[Shadow Ghost]

Hello everyone! I'm new here but have been lurking these past few weeks. Now I have a major problem, I have over a half dozen animated props that I have bought in the past 2 years that are sound activated. They are really cool, but the problem is sound has to be extremely loud to activate them, sometimes even that is not enough, let alone the the simple subtle sounds of trick-or-treaters walking by. One of my props is from Spirit; the evil doll that sews her mouth shut, I also have a descending/rising glowing ghost skull, evil butler bobble head, talking dracula and grim reaper head, ect.

I've tried replacing the batteries, I'm tried playing moderately loud halloween cds nearby, tried holding down the the "demo button" with a clothes pin" but nothing seems to work. I also tried using a cheap cooking timer that makes a beep, but that didn't do it either. I would like for these things to go off every minute or so. I'm not very electric savvy. Any ideas or advice anyone?

 

[TheMonsterSquad]

Try this:

http://www.halloweenforum.com/tutorials-and-step-by-step/120923-extremely-simply-pir-prop-trigger.html

 

[Scary Papa]

Yep TheMonsterSaquad is quite correct. I have had the same problem over the years an solved it with this simple prop trigger. It is a driveway alert and will trigger any sound activated prop when someone walks by. It basically turns the sound activated prop into a motion activated prop. I have about 20 of these in use this year and they work beautifully and are not very expensive and actually fun to build for someone like me who is not an electronic genius by any means. Be sure to read the whole thread though and get to where BobbyA helps with adding resistors to the circuit (he is the electronic genius behind the best part of this prop trigger). This works great and there is no "Ping" from the driveway alert when you add the resistor. Good luck and let us know how it works for you.

 

[Shadow Ghost]

Thanks. But I couldn't find this PIR driveway alert thing anywhere. I did however pick up some remote push button door chimes and that is working on some of the props. I can't seem get them to work on my rising skull ghost. Has anyone tried cutting the "try me wire" and adding extra wire? I'm thinking of hiding the button under a floor mat and maybe that might work. I was hoping that I could put an little mp3 player on it and play some loud sounds but that does not seem to work. Is there a specific kind of sound that will activate most sound triggered props that will go well with a Halloween soundtrack? I'm at the end of my Halloween budget, and I literally can not spend more than $2 on anything more for this so I need ideas. Thanks!

 

[EviLEye]

Regarding cutting the wire and extending the try me button, that's how I controlled several of my props and items with a micro controller. I went to an electronics store (not a major chain but small shop) and found in their surplus section these packages of 200', solid core phone wire. The kind that people run in the walls, under the house, etc. And I ran that throughout the garage and used a relay to momentarily close the connection. I think each 200' package was like $2.50. I think I had 800' of that stuff running all over the place ;-)