A spooky Halloween pumpkin with roving LCD eyes
- Two 128 x 128 pixel TFT LCDs - Only these models will work! 1.44 TFT | 1.5 OLED | 1.54 OLED
- Adafruit Animated Eyes Bonnet for Raspberry Pi
- A Raspberry Pi Zero, Zero W, 2, 3, 3A+, 3B+ (Only Pis with a 32 bit balenaOS available -NOT Pi 4, 5, Zero 2W)
- F to F jumper wires ("jumper jerky") such as these
- microSD card and power supply
Set up the hardware according to this page: https://learn.adafruit.com/animated-snake-eyes-bonnet-for-raspberry-pi/hardware-assembly.
- You must create a balenaCloud fleet based on a 32 bit balenaOS device such as a Pi2, Pi Zero, Pi 3 (NOT 64 bit OS)
- Push this application to balena and it will download and install all of the software needed for the animated eyes. (If you are new to balena, check out this getting started guide.)
- Alternately, click the button below to deploy the code to your fleet
In the device's configuration page, you'll need to change these items to the following Device values:
| Device configuration "Name" | Device value |
|---|---|
| Define device GPU memory in megabytes. | 64 |
| Enable / Disable UART | (disabled) |
| Define DT parameters for the default overlay. | "i2c_arm=on","spi=on","spi1=on" |
| Define DT overlays | "spi1-3cs" |
Your "Device Configuration" should look like this:
In order for the graphics to render properly, you'll need to add some fleet configuration variables to the application. Add the following:
| Variable | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|
| RESIN_HOST_CONFIG_disable_overscan | Custom configuration variable | 1 |
| RESIN_HOST_CONFIG_hdmi_cvt | Custom configuration variable | 640 480 60 1 0 0 0 |
| RESIN_HOST_CONFIG_hdmi_force_hotplug | Custom configuration variable | 1 |
| RESIN_HOST_CONFIG_hdmi_group | Custom configuration variable | 2 |
| RESIN_HOST_CONFIG_hdmi_mode | Custom configuration variable | 87 |
Once you change the values, the device will reboot and the animated eyes should appear on the screen after a minute or two.
Your configuration should look like this:
Carve a pumpkin (carefully if you use a knife!) or place this project inside any type of Halloween decoration. Just be sure to allow for proper ventilation of the Pi if using an enclosed space.
The bonnet supports the use of buttons and a joystick to control the eyes. You could also add some LEDs and a motion sensor to liven up your pumpkin installation.
GPIO halt is installed but not active. To use, add /usr/local/bin/gpio-halt $HALT_PIN (where $HALT_PIN is the GPIO pin you want to use) to the startup.sh file and re-push application. ADC is also installed and available from the bonnet.