Thread: Super Versatile, $10 Complete Prop Controller

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As many of you have seen, I've been designing and building, with lots of help from Fritz, quite a few different controllers for various tasks in my haunt using the Picaxe 08 chip.
My ultimate goal was to design a single board that would be able to control almost any of my props. I wanted it to be able to be programmable, be triggered by a PIR, control a servo as well as two 12V devices and control a sound board to provide ambient as well as a scare audio track.
I know there are many great, ready to go controllers out there but I wanted to make my own and since I use a lot of servos, I needed to include that on my board.
The board uses a Radio Shack circuit board and by using the picture below, you just install the components into designated spots. No need to read a schematic or know how to build it on a bread board. Just drop in the parts and solder it up. A couple of hours and it's DONE!
The best part is, once you have the download cable, these boards cost less than $10 each to assemble. Add one one of the new 300 second audio boards, a Parallax PIR, Big Lots computer speakers and a couple of power supplies and the whole package comes in under $50.
I'll be using one to control my entire Madame Leota scene. The ambient audio track will be playing until the effect begins. The program will trigger using the PIR and move the servo which will activate a DVD player with the projection. The 12V headers will turn on my haunted bookshelf and the LED's which illuminate it. In this application, I won't be using the audio scare track as the projection will provide the audio for the scene. All controlled by a unit I built myself and only cost me $10.
I had the board running all afternoon and it ran without a hitch but I would appreciate any feedback. I'm looking into several options for getting a printed circuit board made to make it even easier to assemble. If nothing else, it will eliminate all the wire links as well as several necessary solder joints on the underside of the board. If you're interested, I'd like to know in order to gauge interest. I have no interest in making any money off this, in fact one option is to have someone else produce and sell them. I would just like to have them available if anyone would like to build one.
I'd like to thank all those that have patiently answered all my questions as I've slowly learned their trade including Fritz, Otaku, Hpropman and SteveO. We're so fortunate to have people that are willing to share their expertise in so many areas so that all of us are able to provide a better Halloween experience to our communities.
Here it is! Let me know what you think.

If u could will u please give us a parts list. Thank you in advanced.
This is awsome!!!!!

Great idea I'm all for the solder idea. Question through: what is the sound quality of this board 8 bit mono or mp3 quality. Or is this a seperate board that you impliment in. I noticed you mentioned a 300sec audio board and was just wondering.

While I do like the keybanger controllers ease of use I did step up my game with Boobox controllers. Although $159 a controller low end mind you 2 inputs, $199 for 8 inputs and the friggin insane Boobox Flex Master 16 inputs $349 it does offer ease of programming with a scaremaster and has mp3 sound.

I'm all for the cheaper $50 route if all the features are there.

Parts list to come. Already had one suggestion so I'm revising it a bit.
I'm using this sound board - http://www.electronics123.com/s.nl/it.A/id.3041/.f?sc=8&
category=2
I'm very pleased with the sound quality as long as you use the computer speakers.
More to come soon.

Ok thank you but one question could this board be used to do the singing
pumpkins thing where the lights go on and off inside the pumpkin to make
it look like they are singing ? Thank you

Originally Posted by Greg36567

Ok thank you but one question could this board be used to do the singing
pumpkins thing where the lights go on and off inside the pumpkin to make
it look like they are singing ? Thank you

This probably isn't the best solution for singing pumpkins however we are in the process of designing a more powerful board that has more output headers that might work.
I'm in the process of putting together a singing pumpkin display and I'm using the Kit74 with the program being controlled by Vixen.

OK, here's the latest update. Using Otaku's suggestion, I added a 5V voltage regulator so now the board only requires a 12V power supply. Cheaper, easier and cleaner design. That's the way I like it.

So how do you program this board? Using Basic ro what?

You use a free Program Editor and download from your computer via a special cable. It's really the only extra item you need to purchase and it comes in the starter kit. For my board, you will need to add an adapter with a header on one side and a jack on the other that connects to the download cable but it's only soldering 3 wires.
Here's the sample code I'm using to test the features of the board -

'Room Micro Controller Test

Init: 'Just a starting point label
Pause 60000 'Wait 60 secs for PIR to 'settle down
Servo 4,155 'Move Servo on Port 4 to start position
Symbol delay = 5000 'Sets variable delay for making the whole thing wait for a while after pressing the button
Symbol time=b1


low 0 'Start ambient audio track

Testit:
readadc 1,b0
pause 5 'Brief pause on the checking loop
b0 = b0 + 5 * Pin1 'Pin 1 is PIR
if b0 < 100 then Testit
goto BEGIN

Begin:
high 0 'Stop ambient track and start effect audio track
high 2 'Start motor
servo 4,175 'Start servo movements
pause 4000
servo 4,210
pause 4000
servo 4,175
pause 3000
low 2 'Stop motor
servo 4,150
pause 4000
servo 4,190
pause 5000
servo 4,210
pause 3500
servo 4,155
pause 3000
high 2 'Start motor
servo 4,200
pause 5000
low 2 'Stop motor
low 0 'Stop effect audio and start ambient track
for time = 1 to 20 '20 is the number of seconds of retrigger delay
pause 1000 'Pause for 1 sec
next time
Goto Testit

ok thanks for replying i think i will use the kit 74 than
thank you