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This was originally an article in Make 03 where my awesome editor Paul Spinrad actually made a replica of my controller and did a much better job documenting it than I would. For the controller board, if you need more explanation than "get a bunch of solid-state relays, connect them up to your parallel port, and go to town," check out the Make article. It also has an awesome comic that I have gone to pains trying to convince people that it doesn't star me.
With this Instructable, I'm putting in text that didn't make the cut for a size-constrained magazine article and creating a space to explore the latest options for computer control. The Win98 machine I had previously used to drive my controller can no longer by relied upon and I haven't yet conquerred external (parallel port, serial port, USB, ...) control with WinXP or MacOSX; hopefully we can collect some great pointers and links in the comments.
The original page describing this project is here.
With this Instructable, I'm putting in text that didn't make the cut for a size-constrained magazine article and creating a space to explore the latest options for computer control. The Win98 machine I had previously used to drive my controller can no longer by relied upon and I haven't yet conquerred external (parallel port, serial port, USB, ...) control with WinXP or MacOSX; hopefully we can collect some great pointers and links in the comments.
The original page describing this project is here.
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Signing UpStep 1Background, or what made me a bad kid
During elementary school, my parents took me to a local Haunted House. In each room, you witnessed some gruesome scene; if you survived to the end, you got a grab-bag of awesome junk and candy. About mid-way through, there was a room lit by a single strobe-light, flashing at low frequency, and a guy in a hockey mask with a chainsaw. Maybe there was no chain on the saw, or maybe it was a weed-whacker? All I really remember is that I was terribly scared and I loved it. It was the first time I had seen a strobe-light and the saw was so loud I could feel it in my stomach. The experience was incredibly disorienting, and the feeling of terror and delight has stuck with me. No horror movie or ghost story has been able to top that low-budget, real-life fright.
As I grew older, trick-or-treating became more of a search for Haunted Houses than a search for candy and mischief. I was ever-hopeful that around the next corner would be that one weird guy who turned his garage into a haunted maze built from cardboard and bedsheets. I was never satisfied with what I found. I could do better than that , I often thought. So, for roughly the last ten years Ive been perfecting my technique of scaring kids and handing out candy. In this project, I will show you how to build the tool I use most frequently in my haunted creations and give you some ideas for your own Haunted House.
As I grew older, trick-or-treating became more of a search for Haunted Houses than a search for candy and mischief. I was ever-hopeful that around the next corner would be that one weird guy who turned his garage into a haunted maze built from cardboard and bedsheets. I was never satisfied with what I found. I could do better than that , I often thought. So, for roughly the last ten years Ive been perfecting my technique of scaring kids and handing out candy. In this project, I will show you how to build the tool I use most frequently in my haunted creations and give you some ideas for your own Haunted House.
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Also, about how many amps does a number of lights, say, 100, take?
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G1619
or even this:
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G13763
These can be had much cheaper, and to my novice eye, have the same sort of specs (5vdc to activate, output >= 120v 0.5A). The second (W107DIP-5) being in a tiny DIP package, you could shrink the whole project to be rather small!