100% total newbie remote haunter. Where do I begin?

[DrDoom]

Hi group,
I do a small garage halloween venue every year (Dr Doom's Haunted Halls) This year I want to try this. I am fairly PC literate. I will need to activate probably 2 or 3 motor-driven props, lighting, possibly a few sound sources. I will also need sensors, but I am assuming those can communicate directly to the props with no need for PC interface?
Questions are:
Minimum PC hardware requirements
What software/ programming etc
What prop motors ( will any servo motor be adaptable?)
Any other starter resources?
Thanks for your time
Dave

[JonnyMac]

If you're looking to do embedded control then you've certainly come to the right place, and if you're willing to invest a little time to learn to program our controllers then the sky is the limit; we have customers all over the country doing all kinds of cool things.  A quick visit to our Complete Projects forum will give you an idea.

If your PC can run Windows XP then you can program our controllers, and we'll help you -- every step of the way -- as you're learning.

And... if you'd like to experiment with PC-based control then there's a really cool program called Vixen (www.vixenlights.com) that we're using with our hardware to do some neat things.

Let me suggest that you pick a very specific prop project to start with, something simple like a TCT. Start without just control (e.g., with a Prop-1), then add sound (add an AP-8), then add lighting (add an RC-4 and relays).  It's best to start simple and work your way up so that you don't get overwhelmed from the get-go.  It doesn't take long to learn this stuff, but there are things to learn.  Trust me, it's absolutely worth learning because when you have the whole world of prop-control is open to you.

[spajadigit]

I'm going to go one further.
I'm a complete newbie.
I have been to the store and seen a lot of things that are tantalizingly cool, but I haven't a clue as to what they actually do.

Can you point me towards some really basic concepts, how to's or just plain "what do they do's" here in the forums that I can get my teeth into?

I'm working on a front yard haunt and I already have animated shadows that I'm projecting on the wall, and with the addition of another projector we're going to do ghosts as well. But, I would love to know how to implement those wickLed candles in some lanterns we have as well as simple stuff to do with prop-1 or 2...

I have some computer skills, but my knowledge is in visual effects, not practical ones. Thanks!

(Specifically, I am looking to do the lantern thing, and I would love to animate a crow using rc servos)

[JonnyMac]

You may find this interesting: http://www.halloweenmonsterlist.info

Our candles code for the Prop-1 is posted on the WickLED page of our web site.

[spajadigit]

Thanks! I didn't even see the candle downloads.

And sorry for the dumb questions.

But I have some more.
I've never worked with electrical stuff before.

Is there a limit to how many of those wickLeds you can fork into a prop-1 or 2? I imagine there must be...
I'm not even sure what the current warnings are about. And how far can the wickLeds be from the prop-1... Can you have the prop-1 controller at the base of a tree, supporting four or five lanterns in the branches, or do you need four or five prop-1 controllers?

I was also wondering about how long a program can last- If I had a crow with random cawwing noises, beak, head and body animation- Would you animate the whole enchilada (like you would if you were animating it for film) or would you set it up with random actions that would react... well... randomly?

[JonnyMac]

Have you ever seen a bunch of sprinklers running that weren't spraying, but just dribbling?  Well, that can happen in electrical systems too.  Luckily, there's this easy bit of math called Ohm's Law that, when put int to practice, prevent our electrical systems from dribbling...

The WickLED circuit doesn't demand more than about 25 mA and an output channel on a Prop-1 or Prop-2 can comfortably handle 200 mA; the practical issues are two-fold: 1) making the connections to the controller, and 2) every WickLED connected to a given controller channel will have the same behavior -- you can 'fix' this by putting phsycial distance between two candles connect to the same output.

You can use long leads to spread your wicks around the yard, just use big wire; I'd use black lamp cord (#18) to be safe.

How do you intend to accomplish "beak, head, and body animation"?  Using servos on the Prop-1 can be tricky because of bandwidth.  That said, I came up with a table drive program that is being used for a "talking head" project; that approach could work with the Prop-1, or the Prop-2 (which has 8x the program space of the Prop-1).

[spajadigit]

The WickLED circuit doesn't demand more than about 25 mA and an output channel on a Prop-1 or Prop-2 can comfortably handle 200 mA; the practical issues are two-fold: 1) making the connections to the controller, and

So.. (another dumb question) does that mean that one prop-1 can control 8 wicks? Or one channel can power 8 wicks...

2) every WickLED connected to a given controller channel will have the same behavior -- you can 'fix' this by putting phsycial distance between two candles connect to the same output.

Or multiple controllers. :)

How do you intend to accomplish "beak, head, and body animation"?  Using servos on the Prop-1 can be tricky because of bandwidth.  That said, I came up with a table drive program that is being used for a "talking head" project; that approach could work with the Prop-1, or the Prop-2 (which has 8x the program space of the Prop-1).

Well, until you sent me these answers, I wasn't too sure. But yeah, servos was the plan. And a prop-2 was what I was going to use. But if you had little bits of animation... A head turn, cawing (with beak) and body rocking (ala the birds inside the Tiki Room at Disneyland) could you string these together randomly, so there'd never be a cycled appearance to the motion?

Man, I can't tell you how excited finding your web site has made me!

[JonnyMac]

If you connect one wick per channel, the Prop-1 could control eight wicks; two per channel, 16 wicks -- that's about where I'd stop with one controller as connections will become difficult and when too many candles are doing the same thing it starts to affect the illusion.

I think you could create a program that randomly moves a bird prop.  I'll make you a deal: you build the prop, I'll help you with the code -- it won't be trivial, however, so you may want to learn with a few simpler projects.

[ravenscroft]

Unless you have the other wicks in another area of the haunt.  Also to powering multiple Wicks off of one I/O just use a brick ( terminal Block) to distribute the signal.  It is an easy way of making one board to control multiple wicks, props, LEDs, etc.


Terminal Block:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103232&cp=&sr=1&origkw=terminal+strip&kw=terminal+strip&parentPage=search

[spajadigit]

Awesome. Thanks, guys.
Fortunately, I just need six. (We're putting them in lanterns in the tree in front of my house.) But, they're up, and look fantastic. I also have fireflies based on the ones in POC at Disneyland, so it's a pretty kinetic tree now!

As for the crow, he's coming along pretty good. I'm on OT here at work until Golden Compass is done, so I haven't been able to spend that much time on it, but September is going to be slow. I imagine I'll be posting a lot more in the coming weeks.