Little lights
Tapper
scale). The smallest LEDs I have are too big, and the "microlamps" from
Radio Shack (cute little LED-sized filament bulb) are OK, but they're
expensive (over $1 ea) and I think the heat would be a hazard. I want
strings of lights to go around the edges of the roofs, around Santa and
Reindeer stand-ups, etc, just like on a real house.
Power reqs aren't important: I can run on batteries, use the DC juice in the
house now, or go AC.
My DREAM is to make "icicle" lights, just like the ones that are so popular
now on real houses. I'm fiddling with fiber optic and clear heatshrink
tubing but the fibers are too stiff when they're short: they won't dangle
from eaves properly, although horizontal runs are OK.
Any ideas for sources of strings of bitty little lights? Or fringes of fiber
optic? I want authentic-looking decorations, so I'm trying to create
hundreds of points of light. I get a nice effect from staggered fiber in
clear tubing but it's pretty time-consuming since I'm a beginner.
Thanks
--Pat
Watson A.Name "Watt Sun - the Dark Remover"
A guy at work sells Avon products. Last wk he brought in a Christmas
village decoration with fiber optic strands all around the eaves of the
houses and all over the place. It's pretty impressive, and looks like
there is a color wheel inside that changes the light coming from the
strands. To find it, go to www.avon.com, and in the What Product box at
the bottom type in christmas fiber optic and hit go.
Local stores are selling something similar, but not a complete village,
just a single house or whatever. Costs something like $13 or so.
BTW, do not post to sci.electronics, it is not a valid newsgroup.
> Thanks
> --Pat
--
@@F@r@o@m@@O@r@a@n@g@e@@C@o@u@n@t@y@,@@C@a@l@,@@w@h@e@r@e@@
###Got a Question about ELECTRONICS? Check HERE First:###
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goes directly to the trash unless you add NOSPAM in the
Subject: line with other stuff. alondra101 <at> hotmail.com
Don't be ripped off by the big book dealers. Go to the URL
that will give you a choice and save you money(up to half).
http://www.everybookstore.com You'll be glad you did!
Just when you thought you had all this figured out, the gov't
changed it: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
@@t@h@e@@a@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@m@e@e@t@@t@h@e@@E@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@
F
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Tapper
foot; my house is 3 feet tall. I'm not looking for a Christmas Village; I
built a house and want to decorate it. Thnaks for the info anyway (it's
something to shoot for!), and the NG tip.
"Watson A.Name "Watt Sun - the Dark Remover"" <NOS...@dslextreme.com> wrote
in message news:boqvvq$4qiqo$1...@hades.csu.net...
scada
"Tapper" <oldNOg...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:Xo2dnbVJWpm...@iwc.net...
Try a hobby shop. I used to buy the "Grain of wheat" lights, very small.
Daniel Stern Lighting
> I am trying to make lighted Christmas decorations for a dollhouse
> (1/12th scale). The smallest LEDs I have are too big, and the
> "microlamps" from Radio Shack (cute little LED-sized filament bulb) are
> OK, but they're expensive (over $1 ea)
6V, 12V or 24V 1.2W all-glass bulb, 4mm max diameter, 15mm max length,
$7/10pk from www.candlepowerinc.com . Type W1.2W. Would that work?
DS
Rheilly Phoull
--
Regards ............... Rheilly Phoull
Watson A.Name - Watt Sun, Dark Remover
mentioned...
> Thanks, that's cute. But that is table-top. Dollhouse scale is 1 inch = 1
> foot; my house is 3 feet tall. I'm not looking for a Christmas Village; I
> built a house and want to decorate it. Thnaks for the info anyway (it's
> something to shoot for!), and the NG tip.
I went by the hardware stoe last night to get a key made and they had
a layout of more than a dozen xmas/winter houses, train station,s
ferris wheels, etc, most with the fiber optics and multicolored lights
in them. I think they use nylon monofilament fishing line for the
fiber optics, and run them to a central point where the light is. I
haven't seen inside one of these yet, I guess I'll have to investigate
further. They even had a snow making machine that sits in front of
the model, dropping flakes on the ground. It operated off a wall
wart. Cute. But the neatest one was a working model of a roller
coaster ride, and on the front was the word
---------
( TORNADO )
---------
with the letters made up of pinpoint sized red LEDs. Just about the
size you were looking for. There was no doubt they were LEDs.
