Powered by Parallax: Spiders Preyground 2005 Haunt Video!

Vern Graner

(Note: It occurred to me that I originally posted this in the wrong place when I posted it to the ParallaxEFX forum. So, since it is a complete project, I thought I would move it here. Sorry for the confusion!)

The Spiders Preyground Haunt for this year was a great success, thanks in no small part to Parallax! I have compiled a 5 minute video of the haunt that shows the various props in action and allows you to see what can be accomplished with Parallax parts, a bit of imagination and lots of elbow grease!

The haunt itself was divided into rooms and an actor led you through each section and described each scene as the plot advanced. Not surprisingly, every single room had one (or more) Basic Stamps operating equipment, music, lighting and animation. For reference, the rooms and their parts lists are here:

• Room-1 The Exhibit Room
  -Prop-1 operating 7 servos & a DC motor in the Spider-Robot
  -Serial Servo controller in the Spider-Robot
  
• Room-2 B0rkin Bob (aka Dungeon Keeper)and the Half-Spider Girl
  -BSIIsx operating 5 servos in B0rkin Bob's coffin
  -Basic Stamp Activity Board in B0rkin Bob's coffin
  
• Room-3 Spider Egg Display/Spider Slammer
  -BSII in Haunt controller 1
  -Super Carrier Board
  -Rogue Robotics uMP3
  -Two RC4 boards
  
• Room-4 Decontamination Chamber (proof of concept video here)
  -BSII in Haunt Controller 2
  -BSII Carrier Board
  -Parallax Serial LCD
  -Rogue Robotics uMP3 player
  -Kit74 8x relay board
  
• Room-5 Giant Spider Attack
  -BSII in Mini Haunt Controller (Close up picture here)
  -Super Carrier Board
  -Parallax Serial LCD

I made the video available in multiple formats and differnt sizes to try and make it as accesible as possible:

The direct link for the Windows Media HIGH res version (~20meg) is here:

http://www.spiderspreyground.com/howto/SPG2005-512kbps.wmv

The direct link for the Windows Media LOW res version (~10meg) is here:

http://www.spiderspreyground.com/howto/SPG2005-256kbps.wmv

and the Real Player version (~9meg) is here:

http://www.spiderspreyground.com/howto/SPG2005-256kbps.rm

You can see the photos, behind the scenes and other resources by looking here:

http://www.spiderspreyground.com/howto

I have attached the source code for the Stamp in each room for reference. If you have any questions about the effects, please feel free to ask.



I would like to take the opportunity to say THANK YOU to all the hard working and innovative folks at Parallax for making this possible!

Vern

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Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE    | "If the network is down, then you're
Senior Systems Engineer    | obviously incompetent so why are we
Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course,if the network
http://www.txis.com        | is up, then we obviously don't need
Austin Office 512 328-8947 | you, so why are we paying you?" ©VLG

Robotics From No Where

All I have to say, is very nice. Lots of work went into this, and from what I can see it turned out great.

knightofoldcode

Vern, I think this can say it better than words themselves.




[noparse]:D[/noparse]

Knight.

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This message transmitted with 100% recycled electrons.
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Gravity doesn't exist. The Earth sucks.
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Make a man a fire, and he will be warm for the night.
Light the man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
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Vern Graner

DarkSin said...
All I have to say, is very nice. Lots of work went into this, and from what I can see it turned out great.

Thanks for the kind comments. I was very pleased with the results. The kids had a good time and thats the real point of all the work. This was my first year running each scene fully-automated with Basic Stamp units. I was very pleaseantly surprised at how reliable the stamps were in this rather "hostile" environment (i.e. power, temperature, vibration, dust etc).

I've talked to some other haunters that mentioned using computers to automate (i.e. a windows machine controlling relays, triacs and solenoids etc) and had heard the "horror stories" about how a system crash or windows lockup could take the haunt down for the duration of a reboot! When people are in the middle of the haunt looking at a creatuyre that stops in mid speech or jump, it can be a devestating thing for the flow of the haunt. In my experience, the basic stamps were rock solid!

Vern

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Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE    | "If the network is down, then you're
Senior Systems Engineer    | obviously incompetent so why are we
Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course,if the network
http://www.txis.com        | is up, then we obviously don't need
Austin Office 512 328-8947 | you, so why are we paying you?" ©VLG

Vern Graner

knightofoldcode said...
Vern, I think this can say it better than words themselves.



[noparse]:D[/noparse]

Knight.

Thanks knight. glad to see some positive comments in light of the amount of work that went into it's creation. Though the kids had a great time, it's hard for them (or their parents) to grasp that it takes about 8 months of planning, building, programming and testing to give them a good 5 minute show. [noparse]:)[/noparse] I'm surprised there weren't any questions about the code or the rooms though.. I guess the code is either too well documented or too boring!

Vern

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Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE    | "If the network is down, then you're
Senior Systems Engineer    | obviously incompetent so why are we
Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course,if the network
http://www.txis.com        | is up, then we obviously don't need
Austin Office 512 328-8947 | you, so why are we paying you?" ©VLG

Post Edited (Vern) : 12/29/2005 5:15:48 AM GMT

bomber

This is really cool!!!