#4935165
Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking... yet another over-inflated, bandwidth-sucking Ghost Trap build thread. Yes, there are already many amazing trap builds here and I have been following them all myself - most recently Cristoval's great build of Sean Charlesworth's 3D printed kit. I am currently developing prop prototypes of my own, but Sean's design already incorporates all the things I'd ever want from a trap replica and does so in a really clever way. Sure, you don't get the removable cartridge, but I have no plans on installing a containment unit in my home anytime soon and it means more space inside for the cool stuff, so, whatevs...

The ghost trap has always been my favourite piece of Ghostbusting gear. Therefore, I thought I would post my own build here too. I am based in the UK, and when it comes to the finishing of 3D prints, many build threads tend to mention materials only available in the US, so I thought it may be useful to others by documenting the methods that work well for me.

I'm going all out and will be building the 'mega-deluxe' version of Sean's kit. This includes all additional hardware and the Arduino based electronics to provide lights, sound and smoke. However, I plan to make a few customisations to make the trap behave more like it does in GB1:

- MULTICOLOUR LEDs: The original design includes three bright white LEDs for the main lighting with a purple lighting gel for colour, but I would like to be able to adjust the colour and brightness so as to simulate some of the effects seen in the movie.
- CODE EDITS: I'd like the trap to behave like it does in the Sedgewick Hotel scenes as operated by Ray, so a few code adjustments will be needed.
- MORE ACCURATE SFX: Sean includes edited versions of the sound effects from the video game, but I'm not the biggest fan of them and would rather it sounds like it does in GB1. I can't seem to find them anywhere and I think isolating them well from the movie would be near impossible, so I'll have a go at recreating them as accurately as I can.

Right, 'nuff talk. Let's get to it....

----

First off, I'm printing all the parts in black PLA. For those in the UK, I've had good general results with Amz3d and Sunlu filaments available on Amazon. As I'll be smoothing and painting almost every part, no need to be fancy here and waste time with high resolution. Sean also provides a useful print guide which mentions the parts that require greater infill or a slower print. Otherwise, a standard 0.2mm layer height with a 0.4mm nozzle does the job beautifully:

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Next comes the bit that (literally) stinks. Just because this is a 3D print, doesn't mean the final prop has to look like it's made of plastic. That's what I really dislike about the Matty traps - just all shiny and cheapo looking even though it's not all that cheapo. I want to get rid of all the layer lines and print marks, but the only way to do that satisfactorily is to use automotive body filler. Most prop making forums and videos talk about using 'Bondo' to smooth out printed surfaces - specifically Glazing & Spot Putty that can be used straight out of the tube. This is something we can't get in the UK, so the closest is Isopon P.38 Body Filler. Unfortunately, it's a two-part filler meaning you have to mix it yourself with separate hardener - this makes a messy job even messier, plus the fumes this stuff kicks out is enough to get you high as a kite. That may sound like fun, but the smell is as nasty as the paste is icky. In this case though, it's a necessary evil, so let's smear it all over everything we need to smooth out. Isopon provide an application tool, but it's tiny and generally useless, so I find it easiest to wear latex gloves and use my fingers to make sure the whole surface is covered:

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I could have been a bit more careful with these parts and applied the filler a bit thinner, but you don't get long before the P.38 starts hardening and we're gonna sand the s**t out of everything anyway. Once everything is covered and left about 30mins to set, the sanding marathon begins. And nobody likes sanding. Not even prop makers. But it has to be done, so I soldiered on by dry sanding the surfaces back down to the plastic with 150 grit sandpaper. This is no fun whatsoever - especially around corners and crevices, but if you persist, you'll end up with much smoother surfaces with all the low spots evened out. This is what I like to call the 'Friesian Cow Stage':

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Time to moo-ve on (see what I did there?) to the primers. You hear a lot of recommendations for Rust-Oleum Filler Primer, but this is another product not found in then UK. Instead, Halfords do a really good line of automotive primers which work really well with print finishing too:

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First up, I gave everything a coat of the Filler Primer (in the photo is a smaller can of their Plastic Filler Primer, but I have found their regular Filler Primer works identically in this case and you can get it in larger 500ml cans for only £1 more). It comes in a delightfully putrid orangey yellow colour but sprays on incredibly smoothly and touch dries in 10-15 minutes:

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As with the P.38 body filler, I sanded this back down to the base level (sanding wet this time with 400 grit). Even though it's touch dry in 10 mins or so, I leave about an hour before sanding. The colour of the filler primer provides a very helpful contrast between the black PLA and the white P.38, so you can clearly see the small areas it is filling. This is the point all the sanding scratches and print lines are starting to be filled. It may look a mess in but the surfaces now feel very soft and smooth and the patterns created look like they are printed on. I call this the 'Tiger King Stage':

