My son had created a small rustic looking "log cabin" from sticks and hot melt glue for his elementary school "pioneer" days project. The forlorn little shack had sat upon a shelf unused, so I decided to "haunt" it with a mini-FCG. I started by adding a continous rotation modified servo to the roof, so I had my motion source. I then added a Parallax PROP-1 controller to run the servo. Now I needed to light the scene. I added a Scary Terry "Fading Eyes" circuit board with UV (blacklight) LEDs. I then of course, needed some sound effects so I mounted a small sound module to the mix and had the spooky haunt sounds.

So far, so good. I then decided that since I had another servo on my bench, I could add it in and make a small rubber spider "jump" up from the shack. I added the spider and the servo to the cabin. I then mounted a 1/8" jack for a N.O. push button Lastly I needed to power the whole thing (without an AC power plug, according to the answers I received from the "L" when I asked) so I cobbled together two 4-cell AA battery holders and I was done... Right? uh.. nope.

At this point I had no software written! But I packed the unit into a cardboard box and it went with us as checked baggage to Ironstock. When I arrived, and after we unpacked, I sat out by the pool with my laptop and, while my son swam, I coded! :bleh:.

I managed to get the code written to control the FCG, the lights and the sound, and also to "pop" the spider up which surprisingly actually gave a few folks a good "boo" scare! :) I wasn't happy with the FCG motion and decided I would work on the code on Saturday.

Satruday night and it's 20 minutes before we leave for the Weasel Ball. I'm franticly coding away trying to make the prop work properly (I had made some changes and overwritten my working code, so I had to go back and try to "undo" what I had messed up! Arg!). I downloaded my last rev of the code, unplugged the serial programming cable, picked up the cabin and headed for the door. We were on our way. :)

For those of you who might be interested, here's the yucky, bad, nasty, rushed code I jammed together that night:

ironstock5-bs1.txt

When I arrived, I discovered the centerpieces there were FABULOUS! Embarrased, I even considered taking my junky little pile of sticks back to the car, but my wife grabbed my elbow and in we went. I placed the centerpiece on a table and turned on the power. People then walked up to see it, and I would activate it for them and then would hunch down to get a close look at the FCG, and then the little spider would "jump" up and some people would jump back and say "WOW! :) It was fun and they would then drag others over to se the little cabin. When it came time for judging, I was AMAZED that we got so much applause! I have to say I certainly didn't expect it and I was quite humbled by the approval from the much more experienced haunters. Thank you guys! :)