Barking Christmas Tree Topper

When you walk by, this dog topper flaps his ears and barks!

We had to "borrow" a neighbor's dog, Juston, and work a while to get some "tree topper worthy" barks.

The parts list includes:

Arduino Uno

Adafruit Sound Board

Adafruit PIR sensor

8 ohm speaker

6 volt, 2 amp dc power supply

(2) mini servo motors

(2) servo extender cables (24 inches long)

3d printed components

The head was formed in polymer clay (by my wife, Annelle), then scanned, modified and 3d printed.

First, thread the wires up through the hole in the neck. The mini servo motor holders (with servo motors mounted) are put in place by melting (using a soldering iron) to the head.

An extender is attached to the servo horn.

Bearing brackets are melted onto the dog head. 2-56 x 1 1/4" screws are used as the axle rod.

Bearing pieces are melted onto the ears.

Before painting, an assembled ear looks like this.

After a trip to the artist's paint shop, the head with unattached ears looks like this.

A box to hold the electronics is composed of a base, top and two hollow elves. The elves are attached to the box by melting (or with glue). I installed leds inside the elves, just so that I would know if power was applied to the electronics.

Before closing it up, load the sketch into the Arduino and load the .wav (bark) file into the Adafruit sound board (see the Adafruit site for detailed instructions).

Assembled, on the ground, the system is ready for installation.

The box is placed on the back side of the tree. I used green wire and metal duct tape to secure the box to the tree.

The PIR sensor (motion detector) is placed where I want to pick up passers by. The speaker is placed at the base of the tree.

For an active, different tree topper, add a little "bark" to your tree!