X10 Community Forum

💬General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: HA Dave on October 25, 2012, 09:32:28 PM

Title: Anyone else using X10 in their Halloween setup
Post by: HA Dave on October 25, 2012, 09:32:28 PM

I am adding an X10 actived (via BVC) talking robot.

Title: Re: Anyone else using X10 in their Halloween setup
Post by: Knightrider on October 25, 2012, 10:05:54 PM

our beggar's night has just finished.  We had the flame throwing pipe organ on X10, a jumping spider, an electrocution scene and various other props on x10.

Title: Re: Anyone else using X10 in their Halloween setup
Post by: Brian H on October 28, 2012, 03:57:49 PM

Knightrider; I have seen a few of your videos.
The flame throwing pipe organ and electrocution scene are great.
Looks like Hurricane Sandy is going to kill Halloween here in CT.
Last year it was an ice storm.  :(

Title: Re: Anyone else using X10 in their Halloween setup
Post by: HA Dave on October 11, 2014, 12:32:41 PM

New for my 2014 Halloween display.... I added an old plastic skeleton we already had... to a kids bicycle I sort of stumbled upon. Since the two went together easy enough I decide to add something extra to the setup. I first I thought about spinning the tires, or making the legs move by spinning the crank. But then I remembered I have a bicycle horn as well.

How to add the horm sound to the horm was simple. There are so MANY ways to do that part. I could have just downloaded a wav file to my HA PC and played it in any number of software products (like my BVC) and trigger the sound by an X10 command. I could have used a remote, or motion detector, pressure mat.... so many options.

I recorded the horn sound on an old MP3 player... and could have just looped that through any amplified speaker set-up.

But I also had that old RF remote "rock" speaker (seen behind the bicycle by the house in the video). So I recorded the sound of the horn using the video function of my old D-Pad. And send that headphone jack audio to the outside speaker. I decided to not automate the sound so much as watch the area via my security camera and trigger the horn manually..... just as treaters pass the bike.

See and hear the video on YouTube. (http://youtu.be/sThMeM34y7o?list=UUwSIYbHjKdHux-_Rimhs2hg)

Title: Re: Anyone else using X10 in their Halloween setup
Post by: HA Dave on November 05, 2014, 09:29:08 AM

Weather wasn't great for Halloween here. But I did sit in my easy chair and watch the treaters approach (via my security cameras on a phone app) and used my android tablet to play the short video I had recorded of the bicycle horn. The remote (RF) speaker setup worked flawlessly. I am sure the kids (and parents) got a kick out of it.

Title: Re: Anyone else using X10 in their Halloween setup
Post by: HA Dave on October 16, 2015, 09:05:07 PM

I updated and upgraded my Halloween skeleton riding a bicycle (https://youtu.be/lKh1Qiu-vBM) display this year.

I made a video (using my tablet) of the bicycle horn (last year). This year I mixed the horn video with a downloaded (YouTube) video of a barking growling dog. Then I converter the video to a wav file. The wav file is played through my BVC software (other software can do the same) when the X10 setup/BVC "hears" the signal from an eagle-eye motion sensor hidden in the display.

See the video (https://youtu.be/lKh1Qiu-vBM)

I know the X10 Halloween displays are kinda old-fashioned.... but I am kinda an old man.