Halloween

October 5, 2001 - In this article one of our customers, Gary Stefan, tells us about his plans this Halloween in his own words.

It’s a cold dark night, the kind of night that sends a chill right through the warmest clothes. It’s a kind of supernatural chill that seems to penetrate the soul. It’s the night the departed rise up from their dead, dank and musty tombs and return to the land of the living just long enough to terrify them through the long dark night.

For the past 11 months I’ve been toiling over my black caldron and peering into my crystal ball preparing. Many secrets have been hiding in my bag of X10 tricks, and I’ve been dying to let them out. And soon some suspicious trick-or-treater will approach the forbidden gates of an X10 man gone mad.

The approach looks simple enough, due to the friendly smiles from the carved pumpkins sitting on either side of the open metal gates. As the little trick-or-treaters turn down the driveway, the first EagleEye motion sensor is triggered. This sets off the first of my "Fright Night" macros in ActiveHome, and the little trick-or-treaters are about to see how active this ActiveHome is.

The first macro starts the recording of a distant wolf howling, but it’s nothing that would stop the unsuspecting victim from stepping through the waiting gates. The trick-or-treaters head down the driveway toward the front door, probably humored by the small glimpse of what lay beyond these iron gates, and the large amounts of booty they know awaits them as soon as their journey is over.

The little trick-or-treaters continue toward the front door and the promise of candy, tripping another EagleEye setting off the second macro. Thanks to my high-powered five-foot shop fan plugged into an ActiveHome transceiver module the wind begins to howl down the driveway. This same macro also triggers a strobe light that simulates lightning. The strobe is set with a three to five second time lapse. The wind blows on the gates and rattles them just enough to set off the PowerFlash Module. More lights begin to flash and more strobes go off, which I have set up at the gates.

Not even halfway to the front door the little trick-or-treaters (and their parents) look to be considering turning back. But of course it is too late; the third macro kicks in. This macro ends a time-delayed signal to release the magnet latch on the iron gates. The gates slam shut capturing the little trick-or-treaters within what is now known as the X10 Halloween Zone!

With the wind lightning and thunder subsiding the little trick-or-treaters looks to move forward. The overwhelming desire for candy brings them closer to the apparent safety of the front door.

At the door, as they try to knock, they trigger another EagleEye and a blood-curdling scream is heard throughout the house and the front yard. The EagleEye also triggers the last macro and concludes with the all clear light triggered on the front porch. From the entryway my wife greets our little trick-or-treaters and apologizes for her over zealous husband. The children are escorted through the house and given an abundance of Halloween treats, which they have definitely earned.

They exit through the side of the house, which triggers the "Next Victim" macro; the house resets and is now ready for the next trick-or-treater.

It’s too bad I only get one day to do this.

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