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Geeky Gadgets for Halloween Parties?
Neurotoxic666 asks: "Like many others, my friends and I are going to hold a costumed party for Halloween, however we do not want it to be the typical haunt. We have some talent in computers and electronics, but we're short of ideas. Are there any good gadgets and props that the average geek can build to spice up the party? Of course, there will be the usual ambient sounds and decoration, but we're looking for more interactive, dynamic and techie stuff. One idea I've had is to use the living room computer on the TV and have white noise, ghosts and other creepy effects appear throughout the night. Does anyone have some suggestions, ideas we could build, effects that worked well in your parties? Anything from heart-beating books to special lightning to mad science devices is welcome!"
Almost forgot... Cool Neon sells an audio sensitive EL Wire driver that will let you create responsive designs. I'm using EL Wire to decorate our pumpkin this year and some audio sensitive drivers to make it respond to trick-or-treaters.
-Chris
-- This sig is only a test. If this were a real sig it would say something witty. --
Just google a bit to get plenty of other ideas. Liquid latex is also a very nice thing to make fake body parts, that you can stick between a door or something.
For the complete cheesey mad scientist effect build a Jacobs Ladder.
I've done a mad scientist costume a couple years, and my favorite prop starts with one rubber chicken.
Add fake eyeballs with LEDs wired through them. Flashing LEDs or wiring up a bread board to make them flash is extra points. A knife switch wired to turn the eyes on and off is a delicious addition. Resistors may need to be placed in series with the LEDs depending on the batteries used. Batteries are of course placed inside the body of the chicken.
Decorate liberally with old serial/parallel ports from old computers, scraps of wire, resistors and other interesting looking electronics equipment. I've even had a serial cable running from the chicken to an old defunct laptop.
Electronic gizmos, such as a cheap box from Radio Shack or similar which can record a couple seconds of sound and playback always add to the fun.
I have rigged the chicken with coathangers and fishing line so I could move the head around puppet-like.
Frankenstein bolts in the neck are easy to accomplish... a bolt can easilly be held on with a nut inside the neck and one outside the neck.
Stitch the whole thing up coarsely with thick black thread, possibly leaving a hole to be able to get to the battery/make spot repairs.
Best accompanied with a labcoat, miss-buttoned white or light blue shirt, rubber chicken tie poorly tied. Brown dress pants or curdoroys, one leg tucked into the socks. Bright yellow chuck taylor's make good shoes, although clunky dress shoes work too. A pair of welding goggles (don't have to be worn on eyes... up on forehead is good enough) is good. Having poofy hair which can be costume painted white/gray is great, although a white wig from a costume shop does the trick too (better if gray/bluish highlights are added with costume paint.) And of course, an Erlenmeyer flask or graduated cylinder to drink from (Red Bull works well, with or without liquor.) Pocket protector, comically large syringe (preferably real 60cc syringe with no needle) stethescope, doctor's head reflector, and other medical trinkets always a plus. Black facepaint/ash to simulate explosion leaving clean goggle lines is good for effect, but seems to be counterproductive in actually talking to people.
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
I don't have any myself, but I typically rig up various moving things from assorted bits I have laying around the house.
... if you're looking for a durable fog machine, you might want to look at a music store -- they're intended to be lugged about, etc, as opposed to the cheap ones that show up in Target and the like at this time of year.
A quick search pulls up books like Animatronics: Guide to Holiday Displays, which seems to be right on target.
The problem is, you don't even have two weekends left to get stuff done -- if you need to look for odd parts, or mail order something, it's really, really, late to be planning anything big. (yes, we typically do a conversion the day of halloween, so no one sees it too far in advance, as it's outside, but we've been doing it for years, and already have the stuff, and plenty of people to help.)
Oh
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Good idea. Actually works better with lycopodium powder or corn starch that has been dried out in the oven.
It is. If you didn't know what EL Wire is the posting might look like spam but the links would clear up any confusion (pretty, shiny things). Plus he's got a very low UID and a positive posting record. Mods fucked up on the parent.
Flipping through the back pages of SA while at the dentist office, I saw this neat gun the blows fog rings lit up by blue leds. They even have an Airzooka verison.
A couple years ago I built a fog machine based on plans I found somewhere on the web. It was very simple to make and cost under $10. I've always meant to put up my own web page showing how to do it, but you know how that goes. It's not that hard though, especially if you are a true geek. Basically you get a used electric iron and mount it upside down in a shoebox-size box, with a drip mechanism that drips a glycerine and water solution onto the iron, and a computer fan at one end blowing in. Needless to say, you wire the fan and iron to a switch.
For me the hardest part was making the drip mechanism and getting the drip rate right. You want a drip rate of several drops per second but not a running stream. I bought a used aquarium pump but it ran WAY too fast. So I ended up using gravity. I mounted a 2-liter pop bottle upside down on top of the box, with a piece of plastic tubing epoxied through a hole in the cap, extending down into the box. I fused the end of the tubing shut with a candle flame and poked several pinholes in it until it flowed right. Initially the thing stopped dripping after just a few seconds, so I had to poke a hole in the pop bottle's bottom end (which was at the top) to allow air to enter. Then the drip rate was too fast, so I heat-sealed some of the holes in the tubing. It was trial and error, and it ran a little too fast when the bottle was full and too slow when it was low on juice. Some sort of slow pump would work better. But what the hell, the parts were free.
