Making a "fright light"?

2878 Views 15 Replies 8 Participants Last post by DeathDealer, Apr 7, 2009

crazybob

Discussion Starter · Apr 6, 2009

I've been looking into the "Fright Light" remote controlled flashlight from Monstertronics. Basically, it's a flashlight that your guests would carry through your haunted house, but your actors can remotly cause the lights to "flicker" or "go dead".
I'm trying to find a way to build these myself, as they are quite expensive and I would need MANY of them. I'd also like to have the trigger for them to go out built into the hallways so that they would automatically go out in the right part of the haunt.
Even if this couldn't be achieved, I am looking for a TON of cheap flashlights. If I could find some dim ones with only one LED that would be preferable. I have done some experimenting with an amber LED and loved the dim results of that.
Anyone have any input, suggestions, or ideas that could help?

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crazybob

Discussion Starter · #2 · Apr 6, 2009

I talked to an electronic control expert this morning and he said overlapping commands would be a huge problem.
That being said, I think we will be using flashlights still, but they will not be triggered... just on the whole time.
I'm now trying to gather information on costs... would it be more cost effective to use regular flashlights and replace batteries more often, or to modify some flashlights to use 1 led and change the batteries less often. I like the look of an amber LED, but don't know if the cost of modifying the flashlights would offset the costs of replacing batteries and regular light bulbs whenever someone drops them.

icemanfred

· #3 · Apr 6, 2009

Coleman? Remote Control 8D Family Size Pack-Away? Lantern, Model 5317-702, Coleman? Remote Control 8D Family Size Pack-Away? Lantern, Model 5317-702 Kits, Coleman? Remote Control 8D Family Size Pack-Away? Lantern, Model 5317-702 Products

have you seen these?

crazybob

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 6, 2009

I've looked into similar lanterns as an option, but still think that overlapping signals would cause problems. An actor pushes the remote, the lantern in the room turns off, but so does the one in the next room.
Also, these lights tend to be very bright and many, like this one, use a fluorescent lamp, which would shatter if dropped. That is why i'm leaning more toward modifying a regular flashlight to use one LED... I believe it would be much more durable, and less bright than any other option.

icemanfred

· #5 · Apr 6, 2009

so you arent going with the remote controll anymore?

crazybob

Discussion Starter · #6 · Apr 6, 2009

Unless I can find a fairly cost effective way to do it without overlapping signals, probably not. There's also been concerns raised about guests hitting the lights against walls or otherwise abuse them trying to get the light to turn back on.

wilbret

· #7 · Apr 6, 2009

How about rigging them in such a way that they are generally unreliable and flicker a lot? You know, like the plastic ones you buy at Dollar Tree. ;-)

Why would you need many many? What type of traffic do you get? My understanding of the way those flashlights are used is one per group.

jekyllandhyde

· #8 · Apr 6, 2009

Another alternative to the auto flicker/dim/go dead problem might be to have each group led by a host who is in control of the flashlight. Of course you'd have to have more manpower for that but you could control timing without circuitry.

crazybob

Discussion Starter · #9 · Apr 7, 2009

We do not have a guide with the group, and our scenes are highly detailed. I think I would like to have each person in the group have their own DIM flashlight, that way they can each point it wherever they want and potentially see something that nobody else does. Hopefully that will solve the problem of only the front person seeing what's ahead or around them, and the person in back can shine their light back to see who's following them. We can have upwards of 50+ people in the haunt at any given time.

Calloween

· #10 · Apr 7, 2009

You could charge the people to use the lights like it says in one of the reviews on
monstertronics.
Monster-Tronics.com

Ugly Joe

· #11 · Apr 7, 2009

Don't know what kind of budget you're working with, crazybob, but perhaps making some little flashlights yourself might be an option?

It's about $6-$8 bucks for 100 yellow LED's (5000 or 6000 mcd) on eBay (includes shipping), and most will also provide resistors for them as well at no extra cost - just specify to them what voltage you want.

If you can come up with enough AA or AAA batteries (2 per flashlight would be perfect to run a couple LED's with a resistor for many, many hours), you could probably make casings out of PVC painted black, and then slip in the LED's and the batteries wired together.

Make one or two a night for the next month, and you could easily have 50 ready to go in plenty of time for Halloween (and it really doesn't take long to make something like this).
Just leave one connection open on each one until the night you're ready to use them.

Just for reference, I usually get 2-3 weeks of use out of 2 AA batteries and 2 LED's, running them 6-8 hours every night...sometimes more!!

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DeathDealer

· #12 · Apr 7, 2009

What about using an infrared opto-switch in the flashlight and infrared lighting in the rooms or on a guide's back to control what it does?

Bubbels

· #13 · Apr 7, 2009

In regards to the signal discussion. It might be worth researching those little disks you get at the restaurant when you have to wait for a table.

crazybob

Discussion Starter · #14 · Apr 7, 2009

Ugly Joe said:
Don't know what kind of budget you're working with, crazybob, but perhaps making some little flashlights yourself might be an option?

It's about $6-$8 bucks for 100 yellow LED's (5000 or 6000 mcd) on eBay (includes shipping), and most will also provide resistors for them as well at no extra cost - just specify to them what voltage you want.

If you can come up with enough AA or AAA batteries (2 per flashlight would be perfect to run a couple LED's with a resistor for many, many hours), you could probably make casings out of PVC painted black, and then slip in the LED's and the batteries wired together.

Make one or two a night for the next month, and you could easily have 50 ready to go in plenty of time for Halloween (and it really doesn't take long to make something like this).
Just leave one connection open on each one until the night you're ready to use them.

Just for reference, I usually get 2-3 weeks of use out of 2 AA batteries and 2 LED's, running them 6-8 hours every night...sometimes more!!

I thought of that too... I just won 100 "warm white" LED's on ebay. I was thinking about making some out of pvc... a friend of mine suggested calling around and seeing id I can buy just the flashlight "shell" from the companies that make them. if they won't sell just the shell for a discounted price, then PVC may be the way to go!

DeathDealer... could infrared turn a photo-sensitive night light on and off? I wonder if there would be a way of mounting a photo cell onto the flashlight?

Calloween

· #15 · Apr 7, 2009

DeathDealer said:
What about using an infrared opto-switch in the flashlight and infrared lighting in the rooms or on a guide's back to control what it does?

I was thinking this too. Because you could make the infrared light blink
and flash which would make them flash right?

DeathDealer

· #16 · Apr 7, 2009

Exactly my thinking Calloween.

Crazybob, infrared should not work with a standard photo switch, that was why I recommended the infrared switch.

Edit:
The infrared switches are crazy expensive. You want to look for an infrared photoconductive cell. You may also want to try setting off a night light with a TV remote. I have been reading up on photoconductive cells and some have IR blocking, so a cheaper cell may react to IR. But you would need blackout conditions and only one light to prevent one light from activating the others if that did work.

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