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That's right, I'm starting one. Mostly because I was trapped inside during Harvey, and I got started on props. I think this year, I'm primarily focused on improving what I've done. At least for now. This is what I've done so far:

1. Taught my animatronic pumpkins 3 new songs. This is tedious work, which involves framing out the animation by hand using software that looks very similar to music editing software. Here's version 0.1 of the pumpkins, by the way:
   
   So far, I have Monster Mash, This is Halloween, Thriller, and Nightmare on my Street. More to come if I have time.
2. Replaced the accompanying light show relays with optocoupler/triac combos to get a better response time and get rid of the immersion breaking clicking. Actually, I made a general purpose solid state relay board for future reuse.
3. Replaced the laptop required to run the show with a Raspberry Pi. I kept an ancient Windows XP laptop that was on its last legs just to run this show, but it was so unreliable. I changed instead to a Raspberry PI with a web interface I can control with my phone. Now it all fits nicely in a box.
4. "Upgraded" my interactive Stranger Things jack-o-lantern
   
   I pulled out the Arduino Pro Mini, and replaced it with just a plain old ATtiny85 (small microcontroller IC). Granted, the Pro Mini was like 3 bucks and the 85 about a buck, but it's the principle of the thing. Why use a jackhammer when a tack hammer is enough?
5. Projector ghost upgrade. Last year, I had an Apple TV projecting ghost videos from one of those ghost DVDs onto black mesh. This year, I'm getting rid of the Apple TV in favor of a 99 cent Raspberry Pi Zero. I also set it up to switch to one of the jump scare videos when a motion sensor (PIR) is triggered. The DVD has wandering ghost videos and the same ghosts jumping out to scare you. I just have a command line video player jump to a scare shot when the IR sensor registers. I'll let you know how that one turns out. Not sure how well it will work, because the Zero is a bit slow. It works, but there's a noticeable delay in the video switch right now. Will post a video soon.

Probably the biggest "upgrade" is that I'm no longer running this from my front yard. Because our neighborhood has a festival on the other side of a major street (Memorial), no one ever comes here to trick-or-treat. So this year, I'm donating my services and props to the charity haunted house in the festival. It's all volunteer, and the proceeds go to good places.

I'm liking it for the last two sentences alone.

--Patrick

Speaking of which, I was just playing the Halloween theme song on my phone without speakers and the entire campground got very very quiet....

I thought I panned down to capture it, but I'm waving my hand in front of the motion sensor to make the jump scare happen.

I think this one will be my Instructables Halloween contest entry this year.[DOUBLEPOST=1504463291,1504463125][/DOUBLEPOST]On the final version, I will use a black background and autostart the script so that there's nothing on screen in the gaps between the videos.

Pumplestilkskin?

--Patrick

Me and my girlfriend should be moved into her grandma's house by then. This will be my first real opportunity to decorate a yard on my own so I'm pretty excited about it!

Huh. I have literally 0 idea of the trick or treating scene around where I live now.

Guess I better stock up now.

And each subsequent week.

Since I am not MacGyver and Steve Jobs love child like Fade, I will likely be crudely carving a very real physical pumpkin.

I am so looking forward to rigging the ghosts who appear in my doorway while I hand out candy again. Last year it was a huge hit.

drawn_inward said:

Since I am not MacGyver and Steve Jobs love child like Fade, I will likely be crudely carving a very real physical pumpkin.

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As long as you're using a laser, it's still ok.

I do miss decorating now that we've moved to a rural area...

Here's my Raspberry Pi ghosts. The weirdest convergent evolution thing is happening. There are two other extremely similar projects in this year's Instructable's Halloween contest. I don't know why. I've had this Pi Zero for a couple of years--picked it up for 99 cents. Just looked at the projector and realized I could use the Pi Zero as the player and make it interactive. Guess everyone else did too.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Motion-Sensitive-Projected-Ghosts-Using-Raspberry-/

Please vote for me in the Halloween Contest if you like it! Please. Pretty please. With a cherry on top.[DOUBLEPOST=1507648790,1507648600][/DOUBLEPOST]Alright, I just got "featured" on Instructables.

Voted!