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Next, I sprayed a second coat of the yellow filler primer and an hour later repeated the previous step (again wet sanding with 400 grit paper), only this time leaving much more of the primer on the part. This simply removes any roughness and feels more like a gentle scrub. We then end up with each part being super smooth - you can see where all the layer lines, print marks and sanding scratches are, but they are now undetectable by touch alone when running your finger over them:

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Finally, everything gets hit with a coat of Halfords standard Grey Primer. Once dry, I just rub everything down lightly with some kitchen roll. For all those absorbent towel geeks out there - Regina Blitz is the shitz. This gets rid of any surface dust that may have embedded itself in the primer when spraying and makes everything as smooth as possible, ready for painting. All layer lines, seams and other print lines are completely gone and the parts no longer feel plasticy as they did straight after printing.

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That's all for now. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode where I literally watch paint dry...
Last edited by EctoLabs on August 11th, 2020, 3:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.
cristovalc, mike_waclo, Couture and 7 others liked this
#4935167
Wow, great work on the filling and priming! I unfortunately got super fed up with the process and missed a couple spots I wished I had more patience for, but your methods really seems to produce a nice smooth finish across the board. I can't wait to see more!

Glad my build could provide some inspiration, as many before me did before I started. :)

PS. If you haven't planned to already, I can't stress enough to pre-thread or re-drill the holes on this. If the screws seem to go in a bit too tight it might end up cracking some of the pieces (doors, the small block wings that the front door pins slide into) and are a pain to fix/re-sand/paint.
#4935174
cristovalc wrote: May 24th, 2020, 9:42 amI can't stress enough to pre-thread or re-drill the holes on this.
Definitely a good tip. I'm actually further along than I'm making out in the OP and I did make a mental note about your mention of the door cracking. I didn't receive Sean's kit until after most of the parts were painted, but I did test fit everything before the final coat. It all went together pretty well but I still managed to crack the door a bit when inserting one of the set screws. More on that later...
Couture wrote:Looking good. I'm gearing up for my own build with the same kit, just dreading the filling/sanding process.
Yeah, it's never the most enjoyable part of a build but it is worth spending the time doing it properly if you want a really good finish. Luckily, most of the parts have nice flat surfaces so it's not too bad. You could spend even longer working your way through different sandpaper grits but I didn't see the point in this case. I would recommend avoiding getting too much Bondo/P.38 in the pre-made holes or on parts that have a lot of grooves such as the vector plates and knobs or you'll be spending an eternity digging out solidified filler with a blunt instrument.
#4935261
Welcome back guys and gals to another exciting instalment of The Correct Way of Spending Your Days During Lockdown. So... we have all the trap parts primed, which mean's it's paintin' time. So, in the words of the ledgendary Bob Ross - "Let's get crazy!"

First up - my weapons of choice. As I mentioned previously - here in the UK, Halfords do a great line of paints and primers and their Matt Black spray will be perfect for the final finish. I'm also using a couple of Rust-Oleum sprays - Elegant Finish Silver for the undercoat and Painters Touch Cherry Red Gloss for the side rods:

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Thinking ahead to weathering the trap, I am not a big fan of using silver paint or a marker to draw over the topcoat. I just don't think it looks all that convincing. Instead, I'm adding a silver undercoat. Then, later on, lightly scratch off small lines of the black topcoat to reveal the metallic colour underneath - effectively mimicking the effect you would get from scratched paintwork on real aluminium.

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Now the silver coat is on, everything starts to look far more like metal. There's a few print lines on one of the doors that I could have smoothed out a little better but these should largely be hidden once finished, so I pretended to not be annoyed by it and moved on. It is at this point that I suddenly realised I had forgotten about the welding effect I wanted to apply to the rear box to mimic the look of the GB1 hero trap. It's not too late to sort it out at this point so I used some black Milliput epoxy putty to mould a 'weld line' around the base of the box:

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The Milliput takes a few hours to fully harden, but once ready, it's time for the first coat of matt black:

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While looking at the reference pictures of the GB1 hero trap, I realised there was also some welding where the handle meets the frame so I used the Milliput technique in this area too for a touch more accuracy:

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Everything else is then given the matt black treatment. I forgot to take a photo here, but I'm sure you get the idea...

