Thread: Motion activated bells

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Hi everyone. I am new here. I saw the post by OpenTrackRacer and would like to pose a similar question. First, OpenTrackRacer, I will post your question to a room full of media/cbt developers I work with (I am no developer, hence my question) and see what they say.

How can I connect a motion or sound sensor to a cd player (or some sort of noise maker)? Here is what I would like to do: I am setting up an arbor with skeletons and demons that the kiddies will pass through before entering a small tunnel-like entrane to my front door. As they pass through the arbor I would like to have a motion detector turn on some type of player and play some eerie church bells I have recorded for 3 or 4 seconds. After passing through the arbor and entering my tunnel of doom I would like to have another sensor turn on a player of some sort to play Alice Cooper's "Welcome To My Nightmare". I would greatlly appreciate any input and if yu are able to offer any advice I need it presented to me at about the third grade level..LOL

One way to do this is to use a cd player, a set of amplified computer speakers and a motion sensor light from the hardware store.

Set the CD player to loop your sound effect or make an extended version of it, Get a screw in plug and screw it into the motion sensor, Plug the computer speakers into the motion sensor, turn on the CD player and just let it run, The motion sensor will turn on and off the speaker to give you sound or no sound.

Now the problem with this is that these motion sensing lights usually have 4 settings, test, 1 min, 5 min and 10 min or something similar, so you either get sound for a very short time (test) or longer depening on the setting. Also they will continue to trip as there is no delay after the first trip. However, its a cheap and fairly simple way to activate a prop or sound.

If you go this route you may need to narrow the field of view on the motion sensor eye, you can do this by putting black elect tape on the sides until you have a smaller area in the center of the eye, or you can place the sensor in a piece of pvc pipe this helps focus the field of view and prevents it from picking up movement before they reach the point wher you want it to activate.

Thanks a lot for the info. Based on time and finances I may go the route you just described this year. If I understand this correctly, once the sound is triggered it will run until the time setting I pick expires?

Yes the sensor will turn on and off the speakers, the cd plays all the time.

It may play longer then the selected time if the sensor is triggered before the time is up since there is no delay on the re-trigger.

If you plan on doing this again next year consider an event timer or a sound card/chip here are some.

Flex ECT
Cowlacious Audio Products
FrightProps - Halloween Props, Pneumatic Props, Animated Props, Halloween Accessories

Scareisburg has the right idea. You may even be able to find motion sensors that go down below one minute. The ones I'm using have a minimum duration of about five seconds.

The reset time issue is more difficult to deal with. I built prop controller using interval time delay relays. Now I can control the run time of the prop and the reset time as well.