Vixen and Grinch in a Haunted House

[mikeh65]

I've been meaning to post this for some time, now that Christmas is up and running I can.

I have volunteered at the local Jaycees Haunted House for YEARS now. I knew that there had to be a way to mix my Christmas control with effects in the house. We were able to do just that.

First, I added the kiwi_wintrigger to Vixen.

Second, we then took a keyboard apart and mapped the number pad keys on the controller board. Were able map out keys 1-6 on to a separate board of screw down terminals that were outside the keyboard. These terminals were setup that if you touched a wire across the terminal pairs it was like pressing the key. Example, touch a wire across the #1 terminals and if notepad was open, a 1 was put on the screen.

So, with the kiwi_wintrigger running, we could trigger sequences with an outside input to the keyboard.

Third, setup infra-red triggers in the hallways of our house. These triggers closed a relay when someone passed in front of them. The relay close was tied to the keyboard input terminal. So walking in front of the trigger was like pressing the number key on the keyboard. One trigger for each key. We then recorded sounds and wrote sequences to activate lights, air-jets, and our air cannon. The sequences were then assigned to their matching numbers on the keypad with kiwi_wintrigger. We were ready to haunt.

When customers went through our haunted house, they would pass by a trigger, it would send the number input from the keyboard and run the assigned sequence. Playing scary sounds, turning on and off lights, firing air jets, and charging and firing our air cannon. Most of this in complete darkness. The customers never knew what would come next, or when. It worked better then I thought it would.

Hope this helps or inspires someone.

Pictures to follow soon:

[dirknerkle]

Creative!

[dnesci]

Nice going Mike. Picutres and diagrams would be nice.

Don

[Sharkey]

This sounds interesting, and a lot of work. Where did you get your IR sensors, can you use those Garage door ones?

Can't wait for the pictures!

[kiwichristmas]

that's great Mike,
glad to here that the trigger is getting used
Chris

[mikeh65]

The IR Sensors we use are from Granger. They are a reflective IR. They use a mirror or bicycle reflector along with the sender/receiver. This allows me to put the unit behind a wall and not have to worry about trying to find a place to put a receiver unit.

[mikeh65]

Pictures
1) Grinch board, power supply, and breakout board with 5 of 6 inputs tied to it
2) Behind the scenes hallway where all effects were set up
3) Four solenoids used for air blaster, controller is white box in upper right corner
4) IR trigger used Reflector is on other side of wall across pathway where customers walked
5) Complete setup, computer, amps for audio, Grinch, power supply, keyboard breakout board, on floor, 2.5 gal air cannon, and reversing circuit

[electr0n]

mikeh65, this sounds really interesting. I would like to make my Halloween Vixen show more interactive. What is kiwi_wintrigger and how would I get a copy? I assume it's a plugin type for Vixen? If so do you know what version it supports?

[toy keeper]

mikeh65, this sounds really interesting. I would like to make my Halloween Vixen show more interactive. What is kiwi_wintrigger and how would I get a copy? I assume it's a plugin type for Vixen? If so do you know what version it supports?

X2 Interested for Hallween too

[mikeh65]

Found Kiwi_wintrigger here:

http://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7605&highlight=kiwi_wintrigger

Thread has download in it and how to set it up. I am currently using Vixen 2.1.1.0. Had no problems using it.

[Greg in Canby]

Very creative. One computer, multiple scenes/scares. Nice work.

[ishane]

I posted this is a different location today but thought it would do better here.

I am going to use the KIWI triggers which gives me 10 inputs.

The problem is getting a contact closure to map to a NumPad of the keyboard for the KIWI plugin.

The solution is a device used by Arcade Machine Emulator guys for years.

http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html $40

You are limited to only the 10 inputs that the KIWI trigger responds to though. If someone could modify the plugin to use other keys you could have up to 32!

I am going to use it to have Vixen playing normal sequenced music, but use a remote to kick off a lightning effect, and maybe some screams.

Lots of possibilities.

Have fun!

[budude]

Neat board there - I know nothing about the Kiwi plug-in but I'm guessing it wouldn't be difficult to change it to allow 32 inputs...

[xtreme christmas]

Is it able to run multiply sceens at once or does "trigger 1" get prority over "trigger 2"?

[ishane]

I did some testing last night and found out that it will not do what I want.

I wanted to be able to have a long sequence running with music and lights, but when a trigger is made, a seperate short sequence would run at the same time.

During my tests, I would get a com port error each time I pressed my trigger. It was interesting though, because when I ok'ed the error box, my sequence would run.

I do not think any one trigger gets priority over another. I thought I had read that they should just run when you play them.

[Jrd]

I did some testing last night and found out that it will not do what I want.

I wanted to be able to have a long sequence running with music and lights, but when a trigger is made, a seperate short sequence would run at the same time.

During my tests, I would get a com port error each time I pressed my trigger. It was interesting though, because when I ok'ed the error box, my sequence would run.

I do not think any one trigger gets priority over another. I thought I had read that they should just run when you play them.

You are getting this error because only one process may use any one COM port at a time.

I think though that if you had your triggered sequences outputting on another COM port which would also have a separate controller connected to it then you should be able to do what you want to do.

[kiwichristmas]

117011170311702Re: You are limited to only the 10 inputs that the KIWI trigger responds to though. If someone could modify the plugin to use other keys you could have up to 32!

-
Hi,
It is not difficult to map other keyboard keys to triggers, there are a 3-4 different versions of the plugin, the keyboard version was made to a request from a member who wanted to use there number pad as a trigger.
there is a usb joystick version and gameport version, the source code is posted on this site some where (was a while ago).

Trigger pluggins attached

[lalder]

I used the Grinch595 with KiwiTriggers (keyaboard) and it worked great!!

[Jrd]

Looks good!