Haloweenie Electronics

[rfs100]

Anyone planning any electronic Haloween docorations this year?
Maybe closer to Hallween we can start posting pictures of Pumpkins that we have designed. Mine are usually all decked out with led illumination throughout
Halloween is a great time to get those creative juices flowing

 

[HarveyH42]

I've been trying to work out a solar garden light conversion. Thought it would make cool lightning effect, if I could hook up the flash circuit from a disposable camera. Got the flash circuit to work as a strobe, the solar charging is a simple diode, but the switching on at night is a problem. The strobe draws about 800 mAs starting out, but tapers off to about 26 mA when it flashes. A single AA isn't going to last long, hopefully an hour or two. The LED circuit from the garden light is low current, can't handle 800 mA, a relay would be wasteful, not to mention rare for 1.2 volts. Thought about disabling the oscillator in the the flash boost circuit, but don't know enough about it. Think three or four of these strobes in the yard would give a great lightning effect, since they would be naturally out of sync, and charge at different rates.

 

[ben7]

Anyone planning any electronic Haloween docorations this year?
Maybe closer to Hallween we can start posting pictures of Pumpkins that we have designed. Mine are usually all decked out with led illumination throughout
Halloween is a great time to get those creative juices flowing

I'm not sure if I will make any yet.

LOL we already have pumpkin and the squirrels have gotten into it. Rigged up a firecracker to go off remotely under a box by the pumpkin = one scared squirrel and one happy person!

-ben7

 

[Reloadron]

I am generally a traditionalist but HarveyH42 got me to thinking. I generally just hack up a few pumpkins and shove a candle or two in them but I have a few strobes lying around so maybe we could go a little techie.

Around here the kids do a 6 to 8 PM thing. Then a few of us adults do a trick or treat for beers at some neighbors. This is followed by a fire and hot dogs at the neighbors across the street. We developed this routine over the years. This year we will have the 6 year old grand daughter so we look forward to it all weekend. The wife got Boo at the Zoo tickets so that should be fun.

Yeah, maybe a strobe in a pumpkin.

Ron

 

[rfs100]

I am generally a traditionalist but HarveyH42 got me to thinking. I generally just hack up a few pumpkins and shove a candle or two in them but I have a few strobes lying around so maybe we could go a little techie.

Around here the kids do a 6 to 8 PM thing. Then a few of us adults do a trick or treat for beers at some neighbors. This is followed by a fire and hot dogs at the neighbors across the street. We developed this routine over the years. This year we will have the 6 year old grand daughter so we look forward to it all weekend. The wife got Boo at the Zoo tickets so that should be fun.

Yeah, maybe a strobe in a pumpkin.

Ron

NOW THAT SOUND LIKE FUN!!!!..The hot dog roasting tradition sound absolutely wonderful...those are the memories your child will keep for a lifetime.
Every year we all go to a pumpkin farm, eat hot dogs, roasted corn, go on the buggy rides, and buy a pie. We decided to forgo getting the pumpkins from there now that my kids are in their teens, (their pumpkins run about $15.00...Wally-World sells them for about $2.50) but they always want to go to eat.

Closer to Halloween Ill be asking for photos of everyones pumpkins,. The last few years my kids have become quite experimental..painting the pumpkins pink, blue or other colours prior to carving.
I found a schematic on the internet on how to transform disposible camera flashes to strobes. I went to Wal-Mart, and aked for some disposable camera guts, and they gave me a box full of them...I think there is about 50 in there. I made the strobes, and they all flash for over 6 hours...WITH THE ORIGINAL BATTERY! So far I have about 20 converted...that seems enough to send every kid on the block into a coma.

http://josepino.com/circuits/?strobe_from_flash

Lately Ive begun drilling holes in the pumpkins head, and push LEDs through the holes, from the inside out. With just a bit of the LED protruding from the surface, I cut a half a red grape, and place it over the led. The Pumpkin is then covered with glowing "warts".

 

[rfs100]

I have found that the disposable Camera flashes converted into strobe last for several hours with the AA batterry that came with the camera. I dont now the current consumption on them tho...I still havnt dragged them out of storage.

http://josepino.com/circuits/?strobe_from_flash

http://www.horrorseek.com/home/hall...ak_MakingLEDEyes.html#SimpleBlinkerEyesNoMath

This would be cool to adapt solar power garden lights to:

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/ghosties

 

[rfs100]

I've been trying to work out a solar garden light conversion. Thought it would make cool lightning effect, if I could hook up the flash circuit from a disposable camera. Got the flash circuit to work as a strobe, the solar charging is a simple diode, but the switching on at night is a problem. The strobe draws about 800 mAs starting out, but tapers off to about 26 mA when it flashes. A single AA isn't going to last long, hopefully an hour or two. The LED circuit from the garden light is low current, can't handle 800 mA, a relay would be wasteful, not to mention rare for 1.2 volts. Thought about disabling the oscillator in the the flash boost circuit, but don't know enough about it. Think three or four of these strobes in the yard would give a great lightning effect, since they would be naturally out of sync, and charge at different rates.

https://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/solar

I have found that Strobes converted from disposable camera flashes last over 4 hours with the original camera batteries. I would think that you could trigger these flashes in sync using a relay or opto across the trigger contacts.
I would think that you could even trigger the flashes from a recording of thunder.

