# Lasertag/Ghostbusting in Cemetary



## sedgewickhotel (Nov 25, 2007)

Hey Everyone,

As I'm sure many of you have experienced, my Haunt hobby took a back seat once my wife and I had kids. Now, they are a little older (ages 4 and 2) and I'm ready to get back in the game. As an excuse to setup my cemetery, I'm having a big "spooky party" for my kids and their friends. Since I cringe at the idea of anything "cute" for Halloween, I have to balance my own desires with the fact that my audience is little kids, mostly ages 2-6.

First thing's first, this will all be during the day. My fancy LED lighting system will kind of be going to waste, but oh well. Second, there won't be any "Terror Syndicate" soundtrack playing. Again, breaks my heart, but oh well.

So how can I take this cemetery walk-through and make it fun for the kids?

Then, I had this idea... I have a few basic animatronics that are triggered by a motion detector... what about keeping them "triggered" by motion (with a red light shining on the prop), and then have it be disabled by a nerf lasertag gun (with the red light on the prop turning off, and a green light turning on) as it retracts. Think of it almost as an interactive shooting gallery, Ghostbuster-style!

Sadly, I don't think this is the kind of thing I can do in time for this years party, but I did want to throw the idea out there to the community to get some feedback on whether this seems like a feasible idea to anyone. I'm not exactly a pro when it comes to electronics, and I'm certain I'd have to get intimately familiar with relays and timers.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Jake


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## sedgewickhotel (Nov 25, 2007)

Just bought a gun and 2 targets that I'm going play with.






I'm pretty sure it'll be relatively easy to tie into the target to turn on a 110v flood light with a DCtoAC relay. It's the deactivation of the prop that I think it going to be a little over my head.


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## Offwhiteknight (Sep 17, 2008)

Sounds cool. Good luck with it!


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## sedgewickhotel (Nov 25, 2007)

I posted a job to freelancer.com for assistance in building the timer circuit. What I need will end up being something like this:


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## DarkOne (Oct 16, 2012)

I think an arduino would be perfect for the job. There's a good tutorial for sending and reading IR signals here.http://www.righto.com/2009/08/multi-protocol-infrared-remote-library.html
I've used this for making my own lasertag guns.

This will only work if the Nerf lasertag guns run with 38MHZ signal. If they are 36 or 40 or something else,the timing will be off. There may be other code out there for other MHz but I haven't had the need to look.

If you can't find the specs, you'd need to build a receiver to try to intercept the signal and see what's coming out of the gun if you can.

Or maybe hack into an led on one of those targets to turn on a transistor to activate a N/C relay which would turn off the prop. Then your circuit could be tied in to reactivate the prop after time is up.

I'd say they could use a universal remote control, but it sprays the signal out to wide to make it any fun or challenging. (And how scary is wielding a TV remote, right?)


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## sedgewickhotel (Nov 25, 2007)

Thanks for the feedback. Audrino is something I considered. The gun and sensor came in and I've been playing around with them. I also hired a freelancer for a simple timer circuit that does what I need it to. Each sensor has a speaker that plays a sound whenever the unit it 'shot'. I've removed the speaker and intend to use that as the input for the 2nd trigger. He said he plans to ship the board early in the week, so I might be able to post my proof of concept soon.


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## sedgewickhotel (Nov 25, 2007)

The freelancer shipped the electronics yesterday, so now I just need to wait for it to arrive. In the meantime, I disconnected the speaker from one of the targets, and wired in a DC/AC Solid State Relay. So now when I shoot the target, I can make a red flood light go off for about a second.

Since I'm only having one of these boards built, I'll be using these devices for the other ghosts in the cemetery.

Also, here's a layout of the cemetery itself...


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## weezllane (Sep 22, 2010)

I'll be watching with great interest.


