A friend and I checked out a local "professional" haunt recently. (had a great time too, its still fun to be on the other side of the scares sometimes)
We are both firemen and something caught our eye. It was an unprotected fuse box off to the side a bit with exposed wiring, stabs, the whole bit. He points at it and is like "Wow that doesnt look very safe does it?"
About that time he steps on the pressure mat lol. It arcs and sparks and makes a helluvalotta noise! We both jumped and had a great laugh. Those guys did a fantastic job of making it look accidental, like its not supposed to be part of the show. It was absolutely my favorite prop of the whole place.
Anyone know how this is made? Or at least a site/pic where I can look at one to try and get a better idea of how its made? I've tried googling with no success. Also, any electrical guru types out there know at what voltages you can get a nice arc like that without danger?
Terra purchased the prop from pale night as well. I've been thinking about this one as well, one thing I thought about you could do on the cheap is just rig the box with some super bright LED's above and beneath the plugs (perhaps the mini strobes you can buy anywhere during halloween), then wire in a small speaker and cd/mp3 on loop with electrical sounds. I know it isn't the cool electrical spark, but still an idea. I would imagine that these boxes work on a similar system to a spark fence? Maybe just enough voltage to cause a spark and noise (10-12'ish volts)
I love that box. They use this device called a 'cracker' but I'll be darned if I could find them anywhere else. Digital Sound and Lighting also were selling them in what they called a 'Boomstick'.
If anyone can find the source of these 'crackers' that would be killer. They are really loud and bright. The perfect startle scare.
ok so yeah, after seeing it in action i agree its strobing LEDs and not actual electrical arcs, but how do you get that loud sound they make? its hard to imagine thats an mp3 sound
See, I dunno if it's LEDS or not. Looking at it live, it does look like electrical arcs and sound like it too. I'm sure it's not but it's such a good illusion that I have no idea what else it is. Over at HauntWorld's forum people were dying to figure out what they were. It was one of the most talked about props there.
Kip mentioned to me that he was having a hard time getting them from his source. I'm thinking it's a unique item used for something else. It's a frustrating mystery. I wish someone would spill the beans!!!!
Not sure if you can tell but it looks to me that it has a spark plug design. There are two nodes with a blade in between. When it fires it's blinding so I can't tell if there's an electrical arc or not. And, it's deafening. I set it off a couple of times for these shots and my ears are still ringing
Here is what it looks like when firing:
See the second cracker in the background? That looks like an electrical arc to me.
They are all painted now but the top of it has a Chinese-style cut-out, was red and has Chinese lettering. This looks to me like this was an electrical firecracker. Is there such a thing?
oppps didnt see the link at the bottom.... never mind
I did find from China at the www dot chemq dot com site a patent that described what is seen in the video
"The single-body electric sound-light electronic firecracker has a simulated firecracker string with several simulated firecrackers capable of producing explosive sound and light in turn to simulate fireworks. It can generate ozone to purify air. As a green product, it can result in double effects of recreation and environment protection."
Most likely it applies a charge to a capacitor until the capacitor discharges and arcs to a nearby contact.
You could build one, but it wouldn't be very safe, although any device that creates arcs is a fire hazard.
I would assume you can use a travel adapter, like you would use if you wanted to take your computer with you out of country. I think they are called step-up converters
Its a shame it is so late in the season or I'd try to track some of these down for testing. Maybe something I'll get into in the off season at some point.
Professional sparking is done using a mig welder and a spinning flywheel this can give you a continuous stream of sparks that can be shot out in a given direction.
The downside of this method is the consumable nature of the wheels and welding wire
I am currently experimenting with creating the same effect using C7 light bulbs on a Frankenstein monster prop. By firing off a programmed relay, I can make a light sequence turn the lights one or off in very short sequences. Using small C7 Christmas bulbs inside a pvc tube, made to look like a fuse, combined with a sequenced sound file should give a similar effect....I hope.
I'm thinking the smallest, quietest grinder you can find and some kind of mechanism that presses a bar of metal against it to send sparks flying all over the place. This would, of course, not be safe to let people get too close to.
I /know/ I've seen toys (in the 80s, towards the end of the time when you could get cool toys like real chemistry sets) that create streams of sparks. I wish I could remember what it was.
Just an FYI, I Googled the number on that cracker and no joy. It looks to be a patent number in China. Here's the number if someone esle wants to try: ZL200620099025.2
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