JW
Remover\"" <NOS...@dslextreme.com> wrote in Message id:
<boqvvq$4qiqo$1...@hades.csu.net>:
>BTW, do not post to sci.electronics, it is not a valid newsgroup.
It is on some servers. Depends on your NSP.
Adam Aglionby
"Watson A.Name - Watt Sun, Dark Remover" <alond...@hotmail.com> wrote in
message news:MPG.1a1bdb93a...@news.dslextreme.com...
> In article <a5KdnQt_2O4...@iwc.net>, oldNOg...@yahoo.com
> mentioned...
> > Thanks, that's cute. But that is table-top. Dollhouse scale is 1 inch
= 1
> > foot; my house is 3 feet tall. I'm not looking for a Christmas Village;
I
> > built a house and want to decorate it. Thnaks for the info anyway (it's
> > something to shoot for!), and the NG tip.
1" to 1` dosent sound impossible, any one tell us lenght of C7 christmas
lamp?
> I went by the hardware stoe last night to get a key made and they had
> a layout of more than a dozen xmas/winter houses, train station,s
> ferris wheels, etc, most with the fiber optics and multicolored lights
> in them. I think they use nylon monofilament fishing line for the
> fiber optics,
Not nylon, wrong characteristics, Plastic Optical Fibre, POF, is made fom
Poly Methyl Meth Acrylate,PMMA for short similar to perspex plastic sheet.
Fiber in US, fibre is UK spelling, brings up a whole set of different search
results.;-)
Theres a couple of people sell small quantaties of this in various single
fibre diameters up to about 3mm, try some of the phrases above in Google.
With wide diameter fibres, scraping the surface at intervals wil give a
`sideglow` effect.
>and run them to a central point where the light is. I
> haven't seen inside one of these yet, I guess I'll have to investigate
> further.
Usually an 10W MR11 12/6V lamp and gear motor driving quadrant colour wheel,
wall wart for supply.This will light a lot of fibre.May well be cheapest way
of buying fibre and light source is fibre xmas tree or decorative lamp and
breaking it up for parts.
Other possibility is using LEDs to light the fibre, couple the two using
dark heatshrink and even some clear epoxy.
Fibres can be bound together with epoxy and forced to hold a shape, seen
angel wings in just fibre done this way.
To get maximum brightness through your fibre polish the lit end on wet 1200
grade wet and dry paper, significant increase in brightness no matter the
light source.
> They even had a snow making machine that sits in front of
> the model, dropping flakes on the ground. It operated off a wall
> wart. Cute.
Now that sounds really cute, was it the foam type `snow`?
> But the neatest one was a working model of a roller
> coaster ride, and on the front was the word
> ---------
> ( TORNADO )
> ---------
>
Your shops are obviously more sophisticated than our Scottish ones.
> with the letters made up of pinpoint sized red LEDs. Just about the
> size you were looking for. There was no doubt they were LEDs.
Logic indicator LEDs are smallest leaded compnents can think of, usually
only in red though. Surface mount LEDs are smaller but tricky to solder on
to leads....
Standard 3mm LED is also known as T 1 meaning 1/8 of an inch, 5mm is T 1
3/4. To scale 3mm should be close , sand the LED body with rough grade
sandpaper to diffuse the light, white LEDs look very cold , blue might be
cuter, again a search will bring up a pile of vendors.
http://www.fiberopticproducts.com
Few at random to start with.
Adam
Tapper
"Watson A.Name - Watt Sun, Dark Remover" <alond...@hotmail.com> wrote in
message news:MPG.1a1bdb93a...@news.dslextreme.com...
Sir Charles W. Shults III
purchased had an odd look in the light- it turns out the bristles were made of
plastic light fibers! Perhaps this is what happens with below-spec fiber optic
cable; fishing line and toothbrush bristles would be about right.
Cheers!