Listen! Do you smell something? It must be the postman... Hooray the mega-deluxe kit from Sean Charlesworth has finally arrived from California!! Ooh, a lovely big box full of goodies. This includes the authentic components such as the CAL-R resistor, pedal relay, foster connectors, Hammond boxes, knobs, switches, aluminium and faux-metal side plates, as well as various electronics like the air pump for smoke and servo mechanism for the doors. You can grab these kits for yourself from Sean's Etsy store here:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/8009689 ... it-combine
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/5811769 ... hanics-kit

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I also ordered one of Sean's real aluminium vector plates for the side of the trap as I figured it would be hard to get the 3D printed equivalent looking anywhere near as good. Unfortunately, the holes are not pre-drilled so I used the printed version to mark where the holes need to be on the back of the plate. Aaaaand... right on cue... my electric drill decides to stop working. Bollocks. Ah well, improvisation has got me out of a few scrapes in the past so, armed with my clamp wrench (easily the most useful tool I've ever bought), I clamp in a drill bit, gaffer tape the plate to a plank of wood and start drilling through the plate by hand:

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I didn't expect this to work, but I was able to grind through the metal quite easily and create the holes needed without too much bother. I then flipped the plate over and used a larger drill bit to create the countersinks from the front. In the end, I ended up with the finished plate and at the cost of only a sore wrist and a red palm. I'll let you insert your own joke here.

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Sean ships an accurate MC250 CAL-R resistor but this needs the wings flattened slightly to fit between the grooves of the vector plate. Luckily, the resistor has an aluminium body so a hand file does the job - I would recommend going slowly on this, checking the fit every few seconds:

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With the vector plate done, it was time to fit out both side panels. I painted the two rods red and attached them along with Sean's faux-metal side plates. These are made of plastic but really do look like real polished metal, even in close-up. The teardrop knob is actually one of the 3D printed parts that had a lot of visible layer 'stepping' on the top and the skirt , but has come out pleasingly well after the filling and priming. Just need to add the white line. Finally, added some vinyl labels from demon-vice-commander (https://www.deviantart.com/demon-vice-c ... -373970837) and things are really starting to come together:

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Wheels on. Front faux-metal plate test fitted...

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And hazard stripes added to the doors. Rather than painting these one, I used two layers of 19mm yellow electrical tape (as it was done on the hero trap) and cut the excess with a knife:

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Unfortunately, the only component of note not included in the kit is the brass Legris banjo that sits on top of one of the pedal's Hammond boxes. I guess these are much harder to source, so I'll try and do my best with a 3D printed replica. This I printed at a higher resolution to lessen the layer lines as much as possible and to avoid the horrors of Bondo:

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And then, with a bit of priming , sanding, and painting magic...

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Voila! A lovely colour match along side the real brass foster connector I think. As you can see, I went ahead and followed the guide to create the GB1 style hose...

...but more of that next time when I start the assembly and make a ridiculous amount cable spaghetti.
Last edited by EctoLabs on August 11th, 2020, 3:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.
tobycj, Kingpin, Nighty80 and 1 others liked this
#4935267
Coming together real nice! Love that deep black you got out of it and how smooth everything is. I might hit you up later on your technique for the weld lines once I get going on my proton pack.

I also want to give a shout out to Halfords on their gorgeous spray can design! Super jealous of those truthfully.
#4935474
Aaaaand we're back with the next fun-packed episode of Rinsing Through Your Furlough Like A Boss...

All the parts are now nicely painted, so it's time to move on to the guts of the trap. I downloaded Sean's Electro-Mechanics's guide PDF from his Etsy store which is based around a shopping list of additional electronics not included in his kit. For simplicity's sake, I went with almost all of these recommended components with the exception of the main lighting. I'm mainly using Adafruit stuff here which in the UK can be ordered from Mouser.com - they ship from their warehouse in the US, but still manage to deliver (for free) in only 3 days.

The main microcontroller is the Metro - Adafruit's Arduino Uno clone:

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For the smoke, I'm using 2x Joyetech eRoll Mac eCigs with a vape mixture of 80% vegetable glycerine, 20% deionised water:

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Wiring everything together was straightforward but took a while, eventually producing a mess of multicoloured wires. Along with the kit items, I'm using the Adafruit Music Maker Shield for SFX playback, 2x Adafruit 3W Enclosed Speakers, Adafruit Bi-Color Bargraph (can display red, green and yellow), RS Li-Ion Battery (3.7V, 5.2Ah) and an Adafruit PowerBoost 1000 Charger (which converts the 3.7V battery power into a 5V circuit and also makes it easy to recharge the battery via micro USB):

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The main lighting effects are where I deviated slightly. Instead of using three individual white LEDs and a lighting gel, I opted to use 3x NeoPixel Jewels. These are roughly the same size as the white lights that Sean used, only each Jewel contains seven 5mm NeoPixels - and each NeoPixel contains one red, one green, one blue and one 6000K cool white LED. This gives us a total of 21 pixels that can be controlled individually for lots of cool effects and pretty colours. They are also really bright which is great for the blinding effects of accidentally looking into the trap.

