Using X10 for Halloween decorations

[Guest]

I use X10 for the lighting in my home theater, so I'm moderately
familiar with it.

I was hoping to set up an "electric chair" scene on my porch this
year. I thought about using an X10 motion detector to turn on some
appliance modules that would trigger strobes and a cassette player.

I also have a fog machine, and I wanted it to create smoke from the
electric chair's hood. However, the fog machine can't simply be
switched on and off because of the warmup time. Also, it has a wired
remote, so X10 wouldn't help.

One idea I had was to rig up some vacuum cleaner hose in a Y, and
always have the fogger turned on, shooting fog out into the yard.
Then when the scene is activated, a butterfly valve (or equivalent)
could temporarily divert the fog to the electric chair.

Is there some X10 device that can do this?
If not...any other ideas on how to accomplish this with my fogger?

[Chuck Y]

1) depending on where you live, fog works best with cold.
I've run roscos through a box of dry ice to cool it and keep
it low (pro stage and film work).

2) perhaps instead of a valve you could run a small pipe from the
fog machine to the chair and have X10 turn on a small (3") fan.

The fan may not survive the night, but should work for several
hours (fog is, basically, a vaporized oil).

Oh, and vacuum cleaner hose may get oily by night's end. You
might come up with some hose that you don't want for general
use in teh house later :)

Mitch@hotmail.com wrote: I use X10 for the lighting in my home theater, so I'm moderately familiar with it. I was hoping to set up an "electric chair" scene on my porch this year. I thought about using an X10 motion detector to turn on some appliance modules that would trigger strobes and a cassette player. I also have a fog machine, and I wanted it to create smoke from the electric chair's hood. However, the fog machine can't simply be switched on and off because of the warmup time. Also, it has a wired remote, so X10 wouldn't help. One idea I had was to rig up some vacuum cleaner hose in a Y, and always have the fogger turned on, shooting fog out into the yard. Then when the scene is activated, a butterfly valve (or equivalent) could temporarily divert the fog to the electric chair. Is there some X10 device that can do this? If not...any other ideas on how to accomplish this with my fogger?

[Paul]

On Sat, 06 Sep 2003 20:06:42 GMT, Chuck Y <Newsboy@Sept2003.snew.com>
wrote:


2) perhaps instead of a valve you could run a small pipe from thefog machine to the chair and have X10 turn on a small (3") fan.

That's it! Perfect!!

As for cooling; would it have to be dry ice, or do you think if I ran
it through a cooler of water ice it would do the job?

Thanks again for the ideas!

[Chuck Y]

Jojo@hotmail.com wrote: On Sat, 06 Sep 2003 20:06:42 GMT, Chuck Y <Newsboy@Sept2003.snew.com> wrote:2) perhaps instead of a valve you could run a small pipe from thefog machine to the chair and have X10 turn on a small (3") fan. That's it! Perfect!! As for cooling; would it have to be dry ice, or do you think if I ran it through a cooler of water ice it would do the job?

Dry ice is much more fun :)

you can try it. We use dry ice for a couple reasons. It's colder
than water ice. When it melts in turns into gas, not water (helpful
when you're running if over lots of cables like on a set :) Keeps
people from dying).

You may find that whatever container/cooler you use is, hmmm, what's
the technical term? "icky" after a nice of oil vapor running through it.

But it's easy enough to just try before H'ween.

[Tim]

<Mitch@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:568klvc22g33dnlq8ebqvnf4sdllumhcif@4ax.com... I use X10 for the lighting in my home theater, so I'm moderately familiar with it. I also have a fog machine, and I wanted it to create smoke from the electric chair's hood. However, the fog machine can't simply be switched on and off because of the warmup time. Also, it has a wired remote, so X10 wouldn't help.
possable 2 ways to do it : take wired remote apart and find switch contact
connection for "fog" then make up a relay system for it activated by mains
x10 controler this also may be possable on the remote plug wires , or remove
fogger cover and have a look at the pump in it , some are mains voltage and
the only thing they do is switch the pump on to fog, The heating element is
on permanantly thermostacitly controled, if so re-route pump supply through
x10 but make sure it does not operate untill the machine has warmed up
Have a good one
Tim