Chip Shults
My robotics, space and CGI web page - http://home.cfl.rr.com/aichip
ellen
be able to bend it into any shape or just paint out areas to get the effect
you need.
Have not tried it myself though
regards
logan
"Rheilly Phoull" <Rhe...@bigpond.com.au> wrote in message
news:bos7s1$1hf77d$1...@ID-151145.news.uni-berlin.de...
Watson A.Name - Watt Sun, Dark Remover
n...@capersville.co.uk mentioned...
>
> "Watson A.Name - Watt Sun, Dark Remover" <alond...@hotmail.com> wrote in
> message news:MPG.1a1bdb93a...@news.dslextreme.com...
> > In article <a5KdnQt_2O4...@iwc.net>, oldNOg...@yahoo.com
> > mentioned...
> > > Thanks, that's cute. But that is table-top. Dollhouse scale is 1 inch
> = 1
> > > foot; my house is 3 feet tall. I'm not looking for a Christmas Village;
> I
> > > built a house and want to decorate it. Thnaks for the info anyway (it's
> > > something to shoot for!), and the NG tip.
>
> 1" to 1` dosent sound impossible, any one tell us lenght of C7 christmas
> lamp?
>
> > I went by the hardware stoe last night to get a key made and they had
> > a layout of more than a dozen xmas/winter houses, train station,s
> > ferris wheels, etc, most with the fiber optics and multicolored lights
> > in them. I think they use nylon monofilament fishing line for the
> > fiber optics,
> Not nylon, wrong characteristics, Plastic Optical Fibre, POF, is made fom
> Poly Methyl Meth Acrylate,PMMA for short similar to perspex plastic sheet.
> Fiber in US, fibre is UK spelling, brings up a whole set of different search
> results.;-)
It started raining cats and dogs, hope the power doesn't go out before
I send this. :->
PMMA sounds cool, but my guess was nylon because there is no concern
for efficiency in the case of this decoration, there's plenty of light
that can be wasted. And PMMA is probably something that's a lot more
expensive than nylon fishing line. So for economic reasons, nylon
would be chosen, as long as it works even as little as a tenth as good
as PMMA.
> Theres a couple of people sell small quantaties of this in various single
> fibre diameters up to about 3mm, try some of the phrases above in Google.
> With wide diameter fibres, scraping the surface at intervals wil give a
> `sideglow` effect.
>
> >and run them to a central point where the light is. I
> > haven't seen inside one of these yet, I guess I'll have to investigate
> > further.
>
> Usually an 10W MR11 12/6V lamp and gear motor driving quadrant colour wheel,
> wall wart for supply.This will light a lot of fibre.May well be cheapest way
> of buying fibre and light source is fibre xmas tree or decorative lamp and
> breaking it up for parts.
> Other possibility is using LEDs to light the fibre, couple the two using
> dark heatshrink and even some clear epoxy.
> Fibres can be bound together with epoxy and forced to hold a shape, seen
> angel wings in just fibre done this way.
>
> To get maximum brightness through your fibre polish the lit end on wet 1200
> grade wet and dry paper, significant increase in brightness no matter the
> light source.
Wonder it that fine a sandpaper is easily obtainable. I have some
lens polishing rouge that can do a very fine job of polishing. Also
I've found that toothpaste will, too.
> > They even had a snow making machine that sits in front of
> > the model, dropping flakes on the ground. It operated off a wall
> > wart. Cute.
>
> Now that sounds really cute, was it the foam type `snow`?
Looked like ivory soap flakes to me.
> > But the neatest one was a working model of a roller
> > coaster ride, and on the front was the word
> > ---------
> > ( TORNADO )
> > ---------
>
> Your shops are obviously more sophisticated than our Scottish ones.
Everything seems to be made in China. Since So. Calif is closer
shipping-wise, to their factories, often these new gewgaws show up
first here, then make their way across the rest of the U.S. and
Europe, I guess. Or maybe it's because the U.S. is a sucker market
for that kind of thing. You ought to take a look at a Big Lots! store
(used to be called Pic'n'Save).
http://www.biglots.com/aboutus/default.asp
> > with the letters made up of pinpoint sized red LEDs. Just about the
> > size you were looking for. There was no doubt they were LEDs.
