building a remote controlled strobe light:
For an attraction held during a Halloween party, I built a device which allows to send strobes of light.
Combined with a ghost apparition, this was the ideal setup for a scare jump.
The strobe controller uses an LED flood light, a solid state relay, and an infrared remote control.
We will see what mechanical and solid state relays are, how to operate them, how infrared remote controls work, and how receive decode their signal.
The Halloween party is called Balloween. It take place in Paris, and is mainly French. An entrance fee is required, but it barely covers the cost of the consumables. I and all the staff helped in our free time and at our own expenses, but it is a lot of fun and nothing beats scaring innocent victims ;).
P.S.: To create light strobes a stroboscope might be the more appropriate, but I did not have one at the time I built this device. I am also not sure how I would control the couple of kV required to fire the flash tube. Flood lights are more ubiquitous, and can also be switched on continuously.
Published: 2019-08-17 by King Kévin