Last week I went with seven other members of The Madagascar Institute to present our new ride, the Dueling Mechanical Bulls, at the Google I|O After Hours party. It was a big collaboration with lots more hands than just those that traveled, and I had a great time painting and wiring up the electronics for the animated LED sign that goes with the bulls. Don’t miss the video above, then check out more photos and documentation over at Madagascar Institute.

The motion of both bulls is controlled by a single joystick. The cigarette lighter is just for fun, and that’s our new large weatherproof enclosure holding it all together.

Arcade buttons control the two LED arrows on the sign. The code is open source and you can download it from Github.

An Adafruit MENTA board animates the LED pixels on the sign when a button is pressed.