# Gemmy Short Circuit Bulb



## Fright Boy

Looks like Gemmy has put out a Short Circuit Bulb that you can use in any standard socket. 
http://www.gemmy.com/Short_Circuit_Bulb_p/58677.htm


They sell for $9.98 at Home Depot. (and there is a video of it in use)
http://www.homedepot.com/p/LightSho...77/205832731?keyword=Gemmy+short+circuit+bulb


Gemmy also has a Short Circuit Edison Bulb, but it's on a cord and would not work for most situations. 
http://www.gemmy.com/Short_Circuit_Edison_Bulb_p/56875.htm
That is unless you want to hang it from your porch or somewhere else in your haunt. I have seen this at Big Lots for $12. They also have a set of these in sets of 3 and 6 on a cord.


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## RoxyBlue

I think Spooky1 just bought one of those from Home Depot - haven't opened the box to look. I believe the plan is to use it in our porch light. We'll need to try it out before Halloween, though, just to see how annoying it might be:jol:


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## Fright Boy

RoxyBlue said:


> I think Spooky1 just bought one of those from Home Depot - haven't opened the box to look. I believe the plan is to use it in our porch light. We'll need to try it out before Halloween, though, just to see how annoying it might be:jol:


I just bought 2 (figured they'd run out soon). They are rather bright. Much brighter than they look in the video clip. You may want to see about putting it on a dimmer, if possible. I will upload a video when I get a chance; camcorder is dead :xbones: and needs a charge.


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## Fright Boy

Ok, so here is the video of the bulb in action. The first half of the video is it running in a completely dark room. The other half is of it with a light on near it. You can see just how bright this thing is. Sorry for the low quality of my camcorder and pointing it at a bright light source didn't help any either. It was having a hard time keeping a focus.


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## Terrormaster

yeah I noticed this too. Tried mine on the porch this evening. When it flickers on it drowns out the two orange fire/ice lights I have on each side of the porch. It looks to be LED based with a opaque plastic shell. So it may be possible to throw some paint on it to tone it down. I just don't have any room in my schedule to experiment so just gonna go with a regular orange party bulb. Maybe someone else has a solution.


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## Acererak

Fright Boy said:


> Looks like Gemmy has put out a Short Circuit Bulb that you can use in any standard socket.
> http://www.gemmy.com/Short_Circuit_Bulb_p/58677.htm
> 
> 
> They sell for $9.98 at Home Depot. (and there is a video of it in use)
> http://www.homedepot.com/p/LightSho...77/205832731?keyword=Gemmy+short+circuit+bulb
> 
> 
> Gemmy also has a Short Circuit Edison Bulb, but it's on a cord and would not work for most situations.
> http://www.gemmy.com/Short_Circuit_Edison_Bulb_p/56875.htm
> That is unless you want to hang it from your porch or somewhere else in your haunt. I have seen this at Big Lots for $12. They also have a set of these in sets of 3 and 6 on a cord.


Thanks for bringing these to my attention, Fright Boy! I was looking for this very thing to put in my cannibal hillbilly display, so I bought one of each. I haven't had time to test the standard short circuit bulb yet, but I did set up the Edison "Grandma's Attic" bulb and it looks considerably dimmer than the standard short circuit bulb. It is on a cord and requires batteries (lame) but works pretty good, so it's a viable alternative if you find the other one too bright.


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## BugFreak

I love it! I have a rigged up flicker light for my porch that this will replace perfectly. Thanks for the post.


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## Fright Boy

Acererak said:


> Thanks for bringing these to my attention, Fright Boy! I was looking for this very thing to put in my cannibal hillbilly display, so I bought one of each. I haven't had time to test the standard short circuit bulb yet, but I did set up the Edison "Grandma's Attic" bulb and it looks considerably dimmer than the standard short circuit bulb. It is on a cord and requires batteries (lame) but works pretty good, so it's a viable alternative if you find the other one too bright.


From what you were telling me, this would work great in your display, sorry I haven't gotten around to doing your sounds for you, but I did find pigs and maniacal laughter to use.

If you can, post a video of your bulb in use on here. I had no idea that one ran on batt. It would be cool if you could go out and buy the Edison bulb to test side by side with yours, and just return it when done. Just don't buy it at Halloween Express, NO RETURNS.

Speaking of which, I bought a Perfect storm 2.0 and I think it does a better job than this and it works with CFL bulbs. Also the 2.0 has a direct audio jack so you don't need to have the sound of thunder if you don't want.


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## mikeythemars

IMHO the Gemmy light looks like the poor man's version of a lighnting effect.


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## Fright Boy

mikeythemars said:


> IMHO the Gemmy light looks like the poor man's version of a lighnting effect.


You're right, but it is contained in that nice little housing instead of some jump box hidden somewhere.


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## clarose_lapro

I bought one over the weekend. I like it alright but I would like to build my own incandescent short circuit effect. Any ideas? I may just end up buying the one that fits into the standard light housing.


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## mikeythemars

Fright Boy said:


> You're right, but it is contained in that nice little housing instead of some jump box hidden somewhere.


