First off, I’m a cheap SOB and just can’t bring myself to spend $20 to $40 for one of these commercially available units just for a little “eye appeal” … although it would be kinda cool.
Anyone recall a simple ( read cheap ) circuit you can build yourself to randomly flicker an LED ??? I seem to recall MR having one at one time, but can’t locate it.
Mark.
Years ago, there was an article on connecting a grain of wheat bulb to the speaker outputs of a transistor radio, tuning the radio to a rock and roll music station, and then setting the volume to cause the bulb to flicker like a campfire. This could also be made to work with an LED.
http://www.berkshirejunction.com/
The price is $9.00 here. Is this the same thing, and is the price acceptable for you?
Ok - I just checked out Berkshire Jct., and from what I can see, their unit is $29.95 !!
Am I missing something ? [%-)]
Mark.
$9.00?? where? I would get one myself.
Oops, it appears my eyes fell on the price for something else as I was taking a look. I regret my error. It is indeed $29.
Maybe wishful thinking? [D)]
-Crandell
Here is one I have seen.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v716/LarryCrabb/ArcWelderrecently10DFBF.jpg
I think it is one of those auto arc welding things.
There was a module that had a building under construction with a welder as well. I will have to go through my club videos to see if I still have it on one of my backup hard drives.
I need one too! I would probobly use one controller circut for everything I need to flicker.
A little cheaper at $17.95:
http://catalog.ironpeng.com/browseGroup.cfm?item_group_id=63309
Mike Tennent
I am using a couple old transistor radios and 1.5 volt Miniatronics micro lamps. I use a 555 IC to interrupt the flashing. I set it for flashing 7 seconds and off for 3 seconds. One lamp is in a factory and one is under a unused tender which shows in a open Roundhouse doorway. The clear lamps have a light coating of blue magic marker. Wall warts power the transistor radios.
The radios worked very well on FM rock stations but when DCC was added, the FM channels became useless. I have to use a local AM station with talking heads.
I also used a FM radio set between stations to give a hiss to simulate water going over a dam but that has become useless since we have DCC. I am putting together a home made noise generator to generate hiss. With a speaker under the layout near the dam, I set the volume so I only hear the hiss in the vicinity of the dam. With sound on a model railroad, it is too easy to over do the sound.
These are fun to experiment with.
Rich