The Witch from the Well

Every haunted well needs a trained demon-summoning witch. Our haunted well has just the thing. A witch standing nearby, outfitted with the latest electronics.

She's sporting a uMP3 MP3 playing card, plus a Scary-Terry audio servo driver tied to her skull-head. And of course she's also customized with a pair of (diffused) green LED eyes that will also flash as she speaks.

Here's a short video of the prop in action! (sans smoke)

Here's a couple short videos as we were testing her out. The first is the sound sequence she "sings" when we first power up the well (as it's warming up). The second is the actual spell she casts to summon forth the demon from the well:

Warming up Song   The Spell

We started with a simple PVC frame, which our haunter assistant Ally "fleshed out" into a more suitable shape. Paper stuffed under plastic garbage bags, and taped strategically did the trick:

She was nicely dressed for a bit, but had to be undressed to pimp her out with electronics.

First she got a pair of Cintre RW-695B multimedia speakers, mounted inside the breasts no less. (Bought a bunch of them for about $10 each earlier this summer):

Next she got a Rogue Robotics uMP3 player - a card that accepts a SD memory card and plays sound tracks on command (in this case commanded by the Parallax PROP1 controller in the Well via a long serial cable). Tied to the output of the uMP3 is a Cowlacious Design's Scary Terry servo driver card that takes the sound generated by the uMP3 and controls a servo in the Witches' skull/head, as well as a pair of eerie green LEDs mounted in the eye sockets.

After adjusting the sound hardware we finally dressed her in her "Halloween costume"...