Thread: Prime Reaper aka The Grand Reaper

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I've never been big on doing something flashy for Halloween, but something stirred inside me to do something this year, thus started my adventure and endeavor of making sometime slightly different from the rest of costume wearers out there. Although I do see some grim reaper, I wanted to add some twist and turns here and there to throw people off. So, with some time to think, I've drawn up plans (still incomplete) to finish off this costume to scare the living daylights out of any man, woman or child. Although the costume may not be scary, it's the delivery of how I intend to scary people. So with out further a do. Here is the described plans that I could use anyone and everyones help. Since Halloween is just around the corner, I'll take any help I can get, even if it's being pointed in the right direction.


I have the following gathered:
Scythe: (part of it)

(I want to replace the staff with something else, (wooden if possible that has a dynamic shape to it)

Staff/pole of scythe will have a switch that controls the eyes of the sycthe led eyes on/off switch


Grim Reaper mask & hands


Battery powered speakers


Tiny fogger w/wired remote (on the way)

Detachable Skates:



Led Lights







How I'm using these together:
I've fashioned the speakers so I can wear it like a necklace that is wired to an mp3 player (sanyo mini mp3 player) that sits in the palm of my left hand. I can easily play my scary sounds (saved playlist) by the tap of my finger.

Right hand will have the lighting switch that controls the eyes, also will have a switch either on the palm or wrist to turn off and on the tiny fogger that's attached to the back of my leg.



Effects I'm trying to pull off:

Scythe Will light up when I flick the switch (rocker or something easy to press)

Skating while fog is running or standing still

Playing the sound in proxmitiy of a person.


Problems so far:

The wheel of the scorpian skates that I have causes a major problem for me and my outfit because when skating or trying to walk, I walk on top of it, so I need a way to extend the lower portion of my body to accommodate enough walking space and skating space to maneuver.

If there was a way to lock the the wheels so I could walk with them would be fantastic.

Finding the right staff handle for the scythe to be able to custom design and feed a wire through it to (it can't be too heavy or too weak and fragile, sturdy enough to use as leverage if needed) and I have to cut into it to install a switch for the led lit blade.



Items/Materials that I still need to obtain: Can someone tell me where I can get some of these things?

Skating gear: elbow and knee pads (cuz I know I'll slip and bust my ass a couple of times)

Big sunglasses to wear to for the eye socket (either really reflective or buying a smoke mirror tint and putting on top of the lenses) and then putting Led or EL lighting in front of it to give it a glowing eerie effect. This way I can still see what's in front of me.

Mirror Tint or smoke tint. (two way mirror tint of course) I checked for it at a near by home depot and they didn't have any, does anyone know what major store sells them, offline?

Smaller skating wheels
2 Switches for lighting system, (A Rocker and one that can dim the leds)

Battery holder , batteries (dunno which ones is best for powering leds)

Wires

Some type of lower body frame to enable me to walk and not trip over the costume.that just barely touches the ground
(gotta leave room for fog to seep out)

Anything else I left out???


Scenarios:

I'm gonna glide down a street or side walk while looking at people, the staff will act as a breaking device along the skate itself

I'm gonna act like a big sized prop and move in a mechanical fashion to fool someone and then scare the living hell out of anyone who comes close to inspect my costume when I'm near the entrance of a haunted house or door (I'll point to enter, and have a looping sound effect w/ repeated off and on glowing lights)

Me going to a dance party and skating around on the dance floor while creeping people out w/ my eye flashes/sound and fog drip.


So there's my grand scheme. There are some issues that I have that I've mentioned around in the forum but i figured I'd rather just put all my problems along with my setup in this one thread. I'm so glad that I've found a place like this to be able to write something like this, otherwise I probably would of never gone through with it.

Also, my electronics skills is verrry limited. I'm more a visual learner, so if i can see a diagram or even a video tutorial on how something is done, I can usually easily follow.

Much thanks in advanced to all!

I'll post a video of everything in action as well.

You can get a switch, battery holder and just about any other electronic thingy at Jameco. Do a search on that site for "battery holder" and you can find many options. I am sure you can find one at radio shack as well if you have one nearby. My suggestion is to get a 9V battery holder and get a 330 ohm resistor and a simple switch from radio shack. Or if you want to use a holder for 2 AA or AAA batteries you should use a resistor about 120 ohms. And both of the LEDs you have will work fine - they are essentially the same thing - one just has a cover on it.

I swear I posted to your other thread, but I can't find it now. DOH

If you're looking for two different brightnesses from the same LEDs, I'd suggest the following. Use the 2AA batteries (9V will get used up much faster), and an SPDT toggle switch (ON1-OFF-ON2). Connect them up like this...

ON1------------/\/\/---- AA+
COMMON------|>|----- AA-
ON2--------\/\/\/\/----- AA+

(The LED is connected at the COMMON switch terminal, if the ASCII art isn't clear enough)

Make the red resistor 47 Ohms, and make the blue resistor 160 Ohms. This will give you ~20mA for the ON1 setting (bright), and ~5mA (dim) for the ON2 setting. If the ON2 is too dim, you can connect (2) of the 160 Ohm resistors in parallel, and then get 10mA instead of 5.

