Halloween is coming

Halloween is coming. It is time to start those hardware hacks to scare people. For lots of ideas check out previous Halloween postings and following videos:

Halloween Pumpkin

 

Arduino Project Ideas – Build a Smart Pumpkin for Halloween

Arduino-Controlled Halloween Props


How are big halloween displays built?

Controlgeek blog has several intersting articles on show control technlology used in Gravesend Inn Haunted Hotel attraction.

 

14 Comments

  1. Tomi Engdahl says:

    That’s No Moon Pumpkin, It’s a Space Station
    http://hackaday.com/2015/10/26/thats-no-moon-pumpkin-its-a-space-station/

    Every year, Vitamin T holds a #ATXPumpkinChallenge for creative agencies in and around Austin. Each team was given a fake pumpkin and the challenge of making a 15-60 second video. As the reigning champions from last year, [SiteGoals] had to up the ante. So they launched a pumpkin into space.

    A plastic jack-o-lantern painstakingly painted and detailed to look like the third Death Star. This is makes the title of the project a double-meaning: “Return of the Pumpkin”.

    Project Altitude: The Making of Return of the Pumpkin
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=144&v=ANCljhTX2TM

    Reply
  2. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Animated Jack-o’-Lantern Really Connects
    http://hackaday.com/2015/10/27/animated-jack-o-lantern-really-connects/

    Days past people used to just carve a scary face in a pumpkin, drop in a candle and call it a day, but for our kind of crowd that’s not going to cut it. [Alexis] stuffed this Jack o Lantern with a lot of brain power and even connected it up to the internet for community control.

    The hack-o-lantern project
    http://digitaljunky.io/the-hack-o-lantern-project/

    The idea is to make a jack-o-lantern controlled via twitter. Commands sent to a specific twitter account allow to change the color
    of the light inside the pumpkin or perform a pre-defined animation such as opening the pumpkin or playing a spooky sound effect.
    A range sensor allows to trigger an action sequence if someone gets close to the jack-o-lantern. Finally a sound sensor can be used
    to modulate the light according the the surrounding sound level.

    Components list

    1x Spark core (or newer version : Particle photon)
    1x 16 LEDs NeoPixel ring
    1x 2500mAh lipo battery
    1x lipo usb charger/booster or similar
    1x HS-311 servo motor
    1x HC-SR04 ultrasonic range sensor
    1x audio sensor breakout

    Reply
  3. Tomi Engdahl says:

    PIR Jack-o-Lantern Sees Them Coming
    http://hackaday.com/2015/10/31/pir-jack-o-lantern-sees-them-coming/

    Planning to make that carved a pumpkin last past Halloween night? Forget the tealight or LED candle—here’s an easy, no-solder project that will make it extra special. By default, this jack-o-lantern looks like it has a flickering flame, but get close enough to it and it goes crazy with color.

    All you need is an LED matrix, a Rainbowduino to drive it, a PIR motion sensor to trigger the random colors, and a power source. [Alpha Charlie] kept the electronics from becoming pumpkin-flavored with some plastic bags.

    Motion Sensing LED Jack-O-Lantern
    An Electronic, LED, Motion Sensing Jack-O-Lantern for Halloween
    https://hackaday.io/project/8240-motion-sensing-led-jack-o-lantern

    Reply
  4. Tomi Engdahl says:

    70 LED matrix in a Jack-o-lantern
    http://hackaday.com/2010/10/26/70-led-matrix-in-a-jack-o-lantern/

    What takes eight hours to solder and uses more shrink tubing that you thought imaginable? An LED matrix installed in a real pumpkin. When I mentioned that we’d like the LED pumpkin in last Friday’s post scaled up to a full LED matrix I had no idea it would be me doing the work. But [Caleb] and I thought it might be just the thing to present for the hacker’s favorite holiday.

    Installed in the autumn vegetable is a marquee made from a 5×14 matrix of light emitting diodes.

