How To Make A DIY Halloween Jack-o-Theremin
Adafruit’s Sophy Wong shared this DIY project guide for making a Halloween Jack-O-Theremin.
While the project is Halloween-themed, there’s no reason you couldn’t build it into any type of encloser that you like.
Project Summary:
“The theremin is an electronic musical instrument that you can play without even touching it – spooky! The theremin senses the distance from its antennae to the player’s hands, and changes its pitch and volume based on these distances. The theremin was used to make soundtrack music for many iconic spooky movies, like The Day the Earth Stood Still (1958), and is perfect inspiration for a Halloween project!
Here, I’ve turned a pumpkin into a Jack-o-Theremin using an ultrasonic distance sensor and a Circuit Playground Express (CPX). The CPX uses the distance measurement to generate a sound and flash the onboard NeoPixels in various colors. This version of a theremin has a much more digital-bleepy-bloopy sound than a traditional theremin, but you still get to make music by waving your hand around in the air!”
