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[s0urc3f0ur]

With Halloween fast approaching.. I thought it would be cool to hear what all of you are planning this year.  Last year I made a 10ft automated Ghoul< link. I used a small oscilltaing fan and attached the head of a jackolantern to it.. I then attached that to an 8ft stepl ladder, some old black sheets, an old bubbling caudlron, and hooked it up to AHP with a a macro that dimmed my outside lights ,turned on the ghoul and started winamp with a playlist of Ghostly sounds and phrases that played randomly when ever I hit the "on' button. It was all done with stuff around the house (and cost  me about $1.97 for a pack of saftey pins!)THis year I am adding a strobe light and a fogger! Should be pretty sweet. SO let's hear YOUR great ideas! This is going to be fun!

[s0urc3f0ur]

150 reads and no Ideas? Let's take a break from all the trouble shooting and have a little fun with our sytstems. Let's hear what you got!

[Knightrider]

ok ok already
I built a coffin that has a modified screen door closer on the lid (to lift it) and one on an arm inside it that a skeleton rests on. 20 PSI of air activates the door and the arm. the springs in each retract them. each unit is connected to a washing machine water solenoid.  air comes in through the hot water side and exits through the cold.  I have a 110 relay (double pole, double switched) connected to each solenoid unit that allows for only the hot or cold to be opened at a time. (active hot to pressurize, active cold to depressurize) and an appliance module to run the relay.
X10 runs a macro to charge the lid cylinder, wait 2 seconds the charge the skeleton cylinder, wait 10 seconds and depressurize the cyclinders in reverse.  also runs a scream sound through x10 dispatcher.
i activate this with a palm pilot, but plan to use a motion sensor this year.
cheers

[HA Dave]

You've inspired me!

Although The wife and I do a nice display for the Halloween season.... then an even bigger one for treat-or-treat night. I've never incorporated any X10 into the setup.

I just finished the start.. of a beginning... of a setup.

• 1st I went to ilovewavs.com and downloaded a thunder wav file.
• Then I wrote a simple macro. (trigger) G7 turns G6 ON... delays 8 secs... then turns G6 OFF.
• I plugged a strobe into an appliance module set to G6.
• In BVC I set a "listener" to listen for G6 ON:  When BVC hears G6 ON it plays the 10 sec thunder wav file.

Right now... I can trigger the setup with a remote. Now I need to trigger it with a motion sensor... and get some speakers setup too. Thanks Guys!

[s0urc3f0ur]

BOth Great Ideas!.. I actually had my ghoul up and running in my garage last night wIth full audio and fog.... a  small crowd  of 6 neighbors  started to gather at the end of my drive way fearing that there was a fire with all the smoke from the fogger   .. It should be real fun on friday when I put "gary the ghoul" out on my front lawn. Here's My macro for turning everything on:

B12) Front Door Light Brighten then dim to 7%
(A1) Garage Lights Brighten then dim to 7%
(A5) fogger ON
Delay for 2 Seconds
(C3) GHoul ON
Run Program - C:\Documents and Settings\HP_Owner\Desktop\Halloween Stuff\Halloween.bat 
Delay for 20 Seconds
(A5) fogger OFF
Delay for 4 Seconds
(A5) fogger OFF
Delay for 20 Seconds
(A5) fogger ON
Delay for 15 Seconds
(A5) fogger OFF
(A5) fogger OFF

The bat file triggers a playlist in winamp that plays random scray voices and music that I created.

[Knightrider]

You've inspired me!

Although The wife and I do a nice display for the Halloween season.... then an even bigger one for treat-or-treat night. I've never incorporated any X10 into the setup.

I just finished the start.. of a beginning... of a setup.

• 1st I went to ilovewavs.com and downloaded a thunder wav file.
• Then I wrote a simple macro. (trigger) G7 turns G6 ON... delays 8 secs... then turns G6 OFF.
• I plugged a strobe into an appliance module set to G6.
• In BVC I set a "listener" to listen for G6 ON:  When BVC hears G6 ON it plays the 10 sec thunder wav file.

Right now... I can trigger the setup with a remote. Now I need to trigger it with a motion sensor... and get some speakers setup too. Thanks Guys!

Just be careful with that strobe on the appliance module.  The charging capacitor tends to trigger the local sensor.  I use a relay to isolate the strobe.

[Twinefan3]

It's "Trick" this year, no "Treat."
But, I am just going the simple route, by setting Robo Dog under the front steps. I'll attach a motion sensor to the inside of the railing, so they'll get right on top of him, for maximum effect. Of course, I can wake him up with the remote keypad as well.
Even though I am not putting up any decorations, I use dusk/dawn porch lights 365. By no means am I inviting people to knock on my door, nor will I turn them off and wonder if someone is lurking outside my window (even for one night). People automatically expect you to be receptive to constant interruption by greedy kids (adults too) in their half-a$$ed costumes.
Of course, I don't want my neighbors to hate me, thinking I am mean and unsociable. Giving them a good scare is better than just not answering the door. It is Halloween, after all...

[bitman]

So,

How did it all go guys?

[s0urc3f0ur]

So,
How did it all go guys?

It went pretty good . Not as good as last year as I could not get winamp to play my playlist everytime I triggered it with a bat file. Something buggy with the new version of winamp were you have to enque the playlist. I ended up just leaving the music on shuffle repeat through out the night and not triggering it at all. You can view a short clip I took of the ghoul in action Here<link. The video isn't all that great. I took it with my phone. But all in all people were pretty impressed with it,  a lot of them posed for pictures with it. It was the hit with of neighborhood!

[HA Dave]

It went pretty good ..... ghoul in action Here.....   It was the hit with of neighborhood!

Great video!!! I am totally impressed.

[bitman]

That's great man!

I would walk waaaaay around that scary thing with my bag of candy.

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

s0urc3f0ur,

Very cool!

I see you got the fog machine sorted out too!

 

[steven r]

I had to rework my macros (story at another post) and then only one group came by. 
I ended up ordering pizza to show it off. 

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

I had to rework my macros (story at another post) and then only one group came by. 
I ended up ordering pizza to show it off. 

Aww.   

Don't feel too bad, I had exactly zero trick-or-treaters this year too.   

[Knightrider]

Just to bump this thread:

I posted the latest X10 Halloween project here:

http://thisautomatedhouse.com/Halloween.html