A Scary Time: My 10 Halloween Projects Over the Years

This was my first major Halloween post. I went all out on it. The budget ballooned since I was so hyped to make it. By far, it’s the highest-budget piece in the collection. After all of these years, this one remains my favorite spooky theme project.

I used a first-generation Raspberry Pi to run the entire show. In fact, I had two. One ran the video and the other the solenoids and air valves. I would trigger both to work simultaneously. At the time, I was worried that a single Pi couldn’t handle both operations without some sort of error.

Fun fact: I originally wanted to have a 42-in. TV in as the whole “door.” But, budget-wise, I couldn’t do that. I ended up using a 24-in. LCD from my computer. I think having just a little window at the top made it even creepier.

If I could make this today with a bigger budget, I would run the whole deal off a single Raspberry Pi 5. I would also use a single large TV as the door or use two separate but larger screens to take advantage of the Pi 5’s two HDMI outputs. I think fog or steam could add to it.

Any want to sponsor me to hit this one back up? :D

I wanted an effect that was more interactive, which would be for trick-or-treaters. Something that would make a seemingly pleasant-looking door overwhelm the visitors as they approached. As they move closer, red lights would become brighter and brighter, and creepy/monster sound effects would also get louder. Then, at the door, there would be intense light, heat from the bulbs, and sound of which you’d want to run away.

This is the second-largest budget project on the list. I really wanted to go all out on this one, too.

I ended up using ultra-bright incandescent red lights that were driven by AC directly! At the time, I thought this would be the most intense-feeling lights I could get cheaply. The bad part was I was digitally controlling AC power. So, I had tons of exposed AC contacts in the control system. Instant death was assured for anyone who touched it. Glad I survived.

If I could do this today with a bigger budget, I would obviously start by using very large/bright LED panels and lights. I think I could make the red-light effect so powerful whereby everyone would only see in red for a while after. A better sound system would be key. I always wanted to add fans for yet another sensory effect. Some time-of-flight sensors could also help with detecting the distance of visitors, which would have been nice. If I was able to generate a rumbling feeling in visitors with speakers or shaking the “porch” itself, that would be fun, too.

Fun fact: I broke about five of the red lights. Dropping them was scarier to me…

Originally, the Scary Porch project was going to be the doll lying on the porch. As people approached, it would start to stand up and move. Since I thought the red-light effect was more powerful, the Scary Door project waited until the following year.

The budget was fairly low for this one. I used the same speakers from the previous project for the sound. It was mainly a stepper motor and controller project.

If I were to make this one today with a bigger budget, I would start by finding a scarier doll with legs and arms I could articulate. FYI, the doll was the creepiest I could find after searching through about seven different resale shops. Next, I would make it more of a motor-controllable marionette. That way, I would have it perform more motions, walking, and even show a bit of “emotion,” too.

Fun fact: I considered covering it in bacon and meat to make it look insane…

Here’s when my budget went to near zero. Nonetheless, I wanted to create a very large effect with something small. The idea is simple: project gigantic shadows of various objects. And it worked amazingly, in my opinion.

I always wanted to apply this to a large spotlight, but I never did get the funds to try it.

If I were to make this one today with a bigger budget, the first thing would be to use an LED spotlight and cast my monster shadows onto the sides of a large building. I also wanted to be able to “animate” the shadows using a flip-book effect. I thought that might be quite stunning.

Fun fact: The stepper motor I used wasn’t that smooth. I didn’t do micro-stepping with it. So, I think I let off some large EMF that made my filming look choppy and garbled.

I wanted to pepper hundreds, perhaps thousands of pairs of eyes into the woods/weeds. As a person got closer to a house, forest, whatever… more and more eyes would light up like an army of monsters all around them.

But budget-wise, I had three pairs. :D

If I were to make this one today with a bigger budget, hundreds of pairs of eyes. Remotely powered, controlled, synchronized eyes controlled by a central system. All wireless. I always thought I would use solar power to charge them during the day to apply the effect at night indefinitely. I also wanted to add sound from each pair of eyes. I thought about a sound like a card in the spoke of a wheel.

