ABOUT THE PROJECT
This project is intended to be a startle effect. I plan to take these boxes and use them in conjunction with a pair of Bass Shaker Pro speakers mounted to a board that the patrons will walk on. Since the whole thing will be in complete darkness in the middle of a maze, I hope it will produce a pretty effective startle.
The idea is fairly simple. Take a bunch of disposable cameras and hook them up to a Prop1 from EFX-TEK. OK, so it is a little more involved than that, but not much.
PARTS LIST
You will need the following items to complete this project:
* Note: This can very easily accomidate up to 15 cameras. You just have to use either a Prop2 or a DC-16 Expander board from EFX-TEK.
STEP 1 - DISECTING THE CAMERA
 Cheap disposable camera from Dollar Store |
 Yet another view |
The first step is to get your hands on 5 to 7 disposable cameras. They don't have to be name brand, or anything like that. I purchased mine at the local dollar store. They had packs of 2 cameras for $8.
What made this easier for me was that my daughter was having her first communion party in the spring. I decided to put cameras on the tables like they do at wedding receptions. This worked out pretty well. I got some pictures that I wouldn't have been able to get myself, since I was the host, and I also got the parts I needed to complete my project. More on this later. As a side note: if you don't want to pay for the cameras and you are friends with someone who works somewhere that pictures are developed, maybe you can get the camera shells for free. It wouldn't hurt asking around.
The easiest way to get the film out is to actually use the camera. Why not, you spent good money on the camera. You might as well get some pictures out of the deal. Once all the pictures are taken, tear off the protective paper covering the camera. On the bottom is a slide door that covers the AA battery. Remove the battery and then proceed to open the camera. You might need to cut a seal on the side to open it up.
With the camera open, remove the film canister containing the exposed film. It will be a standard 35mm film canister. Take to your nearest developer and pay thru the nose for the pictures. Now get a set of tiny phillips screw drivers and remove the lens assembly. There should only be one or two screws holding this together. Once all the necessary screws are removed, carefully remove the circuit board and strobe light assembly. Be VERY carfull when handling the circuit board. The big capacitor on the board is rated at 330volts, or higher. If you short this circuit while the cap is charged, you could get a real nice, if not fatal shock! You have been warned.
Here are a couple pics of what a typical circuit board will look like. The one in your camera may very, but not by much.
 Flash Circuit Card - First Type |
 Flash Circuit Card - Second Type |
 Flash Circuit Card - Second Type w/ Button Removed |
|
The basic way the flash works is that by pressing the button on the front of the camera, the battery charges the big capacitor. When you short the two metal leads, it causes the current stored in the capacitor to flow to the flash and poof, the flash goes off. The capacitor then immediately starts to recharge for the next picture.
Since I planned on this project being completely unattended, I needed to find a way to 'press the button' to initiate the charge process, without touching them. Fortunately, the button that starts the charge process is nothing more than a piece of metal bend in a bowl shape. If you remove the metal bowl, you will find a couple pads that are shorted when the button is pressed. The easy way to simulate the button being pressed is to connect the two pads. I do this simply by soldering a piece of wire between the two pads. Now, whenever the battery is inserted, the charge process instantly starts. You can see the soldered wire in the top left picture. The bottom picture shows the metal bowl removed from the circuit board in the top right picture.
STEP 2 - BUILDING A HOME
 Bird House - Side |
 Bird House - Front |
 Bird House - Other side |
|
I suppose if you really wanted to, you could reuse the original camera shells, but I wanted something I could screw to a maze panel wall. So I threw together some quick little 'birdhouses' out of some scrap lumber I had laying around. This way, the circuit boards would be protected & I could easily mount them to the walls. Notice the hold on the side, that is where the wires for the strobe light to run thru. I will cover this in more detail later on. By the way, if you want your birdhouses painted black so they become harder to see, now is the time to do this. You will see why later.
STEP 3 - REMOVING THE FLASH
 Flash Circuit Card - Flash Removed |
 Flash Circuit Card - Flash Removed Different Angle |
Now that the birdhouses are made, I decided the easiest way to get the flash outside the box would be to snip the wires leading to the flash itself and resolder some longer pieces of wire back onto it. This is what these pictures are showing. I made sure that I used the same color wires as was originally used. This saves me confusion later on when I have to resolder the two separate pieces of wire together.
STEP 4 - INSTALLING CIRCUIT CARD IN THE BIRDHOUSE
 Light Mounted in Birdhouse |
 Light Mounted in Birdhouse - Front View |
 Light Mounted in Birdhouse - Closer View |
|
I then proceeded to take the longer wires and thread them thru the hole. I quickly found out that one hole would not work. The wires kept the light from sitting flush against the box. I simply drilled two more holes for the outside wires to pass thru. Once this was done, I simply used some hot glue to fasten the flash unit to the side of the box. I made sure to apply enough glue in/over the holes to assist in holding the wires in place. This acted as a strain relief to keep the wires from getting yanked during the assembly process.
Next thing I did was to resolder and shrink wrap the extended wires to the existing wire tails on the circuit board, making sure to match up the colors. Before I went any further, I proceeded to test. Better to do this now than to fasten the circuit board into the box and have to rip it apart. If it works without any problems, use some hot glue and carefully glue the circuit board into the box.
STEP 5 - INSTALLING THE TRIGGER CONNECTOR
 Replaced Contact Pins With Wire Extender |
 Replaced Contact Pins With Wire Extender - Closer View |
 Screw Mount Terminal Block |
 Screw Mount Terminal Block Mounted On Birdhouse |
Since I want to control the flash with a Prop1, I needed to make the trigger contact points accesible to the outside of the box. This was accomplished by desoldering the original metal tabs protruding from the circuit board and reoldering on some wire leads. I had a couple 2 position terminal blocks left over from a different project, so I drilled some holes in the birdhouse that lined up w/ the pins, fished the wire thru the holes and then soldered the wire to the pins. There was no need to shrink wrap the wires because the wood insulated the ends from each other. I then simply hot glued the terminal block to the top of the birdhouse.
 Hot Glued Foam on Door |
 Hot Glued Foam on Door - Alt View |
Now that the circuit board is installed in the box, you need to make it so the battery doesn't come out of the holder clips. To do this, simply take some squishey foam and glue it to the cover door and to the sides of the box next to the battery if necessary.
Here are my 5 finished strobe boxes...
 Finished Birdhouses |
 Finished Birdhouses - More |
 Finished Birdhouses - Closeup |
 Finished Birdhouses - Closeup |