FIRE!!!

kf4jqd

Active Member
Hell All:

I just made fire! I used a large L.E.D. and cotton. It looks good. I am wondering how does everyone else makes a camp fire or something simular?

Andy
 

shamus

Registered Member
Hi Andy, That's a great idea, I have an oil drum drilled out with a red 16v grain of wheat bulb in it, and used the radio trick (Off station) to power it, and it flickers. My little people can now keep warm. I put an article in the Academy/Archive under Sound & light Effects - which tells how to use the radio.


[This message has been edited by shamus (edited 03-09-2001).]
 

kf4jqd

Active Member
Hello George and Shamus:

George, I didn't make the flame flicker. The electronic flashing circuits flash at a constent rate. So that wont work.

Shamus is right about the radio. I do have a little sence in which a hobo is chased up a tree while his fire is burning. That kit requires a radio to power the little light.

How does a radio make a light work? Before the sound comes out of the speaker. It is in the form of electricity. There are electromagnets around the speaker cone. These coils of wires vibrate and the cone ampifies them so we can hear. Remove the speaker. Add a light. There you go! Just alittle tech data for everyone!


Andy
 

shamus

Registered Member
You can use the radio side for yet another dimension to your railroad, in the form of a flickering light. Temporarily connect two wires to the leads on the cassette radio, and connect a grain of wheat bulb to the wires.
Switch on the radio side to a music programme and slightly de-tune it, turn up the volume and watch the light flicker at various intervals. This can be used for a flickering fire if used with a red grain of wheat bulb.
If you want to experiment a little further, get an oil drum and drill out the top and bottom, paint the drum dark red inside, and grey outside. Place the red bulb at the base of the drum, drill a tiny hole in the baseboard and insert the wires through it. Take one of the wires from the red grain of wheat bulb, and connect it to the red wire already present, in the radio/cassette.
The other wire from the bulb goes to another tiny switch placed on your control panel and the other side of the switch goes back to the black wire underneath. Sit people around the drum and switch on the radio. You now have the effect of your little people keeping warm around a FLICKERING fire.
There must be other uses for the flickering light, but I have not come up with any others at the moment, perhaps some readers out there can come up with another way to use it, then perhaps I can add more to my layout.
 

George

Member
Andy and Shamus,

Top notch innovation, I must hand it to you fellows. This is something most people never would have thought of.

I was going to suggest adapting the Arc Welder bulb available from NOCH with a resistor to tone it down, but this concept of using a radio leaves it in a dust!
biggrin.gif


Question; Could you adapt this method by substituting a red LED instead of a bulb to prolong service life?
confused.gif


George.
 

kf4jqd

Active Member
Hello George:

Yes you can use a LED! THat is what I use. It's a large, bright, ornage one. Works great.

Also George; If my memory serves me correctly. The max out put voltage on most small tapeplayers/radios are about 3 volts. This is the max voltage allowed to an LED before it burns up. So try adding a dropping resistor in series to it. The rsistor should be around 1000 Ohms or 1k Ohm.

Hey Shamus. I lost my power cord to my radio and there is a sever winter storm here. You have a spare?
smile.gif
I guess after it lefts I will have to go to town and stop at my neighborhood Radio Shack!

I don't want to advertize for Radio Shack, but they have some of thier LED's on discount. Less than 00.50 per a set of LED's!

Later,
Andy


I HOPE SPRING COMES FAST!
 

blueangels

New Member
Hell All:

I just made fire! I used a large L.E.D. and cotton. It looks good. I am wondering how does everyone else makes a camp fire or something simular?

Andy
You could use a glass cube and put a whole in the center then shape the glass into a 3d fire then put a christmas light in the hole!announce1 It works for me!
 

w8jy

Member
Andy, thanks for the great information. I had never thought of a campfire, but I think now I will incorporate one into the layout.
My layout is in my radio shack, but I never would have thought of using speaker leads to trigger an LED. I guess that light bulb over my head that is supposed to light up when I get an idea has burned out - might have to replace it with an LED!
 
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