Fun fact: This idea didn’t exist for years anywhere. Later, I saw something like light-up eyes at Target for Halloween.

Tapping was my alternative to scratching. I originally wanted what sounded like large claws dragging across the other side of a wall. However, I was up against the clock to make this project. So, I opted for tapping. Which, in and of itself, is kind of scary, right?

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—

            Only this and nothing more.”—Edgar Allen Poe

If I were to make this one today with a bigger budget and stick with just tapping, I would want to have dozens of tapping arms with a variety of sound profiles. But I would love to make the original “Scary Scratching” version.

Fun fact: It was serendipitous. I had a collection of servos with a kit lying around for this. And I had zero budget.

I know what you’re thinking. Hey, they have this at Walgreens for pumpkins. Yes, now they do.

The original concept was to make a pumpkin interactive and scary looking. I wanted a similar intense bright red light like the Scary Porch project. Sound as well. But the budget limited my efforts.

If I were to make this one today with a bigger budget, I would add the intense lights and sound inside the pumpkin. Also, having the pumpkin move around would be cool, too. Solar was also the plan for the system. I think I would also like to explore “foam smithing” to make a non-organic pumpkin.

Fun fact: I forgot to remove my project from inside the rotting pumpkin. I tossed some of the project with it. Also, just thought… an animated and lit-up rotting pumpkin would be awesome.

Aka “Longarm.” The name of the monster I’m running from. My shop building has an industrial metal and concrete look. I thought a monster that could kind of spider around would be cool.

This is my first attempt at making a scary movie with props and everything. I put together a little story to go around the demonstration of the motion sensors. My escape from Longarm!

This project was a blast from start to finish. Again, low budget forced me to use a lot of surplus parts and a 3D printer. The remote sensing was so much fun.

If I were to make this one today with a bigger budget, of course, I would expand on the story. Far scarier of a story! Better monster effects. I’d also want to make more sensors, make them smaller with better signal integrity. I also wanted the handheld display to adapt to the direction of the motion sensor stations, showing the direction of the sensors from the user.

Fun fact: I’m also Longarm, the monster, but holding sticks with pantlegs taped to them. When the monster was going up the stairs, I wanted it to sound like it was flailing its arms all around the stairwell. I edited out where you could see me. :D

This was a return to a semblance of a budget. It was fun to finally go all out on an effect again.

Trevor Henderson created what I think is a modern-day monster classic. A masterpiece of a monster. Siren Head! My son was enamored with Siren Head. He had posters and would draw them all the time. He used to make clay versions of his own. I used one in an April Fools post here at Electronic Design, where I used PWM to control its output of evil.

I had to make a Siren Head costume my son could wear. And, of course, I wanted it to be actual sirens!

The outcome had a better effect than I thought. The sirens were real megaphones. When it was cranked up to the max, it was deafening. I think it would have scared people if we walked around trick-or-treating with it.

If I were to make this one today with a bigger budget, I would want to embed the system into a larger and more accurate-looking costume. Stilts for the legs, long arm props, and a Siren Head “head” you wear. Also, pumping up the sound output would be good. Originally, I wanted working “mouths” at the ends of the sirens, too. So, I would add that.

Fun fact: The hat and the driver system were really heavy. My son could only wear it for a little while. The hat was particularly cumbersome. That’s why I think having it mounted on the shoulders extending into a long “neck” would be better for wearing it longer.

Back to zero budget.

I didn’t post the whole build video, bill of materials, and the like. I just posted the results. I wanted a yard ghost that could move and turn corners instead of just dangling from a tree branch. I was pretty happy with the results. It did look scary at night.

If I were to make this one today with a bigger budget, I would want to extend the ghost’s range from about 300 feet to a few thousand. I’d like to see it constantly moving around a building. I’d also like to either lighten the overall weight of the system or make it far stronger. Some sort of energy harvesting should be employed. Solar, micro wind turbines. Or maybe it should act like a robot vacuum, stop at a charging point, and recharge in a few cycles.

Fun fact: While I was working on this project, it kept the geese off the shoreline and yard. Perhaps I should make a little one to constantly scare those birds.