Halloween

[outbackrob]

Anybody planning anything new and exciting this year using HA? I have been trying to come up with an automated candy dispenser but have not had much luck. Everything else is automated. We have a happy Peanuts theme for the really little ones and a scary theme for everyone else. If I could automate the candy, I would be able to spend more time scaring ghosts and goblins!

Anyone else try this? Successfully?


This is our house from last year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQFJtcgCtJk&feature=plcp

Rob

[sdanks]

I plan on doing a Magic Mirror for the kids. I am going to get a 4x8 sheet of plywood, and my front door opens inward. So I will paint the 4x8 sheet gray and then use a brush and black paint to paint cement lines on it make it look like a brick wall. I am going to put the 4x8 over the doorway, and somehow bolt it with 2x4's so it stands up covering the doorway. then, cut a oval hole in it and put a mirror frame around the hole. Then I will mount a flatpanel display on the back of the wood, so it is seen when the visitors look into the "mirror". The program is a video puppet of sorts. A couple of years back I bought it and I have wanted to use it, but didnt have the time. With the floating magic mirror application I can control and will have to use a hidden camera and audio so I can talk to the visitors. I have been wanting to do this for a while. I guess I will put a slot with a basket under the mirror so I can put candy in it and it will slide down a shoot and drop in the basket.

Here is the site: (I think it still has a free version)
http://www.imagineerieing.com/mirror.html

Not really HA, but could be with a little reworking. . . .

[reidfo]

A couple of years back I bought a small 120V solenoid valve that I can attach to my air compressor hose. I'm thinking of using one of my X10 motion sensors and an Insteon module to give the kiddies a blast of air when they walk up to the door. It's pretty loud when I crank up the PSI on the compressor.

[Automated]

During the holidays, I activate an event that replaces the doorbell with an appropriate wav file, played through the house speakers. For Halloween it is either a dog howl, evil laugh, or etc. For Thanksgiving it is a turkey gobble, and at Christmas, it is sleigh bells or etc.

I thought about adding an external speaker, so that the visitor hears it too, but I haven't done that yet.

[outbackrob]

I am wondering if I can use my video projector to display the magic mirror in our front window if I use some opaque material.... Hmmm.

I am defintely going to add some compressed air! THAT will be FUN!

Great ideas!

Rob

[sdanks]

Look at Pepper's Ghost. That would make it look like a floating image. This is still used at Disney in the haunted mansion for the dancing ghosts. You can turn up the contrast and turn down the brightness on the Monitor or TV and reflect it in the glass.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper's_ghost
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EntsU...eature=related

[pbibm]

Love your video of last year Rob. Nice job!

[outbackrob]

Look at Pepper's Ghost.

THAT'S pretty cool!

[outbackrob]

Love your video of last year Rob. Nice job!

Thanks Paul. It was a HIT with parents! They could send their younger kids up for a friendly treat and then send the older ones for a scary treat. The big stoplight (Red for stop and read. Green arrow for proceed to the friendly. Yellow arrow for proceed with caution!) drew a lot of attention and kids down an otherwise passed over cul-de-sac dead end street.

[Raptor]

i usually aim for shock tactics so my setup is as follows:

have the house nice and bright with all the front lights on then when they trigger either the motion sensor or me inside with a button the lights change to Red (from white) and the strobe/UV come on and i usualy add smoke.

i also have a halloween ambient track that is usually playing.

not sure what i will do this year. i'm short on time and money this year.

[TechHA]

Here are some pictures of my Halloween 2012 display. Everything is controlled with HomeSeer and Z-Wave.

Halloween 2012 pics on G+

All the blowups turn on at 2:30 pm every day. That way they are up when my 5 year old gets off the bus. Her friends on the bus get a good kick out of them too.

At 15 minutes before sunset the strobe light turns on to light up the graveyard and all the other lighting elements come alive. Inside the house at the same time, all the indoor decorations turn on.

At 10:00 pm, everything turns off.

Everything turning on and off by itself, whether we are home or not. Makes for great WAF!

[outbackrob]

Nothing much new this year......

We had basically the same set up this year but with a bigger smoke machine and a few more lights. Been so busy I had to start setting it up at 3pm Halloween day! Being the third year and with all the HA stuff just needing to be enabled, I made it just in time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm1Q-m5FswQ&feature=plcp

We did scare the crab out of a LOT of kids this year. More than last.

NEXT year..... I so want to do the compressed air blast mentioned earlier. Can't wait!

Rob

[outbackrob]

Bryan, Great pics. Liked the blowup Frankenstein!

Everything turning on and off by itself, whether we are home or not. Makes for great WAF!

It is WAF that allows for such demonstrations, and WAF the determines how big they get.... Here's to even greater WAF!

Rob

[reidfo]

Looks great, Rob! Congratulations. We had a pretty tame Halloween and I didn't do more than set up a couple of pumpkins this year. I wanted to at least do the compressed air, but I couldn't find my solenoid.

[sdanks]

Attached is what we did this year.
Next year, I need to add better black lights to make the frame glow. It worked if I moved the black light florescent bulb closer to the frame.
Also I need to add more lights to the wall or put some spots on the wall. We had all the lights off, so it was really too dark.
I made these pictures with the porch light on, but during the performance they were off.
My daughter dressed up as a vampire and stood out front and introduced me by saying,
Mirror Mirror on the wall, speak now or not at all....
Then I made the mask appear and I said, "Who dares to wake me from my slumber?"
Then my daughter would say, "But sir mask, we have visitors."
The mask puppet can smile so I made it smile and I said, "OH! trick or treaters have come to see me?"
Then my daughter would say, "No I think they are here for the candy."
I would frown and say something about how lonely I was in the mirror all day. I had some jokes and witty things I got off the internet.
But mostly, the kids would just stand there with their mouths open.
We had probably over 100 kids visit last night. I guess word got out.
The puppet was from imagineerieing.com They have several models all reasonably priced.

I had to setup a mic I could talk into, with a 10 watt Elk amp running a speaker on the porch.
And then I needed a hearing device to hear the kids, and I used a security camera attached to my TV for the viewing.
Next year I will try to integrate it all into the wall so I dont have wires going all over the place behind the door.

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain . . . . . "

I had a great time.