[Shawn] was looking for a way to shake up his decorations this Halloween and decided to build a new prop for his front yard. He had a pair of old oil barrels in his garage and thought they would look great with a little bit of work.
He bolted the pair of barrels together, then slapped a fresh coat of black paint on them before adding a bright yellow radiation trefoil to each one. One barrel contains a pneumatic piston that opens the lid, revealing a light up pumpkin, a fog machine, and a set of water nozzles that spray the area. The second drum houses an air compressor, a wireless router, and an IP camera for recording the action. A web-enabled Arduino triggers the lid and sprayer, both of which can be controlled from the comfort of his house.
We think it’s a creative use of some old scrap barrels, but we’re hoping he doesn’t plan on wetting trick-or-treaters that pass through, as it seems like a good way to get your house egged or otherwise vandalized on Halloween. If the water sprayer were perhaps swapped out with some other cool effects, [Shawn] is far less likely to be the target of some angry, wet teenagers.
Be sure to check out the video below to see the display in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QQrV4XRr10&w=470]
Folks who spend money to dress up a certain way are probably *thrilled* to get hit with a hose. This would be a huge hit, too, with girls in prom dresses.
I’m eager to learn what happens when he tries to dispose of those ‘radioactive’ 55 gallon barrels.
Just cut them up into pieces, probably good to go to the scrap metal yard.
Impossible to judge Shawn’s intent with this. For wetting someone down, this looks to be a hit, and miss method of doing so. Probably a sun up or dusk only display, even though he says all night in the video.[shrug]
Oh yeah, his house would be egged and TP’ed hard if he lived around here.
Yep, water bad, replace it with confetti or corn starch or dog s**t depending on what your intent is I suppose.
Maybe the water is only his first line of defence. He needs some snake pits and attack dogs to mop up those who persevere.
The water will probably piss those soaked with it off enough to call the cops and report some “contaminated” barrels being misused. As radiophobic as our nation is, it will then be a month before the authorities figure out they aren’t waste drums and release this guy from Gitmo for trying to build a dirty bomb.
LOL, I can see it now. “Man arrested 10/31/2011 for possessing hazardous waste materials – Suspected Terror Plot”
Next year the water needs to have green dye added…and there needs to be a speaker that makes the noise of a geiger counter going crazy.
It needs is a pulsating green glow to come from inside the barrel. I like the idea of a geiger counter sound. Add a pir sensor and have the geiger go crazy as people get closer to the barrel.