Granted, but understand what I mean by lightning effect. In my haunt, that consists of using an X10 macro which does the following:


 A motion detector senses when TOTers are approaching and within ten feet of the front door.
X10 control unit senses signal from motion detector and automatically dims the lights around the front door, which takes about two seconds. 
Three seconds later, X10 triggers a digital audio playback circuit of a loud thundercrack, which is sent to a 200 watt amp driving two large PA speakers, one on each side of the front door which are both hidden by bushes. 
Simultaneously, a "light organ" type circuit which is also being fed audio from the digital sound board causes a 150 watt incandescent floodlamp mounted up in a tree and facing down towards the front door to flash in precise coordination with the thunder sound. 
4 seconds later (after thunder sound subsides) X10 brings the front door lights back up. 

This routine always causes TOTers to shriek! :devil:

And no, the unit does not trigger again when TOTers are leaving (X10 macro is programmed to sense and automatically ignores second motion detector signal).


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## Fright Boy

mikeythemars said:


> Granted, but understand what I mean by lightning effect. In my haunt, that consists of using an X10 macro which does the following:
> 
> 
> A motion detector senses when TOTers are approaching and within ten feet of the front door.
> X10 control unit senses signal from motion detector and automatically dims the lights around the front door, which takes about two seconds.
> Three seconds later, X10 triggers a digital audio playback circuit of a loud thundercrack, which is sent to a 200 watt amp driving two large PA speakers, one on each side of the front door which are both hidden by bushes.
> Simultaneously, a "light organ" type circuit which is also being fed audio from the digital sound board causes a 150 watt incandescent floodlamp mounted up in a tree and facing down towards the front door to flash in precise coordination with the thunder sound.
> 4 seconds later (after thunder sound subsides) X10 brings the front door lights back up.
> 
> This routine always causes TOTers to shriek! :devil:
> 
> And no, the unit does not trigger again when TOTers are leaving (X10 macro is programmed to sense and automatically ignores second motion detector signal).


Holy Crap, Man. Well compared to all that, sure, it's weak. I would love to see video of that in action.


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## clarose_lapro

I agree that sounds mighty exciting. I would like to see some pics.


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## mikeythemars

Fright Boy said:


> Holy Crap, Man. Well compared to all that, sure, it's weak. I would love to see video of that in action.


Ask and your wish shall be granted. If there is any flaw in my haunt, it's that over all the years I've been doing it I've never had time to shoot good video of the whole production while it's up and running. I've always been too consumed with keeping everything running smoothly while it's open, as well as acting as the security cop, which is particularly important when any group of middle school-aged boys show up.

But this year, my brother is coming down to help me and that will _finally_ free me up to do a proper job at capturing all the good stuff in action on video. So get ready for links to a fun YouTube upload on or around 11/2-11/3! :jol:


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## Fright Boy

mikeythemars said:


> I've never had time to shoot good video of the whole production while it's up and running.


I was really just thinking of a simple vid of you testing it out before The Big Night. Be cool if you did a short vid of how you have it hooked up.


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## Otaku

clarose_lapro said:


> I bought one over the weekend. I like it alright but I would like to build my own incandescent short circuit effect. Any ideas? I may just end up buying the one that fits into the standard light housing.


There are plenty of tutorials here and other places that describe the fluorescent starter circuit that flickers an incandescent bulb. There are wattage limits, usually around 40W when using the FS-2 starter.


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## mikeythemars

Fright Boy said:


> I was really just thinking of a simple vid of you testing it out before The Big Night. Be cool if you did a short vid of how you have it hooked up.


I'll should have time the weekend of the 24-25 to set it up and shoot video.


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## Fright Boy

Otaku said:


> There are plenty of tutorials here and other places that describe the fluorescent starter circuit that flickers an incandescent bulb. There are wattage limits, usually around 40W when using the FS-2 starter.


I tried this very thing and it didn't work for me. I bought a junction box and everything to keep it all nice and tidy and nothing.


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## hfed

I bought 3 of these. All worked fine but over the last week 2 have stopped working. Far short of the 20000 hour advertised life. They both just light up solid now; no flickering.


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## Acererak

mikeythemars said:


> IMHO the Gemmy light looks like the poor man's version of a lighnting effect.


Not entirely. They're similar but the Gemmy light simulates a short circuit effect and there is a difference, depending on the atmosphere you're trying to create. I ran some interior lights into my lightning box last year to simulate the short circuiting effect and it did the job, but I wasn't completely happy with it. With the thunder soundtrack I used, there were some delays between lightning flashes that took too long, for example. And I wasn't crazy that the short circuit and lightning flashes outside we're in synch. Minor quibbles, but $12 for the Gemmy bulb is worth it.


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## Hsnopi

I grabbed a gemmy short circuit bulb. I hope it works. I read a lot of mixed reviews.


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## RoxyBlue

We tested ours in our porch light fixture, which has a motion sensor. Just a heads up that it flickers entirely differently in that fixture than it does in a regular lighting fixture. With the light set to turn on in response to motion, the flicker bulb turned on and off as opposed to flickering like a bulb shorting. We haven't tried setting the porch light to constant "on" to see if it behaves the way it should.

And yes, it's pretty bright.


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## Hsnopi

I thought I ordered the bulb. Apparently I ordered the Rusty Attic Short Circuit bulb. 




Nott he same. weak light. I would avoid it.


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