The drops of glycerine instantly boil away to dense white fog when they hit the hot iron, and the fan blows the fog out the other end of the box. Commercial fog juice is a 25% solution of glycerine in water. A 12-oz bottle of glycerine costs about $8 at the drug store. Mix it with 3 parts water and you're there. This quantity will last a couple hours.
The fog machine emits steam, which rises. To make the fog float along the ground you need a chiller, which you can build with an old styrofoam cooler. Cut a 3-inch hole cut in each end, with a tunnel of wire mesh connecting the two holes. You fill the cooler with ice and put the fog machine up against the hole at one end. When the hot fog passes through the chilled tunnel it will stay close to the ground. You don't actually need pieces of plastic pipe or anything, unless you want to duct the fog somewhere.
Instead of using my fog machine to fog up the living room I made a cemetery in the front yard. I had various slabs of styrofoam lying around from who knows what, in thicknesses ranging from 1/2" to 2". If you don't have any just get a 2x8 sheet of rigid foam insulation an inch or two thick. I cut out tombstone shapes with a scroll saw, and for good measure cut a few cracks and other defects into the edges with a serrated kitchen knife. Then I used a soldering iron with a large tip to carve out lettering on each one. The foam melts away at the touch of the iron, and the result has a nice deteriorated look. Then I spray painted the tombstones gray and then sprayed lightly over with black in a haphazard pattern to distress them.
I mounted the stones in the yard using a coat hanger stuck in the bottom of each one and into the ground. Lighting fog from the side looks really good, so I hung a lawn spotlight in a large bush about 15 ft away, downwind of the graveyard, shining through the leaves at the tombstones. The tombstones themselves were standing at an angle to accentuate the shadowing inside the carved letters. It made the lettering really visible. On the upwind side I set up the fog machine and aimed it toward the sidewalk. As the fog came out the slight breeze blew it gently across the yard, through the graveyard and toward the light. My wife hung small stereo speakers in the same bush as the spotlight and we had creepy organ music playing. All in all it was a really cool effect.
A pre-built fog machine costs about US$20 at most larger stores and is temperature regulated so you don't poison anyone, making it a wiser investment then strapping your clothes iron, a drip mechanism, and a small fan together (quieter and easier to work with too!). Also keep in mind the fine glycerin smoke can trigger asthmatics & other folks with breathing problems, and leaves a thin greasy layer on EVERYTHING if used indoors (walls, ceilings, windows, dishware, flooring, into cabinets & rooms you thought were better sealed...)
While on the not-a-good-ideas theme don't go adding scents, colorings, or other "effects" to the fog. After being scalded on the hot plate and then blown around they never do more then smell nasty, gum up the works, and again, are potentially hazardous to inhale.
From a fella who spent a half hour prepping his for machines this afternoon my advice is outside, in a sheltered area (wind destroys it), and spooky but not pea-soup. The cooler trick is a good one, and a great use of an end-of-season beat up cheapy foam cooler. A chicken-wire tube between two holes, a load of ice, no fan needed, warm rising fog goes jetting in one end and comes out nearly as fast but spookier ground-hugging fog at the other end. You can even use a short bit of dryer hose if you need to 'pipe' the fog. Oh, and a black cloth hides the cooler, but leave the fogger exposed as they get very hot and need to be refilled occ. My favorite places are hemmed in by shrubs, which I hang some more black cloth around the bottoms to help dam in the ground fog. A bit of lighting helps to show up the fog, nothing like a red or purple glow fromn down low to add yet more atmosphere...
Sound also helps immeasurably! I use my collection of old came-with-it computer speakers, hidden up in trees and in shrubs, for effects. I plug them into old tape & CD players, then every hour do a circuit around the property restarting 'em. Mix your own audio, and don't be afraid of long periods of quiet rustling, or even silence, punctuated by loud effects. A surprise sound is scarier then walking up to a cacophony of moaning / creaking / screaming. Never underestimate the terror of a real person either; stationing an accomplice in a closet or bushes to make appropriate sounds is incredibly effective, just make sure they're up for a longish stint at it.
For other effects one of my preferred is the good old black light. You have to be careful however, many of the little purple holiday lights labeled "black light" don't actually emit any UV! Test anything you buy ASAP and bring it back for a refund if nothing glows. The best values are the medium tube lights, around US$15 for a 24" one with fixture. Or get a bunch of the incandescent bulbs for US$1 each and gang them up, stick in corners, behind props, use aluminum foil reflectors to direct their light.
For making stuff glow under black light the classic is any laundry whitener, "Whisk" is one of my favorites. Paint with it, rinse cloth in it, it's a powerful UV reflector (why your clothes look so bright when washed with it!) Many toothpastes are also dosed with strong UV reflectors, for that blinding-white-in-the-mirror effect (that dissipates down your throat within a few minutes).
However my personal favorite is black light hair spray. Found in many party supply shops this time of year it costs around US$2/can and goes on nearly transparent, perfect for applying stencils to surfaces (including windows & mirrors!), clothing, or body parts. Right now I've got garage windows full of cheap black & white 'haunted face' plastic masks sprayed with the stuff ready for the room-of-doom next week. Cost was a US$1 75 watt black light, 6 US$1 masks, and that US$2 can of hair spray. Same for my own hair and outfit this weekend out at adult parties, normal until the black lights go on then covered in
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.