Circuit Board Trigger, Need Help From Experts

[chugger93]

Tweet

Hey guys;

So i have this board from Jeff (great product btw) but I'm trying to refrain from pestering him so much with all my questions. I figured some fellow haunters who have some experience with this stuff can lend some ideas.

I'm doing the footsteps with his board and the only setback right now is the triggering. It looks like you can trigger by PIR or dry contact. PIR would be the motion part, and I'm assuming the dry contact I could hook up some wires and trigger by a timer somehow? Not sure exactly.

Now I can trigger it by a typical PIR sensor I guess like: http://www.parallax.com/StoreSearchR...3/Default.aspx
I'm just not sure how great they work.

Anyone have any ideas on this one? Or if I can use the dry contact trigger in another way? I'm sorta looking for additional guidance before I buy something and have it not work the way I want it.

Thanks!

[Halstaff]

For a dry contact, you could use a footpad or a manual switch.
I use a lot of the Parallax PIR's and it helps if you focus the beam by adding a tube to it. I use the connector end of the 1/2 electrical PVC for this. You just need to taper the inside a bit with a dremel and then hot glue it on. Works great.

[chugger93]

Ok so sounds like I don't want the footpad or manual switch option. Jeff told me about the PVC option to trigger it so its more specific. Still not exactly sure what type of field of view I want and what should trigger it yet tho. That's the hard part. Of course mounting the PIR to PVC would make for an interesting challenge on mounting, protecting from weather, etc...not sure yet how that will play out in my mind.

[chugger93]

Here's another thought, but not sure how to work it. Have the foot steps start off in the cemetary and walk towards the tombstone, then once it stops, my breathing grave prop would kick on and it would start to breath. So it's like the ghost walked through the cemetary, went to his grave, and the prop kicks on and breaths. How to pull that off eh?

[JeffHaas]

If you haven't seen Scary Terry's page on using a PIR, take a look: http://www.scary-terry.com/itw/pirsensor/pirsensor.htm

His method of mounting a PIR in a PVC end-cap works well. Note that the PVC cap he's using is the kind for downspouts, it's about 3 inches across and flat on the back. The one thing he does is paint the inside black but leave the outside white! I paint the outside black too, then it all disappears in the dark.

[Jack Skellington]

I use PIR sensors on all of my props and think they work great. Of course if you go to the Parallax site they're out of stock right now so you may need to look at the footpad option for now.

Over the years I've made myself a number of PIR sensors that power a relay coil for a dry contact switch. I use these mostly for any props that have Try Me buttons. I also use the PVC tubing technique to focus the beams. This way I can point to a spot where I want someone to pass by to cause the triggering. Otherwise the field of view is too wide. Adjusting the length of the pipe increases and decreases the field of view.

[chugger93]

So using scarry terrys design, which I've already bought the parts for will give me what type of field of view? If I had it by my porch facing the frontyard. I'm sure it's hard to say. Hell, I'm not even sure who/what I want to trigger it

[Nepboard]

Where did you get this board from?

[Halstaff]

I think it came from Jeff at Simple Circuits - http://www.simplecircuitboards.com/contact.html
He's great to work with with reasonable prices and quick shipping. My kind of merchant!

[Jack Skellington]

So using scarry terrys design, which I've already bought the parts for will give me what type of field of view? If I had it by my porch facing the frontyard. I'm sure it's hard to say. Hell, I'm not even sure who/what I want to trigger it

My quick rule of thumb is if you can see the PIR lens it will trigger. ST uses a very large PVC cap so it has a relatively wide field of view. I normally use the 1/2" PVC union or even just a 1 1/2" inch of pipe and the view is fairly narrow. The longer the pipe the narrower the field of view. You may want to experiment once you have it. The easy way to test is use a large index card or thin piece of cardboard and roll it into a tube shape. Then you can start with it long and cut it back to test for the setting you want.