Thread: Help! With Motion Sensor Props

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Hello everyone! I am a newbie to this site, but not to Haunted Houses-I've been doing one in my Garage on and off for about 15 Years-after a two Year hiatus, I'm doing one again this Year, but need your help on Motion Sensors.

I did a Search, and read as much as I could, but I am Electronically challenged-most of my Props are pneumatic, and I control them with valves and flow control valves that I purchsed from Grainger-I have to be centrally located, but it has worked in the past.

I have had problems through the Years getting people to show up and help, so I have tried to have as many props self energize as possible.

The problem I am having is that sometimes the Motion/Light Sensors that come with the Prop do not work, or are erratic. It appears that people are using regular Motion sensors-is this the answer? I have made some triggers that you step on, and they work o.k. for lights and such, but I do not know how to wire something like that into a commercial made prop that already has a sensor-

Can you please enlighten me? I am at a loss, and have thought of just having a black light behind people so that it iwll "trip the beam"-please teach this idiot!

Like most haunters I have used/hacked motion sension light fixtures and the motion sensing wall switches. The results has been mixed but generally less then desired. The main issues with these are:

Limited adjustment for time on and retrip
Very tempermental
Contain an electric eye so only work when dark and can be affected you other lights

The best improvement to these is to put a short tube or plactic pipe over the lens to focus the field of view. Think toilet paper tube size and length

I've pretty much junked most of these sensor because they are so tempermental and just not reliable. I suggest looking at Haunt Masters Flex ECT this has a motion sensor and adjustments for delay, time on and reset time. They work very well and are resonable priced. I've also had very good luck with Pico Boo products from fright ideas however you need to buy/add a sensor as it does not come with the controller. Here's the links for the products.

Haunt Masters Products that SCARE at Prices that don't!!!
Fright Ideas Controllers : Fright Ideas, Control the Fear
Radio Shack Sensor PIR Sensor Module - RadioShack.com
I've also had good experince with boards from Simple Circuits Haunted House Boards

Best of luck and I'm sure you'll get lots of other idea and opinons on this one

I have used a few different prop controllers and i really like the hauntmaster products combo flex timers. The PIR sensor is wired right into the flex control box and it has off and on timers that you can control incrementally.These timers work very well. The other problem i have found with regular PIR or hacked sensors are as stated previously, they are unreliable. The PIR sensors used by hauntmaster and others for example have circuitry that make them interface with thier controllers.

I'm going to agree with the rest here. The Hauntmaster Flex ECT'S Work great!!!

Thank you everyone for your replies! I will look into a Hauntmaster Flex!

i have completely abandoned motion sensors for pressure pads!
these work great and they are cheap!
- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices
but if your doing motion detection hauntmaster is the way to go

Originally Posted by robzilla69

i have completely abandoned motion sensors for pressure pads!
these work great and they are cheap!
- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices
but if your doing motion detection hauntmaster is the way to go

Thank you for the suggestion-how did you wire them up? Have you wired them to a Commercial Prop? I bought some Props that I want to use a manual sensor with (Mats would work!) and am not sure how to wire them up-they are 9 volt, and have the motion sensors as part of the prop-do you disable them?

I looked at the Hauntmaster this morning, and they apear to be 120v (don't know how to interface them either)-

if its a store bought prop with a test button, you simply cut the test button off and cut the sound/ battery module off the pressure pad and wire the 2 wires of the pad to the 2 wires of the prop. it will work on whatever power supply voltage DC your prop works on. If using a prop controller with a trigger input do the same but wire to controller. my pneumatics etc work on 120v a/c so i use this solid state relay for them
POTTER&BRUMFIELD SOLID STATE RELAY 110/240VAC 15A - eBay (item 300343826613 end time Oct-01-09 05:49:34 PDT)

Robzilla69,

Thanks for the info! What if it doesn't have a test button? Can you help this idiot with a wiring schematic on the relay? Thanks so much!

in order to do that i need to know what your wanting to trigger send a link please ill do what i can