Halloween 2004 light show

As I have done for the past 3 years I try to make my house a bit different for the trick-or-treaters which come visiting at Halloween.

This year I had:

* Sounds effects (doors creaking, footsteps and thunder)
* Blue and Green lights + white flashes for lightning
* Hid a smoke machine behind an air vent near the front door
* Changed the porch light for a red one and placed a large toy spider in the shade
* Decorated the hallway
* All effects triggered automatically as people approach


Pictures & Video

Here are pictures taken of the house on the night itself (click for a larger version):

The house a dusk The blue-green light at night The hallway A Video of the sequence Small AVI Small MPEG


How it worked

The system had 6 basic components:

* The main controller
* Two cheap PIR sensors
* The DMX controlled MP3 player
* The DMX controlled smoke machine
* The DMX controlled dimmer
* The lights

 Note DMX is a standard widely used in the theatre lighting industry (see HERE for more information).

The main controller

This was a custom made unit based around a MIPS micro controller. It took logic level inputs from the PIR sensors and outputted DMX. HERE is the CPP source as it was used on the night, note it's very rough-and-ready!.

The micro controller has two built-in UARTS. One was set to 250k baud so could be used for DMX transmission. The other showed messages on a debug console.

The PIR sensors

These were cheap PIR sensors from Maplin, intended for use as part of a domestic burglar alarm.

The DMX controlled MP3 player

This was another project I'd constructed myself. It's based around the VLSI VS1001 single chip MP3 player, and a MIPS micro. HERE is the source for the MP3 controller.

The DMX controlled smoke machine

This was a cheap (£40) smoke machine which had been adapted to take a DMX input. This was done using an AT89C2051 micro controller with it's serial port running at 250k baud.

The DMX controlled dimmer

This was a commercial unit made by sound lab (very cheap, £60 from CPC). I'd actually borrowed this bit of kit from the Plaza theatre in Romsey.

The lights

These were the cheap 500W linear halogen flood lights, available for less than £5 from most places including Argos and B&Q. I'd placed blue and green gels in front of two of the lights.


The results

The whole package worked as expected (see the video) and I was quite pleased with the results. We had 7 groups of trick-or-treaters visit, most commented that they liked the show! The nicest comment came while I was still setting up in the afternoon though: A woman walked past and asked if I was going to be having the smoke this year "because John's been asking to come and see your house all day".