I am looking for a way of enabling a day to night and back to day affect over my layout. I have all spot lights and no flourescent tubes and I have dimmer controls. I’m looking for some device, mechanical or electronic that would auto dim the lights up and down and back again over say, an hour or so. Or even pre-set. Is anyone aware of, or know how to build, or if anyone makes anything like this?
Thanks!
You could probably find an electronics book that would tell you how to build a timer, probably with a 555 timer chip, and have it do something after it counted to a certain number and start over. I personally have an electronic “brain” that I built for a robotics class, but that would be more than you need. You would probably need your circuit to activate some sort of relay instead of a trasistor, because you lights draw a lot of current. Hope this helps.
You might try to get in touch with these guys:
http://www.aberfoylejunction.com/
They have an automated day-night sequence that darkens the room for (I think) 10 minutes out of every hour.
Andrew
Thanks guys!
One thing to consider if you are using wireless DCC (or wireless DC control). I’m not certain (as I don’t use wireless control), but those dimmer controls do throw out a lot of electronic noise which could interfere with wireless communications. I know we’ve always had problems with them near sound or sound mixing equipment for that very reason.
Maybe it’s not an issue, but worth checking into.