Hey everybody, I am new to this forum, and made my first haunted house this past halloween. I would like to find a good LED candle flicker technique, either buying and hacking the LED tea candles or building a circuit. So any of you have any recomendations from past experience? I have collected several circuits and circuit links on my web page if you are interested.
I'm really looking forward to building haunted house 2006, building lots of props and sharing ideas.
Thanks,
heresjohnny
Thanks mrklaw. I have seen that circuit before. I have ordered parts to build 2 of the circuits I know off, including the one you have shown me and one that uses flahing LEDs. Results will be posted on my site.
heresjohnny
http://home.cfl.rr.com/myhalloweenpage
You might consider this one, also:
http://home.aol.com/tractionfan/flicker.htm
It's essentially a twisted ring counter. Not obvious when you look at the circuit is that it can randomly flicker up to four different LEDs, and they all flicker differently! It can be modified easily so that the rate of flicker is adjustable.
With a circuit (like this) that can control multiple pairs of LEDs, all flickering in an apparently random manner, you can run pairs consisting of an orange and a yellow LED aligned "nose to nose" to get a really convincing flame-flicker effect.
Modify the timing even more (to run very, very slowly), and use pairs of LEDs in series to make your own (better) version of "cave eyes".
It's also not hard to turn this into a (pseudo) random event timer.
Frankly, it's a better and simpler (and more versatile) circuit than the one offered above.
Thanks! The circuit you are providing is one of 2 I am building for testing (currently waiting on parts. Curse Jameco, but at least they respond quickly to fix mistakes). I had gotten as far as seeing that the circuit was basically a counter. Any additional details you could provide for the various options afforded by this circuit would be appreciated (I am a computer engineer, only a hobbyist when it comes to electronics)
Engineer Wrote:You might consider this one, also:
http://home.aol.com/tractionfan/flicker.htm
It's essentially a twisted ring counter. Not obvious when you look at the circuit is that it can randomly flicker up to four different LEDs, and they all flicker differently! It can be modified easily so that the rate of flicker is adjustable.
With a circuit (like this) that can control multiple pairs of LEDs, all flickering in an apparently random manner, you can run pairs consisting of an orange and a yellow LED aligned "nose to nose" to get a really convincing flame-flicker effect.
Modify the timing even more (to run very, very slowly), and use pairs of LEDs in series to make your own (better) version of "cave eyes".
It's also not hard to turn this into a (pseudo) random event timer.
Frankly, it's a better and simpler (and more versatile) circuit than the one offered above.
Define quite LOL. You could hear the motor working, and it would strain a little bit when lifting the head, but it ran for several hours on 2 different nights with no problems. With the ambient noise in the haunted house (sound loops etc) I did not notice the motor noise. It is definitely quieter than a rotisserie motor.
ghostie Wrote:Hey Johnny, Thanks for the link to your site...I'm looking forward to seeing the flicker light...
Question: Is the motor you used for your FCG quiet? Because that's a great price. Thanks for the link...
http://www.herbach.com/Merchant2/merchan...M97MTR3030
heresjohnny Wrote:Currently waiting on parts. Curse Jameco, but at least they respond quickly to fix mistakes.
In the future, you might wish to consider Mouser:
http://www.mouser.com/
They have a
much larger inventory and
huge selection. Good prices. Best of all, no minimum order! I've dealt with them professionally for years (I'm an EE and do a lot of design and prototyping). I also use DigiKey, Arrow, and Newark (all have minimum orders), but Mouser is my first choice. (They're also very good about sending out samples when I need some.)
If you E-mail me with more specific questions about the circuit and its applications, and what you'd like to try, I'll be glad to help you out. Last year, I did a timer/sequencer for a Halloween product using a pair of Johnson counters (the other name for twisted ring counters).
Ah, my thread go tmoved to a better forum I see! Cool. Got the twisted ring counter flicker circuit working.
For those of you working with the twisted ring counter for LED flicker:
:arrow: You can "fine tune" the rate by tinkering with the value of the resistor between pins 6 and 7 of the 555.
Large changes in rate are made by changing the value of the capacitor at pin 2.
:arrow: Further, the original circuit takes an output only off of pin 6 of the 74x164. Pins 3, 4, and 5 are unused in the original circuit. If you put an LED on each of them, they will appear to "flicker" differently from the first one and from each other.
As I mentioned before, you could use two pins (4 and 6, for example), with an orange LED on one and a yellow on the other. Put those two LEDs "nose to nose" and enjoy a different kind of "candle flame" effect because of the two colors. Use pins 3 and 5 for second "candle".
With the 555 running at a much slower rate (larger capacitor), and pairs (in series) instead of single LEDs on the pins out (3, 4, 5, 6) you can have your own version of "cave eyes"--
without a microprocessor! Compare to:
http://www.cowlacious.com/CaveEyes.htm
It isn't difficult to add an optodiac and a triac to the output(s) and apply the flicker effect to AC light bulbs. I've done this several times with old "junk" chandelier fixtures of 4, 5, and 6 bulbs. The effect is tremendous and can be very convincing.
Thanks for the added details Engineer. I discovered the dependence on capacitance and the frequency of the oscillator by accident. If you don't mind I would like to add the information you provided to my LED flicker how-to, giving you credit of course.
Question. Dr. Morbious makes these awesome, cheap animated heads, and has recently described a cheap way to do moving eyes in the HalloweenForum cheap prop contest. I have been thinking about a good way to trigger the eyes, seems like this circuit, timed down as in the cave eyes, could do that. Is there any way this circuit could trigger a stepper motor? The idea is if you could somehow make a stepper motor randomly go back an forth, staying within about a 6 step range, you could make a head go back and forth randomy, much like a person does when talking. Any ideas?
The LED Flicker videos are posted. I will get the parts list and price posted later this weekend. My favorite is the schmidt trigger circuit, I like it better than the real candle! Check it out at
http://www.johnnyspage.com/LED%20Flicker.htm
:!: Thanks for posting the video results! I enjoyed seeing them, and I hope you'll try out two or three more flicker circuits sometime soon.
I got a lot of feedback from several polls, and based on tha feedback I have built a new circuit. Check it out at
http://johnnyspage.com/LED%20Flicker.htm, click on the video titled 'mystery flicker' and let me know what you think.
Thanx
