Fully Functional Monster Book of Monsters

Hello fans of Harry Potter. I've made a fully functional Monster Book of Monsters. It moves and it opens and closes its mouth as you can see it in the video above.

I know that there are a lot of instructables about how to make Monster books of monsters, but I never found any that explained how to make it move, so I decided to make one.

If you like this instructable please vote for it for the contests. Thanks! :)

As English is not my native language, my English es malo :D If you find any grammar mistakes, please let me know by sending me a PM.

Lets begin.

Step 1: Materials and Tools

To make the Monster book of monsters you will need:

Materias for the exterior:

• A box in the shape and the size of a book
• Some furry Brown Fabric
• Printable of paper edging and the text (download files.zip)
• 4 brown Glass flat pebbles
• Some cardboard and pinkish (or red and white) acrylic painting

Materials for the interior:

• Arduino (any Arduino will do, even a Nano)
• 1 H bridge
• 2 DC Motors and tires
• 1 servo
• 4 AA batteries (this depends on the motors you choose)
• 1 switch
• Some wires and jumpers

Tools:

• Scissors
• Permanent marker
• Glue gun
• Exacto knife
• Scotch tape

Step 2: Electronics: Wheels and Motors

First of all, to put the wheels, we need to make two holes in the lower side of the box. I measured the wheels and I made the holes a bit bigger so the wheels won't touch the box.

Then I screw the motors to the box. As the cardboard is not much resistant, I decided to add a plastic sheet to reinforce it. This is not totally necesary, but I think is better.

Also I added a switch so I could turn on and off the electronics from the outside of the box.

Step 3: Electronics: Arduino and H Bridge

As I said before, an Arduino Nano is enough to make the book work. However, I'm using all my Arduino Nano in other projects, so I had to use an "Arduino" Mega.

I screwed the arduino and the H bridge to the lower part of the box.

When you place the boards in the box, be careful not to obstruct the USB port in the Arduino, because you will need to use it to program the board later on.

Then I connected the H Bridge to the Arduino:

H bridge pin - Arduino pin



• ENA 5
• IN1 6
• IN2 7
• IN3 8
• IN4 9
• ENB 10


Of course, you can change the pins in the Arduino, but you have to change them in the code too.

Then I connected the motors to the H bridge (sorry, but I didn't take any photo of this step)



• OUT1 - Left motor +
• OUT2 - Left motor -
• OUT3 - Right motor +
• OUT4 - Right motor -

Step 4: Electronics: Batteries

To power the book, I used 4 AA batteries connected in series, to get 6V. You will see that later I added 4 more AA batteries. I connected them in parallel to the previous 4, to get more current. This is not absolutely necesary.

I put 2 batteries on each side to distribute better the weight.

To the GND, I connected the GND of the Arduino, and the GND of the H bridge. Then I connected the +6v to the switch and it to the Vin of the Arduino and the +12v and the +5v of the H Bridge. (To the 12v of the H Bridge you can conect between 5v and 35v).

Step 5: Electronics: Servo

To make the book open and close its "mouth" (the cover), I put a servo. I added a plastic band, so it could lift the cover. Then I placed the servo inside the box, in the middle front, as you can see in the photo.

I attached it with duct tape, because it was the easiest way.

Then I connected it. The GND wire (generally the brown), was conected directly to the GND of the batteries. The positive (generally orange) was connected to the +6v of the batteries.

Do not connect the servo positive and negative wires to the 5v and GND of the Arduino. It is better if you connect them to the batteries directly.

The data wire (usually the yellow one) was connected to the digital pin 4 of the Arduino.

Step 6: Programming the Arduino, Testing

Now it's time to program the Arduino. To do so, you'll need to download the .ino file that I uploaded in this step.

Once downloaded, open it with the arduino software, select your board model and the port. Then compile it and upolad it to the arduino.

The objective of the program that I made was to simulate what the book does in the movie, as you can see in this video, when the book goes out from under the bed:

In the movie, the book goes out from under the bed, then stops, looks right and left, and as it doesn't see anybody returns to under the bed. However, with the program that i made, after it looks right and left, it goes forward again, instead of going back. If you want to change this, you just need to change one of the delay times. This is explained in the comments in the program.

All the delay times depend on the motors and the batteries you have. If the motors go fast, you will need short delays, but if they go slow, you will need long delays. Once you program your arduino, turn on your book and see if you need longer or shorter delays. Read the comments on the .ino for more information.

Step 7: Exterior: Edging of the Book

Once we finished with the electronics, we need to make the book look like a monster book.

First, you need to download the file files.zip and print the image called hojas.png (yes, the name is in Spanish; sorry about that)

Then you need to cut it on the size of the 3 sides of the book where we will put them.

Once you did that, you need to crumple them, to make it look more realistic. Then glue them to the book. I did it with white glue.

Step 8: Exterior: Tongue, Gums and Teeth

Now it's time to make the tongue, the gums and the teeth.

I made the tongue and the gums with cardboard and then painted it with redish pink acrylic paint.

Then, while I waited for them to dry, I made the teeth. I made them with some tissue, because it is very cheap, and the tooth, and fortunately they were well.

Once the paint dried, I glued the tooth to the gums.

Then I taped the gums to the book, as it's shown in the photos. I taped them, because after I put the fabric, the tape will be covered.

We will glue the tongue later, because it's easier to work without it.

Step 9: Exterior: Fabric

Now we need to glue the fabric to the box.

First, cut some fabric, the size that you will need to cover all the book.

Put the fabric under the box and make a mark in the fabric, on the place that the wheels will be placed, as you see in the photo. Then cut the fabric to make place for the wheels. Save the rest of the fabric, because you will need it.

Now it's time to start gluing it. For this, I used a hot glue gun.

You need to go glue a few fabric at a time, because the glue dries quickly.

Under the book I placed the switch, so I have to decide if I wanted it to be under the fabric or not. I decided to cober it with the fabric, so it can't be seen from the outside, but you still can press it, so I glued around the switch and glued the fabric.

In the upper part of the book, we need to put the 4 eyes. First,

To do so, mark in the box the place where they will be inserted. Then make a cut in the fabric, in the place there will be the eyes. After that, glue there the fabric you cut before to put the wheels in the part of the box you marked.

Continue gluing the rest of the fabric, but the part where the eyes will be placed.

Step 10: Exterior: Eyes and Text

To make the eyes, you need 4 brown Glass flat pebbles.

Draw the pupils with a permanent marker.

As the fabric is brown and the eyes too, the pupils were difficult to see. So I decided to add a piece of white paper in the back. You can see the results in the photo above.

Now place the eyes in the place you marked, with hot glue, as you can see in the photos. Then cover the upper part with some of the fur. You can glue the fur too.

Now lets add the title of the book. In the .zip you downloaded earlier, there is a photo called text. Print it and cut the words. *This file is from Samantha Kamilos*

Then glue it to the book with hot glue.

Step 11: Exterior: Tentacles and Details

To make the tentacles, just cut the fabric in the shape of tentacles. In the movie, the tentacles in the rearmost part were small and in the front they were big. So in the front make the tentacles bigger than the others.

Do the same in the upper and the lower side of the book.

Now it's time to put the tongue, finally. To do that, cut a hole in the front, on the left of the mouth. Then insert the tongue and glue it with hot glue.

Then, glue the edges of the fabric to the box, as you can see in the last photo.

Step 12:

Yes, you are right, we finished it! You can watch a video of the book above.

I hope you enjoyed this instructable.

If you do your own book, please send me a picture.

Thanks for reading, and remember: if you want to open your book without being bitted, you have to stroke its spine.