Improving the LED lantern

shaunathan · #1 09-22-2005

Well I think I finially got my electronics buddy interested in halloween early. I showed him the LED lantern and he's already got ideas.

First: add a press switch (press button once for on, press again for off) we will be mounting this inside the kerosene fuel tank cap, so you just unscrew the cap as if you were filling it with kerosene and there's the button. (my idea

)

Second: Add a flicker circuit, this idea is all my friend's as far as I'm concerned, it involves about 4 extra pieces, some of which are a dip switch you can use to loosely control the behavior of the flickering, and a quartz crystal which will be the source of the randomization. I'm gonna see if I can get him to draw up a schematic to share the device when he's done.

Our circuit is actually 3 LEDs, 2 red and 1 green. It's apparently an old LED trick to shine a red and a green at the same time to create amber color. So we will be flickering reds and ambers. I've been told his flicker circuit doesn't turn the lights on and off, it dims them. we like the wick knob and probably won't be cutting it out. we'll also be tucking our leds within that wick shield instead of mounting an LED right on top. This will help the amber effect of the red and green LEDs.

Should be a very nice prop when we're done, for several years of usage. This will be my warm light in the graveyard, following zombie-F's pointers to make Blue LED spotlights for my cold light. This of course all following skull and bone's lighting diagram. Now Provided I can do keeba's tombstones correctly, and modify chris's fog chiller crypt to fit the plastic storage bin fog chiller that was inspired from Subsonic's Fog Chiller, I should have a great Grave yard...

boy... if you rip off enough people do you wind up having your own orginal idea? lol I gotta say my halloween would suck this year without meeting these people and getting inspired by their ideas.

SpectreTTM · #2 09-22-2005

Quote:

if you rip off enough people do you wind up having your own orginal idea?

Actually , Yes.

Zombie-F · #3 09-22-2005

When you do this, I'd love to see some pics. I'm curious as to how you're going to mount everything in there. Then I'll rip you guys off and make my own.

ScareFX · #4 09-22-2005

We all rip and we all share. That's what makes this community great.

I did a flickering lantern in 2003. I cut the bottom off a Big Lots lantern with one of those smooth edge can openers. What's great about using one of those is you can put the bottom back on after you've worked on the inside.

I used one of the Battery Lamp Flickerer boards from Hauntmaster Products and a couple of LEDs, one red and one amber. Added some translucent fabric for a "flame" and aged the lantern with some grey and black paint.

Here's a few pics.
http://s93242532.onlinehome.us/images/lantern_pics.jpg

SpectreTTM · #5 09-22-2005

Hello again ScareFX,

Seems like you and I are doing a lot of posting back and forth lately. lol

It's actually great to have someone who is into building props to converse with.

Hauntmasters says there circuit works with bulbs. Did you just replace the bulb
with an LED resistor combo?

Also what did you get for battery life considering that LED consume less power
than bulbs ?

ScareFX · #6 09-22-2005

Yes we are. lol

Yeap , just used LEDs instead of the bulb. To tell you the truth I don't know how long it will burn. One battery had run more than 6 hours and was still going when I turned it off.

shaunathan · #7 09-22-2005

well he was nice enough to do the schematic for me, but he only brought the print outs, he'll be getting it in digital form form his work tomorrow. then it's a matter of posting it, I don't have a site, so I wonder if someone who has a halloween site would be interested in hosting it? I mean I can toss it up on the web to look at, but I don't have a nice place people can go to in order to find instructions

Zombie-F · #8 09-22-2005

I could incorporate it into my how-to as an alternative method of building it, if you like. I will, of course, give credit to you guys for contributing it.

shaunathan · #9 09-26-2005

I moved this post to:

http://forums.unpleasantstreet.com/s...=8645#post8645

to make it easier for you to find zombie, thos are the start of the pictures for the how-to, We'll keep taking pictures till it's done, then with my friend present, I'll write up the how-to so it will be technical and correct. and you're free to post it on your site, Credit would go to Shaunathan and Koumajutsu (his online name)