Solid-state Halloween controller and HOW-TO build a Haunted House

Thisreallyiseric
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.

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Posted by: GregY on October 1, 2006 at 6:38 PM

There is another option for this that is prebuilt but more expensive.

http://store.lightorama.com/ba16chpa.html

Just insert your audio into the software, use the grids to tell when certain lights come on/off/shimmer/twinkle/dim, then connect the controller, plug in the lights, and activte the show!


Posted by: GregY on October 1, 2006 at 6:38 PM

There is another option for this that is prebuilt but more expensive.

http://store.lightorama.com/ba16chpa.html

Just insert your audio into the software, use the grids to tell when certain lights come on/off/shimmer/twinkle/dim, then connect the controller, plug in the lights, and activte the show!


Posted by: GregY on October 1, 2006 at 6:39 PM

There is another option for this that is prebuilt but more expensive.

http://store.lightorama.com/ba16chpa.html

Just insert your audio into the software, use the grids to tell when certain lights come on/off/shimmer/twinkle/dim, then connect the controller, plug in the lights, and activate the show!


Posted by: GregY on October 1, 2006 at 6:40 PM

oops, double post
sorry!


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