Thread: Prop Sensor Help

Tweet

Hey I have a number of air pneumatics in my haunt, but there manuel as in we have someone looking in through holes in the walls and pulling lever to release the air and make the prop pop up. This is great and all but no one wants to sit there all night and keep activating the prop so do you guys know what I could use as a sensor of some sort thats fairly cheap and could easily hook up to the prop.

Thanks,
left4daed

Use a pressure mat or PIR sensor. PIRs can get false triggers so they would be a second choice.

The simplest method is to hook up the pressure mat to a 12v supply and use it to trigger a relay driving the solenoid on the pneumatics. A better method would be to hook the mat up to a prop controller because that will allow you to set off a chain of events and/or delay on the mat activation.

Thanks for the reply fritz, so where would I buy a pressure Mat? Or the PIR sensor?
Would home depot have this or would I have to order it online?

Originally Posted by left4dead

Thanks for the reply fritz, so where would I buy a pressure Mat? Or the PIR sensor?
Would home depot have this or would I have to order it online?

Pressure mats can be bought cheaply on eBay and modified or you can make your own - see here:

Ghoul Grabber


PIRs can be bought from Home Depot - either line power or battery. The line power ones can take an adapter to directly power a 110v solenoid.

Some other trigger setups are here:

HauntProject.com - Your visual source for Haunting How-To's

The simplest solution is 110v PIR and 110v solenoid. Quick, easy & relatively cheap. You screw the adapter into the light socket on the PIR and plug your solenoid into the adapter.

Originally Posted by left4dead

Hey I have a number of air pneumatics in my haunt, but there manuel as in we have someone looking in through holes in the walls and pulling lever to release the air and make the prop pop up. This is great and all but no one wants to sit there all night and keep activating the prop so do you guys know what I could use as a sensor of some sort thats fairly cheap and could easily hook up to the prop.

Thanks,
left4daed

You can buy a pressure mat from HARBORFREIGHT TOOLS for about 12.00 or use a out door security light (PIR/MOTION) sensor, then get an ELECTRIC AIR VALVE SOLENOID Amazon has them cheap. Use a relay so it is done with low voltage (12/24v) for TOT safety. The sensor (pressure, motion, pir) activates the relay which trips the solenoid and releases the air.

Take a motion sensor light and hack it? There's a really great tut on here search cheap/easy motion sensor

Depending on what you need a sensor for. Use either a pressure mat switch(I use the harbor freight ones) or cheap motion sensor for Home Depot or Lowes. For my air connon, I use a pressure mat switch(momentary switch). For my coffin jumper I am going to use a motion sensor for the 5 to 10 seconds of lag time.