# My Build 2015 - the adventure begins



## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

OK so I thought I would try and show people what I am building as like most people I have got alot of my ideas from looking at other people ideas, so the plan is as we only have a small front yard to make a wall to cover the front gate and then lead into a tunnel that takes you up the front stairs to the house door, where the Tots will get candy - if they make it that far

The theme is Indiana Jones and after making the wall it looks more like an english castle so I will be changing the door surround to look more aztecy.

I am making this at my office and it all pulls apart to 6 foot pieces that can be assembled on the Halloween weekend.

The sliding door has an air ram that will be controlled by one of Mikkojays four banger controllers, complete with hole in wall that you have to put your arm in and pulll a lever - there will be slime


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## Sawtooth Jack (Apr 9, 2011)

Looks great so far. You know, painting it with golds and earth tones instead of castle-grey will go a long way toward making it look more Aztec and less English Keep without having to do a whole lot of retooling. Looking forward to more pics.


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## deadSusan (Jun 26, 2013)

Looking good.


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## Bone Dancer (Oct 7, 2005)

I agree with SJ, your color tones will make a big difference. Maybe add some vines and flowers and some large jungle leaves. Looking good, keep us posted.

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=35464&highlight=vines


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## bobzilla (Nov 13, 2008)

Really nice start!


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## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)

I like your theme


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## Mattimus (Oct 23, 2013)

Love the Indy theme! Especially the infamous hole in the wall with bugs and slime. A good chance for a scare there I bet.


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## Magic13 (Dec 20, 2012)

Looking good!


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## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

Quick update not much to show (I made some more foam walls but hard to get a photo) I did get the layout for one of my control boxes done -










I think I have squeezed alot into one box, 
Audio Visual Devices - DMX triggerable scene player, 
Raspberry Pi2 with Falcon Player 1.5 for video playback, 
MikoJays FourBanger with PCB connection board,

While I could possibly do all of it with the Raspberry Pi I am not a coder and wanted a system that I could split up into discrete sections and get each one working by itself and just send triggers between each for the full effect, I think I have achieved this and the system is easy to grow/adapt for different set ups(thinking ahead to christmas and halloween 2016).

The plan is to use my lighting control desk to generate several "looks" once the prop is installed on the afternoon before Halloween, which only allows me the one session to tune it all before Halloween night, as the whole prop is really only for the one night. Haunting in Australia is really only a one night affair, and done for fun.


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## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

So went to Bali for a few days which gave me a few ideas on how to make my wall more Inca / Myan, so I have made an add on piece that will layover the existing wall design, this means this year can be Myan / Indian Jones and next year can be a medieval castle.










So I have now upgraded the door hanger and added the automation to the door, there's a hole in the wall that (this will be filled with sticky gooey stuff on the night) you have to stick your arm into to open the door, and then once opened by the air ram, there is a beam across the doorway that will keep the door open if someone is in the way. I will probably also add a manual switch somewhere so I can hold the door open if needed.


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## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

More details added, so the big stuff is done and now I move onto fitting out all the details, over the last weekend I managed to finish of the interior modular walls and get them hung and painted. the whole tunnel is made from some long lengths of pine facia board that have the foam panels hung on the long boards this will allow me to quickly transport it from my office to home and reconstruct it on Halloween or the day before.










I also made this guy -







who will pop on of a side alcove in the tunnel, he will be hidden by some strips of plastic and jump out as the Tots are leaving.










I also got the door working properly with the air system - I may need a bigger compressor for home -


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## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

*Weekend update*

View from inside the door, I need just a bit more more grey, 









Updated my control box, removed the raspberry Pi as it seems to get interference from the other gear,










And the new front door, complete with inspection holes,


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## David_AVD (Nov 9, 2012)

Looking good.


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## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

Finished one of my projectors - Night Camo Black - with matching Black PI 2, this one is going in the front yard as a welcome treat 










The blue connectors on top of the Pi are for two trigger inputs to fire off the video, these will be wired back to one of MikkoJays Fourbangers for triggering, another Projector will be set up behind us at the front door looking down the hallway and will be manually triggered when we are give out the candy - so a ghost will come flying down the hallway behind us to the front door.

The projector is a EPSON EMP-83H about 2500 lux - cost AUD$75 delivered on ebay , the PI2 was AUD$45 delivered, +$US10 for the atmosfear clip brings the total cost to AUD$135 or US$100 if that's what you spend well worth it as the DVR I was looking at was going to be at least that and no projector - the only set back is I discovered Falcon Player and what it can do for Christmas lights, so I have spent another $1500 on Pixels, but I wont have to buy another Pi2. Cheap eh??


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## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

HI, bought 4 power supplies from Ray Wu for my control boxes and to say they are noisy is being polite, the main issue was using a small fan inside trying to push the airflow out through punched louvres in the side of the case, not much airflow but lots of noise.

So I hacked one and added a $3 80mm fan to the outside of the box -










Needless to say they wont be as waterproof - i will have to add a sloped cover, but then I dont plan on getting them wet - the big difference is now there is very little noise but heaps of airflow.


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## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

so another weekend and got my final big prop done - added some pneumatics to a spider, so nows its a big jumping spider .

this one is going to be down by the side of the house (we live on a corner) away from the main event and just sitting there waiting for anyone that walks by.



















Also made yet another one of Mikkojays fourbanger controllers - this time I packaged it all up in a bigger jiffy box and added some terminals to the outside so I dont have to open the box each time,










here is some test video -

http://vid1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee451/runwin2/2015-10-16%2015.02.46.mp4


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

That spider is wicked cool, and I predict a few major scares for unsuspecting victims:jol:


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## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)

I'm spider phobic and that would put the fear of Whee in me


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## PYROZMAN29 (Sep 8, 2015)

Richie4540 said:


> so another weekend and got my final big prop done - added some pneumatics to a spider, so nows its a big jumping spider .
> 
> this one is going to be down by the side of the house (we live on a corner) away from the main event and just sitting there waiting for anyone that walks by.
> 
> ...


What is the green board on the top with what looks like capacitors?


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## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

The green board is a small board that Mikkojay made for a trial to hold everything together a bit neater ( not sure what Mikes plans are with this) but he was kind enough to to send me a few to try out, they help make the project easier in the sense that with the correct connectors for the cables soldered to the board it all becomes plug and play. One of the issues is sourcing the connectors as you have both imperial 2.54mm spaced and metric 2mm spaced connector for the switch board.


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## PerthOZ (Oct 27, 2015)

Good luck with your setup, hope to see installed pics.


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## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

Ok, so its the night before and I got the main part up and some lighting tested, tomorrow I just have to finsih the air door install and tune the 4 bangers from Mikkojay,


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## Iniquity (Oct 13, 2015)

Very cool!! It looks really nice. You did a great job!


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Great night shot!


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## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

Thanks for the comments, 

I am also trying out a raspberry Pi as a streaming camera, won't be much to see during the day until it gets dark at 6pm, check out 203.217.13.231:8081 if you want a small view as I finish the build.


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## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

Exhausted.

last minute setup










candy supplies










ready to go


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## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

huge night about 250 kids and heaps of adults, we also had about 20 people in the house for a party which as it turns out was great fun and also helped with crowd control.

at times we had so many people in the tunnel it was full, people got a real kick out of the moving props and most were scared at the front door by having to put their arm in the hole to open the door.

http://vid1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee451/runwin2/Halloween%20Build/Halloween4.mp4


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