CAMELOT Theatrical Special Effects

Now and then it becomes necessary to make a battery-operated device work onstage. Examples include cassette tape players or DVD players, lanterns, flashlights, fans, motors or a zillion other things that are battery operated. The device has some batteries in it and an on/off switch. That's it. Most of the on/off switches are weird cam devices, like a flashlight switch, which are not easily soldered to. How do we temporarily make these things work by remote control without destroying them?

I call this the two-cent solution: we use two pennies. Pennies are great because they're copper and zinc which means:
1. They are great conductors of electricity.
2. They can be easily soldered to.

Build a remote switch like this: solder a wire to a penny. Now get another penny and solder another wire to that one. Too easy: you've now got two pennies, each with a wire soldered to it.

Place a thin piece of plastic or any other non-conductor (thick paper or cardboard) between the two pennies. Let's call that the insulator. Make sure the pennies don't touch.

Now: Place the assembly (penny, insulator, penny) between any two batteries in the device. You now have two wires that you can run offstage to a switch. Turn the device on. It won't work. Now turn the offstage switch on. It will work! Too cool: a two-cent remote control. Your director will think you're a genius.

posted by C. J. # 12:00 AM