This pumpkin is made as a Jack-O-Lantern and added some electronics to produce the classic Cylon. It contains monotone voices, glowing red lights, and can aim precisely like the imperial stormtroopers since they look evil, menacing, and shiny. As shown in the image below, both large and small versions were made for the Halloween.

There are two parts that comprise the design which include the electronics part and the pumpkin-carving part. The main concept is to create the red eye of Cylon which can scan back and forth. This can be done by making a programmable LED pumpkin which works as shown in the video below. The 6 LEDs or 6 groups of LEDs were controlled together by the two cheap integrated circuits consisting of a 555 and 4017 along with a 9V battery for power.

To get started with the pumpkin, a pie pumpkin around 6 inches across was used where marking up the design is the first thing to do as shown in the images below. A Sharpie was used to draw on the pumpkin with a rubbing alcohol for later cleaning. A wide assortment of garnishing and carving tools are available for carving but the hobby knife and the Microplane zester were the main tools used. The completed carved pumpkin shows that it was ready to insert the eye.

There are many similarities for the eye of the Cylon as compared to KITT of Knight Rider and the robot Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still. The standard KITT scanner circuit is the starting point of the circuit with a few variations. The CD4017 decimal counter chip is the basis of this circuit. It counts the cycles of a clock signal that is input to one of its pins by counting from 0 to 9, sequentially turning on the outputs labeled #0 through #9 as it counts, and then it starts over. The use of standard 555 timer chip is one way of providing the clock signal since both the 4017 and 555 are CMOS chips capable of operating with a 9V power supply.

The circuit was built in a few separate blocks including wiring up the 555, wiring up the inputs to the 4017, building some easy OR gates, and driving the LEDs. A simple NPN transistor amplifier and a low pass filter comprise a low pass LED driver. As shown in the below image, the end of the resistor connects to the base of the transistor that is also connected to a 47mF capacitor. The other end of the capacitor is connected to the Emitter of the transistor and to Ground.

The completed circuit has the battery on the snap connector, the 555 and 4017 chips, 6 transistors, 6 capacitors, 6 resistors of the output drivers, and 6 large LEDs. To prevent damage due to moisture inside the pumpkin, the circuit is put in a plastic bag.

A small-looking working Cylon is presented in the image below which was propped up in a toaster. The giant Cylon has been lit up in glory in the next images with a star filter used.