Show us your Halloween Project Contest

[Alan]

[cboy2us]

would it be alright to post the project in phases? I have the first phase complete, and almost the second phase to go along with it, but it may be a bit before I have time to complete phase three.

[Alan]

[cboy2us]

Just trying the ghosts with a blue led to see if it would actually be bright enough.

Same one with a 70watt florescent fixture overhead.

Trial once I got my shipment of red leds in.



It looked bright enough for me, so I did the other five.


This is using a single led with the top shaved down so that it diffuses the led inside of a ping-pong ball. The assembly is hot glued on the end of the original "sticks" that come with the ghosts.




Phase 2:
Sorry, I couldn't embed the video of this, but the link is to image shack's video site, Yfrog.
http://yfrog.us/7b1031091222z
and both together...
http://yfrog.us/751031091411z

[mrfixitrick]

Happy Halloween!

It's with the spirit of Nikola Tesla that I made this un-powered crystal radio in a jam jar. It plugs into the computer, responds to its electromagnetic environment, and uses Audio Hijack Pro software to create cool sounds from what it hears.

The Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio is able to do lots of things besides listen to AM radio, such as: detect lightning, make voice phenomena, interact with all forms of light, create music and sound effects, read a computer screen, act as a microphone, and detect RF pulses!

Here's a video that shows all of these effects:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFxBmEpGIBw

Full build instructions are available at:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Spooky-Tesla-Spirit-Radio/

The Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio was recently the Gadget Freak of the Month in Design News magazine.
http://www.designnews.com/article/355607-Gadget_Freak_Case_149_Spirit_Radio_Receives_Transmissions_from_the_Beyond.php?nid=2337&rid=239166

[ian-dp]

This is a remote control color changing pumpkin.

The buttons on the remote control change between colors. #9 activates an ‘angry pumpkin’ mode that flashes a red strobe for a few seconds.

Here's a video that shows the colors and 'angry' mode.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LihQ0xOvLo








The 'guts' are a 28-pin PIC 18F2550 with an IR receiver, and a ShiftBrite color changing LED module.



I tried to make the top shake and rattle around, but the motors weren't strong enough. I have a better plan for next year

A few more details and the source are posted at my personal site:
http://dangerousprototypes.com/2009/10/29/remote-control-color-changing-pumpkin/

This is my first Halloween hack in years. Happy Halloween!

[PJMonty]

Hi,

This is a Halloween animatronic system I have developed. Rather than use off the shelf servo drivers, I designed custom hardware that allowed me to stream complex moves at 24 or 30 FPS. I also wrote a custom curve editor for animating moves and syncing to digital WAV files.







The talking skull is a plastic skull I bought years ago. I designed the mechanics inside and had a friend do the machining.




For the talking crow, I sculpted the figure, made a fiberglass body from the sculpture, and then designed and machined the mechanics myself.





Here's a video showing the talking crow and skull in action:

http://www.vimeo.com/6874783


My website has more pictures and video of the yard decorations, the animatronic figures, and the electronics that control it.

The main website:

http://www.socalhalloween.com/

The page with videos:

http://www.socalhalloween.com/Videos.html

The page with links to the pictures:

http://www.socalhalloween.com/Pictures.html

The page with links to the animatronics:

http://www.socalhalloween.com/Animatronics.html


Thanks,
PeterM

[mikey25]

PJMonty,


I just saw the video of the skeleton talking to the raven... WOW! That's amazing!!!

The whole train project looks FAN-TAS-TIC!





Edited to add: The 2007 ghost ship looks super!

Something tells me you are working in this business? :p