Thread: How to make a Motion activated Car horn???

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I have been pondering this idea for my haunted house. how could i make this work? the horn can only take 12 volts right? I was thinking of just wiring it to a motion light and BAM it would come on. Any other ideas out there for how i can make this work. I wouldn't mind a real quick honk maybe like 4 seconds or less. I searched on here but found nothing. Thanks in advance.

That should be very easy to do, just a PIR with a Normally open contact, and a power supply. The PIR can be battery powered, or run of the power supply as well, assuming it's 12v. Then you just connect one wire from the power supply directly to the horn, then one to the PIR contact, then to the horn as well. Most PIR's will give a short pulse though, so you may find it a very quick blast. A way round this would be to use a delay relay. I guess it depends on the PIR you use.

Hmmm.... interesting.

We had an old siren we put in a 1943 Willys jeep that we restored, but later removed it. It ran on a 12v power supply.

I would probably opt for a cheap haunt timer for flexibility. (for instance)
FrightProps - Halloween Decorations, Halloween Props, Pneumatic Props, Animated Props, Halloween Accessories

I use rigged PIR sensors to trigger basic things that just need a "blast," like a trashcan prop or floodlight. It would probably work for a horn, but it may be too short. Maybe short is good?

Originally Posted by Zombie69

I have been pondering this idea for my haunted house. how could i make this work? the horn can only take 12 volts right? I was thinking of just wiring it to a motion light and BAM it would come on. Any other ideas out there for how i can make this work. I wouldn't mind a real quick honk maybe like 4 seconds or less. I searched on here but found nothing. Thanks in advance.

It depends on what you want to spend. I did it one year using an air horn from a truck, a solenoid, and a maestro controller. The horn was free, the solenoid was about $50, and the controller was $85 I think. If you use a Maestro 2 you can add lights and have them come on together for a more startling effect. Below are a couple of links to places that sell them, one even sells it with a motion sensor. They also may be able to answer your questions more in depth.

Controllers
Animation Maestro I Prop Controller | Prop Controllers | Grimm Brothers Halloween Specialty Store |

I like the idea, I have an old oooga horn. On the down side, you might want to check with the neighbors first and the police second. I wouldn't want to tick the first on off or get a ticket from the second for being in a noise zone.

This PIR:
Quorum A-160 Passive Infrared Detector-The Electronic Goldmine
will close an attached relay for 2 seconds when it sees a warm body. The off intervals are factory set at 15 seconds and 15 minutes, but it can be hacked to set different times.

Here's an old thread with the cheapie way to motion activate props.
Beam break triger for a CD player