2 LCD screen, a potentiometer, and four RGB LEDs. For the software, I used the custom character feature of the 16x2 LCD screen to make all of the components of the show. If I remember correctly, there were approximately 120 frames & well over 1000 lines of code involved in the show.
Design
The microcontroller that will be utilized in this project will be the Arduino Nano. The Nano was chosen for the familiar programming language, the form factor fitting into the breadboard alongside the circuit itself, and most importantly for cost considerations. This project’s hardware components will include nothing more than a series of 4 common cathode RGB LEDs, a 10kΩ potentiometer, and a 16x2 LCD screen.
On the software side, the project will primarily demonstrate the custom characters function of the LCD screen. The main limitation faced is the limit on 8 custom characters per program, which places an upper limit on the dynamism of the show but shouldn’t matter if the show is made long enough. Upon being plugged in, the LCD screen will light up with a ‘To:’ message. After the RGB lights flash whatever colors were requested, the LCD screen will then display a ‘From:’ message. While the second message is being displayed, the lights will alternate flashing colors that act as the signature of the artist.
The slideshow itself will feature a house, a person, stars in the sky, trees, and an alien spaceship. Upon the start of the show, the setting will be established with the person standing near the house. Immediately following the start of the show, an alien spaceship will appear on the right side of the screen and will quickly make its way towards the person. While the spaceship is moving left, the RGB LEDs will flash green in a specific bouncing pattern. When the spaceship reaches the person, the lights will flash purple, and the person will disappear. Immediately following the disappearance, the spaceship will take off to the right side of the screen. While the spaceship is moving right, the RGB LEDs will light up purple and bounce left and right. After a short while, the spaceship will disappear off screen and the personalized message will commence.
Each person receiving a gift will receive a personalized message. After the unique message, the slideshow will end with the screen displaying; “Merry Christmas 2021”.
Components & Costs
The total cost of the Alien Abduction project came out to be just over $26. This is a feasible price for the project to be given as Christmas presents. When taking into consideration that there will be 12 separate instances of this project that will be given, that makes the total cost come out to approximately $312. This will be a feasible amount to allocate to Christmas this year.
Results
The circuit itself took not more than a half hour to design from scratch. Each individual instance of the project took approximately an additional hour to construct. The programming for the main slideshow was done before the start of this project, so the time it took was irrelevant to the production time of each induvial instance of the project. The customization of the code for each gift recipient took approximately another hour, with most of that time being dedicated to changing the colors that the RGBs flashed. Overall, each instance of the project took roughly two and a half hours of labor to construct.