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## darryl (Mar 23, 2006)

This is awesome! I'm watching also


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## sedgewickhotel (Nov 25, 2007)

I dont even have the circuit board yet and I'm already planning my next move... I found a site dedicated to DIY lasertag, where they sell a lot of the components to make your own guns and targets. There's also a big online Ghostbusters fan community, mostly dedicated to prop replicas. I figure that I can combine the two resources and build an aluminum Ghostbusters proton gun complete with sound and lights, that when "shot" also fires a 38MHz IR signal.

I mean, it's going to cost me a fortune, and my wifes going to kill or divorce me, but... small price to pay.

But one step at a time, I suppose.


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## darryl (Mar 23, 2006)

We all pay that price at some point.


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## Headless (Sep 4, 2011)

I too will be watching with great interest. I would LOVE to do this.


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## sedgewickhotel (Nov 25, 2007)

Ok, so I got the circuit in the mail yesterday... It just about works as I wanted it to, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to connect the motion sensor. I have an email out to the guy asking how to wire it up properly.

I found a way to trigger it with just a hacked extension cord, but I really need to wire in an outdoor flood light motion sensor, or else the whole thing is kinda pointless.

Here's a quick sample video to show it in all it's glory. The first circuit (the red light) would also include an air cylinder to active the prop, and I'll disguise the target and turn off it's light.


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## SuperCreep31 (Nov 22, 2009)

great project.. are you keeping a running log of how much this is costing you? I would love to see the breakdown if you don't mind.


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## sedgewickhotel (Nov 25, 2007)

SuperCreep31 said:


> great project.. are you keeping a running log of how much this is costing you? I would love to see the breakdown if you don't mind.


I'm not saving my receipts, per se, but I'll be able to provide some pretty close cost estimates when it's all said and done.


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## scream1973 (Dec 23, 2007)

If you got it running using an extension cord you could just plug that into a motion sensor floodlight with a plug in the light socket..


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## sedgewickhotel (Nov 25, 2007)

Yeah, and that is likely going to be my workaround for getting it working. I think that problem is pretty much resolved. After Halloween, I'm going to put it all into a nice project box, and connect the sensor to a spiraled cable (telephone cord) so that the sensor can be off on its own away from the electronics.

Another problem i stumbled acorss is that the sensor has a 20 min timeout. So after 20 min of never being hit, it turns itself off, and it needs to be manually turned off and then back on via the switch.

If I had known this prior to the circuit being built, I would have had him put a 19 min timer on the board, and just force the sensor to cycle every 19 min of inactivity.

I bought a simple timer board on ebay, and I'm going to play with it to see if I can get it to do what I need it to, but who knows... I really don't know what I'm doing with electronics - just enough to be dangerous.

I could probably live with the 20 min timeout, but I just know I'd be resetting it like crazy and it would get old really quick. I think it's something I need to solve for.


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## scream1973 (Dec 23, 2007)

You definately could do that with an Altronix 6062 timer ( about 25.00 on amazon)


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## sedgewickhotel (Nov 25, 2007)

This is the timer I bought on Ebay for under $10. I'm thinking that mode 3 will do what I need it to, but I just need to find some time to mess with it.

Automation Delay 12V Multifunction Self Lock Relay Cycle Timer Module PLC Home | eBay


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## KingOfHalloween (Jun 12, 2012)

I was interested in creating a lifesize moving zombie target where you shoot certain places on him, and a score is collected. I thought about using this kid's game in the video below as a basis for it, andjust simply take it apart and adding wire to branch out the targets all over the body. 





However this game isn't sold in the united states, which is pretty frustrating. I am a complete novice when it comes to circuit board building. do yo uhave any ideas on hacks, or how to create the same function - AND have it be able to keep score?

I've been trying to follow your build, a lot of this doesn't make sense to me regardless of the tutorials I've researched.

Let me know if you have any suggestions, or places in mind that I can buy parts to "plug and chug"/ connect and assemble some sort of system that requires little skill and experience for a newbie.

Thank you!


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