Without a doubt, the worst part about Halloween being over is that we can’t go another 12 months with this guy tacked on to the front of our front door:

Here’s how Bob, our VP of engineering did this:

“I started with one of these, which is just a plastic door knocker, and added an Arduino Uno, SmartThings Shield, servo, LED lights for the eyes, and batteries. I used a SmartSense Motion sensor to start the knock when trick-or-treaters approached our front door, a Sonos to play the voice and sounds, and two Philips hue bulbs in my front porch lights that turned red when the knocker started. I made a custom SmartApp that controlled all of those and also turned off my foyer light when the knocker started. It was definitely a big hit with kids in the neighborhood.