Sep 4th, 2008 by Scott
Welcome to what I hope will become a vast repository of knowledge in the areas of show-control, prop-control, lighting, sound and special-effects. With Halloween just around the corner you’ll need ways to control those fabulous props you’ve built for your haunt. Please take a look around.
Why not drop by the forum and chat with other folks who have the same interests.
Do you feel something is missing? Tell us about it.
Thanks for stopping by!
Oct 28th, 2008 by Scott
Gemmy skulls are great for hacking. Their jaws move, their eyes light up (and even move on some models), and best of all they’re cheap.
Right out of the box they’re not so impressive though. You trip the motion sensor and garbled noise comes out of the tiny speaker for a few seconds.
What’s it saying? It sounds kind of like “I’m on sale” to me. I guess they just want you to subconsciously decode the message and buy more skulls.
The best thing to do with these skulls is to rip their brains out and add MIDI control so you can sync them with your own soundtrack. This tutorial will show you how to do just that.
Oct 19th, 2008 by Scott
Yard-light motion sensors are a cheap and easy way to add some automation to your haunt. Just hook up power to the sensor, hook the output to an outlet, and you can control anything that runs on 120VAC. But what if you want to control something else? It turns out it’s pretty easy to modify these motion sensors so the output just acts like a normal switch or button. Here are some of the things you can control with a modded motion sensor:
Basically if you can control it with a switch or a button, you can control it with a motion sensor.
Oct 12th, 2008 by Scott
This article explains some of the basics of pneumatics and goes on to show you how to build a grave popper.
Haunting with Compressed Air
Sep 24th, 2008 by Scott
Here’s a project that uses the serial port on a cell phone to let you talk to your props and gadgets via SMS. It’s not the fastest remote control in the world but it will let you control things from a distance.
Sep 23rd, 2008 by Scott
Learn what DMX512 is and how to use it. Part 2 gets into some of the more technical details of the protocol.
Sep 23rd, 2008 by Scott
Learn what DMX512 is and how to use it. Part 1 gives a basic overview of the protocol and what it does.
Sep 23rd, 2008 by Scott
If you’re using NSI Multiplex to run your stuff, it’s pretty easy to daisy-chain devices even if they don’t have an output jack. This article shows you how.
Sep 23rd, 2008 by Scott
Sep 22nd, 2008 by Scott
This hack uses a motion sensor and a microcontroller to trigger an el-cheapo MP3 player.