The great thing about the Jewels is that they can be linked together in a chain, so we only need to use one data pin on the Arduino. I created this chain with a 3-pin JST connector - the data wire connects to a digital PWM pin on the Arduino board, and also has a 470 Ohm resistor soldered inline near the first Jewel which protects the first pixel in the chain.

I also needed to modify the design of the LED mount to fit the Jewels. With my design the soldered wires can be fed into the centre of the mount and only needs a single small screw to secure in place. If anyone would like the STL for this, you can grab it from here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4426034

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Right, let's finally start putting this all together. The LED mounts are attached to the top section in between the speakers. As I am not using the supplied lighting gel, I cut a strip from a clear plastic document wallet instead which is sandwiched between the lighting and speaker assembly and the mesh from the kit. Leaving the plastic out completely creates a cleaner look, but I figured it would be wise to have a barrier between the smoke holes and the electronics so vape residue (which is horribly sticky from the glycerine) cannot settle on them over time:

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Then, I focused on the door mechanism which is, quite frankly a work of genius. Working out a way of fitting two servo motors and a chain system as well as the bargraph and separate LED into such a small and irregularly shaped area is no mean feat, but this really works incredibly well. Fitting the small plastic chains around the axels was extremely fiddly as there's not much room for manoeuvre and the links can easy unclip themselves. A number of attempts and many unrepeatable expletives later...

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Even with all that packed into the front section of the trap, there's still just enough room for the 16 (count them!) wires attached to the bargraph and yellow LED. I sanded the underside of the bargraph plate and used a load of hot melt glue to keep everything in place:

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Next, I assembled the rest of the main body until all electronic components were in place, leaving off just the side panels. The doors slide into place easily, but as Cristoval pointed out in his build, it is easy to split the ends of the door panels if the threads are not carefully pre-threaded. The two socket screws at the rear ends went in fine, but I still managed to crack the plastic on one of them when inserting the mini set screws that tighten against the metal axels (I should have dug out some of the plastic in advance). I repaired this with some super glue and used set screws on both sides of each door to secure.

I'm not gonna lie - as a bit of a neat freak when it comes to cabling, this rats nest is making me rather anxious. Nevertheless, it's all starting to look like a proper ghost trap... albeit a disemboweled one:

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Now it's time for the re-programming. As I mentioned in the first post, I want to edit the code to make the trap behave and sound a little more like the Sedgewick trap from GB1. With Jeremy Williams' original code, the first stomp on the pedal opens the doors and produces smoke, flashing lights and sound all at the same time. The second stomp closes the doors immediately, illuminates the bargraph and starts the red light blink and beeping. The SFX are also taken from the Video Game files that were released a few years ago and don't sound much like the movie so I want to try and recreate the sound where possible. I want something more accurate, namely:

* STARTUP WHEN SWITCH IS FLICKED ON - Need to improvise on this one, but want to replace the default sine tone with a cooler sound effect)
* FIRST PEDAL STOMP - Doors open with pinkish white light and door opening sound effect. The trap should be still and relatively quiet in its open position until the second pedal stomp as it is in GB1.
* SECOND PEDAL STOMP - Lights and sound intensify and capture sequence begins, mimicking sucking a ghost into the trap => Doors close once capture is complete => A few seconds of silence => Bargraph illuminates with an accurate sound effect => Red light blinks with more accurate beep => Blue electrical spark effect to mimic Venkman's nudge => Smoke begins to pour out of the trap.

...not too much to ask for right?

Let's get it jacked up to the computer and give it some balls! Find out how I do next time...

TTFN x

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Last edited by EctoLabs on August 11th, 2020, 3:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
cristovalc, Couture, Nuclearjungle and 2 others liked this
#4938092
How did you fare with the programming? I bought some neopixel jewels too, but I see that neopixels and servos conflict with each other in the same sketch unless you adopt a different library, which also requires wiring things differently than the instructions when using an Uno. I'm currently trying to figure out why my servos are going bonkers. They work okay when I run a servo test program, or when I edit the sound FX commands out of the trap code, but go haywire in the normal program. Maybe my mp3 shield is faulty.
#4938108
Nuclearjungle wrote: August 11th, 2020, 7:40 am How did you fare with the programming? I bought some neopixel jewels too, but I see that neopixels and servos conflict with each other in the same sketch unless you adopt a different library, which also requires wiring things differently than the instructions when using an Uno. I'm currently trying to figure out why my servos are going bonkers. They work okay when I run a servo test program, or when I edit the sound FX commands out of the trap code, but go haywire in the normal program. Maybe my mp3 shield is faulty.

