Eric over on Instructables reposted his Halloween controller and haunted house how-to along with some more information – “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.” – Link.

If you’re planning something like this for Halloween, pick up MAKE volume 03 here and/or log in if you’re a subscriber (digital) edition and check it out.

Related:

• Halloween Haunted House Controller – Build a relay board that sychronized lights, motors, and other electrical devices to a scary soundtrack playing on a computer, and create spooky haunted house special effects! MAKE 03 – Page 86.
• Original project – Link.