Summary
- ESP32-powered remote RC facehugger: 3D-printed parts, servos, and motors for creepy lifelike motion.
- Controlled via a custom mobile app with a proximity sensor for interactive, startling reactions.
- Full instructions and code on Cults3D — use responsibly unless you want a broom-wielding mob.
We love our DIY Halloween decorations here at XDA. In fact, our resident SBC enthusiast, Jeff Butts, discussed how to make a haunted house using a Raspberry Pi. However, there is one thing that all of the projects we cover have in common: they’re only spooky in the silly sense. They may be fun little ghosts or portraits that look at you, but at the end of the day, they’re harmless and a ton of fun.
This project is not that. Honestly, this project gives me the chills every time I see it. If you’re tired of happy ghosts and plastic bats for this year’s Halloween, you can instead scare someone half to death with a remote-controlled facehugger, because you’re either trying to bring Halloween back to its terrifying roots, or you’re just a monster. Or both.
This remote-controlled facehugger is going to keep me up at night
This incredibly creepy, but admittedly awe-inspiring, project comes to us via u/my_3d_scan in the ESP32 subreddit. They showed off a video of them “driving” their ESP32-powered facehugger around, thus giving everyone on the subreddit the sudden feeling of things crawling on their skin.
Usually, I put an image of the project as the big “featured image” at the top of the article, but I fear that if I did that with this project, I’d give everyone with arachnophobia a reason not to visit the website for a solid week. So, here’s the project in all its awful, terrifying glory. You have been warned:
People flocked to the thread with responses that were an equal mix of impressed and horrified. Someone had the guts to ask how it was done, and the original poster bared all:
This is basically a fully 3D-printable RC Animatronic Facehugger for Alien franchise fans. The model is printed in parts and assembled with servos and DC motors controlled by an ESP32 microcontroller.
It’s driven via a custom mobile app that lets you control its direction and speed, while a proximity sensor adds interactive reactions. The electronics run on a 7.5V+ battery with a step-down converter to power the components safely.
This is for an alien museum. I also made an instruction manual with more details and the code 🙂
If you also want to create your own facehugger, you can find the aforementioned instruction manual and code on Cults3D. I will warn you, though; if someone smashes your project to pieces with a broom because you had it scuttle around the kitchen door at them, you’re the only one to blame.