Krieger Dreamer Peeper
The Krieger Dreamer Peeper, along with its accessory, the Brain Machine Mask, were props for my Halloween 2016 costume as Krieger, the mad scientist of the television series Archer. The presentation would go as follows: a volunteer closed their eyes and donned the brain machine mask, which caused them to see abstract patterns on the back of their eyelids. This was the "dream" - a vivid hallucination that was hard to explain to the audience afterward. Once the volunteer was dreaming, I would life the peeper and point it at their left ear. I then turned the peeper on, and it created a sound effect for "homing in on the dream center of the volunteers brain". After about 14 seconds, the sound effect climaxes, and twenty 10-watt LEDs flash brilliantly as "the dream condensate is pulled out through the volunteer's ear". At the same time as the light flash, a squirt a bit of water out the end of the Peeper into the volunteer's ear. ("That was the dream condensate!") Once everybody has calmed down, a robotic-sounding "analyzing..." comes from the Peeper, then "Dream audio reconstituted. Playback now". Finally, the Peeper plays a short audio clip that is allegedly an excerpt from the dream that the volunteer was having.
An ATTiny85 to drive twenty 10W LEDs and a 120W speaker. Creates ~14 seconds of science-fiction sound effects, then flashes the lights in a brilliant, dazzling flash. Also includes a squirt gun to startle the person it is pointed at. The LEDs and speaker are driven from 2 pins of the ATTiny. I wrote a couple of loops that drive some cool-sounding square waves to the speaker. At the end of the sound effect, the LEDs light for 1/20 of a second, producing a brilliant flash of light.
The LEDs and speaker are driven from the ATTiny by logic-level MOSFETs. The whole thing is powered by a small LiPo battery.
I programmed the ATTiny using my Arduino Duemilanove and these two excellent guides.
Front view of the Krieger Dreamer Peeper, showing the squirt gun and the fan-grill "dream condensate collimator".
Front-right view
Left view
Top view, showing how the barrel is attached to the body.
Detail of electronics. More information is in the file description. (click on the picture)
Viewed from the back-right, showing the slot for the mp3 player which plays the audio of the "extracted dreams", the Parrot AR battery, and the terminal of the brownout-preventing capacitor. In use, two alligator clips connected the capacitor in parallel to the battery.
Detail showing how the 10-watt LEDs were nailed to brass strips, and how the ends of the brass strips were wrapped around the wires that supply power.
Detail of the front, showing how the pump from the squirt gun was fitted into the barrel. The Brass rod plugs the top of the reservoir, and the trigger (or "key") is fitted immediately before operation.
All of the non-wood components after disassembly.
Schematic drawn immediately before construction.
