Thunder & Lightning Machine
This is a great and simple prop that I give credit to Doug Lowe at Lowe Writer .
Thank you Mr. Lowe.
This is the heart of the machine. I tried to find this at radio shack without luck but did order the kit online from ApogeeKits. Eight bucks apiece if you order 2 or more. It took about 15 minutes to solder together and just a few minutes to hook up and test. It works like you want it to, flashing in time and intensity to thunder claps you input. Way easy. I hooked this up and tested it in the living room and from outside it looked and sounded like a fierce storm inside the house. The neighbors are really starting to stare...
For the thunder, I found a few wav files online that I liked. A good loud crash of thunder followed by a lower rolling sound. Then using sound recorder in Windows edited the clips by taking the rolling thunder part at the end and adding it to the end of the original clip. I kept adding it on till I had a thunder clap or two followed by a long rolling thunder, 10, 15, or 20 seconds long. I made 3 clips of different lengths then added them together into longer and longer clips till I filled a CD. The result is a constant low rumbling thunder sound with occasional single or double thunderclaps. The lights flash only to the loud thunderclaps. The spotlights are mounted to face the front of my house. I'm really happy with the way it came out.
Nuthin fancy mind ya. Hmmm, as long as I was using a pine box I maybe should have made it a toe pincher.
I tried a number of different spot lights, 100 watt diffused floods, 75 watt Halogen and my bulb of choice so far, a 240 watt heat lamp with a clear lens. I found this clear lens works best for casting creepy shadows. I tried it and then remembered my light organs are only rated for 120 watts. Luckily it has not burned them out. I suspect that the intermittent flashes are not drawing as much current as it would if the lamp was on steady like it is meant to be for a heat lamp. I set the lamp in a tree so it casts a shadow of leaves and branches on the front gable of my house. My second lamp points to the wall around the corner of this one so that it's light doesn't wash out the shadows of the first light.