Post your 2012 Halloween Projects here

Beau Schwabe

I'm curious to see what other people are doing for their Halloween projects this year, so post them!!! Don't be shy!! I'll even let this fudge ... it doesn't even need to be Parallax related, but if it is that would be a bonus!!

Here is a hint of what we are doing at our house this year... the theme is "High Voltage Halloween" , like this months Nuts and Volts.

I have a working model that I just completed of a Toepler-Holtz Machine. A Toepler-Holtz_Machine was invented in 1865 and predates the more popular Wimshurst Machine which came later in 1880. The Toepler-Holtz_Machine is a little easier to build, mainly because there is only one spinning disk. The principle however is the same between the two machines, but the charge transfer during normal operation is a little different.

Right now it has a hand crank, and audible sparks can be heard within one complete revolution. The plan is to eventually motorize the operation and put some really big Leyden Jars in place with some nice spheres. :-)

Publison

Neet! Laden Jars? I bet a few people have to look that one up.

Now get back to the P2

Jim

Beau Schwabe

A Continuation of the High Voltage Halloween theme, here is "First Light" from the spark gap of my Cockcroft--Walton generator.

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzPeeDkxk6k

CAUTION: Turn your speakers down... sparks are loud!

You can find more build information here:
http://wiki.ohmspace.org/User:Bschwabe#High_Voltage_project

This is a High voltage front end power supply for a Halloween project I am working on. The capacitors are home made and actually form a stack ; two banks of 8 capacitors each. The capacitor banks are constructed with 2 inch wide metal foil tape with overhead transparency sheets as a dielectric cut to 3 inches wide. The plate length is 10 inches creating an area of 20 square inches resulting in a capacitor value that is about 1000pF... (I erroneously said in the video that it was only 1pF) . The construction of each bank is equivalent to eight 1000pF capacitors in series, each with a 'tap' for the multiplier diodes. The outer most two plates are acrylic and sandwich everything together.

This first stage shown in the video will have two more multiplier chains producing a total of about 20kV before moving on to the next (final) multiplier stage. This final stage will switch gears from a Cockcroft--Walton generator and make use of a 22 section Marx generator resulting in about 400kV. ... I'm just pleased that the recharge rate is so fast at this first multiplier stage. It 'should' make for relatively quick re-charge rates for the marx portion of the generator which I'm expecting to throw about 1 foot sparks.

Beau Schwabe

Over the weekend I added two more multiplier stages to the Cockcroft--Walton generator ... Now it produces 21kV

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqaOwlOfE_4

CAUTION: Turn your speakers down... sparks are loud!

You can find more build information here:
http://wiki.ohmspace.org/User:Bschwabe#High_Voltage_project

Beau Schwabe

More on the HV front from this past weekend....

This test is using the flyback transformer from a TV' ... interestingly the MOSFETs run cool with only a 10 turn center taped coil added to the flyback. What gets warm and eventually hot is a 250V capacitor across the 10 turn coil ... might have to make my own cap for this.

High voltage 1 inch spark gap tests from a battery powered (15V supply) TV flyback transformer: (Turn speakers down please)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gcGCnnhdpw

Mini Jacob's ladder from the same flyback transformer and voltage supply:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy2K2NvVooA

Circuitsoft

My brother's girlfriend's 13-year-old brother wants to be Deadmau5 for halloween, so I'm helping him build the mask with built-in speakers to play music. Don't worry, he will be wearing earplugs.

Beau Schwabe

Awesome! ... One of these years I will answer the door as a giant minion :-)

Beau Schwabe

More HV test over last weekend ...

2-inch sparks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHnwe3GwVqY

5-inch sparks (almost halfway to the 1 foot goal)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rIYSBQUK1k

Beau Schwabe

This is actually last years Halloween project when my daughter went as a witch, but It will be re-purposed this year to go with the High voltage theme.

This is controlled by a string of 25 white LED Christmas lights that were re-wired individually and are powered by a Propeller. A Memsic2125 accelerometer is also used so it always knows which way is up. <- Either end can be used as the handle and it determines which is which from the motion. If left unattended and horizontal it will go into a random lightning spark mode. If held upright, and no motion is applied, the 'spark flame' decays towards the bottom and eventually extinguishes.

Witches Halloween Lightning Wand - Version 1: (testing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NepGWSOuf8s

Witches Halloween Lightning Wand - Version 2: (my daughter 'driving' it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXnGtZcEjgs

Beau Schwabe

More HV test this weekend ...

Battery powered 7.25 inch sparks !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOB4DTinJqs

2nF Leyden jar attacked by a 5 inch 200kV spark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtIuexK4Dwk