I've been meaning to update this thread for ages but been a bit busy. Yes, I spent quite a bit of time editing the code and did manage to tame the servos but I couldn't get the alternate library working at all, even when I moved the servos to the required pins.

I realised though that there was no need for the servos to be attached to the code while the lighting effects are running, so I reverted to stuck the standard library and called a servo.detach() as soon as the doors are finished opening. This means that the neopixel library can't interfere with them during the main sequences. I then only reattach the servos to the code just before needing to close the doors.

I'll update this thread properly asap and share the code I am running. Hope that makes some kind of sense!
Nuclearjungle liked this
#4938207
Interesting. I'm going to try to fix my servo problem this weekend, and then start worrying about the neopixels. I might as well attempt to figure out the alternate servo library (even though I haven't heard of anyone getting it to work so far), but I'd definitely be interested in seeing what you came up with in terms of code.
#4938470
You mentioned managing to tame the servos; was that only because of the neopixel conflict, or were they misbehaving for any additional reasons?

At this point, I've tested pretty much everything and replaced all the major parts, and the servos still don't behave correctly. The only things that made a difference at all were the new servos from Adafruit, which are upgraded to MG90D instead of MG90S.
#4938489
Nuclearjungle wrote: August 22nd, 2020, 12:44 pm You mentioned managing to tame the servos; was that only because of the neopixel conflict, or were they misbehaving for any additional reasons?

At this point, I've tested pretty much everything and replaced all the major parts, and the servos still don't behave correctly. The only things that made a difference at all were the new servos from Adafruit, which are upgraded to MG90D instead of MG90S.

Yes, it was just the NeoPixel conflict that was the issue. I used the two MG90S servos that Sean shipped with his kit. They didn't misbehave that much really - just some fast twitching whenever the lighting effects kicked in. They were still at other times. Here's the Arduino code that I wrote for my trap. I changed it a fair bit from the original and some of it is specific to my setup, but maybe it can be of some help to you.

http://www.ectolabs.net/files/CD_Ghost_ ... .0.ino.zip

If you look at the sections relevant to the doors, you'll see I created a reusable function 'trapDoors()' to which you pass the parameter 'open' or 'close'. Once called, it attaches the servos, updates their position and then detaches them after a delay of about 300ms. This way, they are only actually active in the code for a very short amount of time and are effectively dead while the NeoPixels do their thing.

There is also the parameter 'calibrate' which I run at startup - this makes sure the doors are in the correct starting position when the trap is switched on. I think I played around with the opened and closed values as they weren't finishing in a symmetrical position to start with.

The code is commented fairly well, so hope it's not too confusing!
Nuclearjungle liked this
#4938514
Thanks! After spending all day yesterday tearing my electronics apart and testing everything, I eventually concluded scientifically that my components were assembled on an ancient Indian burial ground, and therefore cursed. But then I saw your code posted today, and I immediately got to work rewiring things and uploading your code. You did an amazing job on the new sequence, and my servos seem to work properly now! I only have one small issue now that I need to figure out: I seem to be having some slight trouble triggering the trap now. I'm just using the rotary switch at this point, but if I give it 2 clicks like before, it opens and then immediately shuts and silently aborts the whole sequence. If I leave it "pressed" for a second until it proceeds to the capturing/closing phase and then give it the second click, I see the whole sequence as intended, but I can't get it to just stay in the "open" phase while waiting for a second stomp. Maybe I have something wired incorrectly somehow. Still, though, everything is looking infinitely better now with your code. Again, great job!

EDIT: Nevermind, I noticed that it stays open while the sound is playing, and you need a long sound to keep it open. You saved the day, man.
#4938524
Ah, great to hear that sorted it. I wouldn't have expected it to run properly on another trap. Regarding the rotary switch, I didn't like using 7 positions when you need to do a 'double click' each time as it made it to easy to overshoot and do three clicks by mistake. I moved the stopper so you can only move it by two positions each way. That way you can turn it back and forth quickly without needing to be careful.

I also changed the sequences to behave more like the Sedgewick trap - first stomp opens the trap and remains in a primed state ready for capture; second stomp starts the capture sequence and automatically closes the doors over the ghost is inside. This will only work properly if you use the new sound files I made as the sequences are timed specifically with them. I made them as close as possible to the sounds heard in GB1 rather than the video game.