- Hook

Originally Posted by azdude

You can get a switch, battery holder and just about any other electronic thingy at Jameco. Do a search on that site for "battery holder" and you can find many options. I am sure you can find one at radio shack as well if you have one nearby. My suggestion is to get a 9V battery holder and get a 330 ohm resistor and a simple switch from radio shack. Or if you want to use a holder for 2 AA or AAA batteries you should use a resistor about 120 ohms. And both of the LEDs you have will work fine - they are essentially the same thing - one just has a cover on it.

okay, I'm going to go with the battery option. I gotta have a battery holder small enough to hide in the handle of the scythe, preferable a long thinner batter holder, I'm trying to find that along side the 120ohms resistor you were referring to but couldn't find it on that site. forgive my lack of knowledge on electrical work but how and why does the 120ohms resistor matter when assembling an led lighting kit?

Originally Posted by Hooked_on_Scares

I swear I posted to your other thread, but I can't find it now. DOH

If you're looking for two different brightnesses from the same LEDs, I'd suggest the following. Use the 2AA batteries (9V will get used up much faster), and an SPDT toggle switch (ON1-OFF-ON2). Connect them up like this...

ON1------------/\/\/---- AA+
COMMON------|>|----- AA-
ON2--------\/\/\/\/----- AA+

(The LED is connected at the COMMON switch terminal, if the ASCII art isn't clear enough)

Make the red resistor 47 Ohms, and make the blue resistor 160 Ohms. This will give you ~20mA for the ON1 setting (bright), and ~5mA (dim) for the ON2 setting. If the ON2 is too dim, you can connect (2) of the 160 Ohm resistors in parallel, and then get 10mA instead of 5.

- Hook

Is there such a switch that could I could slide gradually that would control the dim and brightness of an led light? Like one that's found in a house bulb (kitchen or certain parts of newer houses) that has a smoother dimming switch?

Also, I looked on the site azdude mentioned, and was wondering if this was the switch you were referring to?
http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/sto...0001_317308_-1

I'm trying to order all my parts to do everything just from 1 place. and Jameco seems to have a pretty extensive catalog.

Thanks for the help so far!

Originally Posted by Madburner

okay, I'm going to go with the battery option. I gotta have a battery holder small enough to hide in the handle of the scythe, preferable a long thinner batter holder, I'm trying to find that along side the 120ohms resistor you were referring to but couldn't find it on that site. forgive my lack of knowledge on electrical work but how and why does the 120ohms resistor matter when assembling an led lighting kit?

A resistor is required to limit the current through the LED or it will burn up. As a rule of thumb, most standard LEDs are specified to work at a current of 25mA. So you can determine what resistor size you need by taking the voltage you will be using and divide it by .025. So for example, if you are using a 9V battery then 9/.025 gets you a resistor value of 360 ohms. Or if you are using 2 AA batteries together that gets you 3V so 3V/.025 gets you 120 ohms.

Resistors only come in specific values so if they don't have exactly the one you need then just get the next highest value resistor. I looked on the Jameco site and they only sell single resistors in bags of 100 so my recommendation is that you buy an "assortment pack" like this one that does not have a 120 ohm but does have a 150 which would work fine. This way you have plenty of resistors for next year!

Yes, that's an SPDT switch. Would be perfect for what I showed in the diagram.

azdude's mostly right on the resistor calculation. The other thing you need to take into consideration is the forward voltage of the LED (aka: Vf). With battery voltages this low, this affect will be significant. Take a look at this post, where I talk a little more about it, and point to a great online calculator for LEDs.

If you're really looking for variable brightness, you could do that with a potentiometer. In this case, the current you're using is low enough that it won't burn up the pot. Normally, with LEDs, you want to use a circuit (PWM) to control brightness. But if you're looking for quick and dirty, this could do the trick.

Connect the + of your 3V battery to the anode of the LED.
Then connect the cathode of the LED to a 50 Ohm 1/4 Watt resistor
Connect the other end of the resistor to the center connection on this pot.
Finally, connect one of the outer connections on the pot to the - of your 3V battery.

This will let you control the resistance between 50 and 150 Ohms, which will affect how much current goes through the LED, which will affect how bright it is.

Oh yeah... and probably a good idea to stick a switch in there too (only SPST is needed now), in order to turn the light completely off.

- Hook

I am not trying to be a smart ass so please don't take it that way.

"Mirror Tint or smoke tint. (two way mirror tint of course) I checked for it at a near by home depot and they didn't have any, does anyone know what major store sells them, offline?"

This is actually One-Way mirror tint you are looking for. You can only see through one side as it is mirror on the other. Two way would be glass. Anyway, are you still looking for some? I got mine at Home Depot, but if yours is out I wondered if you asked them about ordering some for you. Or try Lowes, or an automotive store. This will be a cool outfit if you can pull it off. Good luck. I want to see pics.

freaking people at home depots are a bunch of tools (no pun intended) they don't know much jack worth crap when it comes to this little small home made electronics or window filming. I've asked for help from several people, and they all seem to be sort of answers. So this is what I've decided to do. I've got in contact w/ a buddy of mine who does window tinting on cars and buildings, he's told me about the 2 optional mirror tints, one that normally done on Mercedes Benz that has a sky/smoke mirror tint to it and the other where it's a mirror tint but the light is dampened. These are the only known mirror tints to exist. So, I bought some flat safety goggles and removed the eye piece of it. So now I'm going to cut it down just a bit to fit just over the eye socket and not cause a huge bulge because where the goggles originally caused my mask to have a deformed and unnatural look to it. So once the eye piece is shaved down to the right size, I'll apply the mirror film to it and once that's done, I'm going to put the EL wire that I just order right on top of it. and Fasten all of it w/ some good ol hot glue gun.

So, hopefully now when people take my picture, there'll be a sparkle flash in my eyes w/a hint of red glowing aura in it!

O_O

I'm gonna be working on it tomorrow evening and I'll be sure to take a pic of everything and post it up!