cristynhoward / Stab Bot 5000

Hey there!

I'm trying to build a reactive circuit using my Arduino Uno from scratch! So far, all of the reactive circuits I've built have come from the Arduino Projects Book, and I want try something for myself.

The Stab Bot 5000 is a circuit that reacts to shadows moving across a photoresistor by sending a servo into a (stabbing) frenzy!

After the circuit works as intended, I'm going to make a little body and arm for my ferocious buddy out of cardboard, to bring it to life!

Update 1:

Well, the code works as intended now. It's cool to watch the servo arm swing when shadows pass over the photoresistor!

The next step is to build a housing for the servo that makes it look like a stabbing robot, but it's very late and I'm sleepy.

That'll be something to work on another day!

Update 2:

I built a little housing for the servo out of cardboard, tape, and hot glue. Added an arm, some legs, a grumpy expression, and a deadly weapon - and we've got ourselves a functioning Stab Bot 5000! See it in action!

An obvious flaw with this circuit design is that the photoresistor and light source need to be set up in just the right positions for shadows to trigger the arm at the right time. If you put the photoresistor too far away, and the arm swings when no one is near it. If you put the light source in the wrong spot, shadows won't fall across the resistor when you're near the robot, and the arm won't swing when it should.

One fix for this would be to mount the photoresistor onto the servo housing itself, but I don't have the wire I'd need to do that on hand, and it's beyond the scope of this project.

I set out to build a reactive circuit from scratch, and now I have one that works as intended! Yay!