Halloween House Has Been Known To Burst Into Song

November 1, 2010 by Greg R. Jacobs 24 Comments

Just a day after Halloween and a replacement for Michael Jackson has been found, in the form of a very talented musical house. Not only does this house come close to a Michael Jackson dance routine but can mimic the voice quite well. The house has also been known to do the Monster Mash as well as Sandstorm (Techno) by Darude. YouTube’s KJ92508 has uploaded his Halloween conquests for all to enjoy. As of yet, he has not made a how to or even done a walk through video in broad daylight but here is to hoping he will due to numerous requests for a sneak peak. He has mentioned that he used “4 singing pumpkin faces, tombstones, hand carved and blow mold pumpkins, strobes, floods and thousands of lights.” I look forward to what is in store for next years decor. Just another example of what technology in everyday life and a little elbow grease can do. Be sure to check out the video of “Thriller” as done by this house after the break.

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Even More Halloween Links

October 31, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 12 Comments

We know you just got a links post a couple hours ago, but more people tipped us off to some great Halloween stuff and we just couldn’t wait.

[Michael] came up with this fantastic idea for a flying ghost. He’s using a twin prop tilt rotor design to fly his ghost all over the neighborhood. It has a camera mounted on board and the footage is both fascinating and, toward the end, quite funny. Nothing beats chasing children down the street in first person from a flying ghost.

[Trey] wrote in to show off his 47 foot wide spider. He made it himself out of black painters plastic that he heat welded together using a heat gun. In the video you can see his victim, a dummy mounted on a salvaged rotissierie.

[Floe] has been thinking about this one for quite some time. He finally decided to build his flame throwing jack-o-lantern, a concept we approve of. Using two servos, one to start a pilot light and one to spray a travel deodorant, it is pretty simple. He used a ceramic jack-o-lantern so it would be sturdy enough, and marginally less flammable.

Here’s a safer Jack-o-lantern for you. [Paul] wrote in to show us his LED synchronized Jack-o-lanterns. While they may not be ground breaking, we just love seeing that logo out in the wild. Maybe we’re just egotistical, maybe those toothpicks just brought back fond memories. Why didn’t we ever run that Jack-0-lantern carving contest? Oh well, maybe next year. You can see a video of it in action after we get it uploaded correctly to our youtube channel.

70 LED Matrix In A Jack-o-lantern

October 26, 2010 by Mike Szczys 23 Comments

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. I spaced them by printing out a grid on the computer, taping it to the pumpkin, and drilling 70 holes in the front of the thing. The real trouble came when inserting all of the LEDs from the inside; each of them has four wires soldered to it, creating a net of black wiring. Above you can see it turned out great. This is a shot of it scrolling the message HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

Join us after the break for video of this prop. But we’re not just sharing the finished product. I’ll take you through the build process. Along the way you’ll learn the design considerations that go into an LED matrix and how you can use these techniques to build your own in any size and configuration you desire.

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Portal…shirt?

October 26, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 29 Comments

[Ben Heck] is in the Halloween spirit with his Portal inspired “see through” t-shirt. That is, a thin lcd is mounted on [Ben’s] chest, with a not as thin camera mounted on his back; when the system is running, everything behind him is captured by the camera and displayed on the LCD. The concept isn’t exactly new by any means, often by the name of “gaping holes” or “hole through body” or more, but the project goes to show that a creative costume isn’t always the most elaborate, expensive, or even a new idea. Catch a video of how to make your own Portal shirt, after the jump. Oh, and you can win the Portal shirt here.

[via The Daily What]

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Creepy HDD Activity Lights Just In Time For Halloween

October 11, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 23 Comments

We almost skimmed right past this spooky HDD activity light thinking it was just another set of LEDs wired to the motherboard. However, they explained right off that they didn’t want just another blinking light on their case. They wanted it to change its intensity smoothly based on hard drive activity. While there are a million ways this could have been over engineered, we think they did a pretty good job of simplifying the circuit. The bill of materials is pretty much just a handful of resistors, LEDs, an opto isolator, and a capacitor. The effect, is quite nice and can be seen in the video after the break.

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Something Wicked This Way Comes

September 21, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 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 Mike Szczys 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.