I would like to share those with everyone, so I'll try and get them together and update this thread today if I get the time. Bear with me....
#4938544
Yeah, I was using the original video game sounds as placeholders with your code, but the original code used a short "trap open" sound followed by a looping sound, so it was the shortness of the "open" sound that made it quickly abort. I temporarily switched it to the extended red light beep for testing, which made everything work great. And fortunately, I had already bought some neopixel jewels.
#4940415
EctoLabs wrote: August 24th, 2020, 2:41 am Ah, great to hear that sorted it. I wouldn't have expected it to run properly on another trap. Regarding the rotary switch, I didn't like using 7 positions when you need to do a 'double click' each time as it made it to easy to overshoot and do three clicks by mistake. I moved the stopper so you can only move it by two positions each way. That way you can turn it back and forth quickly without needing to be careful.

I also changed the sequences to behave more like the Sedgewick trap - first stomp opens the trap and remains in a primed state ready for capture; second stomp starts the capture sequence and automatically closes the doors over the ghost is inside. This will only work properly if you use the new sound files I made as the sequences are timed specifically with them. I made them as close as possible to the sounds heard in GB1 rather than the video game.

I would like to share those with everyone, so I'll try and get them together and update this thread today if I get the time. Bear with me....
Great build thread! Sean here - designer of the original files - saw your conversation about the trigger and totally agree - I have always disliked the 7 position switch and I finally found what I was looking for all along. I've replaced the 7 position rotary with a rotary encoder that lets you simply push on the knob once to replicate a pedal push. (Think the on/off knob on your car stereo) and I'm sure the more electronic savvy can figure out a good use for the rotary function as well.

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I have also updated many of the 3D files which include:
- Side panel now works for GB1 AND 2 - no separate panels to print
- More accurate side knob and resistor placement
- 2 hole side plates added for GB1 style traps
- V-hook holes in bottom plate
- Print Guide updated - color coded and simplified to navigate easier

More updates are in the works! I have the new rotary switches and a bunch of new stuff in my shop - link in signature.
tobycj, mike_waclo, canpara and 1 others liked this
#4943880
Amazing!

I am just starting my trap (I wish I would have seen this thread a week ago!).

I too would like to have my trap behave more like the hotel scene and have multi-coloured FX instead of the pink gel. I was looking at mouser.ca (Canada) and the only versions I could find were these...

https://www.mouser.ca/ProductDetail/Ada ... A6MQ%3D%3D

Do you know if those would work?

Thanks and great job!
#4943892
ImperialWalker wrote: January 3rd, 2021, 8:14 pm Amazing!

I am just starting my trap (I wish I would have seen this thread a week ago!).

I too would like to have my trap behave more like the hotel scene and have multi-coloured FX instead of the pink gel. I was looking at mouser.ca (Canada) and the only versions I could find were these...

https://www.mouser.ca/ProductDetail/Ada ... A6MQ%3D%3D

Do you know if those would work?

Thanks and great job!
Yes, they will work but the exact ones I used are these:

https://www.mouser.ca/ProductDetail/Ada ... 8SOA%3D%3D

They have the added 6000K cool white LEDs in each pixel so you can get a really bright white separate to the red, green and blue. If you don't need that, then the ones you linked to are absolutely fine.
#4943904
EctoLabs wrote: January 4th, 2021, 3:25 am Yes, they will work but the exact ones I used are these:

https://www.mouser.ca/ProductDetail/Ada ... 8SOA%3D%3D

They have the added 6000K cool white LEDs in each pixel so you can get a really bright white separate to the red, green and blue. If you don't need that, then the ones you linked to are absolutely fine.
Much appreciated. I'll go with the ones you did.
#4946375
Eight months since the last update???? Funny how time flies in the vacuum of Coronageddon. I finished the trap build quite some time ago, but things with my little business got quite involved, so I haven't had the chance to post the results... until now. Yay!

So, how did it turn out? Really nice, even if I do say so myself. It was a really enjoyable build and incredibly satisfying to see it all working especially as I went rather off-piste with some of the electronics and the supplied code. As far as aesthetics go, I went with a lighter approach to the weathering. I used a blunt piece of plastic to gently scrape the top coat of black paint from some of the edges to simulate general wear and tear. I then added the remaining vinyl labels and a dry-rub transfer for the diagram on the pedal's metal Hammond box.

After this, I used some oil paints to add grime around the bolts and metal plates, and also into the labels and door stripes which really helps age the overall look of the prop - I used a mix of Burnt Umber and Ivory Black. I initially went a bit overboard with this, but as oil paints take an age to dry, there was plenty of time to wipe off the excess. However, it proved to be rather stubborn getting enough off the aluminium vector plate which now has a slight yellow tinge in the grooves, which actually worked out quite nicely.

