Carl v2 - Halloween 2011

Letting Carl sit around and give out candy to the kids was good enough for last year, but this year I'm going for something a little more exciting.

While perusing Costco I happened to see 80 packs of "party size" Play-Doh for $20.  I immediately  bought two packages (160 cans) and decided Carl was going to give out Play-Doh this year!  At the time I had no idea how I was going to accomplish this, but I knew I'd figure something out.

The next day it was off to Home Depot with a can of party size PlayDoh in my pocket to brainstorm a solution.  What I found was PVC pipe the perfect size for holding the party size Play-Doh cans.  In Carl's arm I can stack about 25 cans.
Now I just needed a way to dispense them one at a time.  I decided to use a solenoid I had lying around to pull a pin that would hold the stacked Play-Doh cans in the arm.  I figured if I pulsed the solenoid fast enough I could time it to release just one can at a time.  It turns out you have to be faster than a human's reflexes to do this.

I ended up using a PICAXE microcontroller I happened to have sitting around and built a small circuit with a relay so that when I pushed a button the PICAXE would pulse the relay fast enough to pull the pin and release only one can out of the arm.  See the video below:

 

Carl's Skeleton v2

The dispenser arm worked well but now I had another problem.  The arm would't fit or look right with Carl sitting down in a chair.  So I then had to build a standing, rigid skeleton for Carl.

In this photo I'm testing the angle of the dispenser arm.  It has to be angled down far enough for the Play-Doh cans to fall out, but also forward enough to look like he's handing the Play-Doh to a child.

Hey Carl Can Stand!

A large pair of shoes and leaning Carl's body slightly forward of his center of gravity helps him to stand.  Notice in this photo I haven't attached the dispenser arm to the final skeleton.

Carl and me in full safari gear ready for Halloween.

Check out the video below for a demo of Carl giving out Play-Doh.  Most kids loved him.  Some were terrified of him.  Dozens of parents forced their children to have their picture taken with him.  There were some pretty funny moments this year.