Solid-state Halloween controller and how to build a Haunted House

Step 2 Controller

Without doubt, the best Haunted Houses are run by humans. People hiding under sofas, waiting for just the right moment, can always make the best scares. Unfortunately, I didnt always have the manpower I wanted, and so resorted to computer control. The parallel port is the easiest way to interface external, homebuilt devices to a computer. It has 8 output pins that can directly operate LEDs and relays, and for more complicated projects it can be connected to a register to control even more devices.

In this project, you will build a simple circuit to switch on and off AC or DC via computer control. You can then write code to sync lights, motors, fog machines, pumps, laser pointers, and other things to computer generated sounds using the parallel port.