Geekiest, and Most Obnoxious, Thing I've Done Yet (Audio as You Enter My Prop Room)

azheat01

Active Hunter
My inner 5 year old is smiling uncontrollably, the adult in me is a bit embarrassed!

I've been holding onto this birthday card for a few years, I'm surprised it still works!

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I always thought it would be funny to rig my prop / movie room so that when you enter, it plays the Star Wars theme. So while I was waiting for the paint to dry on R2, I figured I'd try and get it to work.

First, I opened up the card.

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It took a while to figure out how to wire this, the problem is the card is made to play when opened and stop when closed. I wanted it to play the whole way through as soon as the door was opened, and not stop until completely finished. I needed to solder the main activation contact permanently down, then found two spots on the board that when the circuit was completed, it played the whole song. I then soldered two leads off the board.

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I used a little plastic baby food container to put the speaker into, this helped amplify the sound.

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I bent the leads to the side so that when the door is opened, the two wires on the door will make contact with these, completing the circuit and activating the sound.

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This is not the final product, I just wanted to use some painters tape to make sure the rig worked, and it worked great! I'll mount this with some Velcro and paint it the same color as the wall and paint the wires white.

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Here's video of how it works and sounds.

Star Wars Home Theater Audio.MPG - YouTube

The only bad thing is that it goes off when the door is closed, but no big deal. Also, if I get tired of hearing it, which I am sure will happen before the night is over, all I need to do is gently bend one of the wires so it misses.
 
wait...did you use a baby food container for your motion sensor lmao hahahahaha thats great!
 
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After letting this fall off my radar for a while, I decided to take a different approach with another card.

This card has a push button to activate the sound, rather than automatically starting when the card is opened. So I took out the electronics and speaker and placed them in a little cardboard box, with the push button and wire coming out the back. I covered it in some fabric and mounted it to the door using Velcro. This way I can remove it if I ever need to change the batteries. The push button switch was placed on the protective cap of a hinge mounted door stopper. When the door makes contact with the stopper, it activates the sound. The cardboard box worked well to amplify the sound. It's actually louder than the other one.

The good thing about doing it this way is if I don't want to hear it, I just don't open the door all the way. And if I forget and it goes off, I can just tap it again and it turns off. I like this much better because you only hear it when you want and never when the door closes, unlike before. And it plays a bit shorter.

The best thing about this setup is it didn't require any modification. Just took it out of the card and placed it in the box.

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Here's a video.

 
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Hella Tight!!! I might have to rig this up on every door in my house. I would like to say i do hella fun stuff for my kids but the truth is I do all the fun cool shuff for ME! they just happen to be there too.

Pre-Pro 2 is my BFF
 
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