Flickering Christmas Lights? Anyone?

Yoda Jammies · Post by **Yoda Jammies** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 5:53 am

Hi Gang! Thanks for your help!

I'm looking for little, battery powered, flickering, mini christmas lights. I have looked, and found several cheep non-flickering lights. I was just wondering if anyone has seen little flickering lights? They would really make my encampment diorama come alive (little camp fires, little effort).

Thanks again, this is the greatest site ever!
MTFBWY
Jammies

Sparky · Post by **Sparky** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:43 am

I found one set of bubblous lights that stated that they change color. It turns out that they change slowly mixing one or more of three colors in the bulb, this also means a great many wires run to each bulb. Ok four, and the electronics are in the box, so you're not getting more than one 'fader/mixer' circuit.

The only other option are those magnet clip style flasher things, these could be wired to a common power source to aviod having to chang a 'fire's batteries.' Someone foudn on a online source for these once, I'll look through the bookmarks.

dekesdragon · Post by **dekesdragon** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 5:56 pm

iirc fires have been simulated using
a 'sound circuit' where the output
is shunted through a led instead of
a speaker
a little help v=ir guys.......

jwrjr · Post by **jwrjr** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:10 pm

VoodooFX has a fire simulation being designed.

macfrank · Post by **macfrank** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 12:58 am

There are two ways I can think of to generate a good random "flicker"

1- make an analog noise generator (a diode or even a resistor, depending on the type of noise you want), amplify & filter the signal and use it to drive an LED.

2- use an analog AM radio, tune it to a strong AM station, turn up the"volume" and drive the LED from the audio stage (disconnect the speaker, obviously). There are tiny battery powered AM radios that would do the trick, or even a dirt cheap MP3 player with an external power supply.