Wow, check out this cool Mr. T Flying Halloween Ghost. This contraption is guaranteed to put the scare into some kids in your neighborhood! Have a close look at the ghost above, those aren’t fancy shoulder pads, those are helicopter blades. With a bit of electronic magic this ghost can fly through the sky.

Thanks Michael.

“Mr. T is a built on a very simple aluminum frame. There are two Turnigy motors driving counter rotating propellers, that are able to move forward and back under the control of some old servos. The motors are powered by a pair of Turnigy Plush 18amp speed controllers. The KKMulticontroller (I ordered the PCB from them, soldered on the components and programmed the microcontroller with a SparkFun USBtiny.) sits in the middle between the props, while the battery hangs below. It’s important to balance the craft properly so it will fly straight (or straightish in this case.) That wire on the top is just to give the head its shape.”

The prize this week is a pair of wire strippers, this will this will help you prep your cables to be attached to your next great creation. This contest will run for one week (October 30 – November 5, 2010). Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter, identify the item pictured above and give an example of what can be done with it.

Please do not give the answer in the comments.

Send an email to contest @ hackedgadgets.com with “Name the Thing Contest” as the subject, and the message body consisting of:

• The name of the item in the above picture
• An example of what the item pictured above can be used for

The winner will be chosen at random from all of the correct entries.

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Added November 27, 2010

The item to guess was a Diagram of the 555 Timer

The winner is Hendrik L. (there were 122 entries)

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Below is a picture of the prize.

Saying this project is a Lightning Simulator is a bit of an understatement since it is also a breathalyzer, a music light show and much more. It’s setup on an outdoor patio and looks like it is tons of fun! Check out the build log for lots more information on this complex build.

Via: Make

“The project also needed sound for the Breathalyzer feature as well as some of the other effects, the Adafruit WaveShield fit the bill for this. Line level audio comes out of the WaveShield and goes into an existing whole house audio sound system (the Nuvo Grand Concerto). It was a 70ft run to the Grand Concerto audio system and unfortunately line level audio picks up noise very quickly on long runs so audio baluns over CAT5 were used to eliminate the noise.

For the Graphic Equalizer (VU Meter) feature, line level audio goes out from the Grand Concerto audio system into an analog input pin on the Arduino Mega.”

This Electronic Candy Dispenser by Noel Portugal is sure to put some smiles on the adults who are lugging their kids around in a few days. You might remember the Text Messaging Security System project that Noel did earlier in the year.

Via: ioBridge

“When trick-or-treaters show up at my house they can text, call, or tweet a code displayed on an LCD screen to get their Halloween candy. They can also push the Big Red button. Once the candy request is made a few “special” effects are triggered by X10 modules. A low laying fog machine is activated and lights turn on while the candy shoots down from my front deck on the second floor.”

This Lego 3D Printer is full of LEGO processing power and emulates some of the fun MakerBot type devices that we have seen before.

Thanks for the tip Will.

“The printer uses 3 Lego Mindstorms NXT Bricks, along with 9 NXT motors, and is inspired by the great work done by the MakerBot and RepRap teams.”

With Halloween looming ever closer I think this Leg Lamp would be the perfect item to light your end table to get you in the spooky spirit of Halloween. Pete must have felt quite brave when he purchased the woman’s leg, some stockings and a pair of high heels. I guess you could just say you are going as a woman to a Halloween party? The inspiration for the lamp was this one from A Christmas Story.

Halloween is just around the corner, this LED Halloween Pumpkin Display is sure to make a kid looking for some candy stop for a second look. This project by Mike Szczys from Hack a Day used a ton of LEDs and is able to display any message to your Halloween guests.

Thanks Mike.

“The display I built has 70 LEDs. If you individually address each LED you’re going to need 70 pins on your microcontroller. But there’s an easier way. Multiplexing is a method of lighting just a portion of the display at one time. Using a microprocessor you can switch which section is on so quickly that your eye doesn’t ever perceive it being off.”