I'm about to post another instructable. I was playing with a audio driven skull I built last year, mostly from this site: http://www.scary-terry.com/audioservo/audioservo.htm
I added a pre-amp and a mic to the project there, and I made it work off of a USB battery (which was the hardest part, actually, because those things have an auto-off you have to defeat without burning up all the power in the battery.

So I figured, why stop there? I made it into a full costume with false shoulders and arms. I was going to do mechanical hands, but I didn't have enough spare parts for that, and the objective was to buy nothing new except glue sticks. So now I've got an 8' tall grim reaper costume with like a 10' wingspan with a skull that opens and closes with my voice. Originally, I had the arms extendable using drawer rails from an old Ikea dresser, but I had to get rid of those. They're not very strong outside of the dresser, and I slung one to pieces trying to open the arms Wolverine style. Because the best feature was that the rails were designed to lock closed normally. But after vacuuming up ball bearings, I decided I'd just use static arms. Will post soon, but in the meantime, here's the diagram I made for the costume frame:


EDIT: And yes, I had all those PVC pieces sitting around from a previous project. It was a mosquito net frame for my son's boy scout camp, but he never used it. He didn't even take it the last 2 years.

I'm not carving a jack o'lantern here. My experience with Halloween in Texas suggests that we'll get another heat wave and the whole thing will turn into pudding after two days.

IronBrig4 said:

I'm not carving a jack o'lantern here. My experience with Halloween in Texas suggests that we'll get another heat wave and the whole thing will turn into pudding after two days.

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The sun in Colorado is usually so intense that I wait until the last minute to carve pumpkins then throw them out the day after Halloween.

Check out my costume here:

EDIT: Yes, it's vertical video. But that's because this was a vertical subject.
[DOUBLEPOST=1508691457,1508691270]
[/DOUBLEPOST]And the Instructable: https://www.instructables.com/id/Voice-Synchronized-Grim-Reaper-Costume/

I'm of the opinion that vertical video is entirely appropriate with a vertical subject.

--Patrick

Experimenting with curling my hair to go with my pirate outfit.

Dei said:

The sun in Colorado is usually so intense that I wait until the last minute to carve pumpkins then throw them out the day after Halloween.

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The humidity here kills ours. Carve it and in two -three days it's complete mush.

Every year....

I'm just going to give each trick-or-treater a candy bar and a razorblade, and tell them to put it together themselves. I don't have the time this Halloween.

Dei said:

View attachment 25776

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When I was a kid we used to always get warnings about people giving out LSD window panes that looked like stickers.

Well I look more like The Dude than Arthur Dent.

Get a long wig and go with it. Because you know, that rug really brings the costume together.

Just don't pee on it.

--Patrick

sixpackshaker said:

Well I look more like The Dude than Arthur Dent.

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PatrThom said:

Just don't pee on it.

--Patrick

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Always pee on it.

My friends had their Summerween Halloween costume party last night. Voila!

I don't see any bananas.

fade said:

I don't see any bananas.

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It can't always be bananas.

And Mr. Z stayed home with Li'l Z so I could have some "non-Mom" time with my friends.

fade said:

I don't see any bananas.

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You don't SEE any bananas.

I went to the haunted house in Downtown Bryan. It was pretty good for such a small venue. The Haunted Hotel in San Diego is still the best one I've been to because they chase you around with real chainsaws, but I recognize that San Diego has more resources than BCS.

I'm really bad at finding the camera lens for selfies, but here's a pic at our friend's Ren Faire themed wedding.

sixpackshaker said:

Well I look more like The Dude than Arthur Dent.

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You look more like Walter in that picture.

--Patrick

Not mine (obvs), but I chuckled and want to share...



"Golden snitches get stitches."

Giant pumpkins! We tried to get our 1.75 year old to get in the bigger pumpkin after we cleaned it out, but that didn't go over so well.

Shakey said:

We tried to get our 1.75 year old to get in the bigger pumpkin after we cleaned it out, but that didn't go over so well.

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That can be tricky! Close to age 2 and soon they start thinking... getting ideas...

All that work making all those electronic props....

and I won't be able to put them outside.

