[chubacabra]

This year, as you may know, I am building a sarcophagus prop that will be the main part of my yard haunt. I am planning on having the lid open and close, like a MITB so it looks like the mummy is trying to get out of it, then have the lid open, then the mummy will sit up out of and a few led spotlights will light him up and fog will pour out. So I am planning on using a double acting air cylinder for the mummy to sit up, and using LED spotlights from www.minispotlight.com, and I am not sure if the lid opening and the MITB effect should be pneumatic or electric.
So, I wanted to see what controller you guys would recommend for this prop.

Thanks

 

[JonnyMac]

Of course I'm biased, but I'm pretty sure our Prop-1 controller would work fine. If you're interested, we can always assist with programming. Using the LED lamps you indicate that can either be switched on or faded on -- just takes a few lines of code to do the latter and gives a much nicer effect than straight switching.

 

[halloweenguy]

My vote is to go pnuematic with this simple controller...easy to setup and you could be done in 5 min with your routine. This is a two channel controller, one for each cylinder.

http://www.hauntedvillage.com/
Animation Maestro II conroller

 

[chubacabra]

Thanks, how hard would it be to program the Prop-1 since I have no pprevious experience? Also could I use my MacBook running on OSX?

 

[JonnyMac]

Learning the Prop-1 takes much less time than most people think -- just an hour or two for the basics used by most props.

Parallax only supports Windows tools for the BS1 (what we use in the Prop-1), so if you can run Windows (e.g., Boot Camp -- seems to be a favorite with some of our customers) or an emulator, you should be able program the Prop-1 with your Mac.

The Prop-2 controller can be programmed on the Mac; Parallax released a module for third-party developers to create custom BASIC Stamp tools for the BS2. That said, the Prop-2 is probably more control than you need for this project.

 

[chubacabra]

Thanks, I just ordered a Prop-1