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  • Light Controls

    I am always looking for ways to control the lights in our Haunt. We mainly use incandesant and flouresant lights. Things that we have used are: residential motion sensor lights, dimmer switches, flouresent starters, and pull-string switches. I am trying to find fairly inexpensive ways to make the lights turn on and off by themselves, blink, flicker, or anything else besides just on and off. I also have some experience building electronic circuits, so that is an option, too. Anything would help, and thank you in advance!

  • #2
    Talk to these guys there the best
    www.efx-tech.com/
    go to their site and check their forums there, Im sure a similar thread is on there.
    Allen H
    www.Stiltbeaststudios.com
    http://www.youtube.com/user/Stiltbea...s?feature=mhee

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    • #3
      Thanks for the plug, Allen, but let me correct the URL:

      www.efx-tek.com

      We have an active support forum where one can find answers and solutions when using our products.

      forums.efx-tek.com

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      • #4
        Dmx

        DMX kids is by far the cheapest, and most flexible way to go.

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        • #5
          DMX is an amazing protocol, however it seriously suffers in that it's an output only protocol. Depending on your needs, it may or may not work well for you.

          DMX controlled lighting can be very inexpensive, but fixtures add up. There's a lot of DIY kits to control LED's and other lighting via DMX, which is pretty cool, too. To add input support to DMX (eg, trigger a light or cue by sensor), you will need something that can do Input into a PC (or controller), and the software to trigger your DMX cue.

          The best thing to do is to use the correct technology for the correct application. In our show, we use DMX for our front facade, and occasionally slave a few fixtures together when we don't care what they do, as long as they do something.

          If we need to respond to a trigger, we tend to use a microcontroller to listen to the sensor and then drive LED's with it.

          Sometimes we don't need to respond to a trigger, but it's super easy to do a micocontroller to create the desired effect... strobes, random flashes, fades, interesting fixture reworks... all LED/Microcontroller driven.

          The possibilities are endless, just depends on budget, skill level, and proper use of the available tech!

          -- I
          -------------------------------
          http://www.fx13studios.com

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          • #6
            lor

            Light O Rama controls eveyrthing in our haunt. best thing ive found...

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            • #7
              I have to agree...

              with Sophisticated Terror

              LOR is very interesting because you get the added benefit of tightly synchronized audio with the lighting as well. Another nice feature of LOR is you can dim, flicker and shimmer the lights as opposed to just turning them on and off. Their mini MP3 player has three input triggers, so you can trigger (pushbutton, motion sensor) an event to happen.

              A PLC is always a versatile stand-alone option. I have used a PLC and LOR together in our haunt and it is amazing what you can do with that combo.

              Feel free to email me to discuss further: gravesidemanor@sbcglobal.net
              Last edited by GraveStalker; 05-06-2009, 05:45 AM.

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              • #8
                lor

                yeah...I have several of their 16 channel controllers and download the program directly to the controller and each diff channel i program to fade on and off,,,flicker...etc...that way I have one controller taking care of 16 different functions...

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by sophisticatedterror View Post
                  yeah...I have several of their 16 channel controllers and download the program directly to the controller and each diff channel i program to fade on and off,,,flicker...etc...that way I have one controller taking care of 16 different functions...
                  Are you using the MP3 player (director) or standalone controller?

                  If you have the MP3 director, you can connect sensors/switches to the inputs and start a new show (Sequence of events). So, as your guests enter a room -the scene looks one way then when they trigger sensor/switch it can transform the room lighting and change the audio. Pretty Slick!

                  Controlling 16 Channels with up to 30A of lighting (dim, shimmer, flicker) for under $400 - how can you go wrong?

                  Glad to see someone else has found this solution useful...

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                  • #10
                    lor

                    yes some of the units have the built in mp3 on board...Some of them I have directly ran into several pcs...several of our haunt scenes will always be different every group or two that goes through...that way the scenes are never the same when our repeat customers go through..

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                    • #11
                      There is always something like Pete Rondeau's HauntBots APC8 Pro or APC16+ with the DMX Daemon addon.

                      You get the best of both worlds, 8 or 16 channels of open collector output to (easily) control valves, LED's, etc plus full DMX.

                      3 different shows can be programmed (Ambient 'idle', Show A, Show B), super flexible, etc etc.

                      I've pulled our Gilderfluke Smart Media Brick and Z-Brick out of our first room show and have gone entirely with Pete's kit. The HauntBot controller will also be controlling our facade lighting this year, all DMX RGB LED washes.

                      For me the biggest bonus is only needing to know one programming console. No longer do I need to know how to program LOR or PC-MACs.

                      "The Jon's" over @ EFX make some sweet stuffs, but they lack anything to do a "full" lighting show. You can only go so far with 4 channel triacs. Not to mention the wiring nightmare that is running home runs for all of your lighting (say for a facade show). Cool for local scene's, but DMX takes the cake for anything big.

                      Just throwing out another (awesome) option.
                      -Brandon Kelm
                      Operations Manager & Technical Director

                      sigpic

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                      • #12
                        lights

                        yeah those options are just as well....just whatever everyones needs are...for me the reason I use lor is because I can have all my lighting on one network hooked up to one computer and change any one of the 100+ lights in the haunt in less then 5 seconds

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                        • #13
                          light control

                          I have mainly used Animation Maestros I & II to control my lighting. They work very well to directly control incondecent light fixures or to power up recepticals so you dont have to hard wire your lighting. Yes alittle electrical wiring is involve but not too bad if you've done it before. You probably wont control a whole haunt with just one of these. But to set up one perticular room or scare point they work very well and aren't too badly priced ($50-$80 depending on which one you buy).

                          Kelly Anderson
                          HauntYourHouse.net
                          Kelly Anderson
                          Owner- Halloween Undercroft
                          http://www.halloweenundercroft.com/
                          Owner- Haunt Your House llc

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                          • #14
                            lighting control

                            For the record the Animation Maestros run from about $75 to $100. Still they work quite well for a smaller application with a tighter budget. Depending on what your after, theres alot of great products out there if you look around. Sometimes at a reasonable price.

                            Kelly Anderson
                            HauntYourHouse.net
                            Kelly Anderson
                            Owner- Halloween Undercroft
                            http://www.halloweenundercroft.com/
                            Owner- Haunt Your House llc

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                            • #15
                              we use Light-O-rama as well but are always looking to improve! Any suggestions, anyone have experience with LOR and something else?
                              Denver Haunted Houses

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