2023 Halloween Hackfest: A Spooky Muscle-Brain Interface

What could be better than a Halloween decoration? Something more perennial, or even something that could also be found in a classroom or lab. Something like [Markus Bindhammer]’s spooky muscl…

2023 Halloween Hackfest: Candy Basket Sees You Coming

On Halloween, some people can’t or don’t want to open the door for various reasons. Maybe they have a cat that likes to escape every chance it gets, or maybe their favorite TV show is o…

2023 Halloween Hackfest: Musical Jack-o-Lanterns Harmonize For Halloween

Halloween is many things to many people. For some, it’s a chance to dress up and let loose. For others, it’s a chance to give everyone in the neighborhood a jump scare. For [Aaron], it&…

2023 Halloween Hackfest: Flickering Pumpkin Pin Is Solidly Built

Now first of all, [Steph] grants that you can already take your pick of several LED pumpkin badges out there on IO. That’s not the point. The point is that this flickering pumpkin pin is nice…

2023 Halloween Hackfest: Treat Trough Of Terror Is Actually Pretty Cute

Even though it seems the worst of COVID has passed, October generally kicks off cold and flu season, so why not continue to pass out Halloween treats in a socially-distanced fashion? That is, of co…

2023 Halloween Hackfest: Ouija Robot Is Even Creepier Than The Real Thing

When you’re a kid, nothing says spooky like turning off the lights and bringing out the Ouija board. For decades, this mystifying oracle has purported to channel the dead by spelling out mess…

Dead E. Ruxpin Appears Alive And Well

What are you doing to scare trick-or-treaters this Halloween? Surely something, right? Well, Hackaday alum [CameronCoward] certainly has his holiday under control with Dead E. Ruxpin, a murderous, …

Spooky Noise Box Plays War Drums

What do you have cooked up to scare trick-or-treaters this Halloween? We humbly suggest adding in some type of noise box, especially one like this offering from [Paisley Computer] that uses reverb …

Spooky Noise Box Has Post-Halloween Potential

There’s more than one way to scare people on Halloween. Sure, there’s always the low-brow jump scare, but that will generally just annoy the person and possibly cause a heart attack. No…

Realistic Animatronic Eyes Are An Easy DIY Build

It’s not Halloween yet, but if you’re planning a technically-complicated costume, it might serve you well to start building now. To that end, here’s a guide from [Ikkalebob] on ho…

Spinning Holographic POV Christmas Tree Of Death

[Sean Hodgins] really harnessed the holiday spirit to create his very own Giant Spinning Holographic Christmas Tree (of Death). It’s a three-dimensional persistence-of-vision (POV) masterpiec…

ESPHome Powers Festive Lego Train Set

While the basic concept of LEGO bricks might have changed little since the mid-20th century, some components such as motors and sensors are still affected by technological progress and end up obsol…

LED Christmas Lights Optimized For Max Twinkleage

Old-school filament-based Christmas lights used to be available in twinkling form. LEDs, with their hard-on and hard-off nature, aren’t naturally predisposed to such behavior. To rectify this…

Virtual Yule Log Brings Old Tradition To The Web

Yule Log broadcasts are a bit of an American tradition, though similar content has also been broadcast around the world. They consist of a video of a log burning in a fireplace, ideally merrily so,…

This Gun Should Be Banned During The Month Of December

Do you play Whamageddon? It’s a pastime for the month of December, something like the Game, in which you lose when you are exposed to the 1984 Wham! Christmas classic, Last Christmas. Such is…

Build Your Own Mini Fogging Cauldron

The best cauldrons are full of bubbling, steamy potions of great magical potential. We don’t have many of those in the real world, though, so sometimes we have to make do with a simulacra. [w…

Hanging Christmas Lights With No Ladder And No Fuss

Getting up on a ladder to hang Christmas lights is a great way to hurt yourself if you’re not careful, and winter conditions only add to the peril. One enterprising hacker has whipped up a ne…

Bike-Riding Skeleton Stalks The Streets On Halloween

Stationary pumpkins and motionless skeletons aren’t enough to scare people these days. If you want to really create a fright on Halloween, you need something more convincing. This bike-riding…

This Crosswalk Sign Costume Is A Halloween Hit

Halloween costumes can be anything from an expensive authentic recreation of a character’s garb, to a cheap knockoff bought from one of those overcrowded pop-up stores. Alternatively, you can…

Automatic Candy Dispenser Takes The Hard Work Out Of Halloween

Halloween may be behind us, but we couldn’t resist showing you [Mellow]’s latest project: an automatic candy dispenser that takes the hard work out of serving trick-or-treaters. It&#821…