Volcano!

[Radiowave911]

This project is for my youngest daughter to ride in the town Halloween parade this year (2010).  The volcano is manually triggered to erupt.  I am having audio issues at the moment (posted that in another part of the forum), however the rest of the prop works great.

'Inactive':



'Erupting':



More pictures, including some of the build process, are at http://www.halloweenhauntings.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=232&g2_page=1

A brief video of it erupting (sound was added in post) is available in the gallery (http://www.halloweenhauntings.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=265) as well, and on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3G13xg9PM4).

This build uses an FC-4 to control the 120V lights, an AP-16+ for sound, and a PROP-1 to run it all.  I have exactly 0 bytes of code space left in the PROP-1 :)  The whole thing is powered by a deep-cycle marine battery and a power inverter.  The prop includes a small (400W) smoke machine, with a custom interface to enable the smoke machine to give a status to the PROP-1 and be triggered by the PROP-1 (the machine does not have low-voltage control capabilities - everything is 120VAC).  The FC-4 was put in a plastic project box, to which I attached a 'quad' outlet box with a single outlet for each channel (two duplex outlets = 4 individual outlets).  The AP-16+ just sits there...for now, and is not in any of the pictures, as it was not even here when they were shot.

I am planning a complete build writeup for my Halloween website sometime after Halloween is over.  I just don't have the time to do it now :)