It's raining, and it's supposed to keep it up for a while....

C'est la vie

Messed up my carving, so I turned the pumpkin around and made this piece of shit.

I dressed up as Pikachu. I wore longjohns under my suit and I was super warm. Friends of ours invite a big group on the back of their wagon and we go around as a huge group.

I thought it would mortify my kids, but they seemed to love it. One of the kids there was dressed as a Pokémon trainer so I kept running from him lol.

My daughter is 11 and still likes to coordinate costumes with me. Then again, I've been training her to be into cosplay, so she doesn't think it's weird anyways.

A friend had me 3D print an eye of agamotto so I printed it again and cobbled together a dr strange outfit.

I've had this superstition since I was little that you have to get inside and go to bed on Halloween, because if you don't, the real spirits can't come out and play. And this is the only time they can.

stienman said:

View attachment 25802 A friend had me 3D print an eye of agamotto so I printed it again and cobbled together a dr strange outfit.

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Does Carmen Sandiego know you stole her coat?

Bellossom and DanTDM made an appearance in my neighborhood.

I didn't really go to any halloween parties, but Friday's after-work drinks had the organizers asking for costumes.

I went as a cereal killer, 'cause I had some cereal lying around.

GasBandit said:

Does Carmen Sandiego know you stole her coat?

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SHHHH! She'll hear you![DOUBLEPOST=1509534424,1509534384][/DOUBLEPOST]Also if she complains I'll just tell her not to leave it to the salvation army next time.

I repurpose my renfest costumes whenever I can. My wife, on the other hand, made hers.

Doesn't matter how anyone dressed here. It was so damned cold you couldn't see any of them anyway.

Tinwhistler said:

I repurpose my renfest costumes whenever I can. My wife, on the other hand, made hers.


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I expected more trick-or-treaters than we got, but it sounded like the elementary and/or middle school at the bottom of the hill had something going on, so I assume most kids just went there. Still, it was a pretty fun night.

I was off at work for halloween night but I found out after that our house got egged. First time that's ever happened over here.

All my students got at least two pieces of candy. I brought the leftovers to a party that night where we ate, watched spooky Netflix shows, and handed out candy. It was raining so hard that we got TWO groups of trick or treaters. We just offered them the bowl and told them to help themselves. People who win the Publisher's Clearing House weren't as happy as those kids.

In the meantime, I improved my Punisher costume. It was half-complete last Halloween but now it's practically done. I just need a long arm weapon and then I need to drop another 10 pounds and I'll be set.

We took our girls door-to-door for the first time. We only went to 6-7 houses and they were ready to go home. Too many scary costumes and decorations for little ones. It was my wife's first American Halloween experience (other than costume parties at work). Thankfully my girls have forgotten all about their loot. It all got donated to the pile at work.

drawn_inward said:

Thankfully my girls have forgotten all about their loot. It all got donated to the pile at work.

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You monster.

GasBandit said:

Does Carmen Sandiego know you stole her coat?

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I was going to say something like, "Oh look, Great Aunt Strange." but it seemed mean. Good thing you started it.

fade said:

You monster.

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Any chance to keep them from processed garbage, I take it.

Here's a full video of my animatronic pumpkins singing This is Halloween. The small pumpkins' designs are courtesy of my kids 3 years ago.

I found out today that I won the halloween costume contest at work, with an award of $50, so I have that going for me, which is nice.

stienman said:

I found out today that I won the halloween costume contest at work, with an award of $50, so I have that going for me, which is nice.

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That's enough to buy 100 packs of Reese's king size at Meijer's.
...but I expect you'll probably do something moderately more responsible with it.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

That's enough to buy 100 packs of Reese's king size at Meijer's.
...but I expect you'll probably do something moderately more responsible with it.

--Patrick

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Oooooh, good idea!

Yeah, it'll probably just be folded back into the family budget, from whence the costume cost originally came. I bought a $17 roll of filament for the printed pieces, the red coat came from good will at $14, and some spray paint at around $4. I think the coat will fit my wife, so we may get additional use out of it. The filament is a loss, though, since I ordered the wrong size for my printer . Ah well, live and learn.