Update On My Haunted Attraction - Off-Season Lighting. Read Only. No more posting. - PlanetChristmas! Forums. Read Only. We've moved to http://talk.planetchristmas.com - The Forums of PlanetChristmas have moved to http://talk.PlanetChristmas.com
I just had another meeting with city official to go over last minute ideas and suggestions, he is meeting with the finance commitee today.
The Idea To use the train that runs around waterfalls and nature park, to create a fun non scary attraction for children ages 12 and under.
The Atmosphere There will be a festival type atmosphere with booths set up for psychics, candle making, and other various events. The attraction will run for approx 2 weeks before Halloween.
The festival is going to be located at Noccallula Falls. Which is a 90 foot waterfalls look here for more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lookout_Mountain
The park was inhabited by cherokee indians and there are many large rock formations, old cabins and other spooky natural decor'.
Their Ideas They are wanting the train to depart from the station going through all of the decor' and move along into an old barn that the train runs through, there will then be a Willy Wonka type lighting atmosphere with some circus type music playing. The lights will cover the walls of the barn. The train will then leave the barn and continue on through the park going by natural caves and over a bridge. The train will then come to the meadow where the Sherrif's Dept will have a live horse come out with a headless horseman on top. Lightning and thunder shall go off as the Headless Horseman Appears. The train will then return to the station.
My Ideas To pull this off I was extremely worried about having to deal with the timing of the trains and such. However after talking with him today I have talked him into using the 2 LOR16W that they are using and take two old computers. I will then set one up next to the barn, with an attendant there to start the sequence when the train enters. There will also be an attendant at the other computer to start the Thunder and Lightning Sequence. This will keep me from having to worry with timing, I can simply show someone how to hit play inside of LOR.
My Questions Is there any way to just set LOR to have a play and stop button?
I do not want the attendant to be able to change the lighting show?
I did a deal with the headless horsemen that past the opposit direction of a trailer full of adults & kids then it turned around to run towards the trailer scaring everyone each time. I made the costume myself saving $100 or so.
As for the LOR for lightning, you could just have it run and repeating itself until the end of the night. Scheduling the show it to come on at dusk and go off when closed.
As for the barn, you could have the guy enable and disable the show each time without messing with the sequence. If I'm not mistaken, it starts at the begining each time it's enabled (if I remember right). Or, know when the show will start over again and try to have the train scheduled to enter the barn at the time the show starts. If the show started ever 15 minutes, then the train might be able to enter the barn at lets say 6:00, 6:15, 6:30 and so on. It would save from apying them to operate the LORs and save from worrying if they mess anything up.
Very cool picture tom, I believe this is what they are going for. I had thought about trying to time the trains but if they had to stop for any reason like a kid running across the track or something then it would cause the whole timing to get off.
The lightning is only supposed to go off when the horseman comes out.
Thanks for that great pic I will be sure to show it to them.
How about the PIR motion detector? You use it with a CTB 16D in standalone mode. Then it triggers the board when there is motion. Would this work for your plans? That way you don't need an attendant or computer.
James
Last edited on Tuesday August 8th, 2006 08:40 pm by James Peachee
Alright I am assuming you are talking about the huge Halloween Topic that has like 8 pages to it.
Anyways I have looked athe PIR motion detectors and do believe that they will work great for what I am needing. I am however somewhat confused as to how they connect to the controllers.
I saw a schematic for them on LOR but do I just plug the motion sensor into an extension cord that is plugged into a channel?
If you were to have an attendant, you could also wire a button to the controller in standalone mode. I am pretty sure that it is wired about the same as the PIR motion detector. You could buy a doorbell button at HD or lowes.
Last edited on Wednesday August 9th, 2006 12:00 pm by Tom K
If you are using 'standalone' mode, you don't even need the computer. Just connect the trigger (PIR or doorbell) to the appropriate terminals in the LOR box. that way there is NO way the attandent can mess with the programming.
Logan, a couple of things to keep in mind. Using the PIR motion senor current only works with the CBT-08D board. But any 16 channel board can be triggered by a motion sensor that applies 120 volts to the board. The sequence will always start at the beginning but will continue until the delay on the motion senor shuts down the power. This use of a modified light motion senor would be the most economical.
Now To add sound to your scene, I would suggest using an MP3 player powered by a wall wart plugged the same motion senor. That way the sequence and the music will start at the same time.
____________________ Bill and Nancy Foley
Olympia, WA
ChristmasNorthwest.com
Well I had another meeting today, I am supposed to be going to ride on the train either this afternoon or monday. I think I will have a better Idea of what I want to do once I get to go through it.
The city has agreed to pay me my normal Library wage of 8.00 an hour to do this. Granted that is way under what it is worth, if I did it as a contract there would be much more red tape involved. Doing it like this though I dont have to work at the library and I get to do something that I love and enjoy.
As of right now the budget just for the technology side is looking like this.
Digital timer for strobes on statue, $100.00
LOR 32 channel $680.00
cables $100.00
30 strobes and wire $225.00
2,000' of rope light $1,400.00
fog juice and cooler - $100.00
extension cords - $70.00
misc - $200.00
anyone see any problems with this so far?
I have decided that since it is just for a week or two, and they have employees who will work at the computer that I am just going to let them do that.
I added up your expenses and divided by your $8.00/hr rate. You would need to bill them about 360 hours just to recover your expenses. This does not include any markup or even your actual time.
Other possible considerations:
Is 1 fogger enough?
Are they supplying the computers? (I believe you said they are)
Who pays the electric?
Do you have a contract with breakage clauses? Do you have spare boards/parts available in case there is a problem?
Who owns all the equipment when the gig is done? Is it all yours? If so, you could consider charging them less.
There are others on this page that have their own business' doing lights. They may be able to help.. Zac?
Thanks for the help, however I actually work for the library year round. The library and about 2 other dept from the city are putting this on. I am spending nothing of my own, I get to use the city budget to buy whatever I need. I am already under contract with the city so that is why I its easier to just work with them as part of the library. None of the other legal issues matter. It will all still be the city's stuff when it is over. I am just lucky and get to put up lights and synch them instead of doing my normal job.
They saw my lights last year and tried contacting me and then found out I already worked at the library lol.
oh, well in that case, it sounds like a pretty good gig. I'd rather string lights than screw around with the dewey-decimal system
Just make sure you don't give them 'extra' hours. It is easy to get carried away and 'forget to go home'. You need to leave time to setup your OWN display also!!