>
> Logic indicator LEDs are smallest leaded compnents can think of, usually
> only in red though. Surface mount LEDs are smaller but tricky to solder on
> to leads....
> Standard 3mm LED is also known as T 1 meaning 1/8 of an inch, 5mm is T 1
> 3/4. To scale 3mm should be close , sand the LED body with rough grade
> sandpaper to diffuse the light, white LEDs look very cold , blue might be
> cuter, again a search will bring up a pile of vendors.
Did you know you can buy LED condoms? They're little latex(?) covers
that slip over the LED, to diffuse the light. :-)
Thanks for the URLs. I would guess that a hobby shop would be able to
tell you more about where to get small lights for such things as
model railroads and scale models. Choo-choo trains with white LEDs
for the headlights seem to be the rage.
Michael A. Terrell
>
> Everything seems to be made in China. Since So. Calif is closer
> shipping-wise, to their factories, often these new gewgaws show up
> first here, then make their way across the rest of the U.S. and
> Europe, I guess. Or maybe it's because the U.S. is a sucker market
> for that kind of thing. You ought to take a look at a Big Lots! store
> (used to be called Pic'n'Save).
> http://www.biglots.com/aboutus/default.asp
I liked "Big Lots" better when they were called "Odd Lots", back in
the late '80s. They opened a lot of their early stores in Ohio when a
chain called "Rink's Bargain Barn" went bankrupt and they bought up the
old store leases, cheap.
They were more like surplus stores, and you never knew what you would
find. Anything from hardware, to new Dayton motors, and quality American
made tools. They also had more brands and types of candy than any other
store in the area. I bought a lot of stuff there before I left
Middletown, Ohio in 1987.
--
Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
Watson A.Name - Watt Sun, Dark Remover
mentioned...
Well, that's the whole point. If you want to post to it, then you're
certainly welcome to. You're also certainly welcome to talk to a
tree. Both have the same results.
By agreement, sci.electronics became invalid when it was replaced with
the seven sci.electronics.* newsgroups that are now on (or should now
be on) all news servers.
So if you post to sci.electronics on your server, and no other servers
accept it or propagate it (which is what was agreed to), then you
might as well be talking to a tree.
See what I mean, jellybean? :-)
BTW, you might want to ask your news server administrator why they
aren't obeying the agreement..
My newsreader says, Some of the newsgroups are invalid. Send anyway?
and I click yes. Very minor annoyance..
Robbie Banks
Was thinking about the icicles. How about making some hardset epoxy and
dipping the LED's in when the glue is quite tacky so that it coats it and
forms strands. Thenyou could hang them up to cure. Viola, instant bespoke
coloured icicles to be mounted on a strip of breadboard.
Just an idea.
Robbie
"Tapper" <oldNOg...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:nNSdnejK4Zd...@iwc.net...
coolmos
Another idea.
Take two unisolated wires in parallel, and solder SMD leds, size 0603 on them.
Available in a multitude of colors, and mostly cheap. Called Chipleds.
Possibilities:
TLxx1008A Toshiba
LxQ9xx Osram http://www.osram.convergy.de/scripts/product_class.asp?CLSOID=10018
Tapper
intervals, but it's a bit small. I am considering covering the slashes
with tiny glass beads, or dipping the whole thing in clear acrylic sealer to
see if I get a bit of magnification. But while the bottle's out I'll try
dipping an LED. Do you think the heat from the LED would cause it to
seperate over time? I use Liquitex acrylic medium, so maybe it's flexible
enough. Of course, it's blowing and raining cats and dogs here so the stuff
won't cure before Thanksgiving!!
--Pat
"Robbie Banks" <robbie...@nospamhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:bovm34$dr2$1...@sparta.btinternet.com...
Tapper
I'll grab some and see. I was hoping to run on battery power, but I can do
AC if necessary. I found some of the wire at glowire.com. I guess it's
time to dump some more cash into this damn project!
Thanks ellen
--Pat
"ellen" <shp...@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:boum3n$1a8$1...@sparta.btinternet.com...
