Some years ago I modeled a burnt forest scene and I'd like to try to add some red fiber optics to the scene to represent glowing embers. I'd want to be able to make them blink or fade on and off. Does anyone know of a good source for such a venture or have experience in such a thing? I need to keep the fibers very small and don't need a slew of them, but I do need a light generator of some sort that will cycle the light on and off. This is kind of a new venture and not sure how it will turn out, but if it works like my moving highway did years ago, it will be a neat visual effect. Thank you
Hi Loren for these effects I use some spezial leds from Ebay (Lokologgo) http://stores.ebay.de/kokologgos-sc...215273016&_sid=28741036&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322 The has has some flickering an blink leds as SMD, 1,8, 3 mm a.s.o You don´t need any elektrik, only a resistor (1000 Ohm). For the "burning house (Kibri) I install some red, yello, orange flicker and blink Leds, it is nice For a buredn forrest I would use some 1mm fiber optics, bundelt befor the Leds. An other kind of "fire" is a bundel fiber optics, a coloured rotating disc an white led/leds. My friend Stefan used these art of fire for an blacksmith fire. Good luck
I've seen the rotating disk method done on a HO scale layout. It had all the lights flickering in unison. all on all off all change color at the same time in a repeating sweeping pattern. You would need several disks spinning at different rates to get individual flickers at different times. You may want to look at using a arduino or a maestro controller, both can be configured to turn LED's on and off at different rates for different periods of time. it would be a little more work and take some programming, but it would give you that individual twinkling effect instead of the all on, all off, all change at once in a rotating pattern. David
ngineering N8047 http://www.ngineering.com Evans Design http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/fire-led.html Bakatronics BK-108 http://www.bakatronics.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=694
Loren, I'm afraid I like to play with fire. The best fire simulation I've come up with was reflecting yellow, orange and red Christmas lights off crumpled aluminum foil mounted on a rotating drum at about 78 RPM. I can't think of a good way to reduce it to Z scale and run the light through fiber. I've looked at the units Jeff suggested and the one from Circuitron. I have a couple of issues with these. While the flashing looks good, they're very monochromatic not really capturing the color range of a fire. They are also multiple LEDs, so you need a light pipe large enough to encompass all the LEDs or run a separate fiber from each. Of the units mentioned, I like the effect of Evans Design unit the best. If you are really into fire, Dave's suggestion of a controller unit is the best, but you don't need to go to the effort on an Arduino unless you want to do a lot of lighting. There are smart LEDs with a programmable controller built in. I've been playing with the BlinkM http://www.jameco.com/z/BLINKM-ThingM-Corporation-BlinkM-The-Smart-LED_2123637.html . With this unit I've programmed a varying speed flicker that will eventually die down to glowing coals. The unit uses an RGB LED and doesn't cover the orange-yellow range in the way I'd like. I'm thinking I'd like to replace the LED with a RYG unit. Ngineering also has a controller that they may program for you. I don't know the details. For mounting fiber to an LED, if you're really good, you can drill down into T package LED and insert the fiber in the hole. Otherwise consider using a LED lens cap: drill and mount to fiber to that then clip it to the LED. http://www.jameco.com/z/-CLF280CTP-...ing-Hardware-T1-3-4-Clear-Standard_14277.html Hope this helps...or at least gave you a good nap, Mark
