Butchering the expression a hair, when the Halloween gods shut a door they often open a window.

For years, I've had a skelly sitting by the front door. When the TOTers reach the front porch, a wired switch triggers an old garage door opener and the guy's skull starts to spin around, Exorcist-style.

There is so much force, the whole body kinda rocks. It's scary, albeit in a bit of a goofy way. It's also a bit noisy.

Hoping to go wireless - I wanted to be able to trigger the garage door opener from anywhere - I asked for advice on the Props forum a couple of days ago. The challenge was that a remote outlet wouldn't do the job; I needed to fashion a remote switch. I got some very helpful advice from bradbaum who introduced me to the world of relays.

Long story short, I bought the necessary electronics, wired up the whole thing, and proceeded to fry my garage door opener to death; I had made a mistake with the wiring - which is now fixed - and burnt the motherboard beyond recognition.

What a bummer, man. It's not like used garage door openers are falling from the sky. The nice thing with the garage door opener is that when the switch is deactivated, the head's spin reverses and it returns to its original starting point. You don't even have to see the skull to know it stops facing outward.

So, a little ticked at my amateur electronics foolishness, I started tinkering around last night with some of the various motors I have lying around. Some were too powerful or noisy, some were too slow or had other issues. I finally settled on an old BBQ rotisserie motor.

Worked on it for a couple of hours last night and then again this morning. It's completed. I'm nothing if not tenacious.

To put it mildly...WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT!

It's now hooked up with a remote power outlet. When activated, the head turns slowly towards the front door. I stop it, then restart it again and the head reverses direction, just like the rotisserie motor is designed to do when it meets resistance.

And, it is completely silent.

Moreover, the whole effect isn't goofy anymore. If anything, it is very creepy.

In the end, I am thankful I screwed up wiring the relay yesterday and wrecked my old garage door opener. It has led to a major leap in the animatronic's overall quality.

Haunt should be finished in a couple of days. Will post pics. Good luck with all your projects.

Good times.

JD