I have seen some props go from great to horrible with way too much weathering that just doesn't look natural. Maintaining restraint made the trap go from 'fresh from the factory' to 'janky piece of ghostbusting tech'. Couple that with the insane amount of dust that it picks after just one day on its shelf in EctoLabs HQ, and it's not looking too far removed from my original reference photos.

There are still some improvements to be made such as better quality labels, more attention to detail on the front knobs and also a GB1 accurate side knob (as I'm still using the GB2 style one included with the kit), but overall I'm really happy with how it looks - those that I have demoed it to can't believe that it has been 3D printed. It even fools me sometimes!

Here are some photos of the trap and pedal in their current form:

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But, let's face it, the electronics are the real star of the show when it comes to ghost traps. I'm happy to say that I managed to get it all working after a lot of code tweaking. As I opted to use NeoPixel Jewels for the main lighting effects, there is a conflict that exists between the NeoPixel library and the servo library that operate the doors. This can cause the servo motors to twitch when the NeoPixels are being animated. I did try the alternative servo library that exists, but I had no luck in getting it to work. In the end, I opted to tweak the code so the motors are only active during the movement of the doors and completely detached from the code at all other times. This seemed to do the trick and now everything works consistently every time.

My original plan was to make the trap behave more like the hero trap does in the Sedgewick Hotel scenes. This was greatly helped by the inclusion of better SFX more accurate to GB1. Giant Crunch bars to Ryusui for the sound files he shared here a while back. I edited these to adjust the timings and create loops so they would work with the Music Maker board inside the trap. These sound effects are triggered by the pedal stomps and are synchronised with the smoke machine to create four distinct phases:

1) POWER ON (Flicking the toggle switch initiates the Arduino code. Once it has been fully loaded, the bargraph on the front of the trap displays a red chase pattern, followed by a start up sound to indicate it is ready (I used that lovely little sound you hear at the very beginning of the first movie as Columbia appears).

2) TRAP OPEN (The first pedal stomp opens the doors with accompanying SFX. Initial pinkish light from inside the trap which flickers randomly. I added a looped rumble here to make the trap suddenly feel a little more 'dangerous' ).

3) CAPTURE (The second pedal stomp starts the 8 second capture sequence. The main lights burst into brightest white and start strobing with increased intensity. The smoke machine kicks in at this point which makes the lights look even more awesome. The capture SFX runs for the full sequence until the doors snap shut. Silence for a second until the yellow bargraph illuminates (I created a new sound effect for this which replicates the bargraph sound heard in the movie as closely as possible). Red light on the back starts flashing with a looped beep. I also added a little extra SFX to suggest the sparks that emanate from the trap when Venkman kicks it. This is matched with some blue lights that can be seen if you look closely underneath the closed doors (this can be seen better in the dark).

4) RESET (The trap is reset to the phase one by a third press of the pedal).

Wanna see it all working? Oh, go on then......



I have dubbed the sound effects over this video so you can hear them clearly (they didn't sound so good using the microphone on my phone), but it's a good indication of how the trap sounds in operation. The only slight downside is that the air pump that drives the smoke is quite noisy, so there is a loud motor noise during the capture. This kind of adds to the theatre of the sequence though and makes it sound like the trap might blow up at any minute which is no bad thing! Ideally, I would want the smoke to only emerge after the doors are closed. This is an easy adjustment to make but I feel the sound of the pump just ruins the illusion so I have settled with how it is here.


Downloads

I don't want to keep the additions to myself, so for anyone who is working on their own trap here are some files that may help you...

Firstly, my modified ARDUINO CODE. Bear in mind, this is written for the specific hardware I have inside my trap and may not work with other components. However, for the tinkerers amongst us, this may be of some help (I included comments so hopefully it makes some sense):

https://www.ectolabs.net/files/CD_Ghost ... e_v1.0.zip

Note: for this to work, you will need the following two additional libraries installed in your Arduino folder:
millisDelay: https://github.com/ansonhe97/millisDelay
NeoPixel: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_NeoPixel

And, finally, a SFX PACK with all the edited sound files I used for my build. Full information can be found in the included CREDITS files, but big thanks again to Ryusui for the original files. I have also included an alternative SFX for the capture sequence take from the 2016 reboot which sounds really great too (just edit the code to use the one you prefer):

https://www.ectolabs.net/files/CD_Ghost ... X_Pack.zip

-------------

So that's that! Thanks to those of you that have read through all of my waffling. I hope it is of some help to those of you building your own traps. I'm happy to answer any questions if anything needs clarifying - just shoot me a PM.

Ghost Trap. Done.

Dave x
Last edited by EctoLabs on March 4th, 2021, 4:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
Nighty80, Jonobiwan, cristovalc and 1 others liked this
#4946386
This is amazing!