 

[HarveyH42]

Actually, they would fire sort of randomly, which is better for the effect, different pattern every time. Any PNP transistor suggestion, that will work with the 1.2v battery and handle 800 mA or better. Can only guess on this, and experiment.

 

[Mike_2545]

I did a strobe light in a pumpkin last year. It had a neat effect, and plan to do it again this year.

 

[DerStrom8]

I'm planning to do an ordinary carving, but of Dr. Nikola Tesla (my "idol"). Maybe I could use one of those flash circuits to illuminate the pumpkin every now and then (sort of like a lightning storm inside it). I think that'd be an awesome effect, especially for a Tesla carving. Thanks for the ideas!
Der Strom

 

[DerStrom8]

I'm planning to do an ordinary carving, but of Dr. Nikola Tesla (my "idol"). Maybe I could use one of those flash circuits to illuminate the pumpkin every now and then (sort of like a lightning storm inside it). I think that'd be an awesome effect, especially for a Tesla carving. Thanks for the ideas!
Der Strom

By the way, can anyone tell me the best circuit to use to make, say, two camera flashers fire automatically at somewhat random intervals? To give you an idea, it's for the lightning effect (oh, and I don't have any SCRs )
Thanks!

 

[HarveyH42]

I'm planning to do an ordinary carving, but of Dr. Nikola Tesla (my "idol"). Maybe I could use one of those flash circuits to illuminate the pumpkin every now and then (sort of like a lightning storm inside it). I think that'd be an awesome effect, especially for a Tesla carving. Thanks for the ideas!
Der Strom

A mini plasma globe or Jacobs ladder would be nice too...

 

[rfs100]

By the way, can anyone tell me the best circuit to use to make, say, two camera flashers fire automatically at somewhat random intervals? To give you an idea, it's for the lightning effect (oh, and I don't have any SCRs )
Thanks!

you mean, there is absolutely no way you can find SCRs ...anywhere?
What I have found is that if you solder a jumper across the flash contacts, it will eventually flash once it is charged, and will continue to do so, as long as the comtacts are shorted..

 

[HarveyH42]

By the way, can anyone tell me the best circuit to use to make, say, two camera flashers fire automatically at somewhat random intervals? To give you an idea, it's for the lightning effect (oh, and I don't have any SCRs )
Thanks!

No to cameras are going to charge/flash at the same rate. It'll be rare for two to fire at the same time. I've done about a dozen of the strobe conversions using MCR100-8 SCRs, they are small and cheap. MCR100-8 600V 0.8Amp SCR (Pkg of 4) (Motorola)-The Electronic Goldmine Think they also still have camera guts for around a buck, if you don't want to ask a store for freebies, and tear them down. Check Goldmine has some 3v cameras, not the same. Here's what I've got **broken link removed**

 

[BrownOut]

For the last couple years, I re-created a Halloween effect from my childhood. I take a couple old sheets and affix them loosly into a frame. Hidden below the sheets are a red light and a fan. The fan causes the sheets to sort of "roll" from the bottom up, and the lights illuminate only the rolls as they ascend. It give and illusion of fire, decidedly low tech but very effective at night. I've had fantasies of re-creating the Wizzard of OZ, with the floating head and fire (PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!) I always get started too late though, and revert back to my low tech effects.

 

[k7elp60]

Anyone planning any electronic Haloween docorations this year?
Maybe closer to Hallween we can start posting pictures of Pumpkins that we have designed. Mine are usually all decked out with led illumination throughout
Halloween is a great time to get those creative juices flowing

Here is a project I built several years ago. The pumpkin is about 3" in diameter. The eyes are two of the ones in the schematic.

 

[rfs100]

Playing around, I accidentally found out that 1 camera flash unit can easily flash 3 tubes.
I tried 4...but that didnt work, 3 seems to be the max. I dont know if this kills off the flash circuitry any faster, but after about a half an hour, nothing overheated.
Man..are these units over-designed...or what!...the AA battery alone seems just as strong after taking 24 flash pictures,than if it was fresh out of the pack.

 

[DerStrom8]

you mean, there is absolutely no way you can find SCRs ...anywhere?
What I have found is that if you solder a jumper across the flash contacts, it will eventually flash once it is charged, and will continue to do so, as long as the comtacts are shorted..

No, I haven't been able to find SCRs. I have a load of old circuit boards for tvs and computers, but I haven't seen any SCRs on them. What kind of appliances might use them?
Thanks a lot for the suggestion for the cameras! I can get a TON of them for free at Wal Mart, so I'll have to give them a try.
Thanks again!

 

[Reloadron]

Digging around I found an old strobe flash unit I had. We are expecting the granddaughter up for Halloween so when we carve up one of the pumpkins I'll shove the strobe card in there to liven it up a little. Thing works on 12 volts so I guess we will also shove a battery in there. Going to need at least one large pumpkin.

Ron

 

[ben7]

By the way, can anyone tell me the best circuit to use to make, say, two camera flashers fire automatically at somewhat random intervals? To give you an idea, it's for the lightning effect (oh, and I don't have any SCRs )
Thanks!

You don't need SCRs

If you charge up a small (.1uF) cap and discharge it through a trigger transformer (with a relay) it will make the strobe tube flash.
Make sure the HV output of the trigger transformer is connected to some wire wrapped around the xenon tube!