I get fewer trick-or-treaters each Halloween. The doorbell rang twice last year with a total of three trick-or-treaters. Three.
Yet, each year I sit home feeling obligated to deliver sugary goodness to kids I don’t even know.
Thank goodness for Jason Allemann of JK Brickworks who devised a fun way to “hand out” candy to trick-or-treaters while you’re out having your own fun.
Meet the LEGO Halloween Candy Thrower that, you guessed it, throws mini Halloween chocolate bars and candy to trick-or-treaters. Jason explains how the LEGO Halloween Candy Thrower works:
It uses the EV3 Infrared sensor to detect when something is in front of the machine to trigger the delivery mechanism. The chocolates are stored in a gravity feed stack and are pushed out from the bottom using a simple piston arm. Once they are pushed out, they land on a platform that is rotated up to throw them.
I designed the feed system to be adjustable, so it can accommodate a range of these mini chocolate bars. Or pretty much anything that will fit and stack reasonably well.
The building instructions and program file for running it are here, and there are some construction notes below, along with the wiring info.
You can check out further details on how to build the LEGO Halloween Candy Thrower here.
See, Halloween can still be fun for adults!
