Thread: Guillotine prop

Tweet

Hi, I hope everyone had a good night last night. Now that the fun is over, I'm thinking up some ideas for next year. One prop I've wanted to build for a while is an automated guillotine prop. I want to set it up so that there is a person on it, and when someone presses the doorbell switch on the house, the prop is illuminated, a voice calls out "no... no... nooooo" the blade falls, the head drops and some water or fake blood gets sprayed out. Then the thing resets itself. I have a good idea on how to build everything, but I'm unsure how to automate it. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks

What a great idea. I love the guilt trip that this will give the TOT. The whole thing could be done using a Basic Stamp, PIC, or ATMEL microcontroller. These range from about $3 to $80 depending on the complexity and ports/speed. If you have not worked with them before, I would look for a basic stamp or even an OOPIC which are very easily programmed in basic and simple to interface to. Electronics123.com makes a great little sound circuit that has (2) 20 second sound clips and is only $6. I used a few of them this year with some custom circuitry to swap back and forth between the two sound clips. You could also use an old notebook computer and something like a kit74 relay board that plugs into the parallel port. Again, simple to use, versatile, and supported by loads of free software for stuff like this. I use 3 of these with 8 - 10 ports each (although I build my own with Triacs and not relays). Hope this helps. Glad to answer any questions if I can.

Hi, thanks for the reply. I have never worked with PIC's etc before. Could you recommend any goo tutorials for getting started?
Thanks

There are some good basic books out there. It depends on whether you do any programming. If you are planning to use something like PICBasic which is about $100 or if you are going to use assembly language. I would look for a tutorial/book that is specific to that method. Fortunately, the web is crawling with both types of tutorials. Just do lots of research before choosing a microcontroller. I work with lots of different ones and some are MUCH easier. RadioShack (arg! I hate that name) has a great Basic Stamp on a prototyping board, servo, thick training manual, and parts all for $79. Its a great deal and this stamp can do loads of work. It has 16 ports and is programmed over USB/Serial in basic (easy to learn).
I used this stamp for my giant house eyes this year.

check out my website www.haunteddeadend.com for videos and photos of last years working guillotine.

Originally Posted by Pat-f

Hi, thanks for the reply. I have never worked with PIC's etc before. Could you recommend any goo tutorials for getting started?
Thanks

Forgot about this great into. Might help get you thinking about which to choose.

http://wolfstone.halloweenhost.com/C...llerIntro.html

Thanks again. I have an old PC, so I'm leaning more towards the kit74 relay board. But I'll do some more research before I decide. Any ideas on how to motorize this thing?