Robbie Banks
and not pulling too much current.. Try the old 5 minute epoxy that you can
buy in most hardware stores. The one that comes in 2 parts, you mix
together. Has a glass transition temperature at 60 degress c, so should be
fine heat wise.
Let me know how you get on, would be interested to see a final picture of
the project. You can post it on alt.binaries.schematics.electronic
Cheers
Robbie
"Tapper" <oldNOg...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:D6GdnTU6Rch...@iwc.net...
Tapper
working on, but it doesn't come in white!!! What's this world coming to?
www.glowire.com has it.
Does anyone have an idea about using plastic gels or sleeves or something to
cancel one of these colors and end up with white?
"ellen" <shp...@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:boum3n$1a8$1...@sparta.btinternet.com...
Don Bruder
"Tapper" <oldNOg...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Well, the el wire looks promising, for some other Christmas projects I'm
> working on, but it doesn't come in white!!! What's this world coming to?
> www.glowire.com has it.
> Does anyone have an idea about using plastic gels or sleeves or something to
> cancel one of these colors and end up with white?
You're never going to get white by canceling/filtering colors out of a
source. If you want white, you're going to have to *ADD* whatever color
is lacking. White, when talking of light, is, by definition, *ALL*
colors at essentially equal levels. Remove (ferinstance) red from a
source that's at least sorta close to white, and the "total" output
becomes blue-ish. (Cyan, if you want to get technical) Remove green, and
it becomes purplish. (Magenta, for the tech-types) Remove blue, and the
output goes yellow. (In this case, yellow is also the technical term! :)
) Obviously, removing a combination of colors brings the third,
un-touched, color into dominance
On the other hand, if you get a strip that's red, and a strip that's
green, and a strip that's blue, and then run 'em together at equal
brightness, you'll get a "total" that's visible as white.
--
Don Bruder - dak...@sonic.net <--- Preferred Email - SpamAssassinated.
Hate SPAM? See <http://www.spamassassin.org> for some seriously great info.
I will choose a path that's clear: I will choose Free Will! - N. Peart
Fly trap info pages: <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd/Horses/FlyTrap/index.html>
Wim Lewis
ellen <shp...@btopenworld.com> wrote:
>How about trying the electroluminescent wire that Maplin sells. You should
>be able to bend it into any shape or just paint out areas to get the effect
>you need.
Don't know about the particular EL wire that Maplin sells, but the EL wire
I've messed with doesn't really like being bent sharply. The outer
conductor is made of very fine wire and breaks easily.
I made a set of Christmas lights for a miniature Norfolk pine a while ago
out of SMD chip LEDs and fine enameled wire (magnet wire). I simply
soldered the wire to the chips' ends by hand (using solder paste and
a small-tipped iron). The effect was pretty good, but the mechanical
stability wasn't; any handling at all would cause the string to break.
That might not be a problem with a dollhouse, or it might be possible to
add some sort of mechanical reinforcement so that the solder joints
don't have to provide the strength.
--
Wim Lewis <wi...@hhhh.org>, Seattle, WA, USA. PGP keyID 27F772C1
Impmon
> lamp?
1/8th of an inch. Typical C7 is about 1.5" high so a bunch of SMD LED could
fit C7 bulbs on that scale. Soldering them on thin wires and making them
look like mini christmas light would be a challenge though.
I don't think there are anything smaller than SMD LEDs so fiber optic would
be the only way to go for any light smaller than C7 on that scale.
Andre
> In article <boum3n$1a8$1...@sparta.btinternet.com>,
> ellen <shp...@btopenworld.com> wrote:
> >How about trying the electroluminescent wire that Maplin sells. You should
> >be able to bend it into any shape or just paint out areas to get the effect
> >you need.
>
> Don't know about the particular EL wire that Maplin sells, but the EL wire
> I've messed with doesn't really like being bent sharply. The outer
> conductor is made of very fine wire and breaks easily.
The fix is to wrap a piece of EMC copper tape round the outer part of
the fibre, fold over the little wires and solder to the tape. This
pretty much stops them breaking once the whole thing is heatshrunk or
epoxied in place.
-A