    Reply
  5. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Fire Breathing Jack-O-Lantern of Death
    http://hackaday.com/2013/10/25/fire-breathing-jack-o-lantern-of-death/

    For [Rick]’s number four hack of the month he gives us the Fire Breathing Jack-O-Lantern of death! This isn’t a new idea but it is a very unique and simple implementation.

    A small candle is used to ignite the flammable spray, which shoots out 5 to 10 inches from the pumpkin’s mouth when triggered by the ultrasonic sensor. It couldn’t be simpler. The most challenging part was getting the large air freshener dispenser in the pumpkin with the flames coming out the mouth.

    Reply
  6. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Take a Ride On my Magic Carpet
    http://hackaday.com/2015/11/01/take-a-ride-on-my-magic-carpet/

    For an awesome Halloween edition of [PrankvsPrank], they decided to make a remote controlled “magic carpet” for [Aladdin]. It’s absolutely fantastic.

    As you can probably guess, at the heart of this magic carpet is actually an electric skateboard.

    ALADDIN MAGIC CARPET PRANK
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqlrru1V69E&feature=youtu.be

    Reply
  7. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Raspberry Pi Halloween Voice Changer
    http://hackaday.com/2015/10/30/raspberry-pi-halloween-voice-changer/

    [Dave’s] voice changer uses a Raspberry Pi which isn’t all that complicated. The Pi uses Linux, and Unix–the predecessor to Linux–has a long history of having little tools you can string together to do big jobs. So once you have a Pi and a sound card, the rest is just some Linux command line wizardry.

    [Dave’s] voice changer is pretty much just some off the shelf parts and a script so simple it hardly qualifies as programming in any real sense. In fact, it is essentially one line of “code”

    Reply
  8. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Is it a Haunted House or a Video Game?
    http://hackaday.com/2015/10/31/is-it-a-haunted-house-or-a-video-game/

    [Rich Fiore] didn’t want just another set of spooky decorations for his house. He wanted something interactive. By combining a projector and some IR sensing, he turned his whole house into a Halloween-themed shooter.

    Haunted House Game
    https://vimeo.com/142852813

    Part video game, part building projection. This is a beta test of a large scale projected video game. The game matches the projection with the building. This is the first projected test to iron out the bugs in the camera mapping process, the projection alignment, and the gun targeting system (the gun is not in view but the infra red markers are visible in front of the house)

    Reply
  9. Tomi Engdahl says:

    3D Scanned, CNC-Milled, Pumpkin Selfie
    http://hackaday.com/2015/10/31/3d-scanned-cnc-milled-pumpkin-selfie/

    When you have a CNC mill sitting around, it almost seems anachronistic to pull out a kitchen knife to carve a pumpkin. You can hardly blame [Nathan Bentall] for choosing an endmill instead.

    3D Selfie Jack-o’-Lantern
    AKA: – CNC Pumpkin Carving of 3D Head Scan
    http://nathack.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/cnc-pumpkin-carving-real-faces.html

    Reply
  10. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Alek’s Controllable Halloween Decorations for Celiac Disease
    http://build.slashdot.org/story/15/11/01/1737214/slashdot-asks-notes-for-next-halloween?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29

    Alek’s Controllable Halloween Decorations for Celiac Disease
    Use the three halloween webcams for a live view of a buncha halloween decorations & lights and also CONTROL them

    Reply
  11. Tomi Engdahl says:

    RC Mini Flame Thrower Brings the Burn
    http://hackaday.com/2015/12/16/rc-mini-flame-thrower-brings-the-burn/

    It goes without saying that a radio controlled mini flame thrower can be nothing but a bad idea and you should never, ever build one. But once you watch the video below, you’ll be tempted to try. But don’t do it – you’ve been warned.

    That said, the video below shows that [Make-log]’s remarkably compact build is chock full of safety interlocks and sports a thoughtful and informative user interface. It’s fueled by a small can of spray deodorant whose valve is actuated by a servo and ignited by a spark-gap igniter.

    MAKElog#15a tiny RC Flamethrower
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuppCyxUuEo

    The RC Flamethrower uses 35 ml deodorant spray cans and electric sparks to deterministically shoot out

    Reply

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