Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Controlling Halloween Effects with DIY Infrared Remote Controls”.
Halloween is the perfect time to create fun special effects. One way to control props and effects remotely is with an infrared, remote control. So this week i’m going to show you how you can make a diy remote control system for your haunted house in this system. I’M using an infrared receiver module to detect the signal from the remote when this sensor detects an infrared signal with a 38 kilohertz carrier wave, it sets its output, pin low to monitor the output of the receiver module. I connected it to an arduino microcontroller when the arduino registers that it’s received a signal from the remote it can then activate your special effects.
Almost any kind of infrared remote can be used to activate the receiver module, but rather than using a commercial remote, i decided to make my own to make a really basic infrared remote. All you need to do is hook up an infrared led to a square wave signal generator that is set to 38 kilohertz. I designed this simple circuit using a 555 timer ic start by prototyping the circuit on a breadboard to test it. I set up the receiver to turn on an led when it detects the signal from the remote.
If everything is working properly, then you can solder the transmitter circuit onto a piece of perf board. I connected the led to the circuit with a pair of long jumper wires. This made it easier to hide the led inside props and costumes. I also put a piece of heat shrink tubing onto the led to make it more focused and directional.
In the final setup, you want both the receiver and the transmitter to be hidden from view. Fortunately, this is really easy to do, because the infrared signal can go right through a lot of thin materials such as paper and fabric. One of my favorite ways to hide the transmitter is to put it inside a glove that way the actor can just point at the receiver to activate the props and effects. Now that you have your remote control system working it’s time to figure out how to use it, there are a lot of different effects that you can control.
For instance, you could have your system activate sound effects or music. You can do this by just connecting the arduino to a sound player such as an adafruit wave shield. You can also use your system to move props around with motors. You can either attach the props to the motors directly or you can use magnets to move the props from the other side of a table or wall you can even remotely control commercial halloween props.
All you have to do is connect the arduino to the props. Try me button with a small transistor. There are any number of other effects you can control with this system, so use your imagination and have fun thanks for watching and check back next week for more diy hacks and how to’s you .