halloween

188 Articles

Something Wicked This Way Comes

September 21, 2010 by 5 Comments

Halloween is rapidly approaching. This is just a reminder to you all to send in your Halloween hacks now so that we can all see them and steal your ideas get inspiration for our own projects. We’ve seen fantastic stuff in the past from motorized pumpkins to costumes that are simply awe-inspiring. Take a few moments to dig through the Halloween hacks we’ve run in the past.

Of course we understand that some of you will be pushing up to the big day to complete your projects. Just remember to take good pictures and document it all well.

20-channel DMX Controller

July 23, 2010 by 29 Comments

[Joshua] shares his details on building this 20-channel DMX controller. He’s sourced some extension cords to cut up for the complicated wiring project. He plans to drive 120V lights with the system so he’s also using the extension cords to connect a bunch of outlet boxes to the main controller. Inside you’ll find a set of AVR chips ready for your commands. Instead of using jumpers or DIP switches to set their addresses he set them in the firmware and burned a different version to each chip. The key here is writing the address right on the chips to prevent any confusion.

This will be used of Halloween and Christmas displays. We love Halloween hacks just about as much as we love Christmas hacks, so hit the basement and don’t forget to share the result of your labors with us.

Tauntaun Costume

November 16, 2009 by 20 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upl7F5p0DHY]

[Scott Holden] went all out this year and built an amazing Tauntaun costume. The Tauntaun from Star Wars was massive,  standing 8 feet tall, and usually carrying a rider. [Scott] wanted to make it the correct size, and ultimately pulled it off. He had to build custom stilts to get the leg angle correct as drywall stilts were too straight. The rest is mainly pvc and fur.  We think he did a fantastic job on this. The effect is quite nice, and we can imagine that in person it is even better.

Take note at the bottom of page 3. Apparently, he got pinned in the costume in his workshop and almost had to spend the night on the floor in the costume. That’s pretty wild, at least he was warm.

[via makezine]

Halloween Props: Techy Jack-o-lanterns

October 29, 2009 by 10 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeYS_Tjf7pQ&feature=player_embedded]

Halloween is this weekend. If you still have some time and parts available, you might be looking to spice up your Jack-o-lantern.  We’ve found a few projects that we thought might be nice to share. None of them would merit a post on their own, so we thought we would just round them up and share them all at once. They all appear to be powered by the Arduino, which we know will bring some comments. Just to clear up some questions, they don’t pay us to advertise Arduinos. People just do a lot of projects with them.

First, the silly string shooting Jack-o-lantern which you can see above. He’s using a single servo hooked to an Arduino and a motion sensor.  When it detects motion, it lets out a short squirt of silly string. You can download the code from the project page. We might suggest you arrange this in a manner to avoid spraying directly into some kids eyes.

Check out the next two after the break.

Continue reading “Halloween Props: Techy Jack-o-lanterns” →

Halloween Props: Servo Eyes

October 26, 2009 by 13 Comments

[flickr video =http://www.flickr.com/photos/todbot/3991211183/]

If you’re wanting to spice up a Jack-o-lantern, why not give it some spooky eyes that will look around? [todbot] shows us how to set this up using an Arduino and 3 servos. His rig uses a hobby servo to control the entire head’s orientation and a smaller servo for each eye’s movement. Their motion is random, but quite convincing. He has them all stuck together with  popsicle sticks, but you would probably move the location of the large servo to rotate the entire pumpkin, or whatever other prop you put it all in. You can download the Arduino sketch and give it a try your self. We might suggest building a simple rack and pinion rig to rotate both eyeballs with  a single servo.

[via HackedGadgets]

Halloween Prop: Glowing Spooky Eyes

October 24, 2009 by 6 Comments

spooky_halloween_eyes_pic_microcontroller (Custom)

Would you like some spooky glowing eyes that light up and play a sound when someone gets near? This circuit makes it pretty simple. It uses a single phototransistor to detect someones presence. Instead of having a preset threshold that needs to be met, it simply triggers any time there is a sufficient change in the amount of light it detects. If you put one of these in a nice dark spot, your halloweeners will only see the LEDs and perceive them as eyes. It might also be cool to somehow add motion to this.

We’re running out of time to prepare for Halloween, don’t forget to send in your projects.

[via HackedGadgets]

Shift Powered Pumpkins

October 19, 2009 by 15 Comments

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[Garret] and a couple of friends totally stole our idea wanted to light up their pumpkins a bit differently this year. They used some ShiftBrites and all the corresponding shift hardware (who knew there was so much shift out there) to bring their carved orange minions to life. Yes, this could be done a lot less modulated by using a regular LED and perhaps a PIC. Maybe it’s not the most technically challenging, but hey its in the spirit of Halloween – one of our favorite holidays. Speaking of which, doesn’t that fence look familiar? Check out a video after the break. Seriously, Mutton Chops? Continue reading “Shift Powered Pumpkins” →