I'm trying to build my trap to resemble yours. I haven't gotten to the electronics yet, but I am thinking the only real changes I would like to make (if possible) are the following.

1. I would like it to randomly play a capture sound (out of say, 5?) where there is a clean capture sound like you have, but also one with different ghost screams mixed in. So it sounds like it is pulling in a resisting ghost, but not always with the same scream. Possible? I dunno.

2. In the movie it doesn't seem to smoke until it is brought out of the ballroom. I was thinking it might be cool to hide the pump motor by activating it during the "lightning" sound. I'm not really sure how the smoke pump works, but the noise is something that really sucks. I wonder if it could be pulsed or shielded somehow?

3. I am hoping that I could use the other knob on the rod side as a volume switch so It could be adjusted depending on where it was (and while I'm working on it).

Either way, you did a fantastic job!

Oh... when you say you want to do more work on the front buttons, what did you mean?
#4946390
Love it! Great mod to the code! We should give a shout out to Jeremy Williams who put together the original code and electronics. https://ledseq.com

@ImperialWalker - we decided to have it smoke when the lights turn on so you can actually SEE the lights. Even the brightest lights don't look like much bouncing off black doors. The effect with the smoke is much better.
#4946393
countspatula wrote: February 28th, 2021, 2:27 pm Love it! Great mod to the code! We should give a shout out to Jeremy Williams who put together the original code and electronics. https://ledseq.com
Cheers Sean, and thanks again for the great kit. Yes absolutely, big props to Jeremy too - I have credited both of you at the top of my modified code too.
ImperialWalker wrote:1. I would like it to randomly play a capture sound (out of say, 5?) where there is a clean capture sound like you have, but also one with different ghost screams mixed in. So it sounds like it is pulling in a resisting ghost, but not always with the same scream. Possible? I dunno.
Yeah, definitely possible. You could have 5 different variations of the capture sound file and have the code pick one of them at random to play.
ImperialWalker wrote:2. In the movie it doesn't seem to smoke until it is brought out of the ballroom. I was thinking it might be cool to hide the pump motor by activating it during the "lightning" sound. I'm not really sure how the smoke pump works, but the noise is something that really sucks. I wonder if it could be pulsed or shielded somehow?
I did dismantle the pump at one point and it has a silicone diaphragm that is spun by a basic motor. Isolated from the rest, the motor itself is pretty quiet, but it's the sound of the air passing through the diaphragm that causes most of the noise. I did try another pump with a slightly different design but it didn't do much. There may be other options that are quieter but there's only a limited amount of space in which to fit the whole assembly, and Sean's solution is very neat. I agree though, having the smoke happen silently would make it perfect. That said, in a room with more ambient noise, this may not be such an issue.
ImperialWalker wrote:Oh... when you say you want to do more work on the front buttons, what did you mean?
I just mean the detail on the front knobs. I still haven't added silver caps on the round ones - they are still black in the centre. And maybe one of the round ones was actually completely silver/metal on the GB1? I can't remember now.
#4946396
I’m having the same problem with a twitching servo. I’m building Charlesworth Dynamics kit, and everything runs great except I have a servo that continuously twitches while in operation. You said you tweaked the code and that helped. I have no experience with coding, so I was wondering how you tweaked the code to get it to work?
Last edited by Kingpin on February 28th, 2021, 6:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.Reason: Removed unnecessarily quoted post content.
#4946427
modglin88 wrote: February 28th, 2021, 6:03 pm I’m having the same problem with a twitching servo. I’m building Charlesworth Dynamics kit, and everything runs great except I have a servo that continuously twitches while in operation. You said you tweaked the code and that helped. I have no experience with coding, so I was wondering how you tweaked the code to get it to work?
Kind of tricky explaining without going into coding details, plus my own tweaks may not work with other setups if the hardware is different as I made some deviations.

Put as simply as possible: there's a function in the code 'servo.attach()' which effectively turns on the motors so they are ready to receive commands, and a function 'servo.detach()' which turns them off and into a non-responsive state. What worked for me was to make sure that the servos are only attached at the point you want the doors to move and then immediately detached as quickly as possible after the movement is complete. This minimises the time the servos are active and less chance for any other components to interfere. In my case, the NeoPixels animations were causing the twitching, but if you are using the original code supplied by Sean and Jeremy, then not sure what would be causing it.
#4946433
Thanks for the reply! Yeah, I’m using the hardware from Sean’s instructions and the original code provided. It’s just the right servo that is twitching. The other servo works just as intended. So I’m wondering if switching out the servo for a new one might work.
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